Piano Concertos 1-3
Pierre Boulez, always a sympathetic conductor of Bartók’s music, here leads three different orchestras and three different soloists in a highly recommendable disc of the composer's complete piano concertos. The First is a jagged, percussive piece reminiscent of Bartók's earlier Dance Suite in its driving rhythms. Like the Second Concerto's, the slow movement is one of his typically mysterious "night" pieces, with lightly tapping percussion accompanying the piano's ghostly entry and winds adding to the otherworldly effect in the central section. Soloist Krystian Zimerman plays it magnificently. The Second Concerto is no less challenging, but scored more transparently with Baroque-inspired counterpoint. Again, propulsive rhythms excite, and Leif Ove Andsnes sails through the virtuosic solo part with aplomb. Bartók wrote the first two to feature on his concert tours. The Third Concerto was written by the dying composer in 1945 as a legacy for his wife, a concert pianist. It's one of his most lyrical, relaxed works with long-lined melodies and often lush scoring. Here the pianist is Hélène Grimaud, playing with tonal beauty, poetic flair, and the requisite toughness for the final Allegro. With its superb soloists and orchestras and Boulez's consistency, this disc is a Bartókian feast.--Dan Davis