DVORAK: Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33; Five Poetic Tone-Pictures, Op. 85 – Vassily Primakov, piano/Odense Symphony Orchestra/Justin Brown – Bridge 9309, 68:52 [Distr. by Albany] ****:
Dvorak’s 1876 Piano Concerto persists in its jaded reputation as “the concerto for two right hands,” a concession to critics who find the keyboard writing–if not the melodic inspiration–unidiomatic. Despite editorial emendations–the most famous and drastic from Prof. Wilem Kurz–pianist Vassily Primakov (b. 1979), like predecessors Berman, Richter and Moravec, prefers the original edition, only slightly modified. Dvorak relies heavily on verbatim repetition in much of the melodic tissue, although the harmonic move to B-flat Major proves luxurious. The combination of strings, woodwinds, and keyboard testifies to Dvorak’s natural penchant for colors, and the dotted rhythm motif enjoys a through working out in the course of its development, the treatment borrowing some of Beethoven’s pages. The cadenza and fiery coda more than once harken us to the Brahms D Minor Concerto.
The D Major second movement, Andante sostenuto, employs a short two-bar motif to great effect, especially with the scoring of strings and French horn. The bucolic affect moves to the flute and bassoon, while the piano part increasingly takes a lesson from Chopin. The lovely pastoral, Romantically filled with reverie and woodland song, progresses to a martial statement or two, but it never abandons its essential idyll. Recorded 22-26 June 2009 in Carl Nielsen Hall, Odense Koncerthus, Odense, Denmark, the aural mix of piano and orchestra rings particularly sweet in this movement. The Bohemian finale, marked Allegro con fuoco, opens in F-sharp Minor then modulates to the “right key” of G. For a secondary theme, Dvorak imitates Borodin, a melody in oriental B Major which the piano embellishes with liquid high riffs. The dancing resumes full throttle, the tympani quite present, The quasi-cadenza and martial peroration bring this joyful spirited realization of this under-rated masterpiece to a resonant conclusion.
The Poetic Tone-Pictures (1889) represent Dvorak’s analogy to Schumann’s Waldszenen, pictures from the woods. The first, “On the Road at Night” paints a moonlit scene in the form of a lyrical ballade, albeit by way of a Brahms capriccio in the middle section. At the Old Castle plays less like Mussorgsky than it does Grieg, chromatic veins of ivy clinging to the castle walls. Primakov’s fortissimos call forth ancient rivalries, calmed by romantic interludes strummed on a lute. Goblin’s Dance has not the morbid allure of Mussorgsky’s Gnomus, but it does dance cheerfully, with only passing harmonic grotesqueries. Sorrowful Reverie testifies to Dvorak’s ability to write slow mazurkas or polkas of melancholy, plaintive cast. Lastly, At a Hero’s Grave allies Dvorak with the spirit of Liszt. Though the piece opens like the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, it quickly modulates to dreamy or grandiose reminiscence, a foreshadowing of the Op. 111 Heroic Song. The melodies retain their Lisztian fervor, but the affect becomes melancholy and wistful, less heroic than nostalgic.
–Gary Lemco
