Why, one wonders, did any label find it necessary or desirable to release yet another recording of no special distinction containg these two warhorse concertos? Actually, the Grieg seems to have become something of a (comparative) rarity these days, though collectors are particularly well served by any number of fine recordings, starting with Clifford Curzon on Decca, taking in Richter (EMI), and most recently, Leif Ove Andsnes (Virgin). Jean-Yves Thibaudet has nothing to offer in this work other than a certain velocity that at times threatens to overpower the music–the transition to the first movement’s second subject providing a case in point. His slow movement lacks poetry, and the finale, after an early initial solo entrance, stubbornly refuses to dance, its rhythms punched out with far too heavy a hand. The Chopin sounds better, if only because it gives Thibaudet’s fingers more to do. Unfortunately, this professional but uninspired performance runs smack up against two recent stunners: Martha Argerich on EMI, and Krystian Zimerman on DG, both of which offer about a trillion times more fantasy and insight and prove triumphantly that there can be a reason to re-record standard repertoire when an artist has something special to say. Thibaudet simply doesn’t. Dull, unsparkling recorded sound, too.
