We surely would have enjoyed this Brahms D minor concerto in a concert situation, with its craggy momentum and sudden bursts of energy in the outer movements, along with the orchestral brass section’s appropriately primal sonority. In the Prokofiev Third’s opening movement, we might pick up on how neatly the pianist and conductor dovetail respective soloist and accompanist functions, making for a more chamber-like performance than usual. However, by contrast the central movement lacks the subtle lilt and caustic inflections you expect to hear, and the clunky, foursquare finale jogs in place, going nowhere (the soloist’s famous glissandos die before reaching their destination).
Sonically speaking, the winds are backward when they need to be forward, and there’s little definition and presence in the bass register. The strings dominate in the mix, but their emaciated timbre and occasionally quaking vibrato hinder the Brahms concerto’s lyrical, sustained passages. A flinty sonority offsets the soloist’s excellent technique. As you’ve gathered by now, this disc essentially amounts to a calling card for the artists involved rather than a release that can easily compete alongside umpteen other traversals in the catalog, let alone the reference versions listed above.
