It’s great to see these colorful and exciting concertos coupled together on a single disc. Written in Ginastera’s late, expressionist style, they prove that atonal music can be fun. Or they should. Dora De Marinis’ clearly knows this music, and shapes the solo part with a sure sense of how the more melodic foreground relates to the welter of surrounding notes. Nevertheless, her tempos are simply too slow in the dazzling finales of both concertos. The result sounds careful when it should overpower the listener with a barrage of rhythmic and sonic effects. Also, the Slovak Radio Symphony hasn’t the heft in the brass or bite in the strings that the music requires, nor can they conjure up the mystery of such movements as the First Concerto’s Scherzo allucinante (also played with an excess of caution). The best performance of this work remains its first: Anthony di Bonaventura with Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Symphony on RCA (never issued on CD). There’s also an exciting recording on ASV (Tarrago/Batiz). But as no other CD exists of the wonderful Second Concerto, I can still recommend this as a reasonable, if not outstanding, presentation of the music captured in decent but not exceptional sound.
