The back cover titles give no indication that tracks 1 through 5 are not “original” Tchaikovsky piano pieces, but rather are transcriptions from orchestral and vocal fare. Things kick off with Liszt’s flamboyant recasting of the Eugen Onegin Polonaise, where pianist Lev Vinocour quickly establishes that he’s a big technician of the well-schooled Russian ilk who tends to bang. The song transcriptions that follow happily reveal this pianist’s more sensitive side, even though his obvious ability to shape lyrical phrases and orchestrate inner voices doesn’t make room for the fat, juicy colors we associate with truly engaging Romantic pianism à la Cherkassky, Wild, and Bolet.
At least Vinocour commands the chops needed to make Tchaikovsky’s difficult left-hand transformation of Weber’s Perpetuum Mobile sound playable, if not exactly effortless, and his direct, assured, and idiomatic way with most of The Seasons holds interest in and of itself. Yet Mikhail Pletnev’s Virgin Classics recording offers sharper characterizations, a firmer rhythmic profile, and more varied textures. To close this all- (or almost all) Tchaikovsky program, Vinocour delivers a Dumka that vies with the deadliest on disc. He pounds out the lively, dance-like sections, pedals poorly, and phones in the soft, introspective music with minimum inflection and maximum boredom. In all, it’s nothing to write home about, but there are pockets of nice playing and rare repertoire to lure pianophiles with extra spending money.
