Beethoven Pletnev

Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev has an astoundingly clean and virtuosic technique. He has the ability to bring out inner voices that in some other recordings are completely lost. These skills are sometimes enough to make his interpretations of these three early and middle period Beethoven sonatas completely satisfying. The third movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata, for example, is absolutely electrifying in its virtuosity. The first movement of the"Waldstein" and the final movement of "Appassionata" are brisk, energetic, and always completely under control. Movements such as these, where the performer's technique truly comes to the forefront, are absolutely satisfying here.

The billed recital was the Bach-Busoni transcription, the Beethoven Sonata Op 111 and the Chopin Scherzos, and the rest – five items on a ‘bonus’ CD, finishing with Balakirev’s Islamey – amount nearly to a half-programme on top. The recording comes with buckets of applause, linking every item, and by the end of Islamey the audience is in a state of near frenzy (and the piano beginning to complain).

The brilliant pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, winner of the 1978 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, is not only one of the best representatives of the Russian piano tradition, but is also a stunning and idiosyncratic interpreter of the standard repertoire. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of our time.

It should have been just another memorable con­cert in the hectic life of the Geneva Chamber Orchestra. However, the global Covid-19 pandemic decided otherwise and turned this summit meeting with conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy and pianist Mikhaïl Pletnev into a historical moment. Chronicle of an extraordinary adventure…in every respect.

Of the sons of J.S. Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel was by far the most interesting composer, as the Sonatas and Rondos played here by Mikhail Pletnev amply demonstrate. Consider Pletnev's exhilarating CD of Scarlatti sonatas: the fact that he played them anachronistically on the piano was in no way allowed to interfere with their intrinsic spirit. Here, he repeats the trick. Employing plenty of pedal and the full dynamic force of a modern concert grand, he somehow creates a quintessentially 18th-century atmosphere. And they're amazing pieces–it's a fair bet that this outstanding disc will help usher them into the mainstream repertoire, where they belong. Bach wrote them for an audience of "connoisseurs and amateurs," but that audience must have been a very superior one. To label this style "pre-classical" is to woefully shortchange it.

This recording features the works of Russian composers who were outstanding personalities in the musical life of their country during their lifetime: The Violin Concerto in D major, op. 35, by Tchaikovsky and the Violin Concerto in A minor, op. 82, by Glazunov.

Mikhail Pletnev's 2009 recordings of Beethoven's complete piano concertos are much better than his 2007 recordings of the composer's complete symphonies for the simple reason that Pletnev isn't conducting here; he's playing the piano. It's not that Pletnev is in general a poor conductor. As his many recordings of the Russian repertoire have demonstrated, he knows how to achieve his goals with an orchestra.