Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion is one of his most impressive works, bracing in its intensity. Unfortunately, Bartók’s reworking of the piece as Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion, and Orchestra softens the music’s edge and blunts its impact. This description well fits Pierre Boulez’s performance, which, despite the high-quality playing of pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, has an enervated character attributable to Boulez’s too-cool composure and to the accurate but not very exciting response of the London Symphony. The dry, oppressively close recording doesn’t help matters.
The Viola Concerto is another piece not on Bartók’s hit parade. Unfinished at his death, the concerto was completed (in this version) by Tibor Serly, and it lacks the firm sense of structure allied to expressive intensity you get from Bartók’s best works. Yuri Bashmet gives a thoroughly professional reading of the solo part, while Boulez, at the helm of the Berlin Philharmonic, sounds noticeably more engaged this time around. The sound also is more spacious.
The fact that Boulez sounds most alert and involved in Bartók’s early Violin Concerto No. 1 is not very surprising, it being the freshest and most enjoyable piece on the CD. Gidon Kremer’s virtuoso rendition brings out the music’s lyrical beauty and emotional charge. The recording spotlights the soloist (as in the viola concerto), but the Berlin Philharmonic’s accompaniment nevertheless has sufficient presence. Overall this recording is a mixed bag.
