Stephen Kovacevich piled up a large and eclectic discography for Philips in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Some of the choicest items appear here for the first time on CD. In the inventive Stravinsky Concerto, the pianist uncovers the lyric beauty lurking underneath the composer’s acerbic mask. The wind and brass ensemble doesn’t quite match the pianist’s bite and precision. Why is Richard Rodney Bennett’s meaty yet transparent First Piano Concerto never played? It’s a dazzling example of the composer’s youthful, neo-classic serialism, and both the pianist and his conductor Alexander Gibson are on sparkling form. The jacket credits the London Symphony, but the booklet notes indicate the BBC Symphony. The Bartók selections sing as well as sting–an axiom that also applies to Kovacevich’s arresting performance of the Beethoven C minor Sonata Op. 10 No. 1. The pianist’s sonority is not particularly warm, but his outsize dynamics, fierce accents, and hair-trigger articulation rivet our attention. If Kovacevich’s Chopin seems more reticent and less nuanced than it might be, his ruminative expanse in the Brahms pieces suits the music’s autumnal aura without laying on its lyricism. All in all, this compilation has been programmed with great thought and care, and deserves not to be overlooked.
