Second-place winner Rem Urasin also garnered the People’s Choice Award in the 2004 Sydney International Piano Competition. He certainly sounds as if playing to the crowd with his discursive rendering of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto, employing extremes of tempo that make the piece sound like a collection of thinly related episodes. Urasin occasionally overreaches in his drive to impress, setting up challenges that he doesn’t always meet–such as the big solo runs in the first-movement development and cadenza, or the Andante’s dancing middle section–all of which have their share of glaring missed notes. Urasin seems more assured in the finale, offering a tempo that’s less swift than Argerich’s, but that’s also less exciting. There’s also not much excitement in Janos Fürst’s rather tepid accompaniment with the Sydney Symphony. Still, the audience was vociferous in its approval, so it would seem that this was just one of those occasions where you had to be there.
Urasin makes a far stronger impression in the Nutcracker Suite, presenting Pletnev’s brilliant arrangements with truly imaginative, powerful playing–especially in the Andante Maestoso, where Urasin builds to a tremendously emotive climax that makes you understand why the audience was so enthusiastic. The live recording offers a natural-sounding piano and favorable balance between piano and orchestra.
