Piano Concerto No.1 (Volodos) [Sacd/CD Hybrid] [SACD]

Once you've done that, you'll get a really rather good sonic experience - the soundstage is wide and the piano sounds natural and vivid, but well-integrated into the sound picture. I don't think this recording scores as highly in terms of orchestral depth although there's a nice bloom on the sound. Detail is OK but I can think of plenty of recent orchestral recordings which score higher on that front.

I've never really been too keen on this concerto, certainly not as much as the Grieg or Rachmaninov Second if we're talking warhorses, but I can still make it worth my while hearing it every so often if the soloist can bring something fresh (which can't be easy with this work). Here Arcadi Volodos plays with real imagination and his usual phenomenal technique. I've enjoyed a few of his RBCDs like the Schubert D894 performance, and felt his Rachmaninov Third was one of the best recent accounts, so I did have good expectations for this SACD.

I'm really going to make some comparisons with my favourite RBCD version: Martha Argerich's 1994 DG performance with Abbado, as it's also live and with the same orchestra. This sounds rather more detailed than the DG (the piano a little crisper), and while both conductors accompany well, I would perhaps hold a slight preference for Ozawa - when he's on song he is an exciting conductor, and a fine accompanist (as evidence I would offer his superb Liszt concerti with Zimerman).

Soloist-wise certain passages come off well with both Argerich and Volodos: in the climactic octave passage around 7'38 I would perhaps favour Argerich, but then Volodos plays the end of the section better, with a little more mystery. Volodos demonstrates great power throughout without a hint of banging - he really brings out the bass lines superbly though it almost sounds like he's employing octave doublings after 10 minutes and with the sforzato chords just before the 15 minute mark.

Orchestrally, the BPO play very well: at 13'11 the oboe solo is really expressively done, though at 14'11 the cellos are brought out rather better by Abbado in the 1994 recording. At 18'28 the furious orchestral build-up to the coda is well done by Ozawa (though perhaps even better by Abbado), and the movement ends very powerfully indeed. Similarly Ozawa's handling of the Finale's closing pages without grandstanding is very refreshing.

Throughout the Andantino Volodos plays with real insight and a quicksilver touch where required - this is great playing. The oboe once again plays his little solo with great charm, putting one in mind of the great ballet scores like Swan Lake. In the Finale Volodos again plays with great freshness - I'd hesitate to say he makes me hear the work anew, as with this piece that's well-nigh impossible, but playing with this level of imagination, coupled with a great technique and dramatic sweep Volodos really will please even the most jaded pianophile.

In stereo SACD mode, the soundstage is commendably almost as wide as in multi-channel, if without quite the same vividness, but the smoothness and depth suffers a little during the concerto.

The disc's presentation is rather let down by the usual puff-piece notes - and bizarrely no performance timings for the music anywhere, which I found particularly irritating.

The Rachmaninov solo works were recorded in the studio: here I found I could reset the rear channels without undue emphasis, and the sound is very pleasing - though the keyboard does sound a little close, as well as fairly wider than is natural. But sonically this mini-recital will give great pleasure, as Volodos plays with the same imagination he has on his other solo discs.