Andrei Gavrilov (piano)
The Complete Warner Classics Recordings
rec. 1977-89
Warner Classics 2173281845 [21 CDs]
Warner has released this box to mark Andrei Gavrilov’s 70th birthday which fell in 2025. His win at the Tchaikovsky Competition as an 18-year-old in 1974 propelled him to international fame and EMI soon signed him, inaugurating a relationship of over a decade, which is here chronicled, and which even survived Gavrilov’s house arrest in Moscow.
The discs aren’t presented chronologically so we begin with his Baroque repertoire in recordings made in 1984 and 1986 (Bach) and 1979 (Handel). The French Suites were recorded in Bratislava in 1984 and show an elegance and energy familiar from his earlier recording, with Richter, of Handel’s Keyboard Suites. Rhythmic energy in the fast dance movements is balanced by a richly singing tone in the Sarabandes, for instance, and whilst one might quibble about the occasionally hard-edged nature of his concluding Gigues the overall impression is very sympathetic. He re-recorded these suites for DG. For the Keyboard concertos he was joined by Neville Marriner and his Academy who provide rich but adroit accompaniment. Gavrilov is extremely communicative in these Concertos, expressive albeit occasionally a little heavy on the pedal and certainly rather more bullish than Murray Perahia, who also recorded the concertos, self-directing the Academy with more luminous refinement. The Handel Suites are only represented by Gavrilov’s eight – Richter’s contributions are missing but they can easily be found elsewhere. If you want a highlight play the Passacaglia finale of the G minor, HWV 432 but it’s one of many.
His clear affinity for Bach and for Handel doesn’t, for me, extend to Mozart of which we have one disc containing two sonatas – which both leave a rather neutral response – and the Prelude and Fugue in C major and Fantasia in D minor. His Chopin Etudes are notable for tremendous virtuosity and bravura which can take the music to the brink of thrilling iconoclasm. Those who prefer a more multi-faceted poetic response will find, I think, that Gavrilov becomes too often unattractively aggressive. There is also considerable volatility in his Schumann – he plays Carnaval, Papillons and Faschingsschwank aus Wien on CD10 – though he manages to draw out some beautiful coloration and textures the music with refinement.
His Tchaikovsky Concerto No.1 from 1979 with the Philharmonia and Riccardo Muti is on CD 11 and on the next disc he reprises it in 1988 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Vladimir Ashkenazy, adding Concerto No.3. The Muti disc is newly remastered by Circé Studios, for some reason. The only other remastering in the entire box is on CD 18, where Prokofiev’s Eighth Sonata – in an excellent performance – is coupled with Ten Pieces from Romeo and Juliet, and this has been remastered by Art & Son. The Ashkenazy recording of No.1 is much zestier and less ponderous than the Muti-directed one and Gavrilov phrases less self-consciously.
His Scriabin is admirable. I wish he’d played the entire set of the Twenty-Four Op.11 Preludes but misses out eight of them. He selects judiciously from among the sets of Preludes and plays the terse Sonata No.4 with insight and control. This disc was recorded in the Domovina Studios in Prague. There are four Rachmaninov albums. The first is a selection, rather like the Scriabin disc, recorded in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatoire that includes four of the Moments musicaux and brief selections from among the Études-Tableaux. With Muti once again but this time the Philadelphia Orchestra, he recorded the Third Concerto in 1986, an attractive though hardly world-shattering reading that uses the longer chordal ‘ossia’ cadenza, rather than the shorter one that Rachmaninov himself employed in his own recording with the orchestra. In one of those discographic redundancies, he and Muti recorded the Second Concerto about seven months before Gavrilov recorded the same concerto live in Moscow with the Royal Philharmonic and Ashkenazy. The slow movement in Moscow is fleeter than in Philadelphia, but I have to say I didn’t feel much warmth from either performance. Ashkenazy’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony is also here. The Paganini Variations is expertly dispatched, but as with his Chopin one has the feeling that he values the virtuoso in Rachmaninov rather more than the lyricist.
On CD 19 Gavrilov plays two of the Romeo and Juliet pieces (Nos. 2 and 9) that he was two years later to record in full. He also plays Prokofiev’s Concerto No.1 with Simon Rattle and the LSO as well as Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand. Both the concertos are excellent. There’s a virtuoso fireworks album on CD 20 where, in 1977 at Abbey Road studios in London, he took on Gaspard de la nuit, Islamey, some testing Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky finishing off with some Liszt. The final disc sees him teamed with Gidon Kremer for some delightfully off-the-wall programming conceits – Weber, Hindemith, Schnittke, Rossini.
There’s an attractive booklet with this set. Each disc is housed in an Original Jacket with track listing details on the back. Gavrilov’s EMI legacy was a bit hit-and-miss but at its best it was both virtuosic and authoritative.
Jonathan Woolf
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Contents
CD 1-4 Bach French Suites Nos. 1-6 · Concertos Nos. 1-7 (1)
CD 5-6 Handel Suites HWV 426, 429, 431, 432, 436, 437, 440, 447
CD 7 Mozart Sonatas Nos. 11 & 12 · Prelude and Fugue · Fantasia
CD 8-9 Chopin Sonata No. 2 · 4 Ballades · 24 Études Opp. 10 & 25
CD 10 Schumann Carnaval · Papillons · Faschingsschwank aus Wien
CD 11-12 Tchaikovsky Concertos No 1 (2) and (3) and Concerto No 3 (3)
CD 13 Scriabin Sonata No. 4 · Preludes Opp. 13 (1-3), 15 (1, 5) & 16 (2, 4) Étude Op. 42 No. 5 · Prelude for the Left Hand
CD 14-15 Rachmaninov Preludes Opp. 23 (1-2, 5-6) & 32 (12) · Études-Tableaux Nos. 3 & 5 · Élégie · Moments musicaux Nos. 3-6 · Concerto No. 3 (4)
CD 16 Tchikovsky Symphony No. 4 (5) · RACHMANINOV Concerto No. 2 (5)
CD 17 Rachmaninov Concerto No. 2 (4) · Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini (4)
CD 18 Prokofiev Sonata No. 8 · 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet
CD 19 Prokofiev Concerto No. 1 (6) · 10 Pieces from Romeo and Juliet · Ravel Concerto “for the left hand” · Pavane pour une infante défunte
CD 20 Ravel Gaspard de la nuit · Prokofiev Suggestion diabolique Tchaikovsky Theme and Variations Op. 19 No. 6 Balakirev Islamey · Liszt La campanella
CD 21 (7) Weber Grand duo concertant · Hindemith Violin Sonata Op. 11 No. 1 Schnittke Violin Sonata No. 2 · Rossini Andante con variazioni (7)
(1) Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields · Neville Marriner
(2) Philharmonia Orchestra · Riccardo Muti
(3) Berliner Philharmoniker · Vladimir Ashkenazy
(4) The Philadelphia Orchestra · Riccardo Muti
(5) Royal Philharmonic Orchestra · Vladimir Ashkenazy
(6) London Symphony Orchestra · Sir Simon Rattle
(7) Gidon Kremer (violin)
First release on CD Newly remastered in HD 192kHz/24-bit from original tapes by Art & Son Studio
