Vadim Gluzman is a fine player, no doubt about it. He has a particularly rich and full-throated forte, but there are moments in piano (as at the beginning of the Serenade) where he loses some of his control, double-stroking a note or two. It’s an odd defect, but not a frequent one. The best performances here are the Bernstein, which benefits from excellent support from John Neschling and the São Paulo orchestra, and the Bloch, whose heart-on-sleeve emotionalism plays to Gluzman’s strengths. The Barber is less successful–a bit too quick and rhythmically smooth in the first movement, and just a touch stiff in the finale (for all the careful articulation and confident technical virtuosity). The sonics, though, are pretty sensational, and the couplings are so intelligently planned that if the program appeals to you, then the disc earns a confident recommendation–slight reservations notwithstanding.
