1 | I. Allegro brioso |
2 | II. Andante assai |
3 | III. Allegro scherzando |
4 | I. Allegretto |
5 | II. Adagio religioso -[poco più mosso] - tempo I |
6 | III. Allegro vivace - [presto] |
7 | I. Andante - Allegro |
8 | II. Tema (Andantino) & Variations |
9 | III. Allegro ma non troppo - meno mosso - Allegro |
The Prokofiev No. 1, with its intense driving opening and closing and its dreamy slow movement, is one of the most spectacularly inventive works ever to be offered as a graduation exercise; the future Soviet conformist won the Rubinstein prize, but the press called for his incarceration as a lunatic; perhaps his finest concerto, the Piano Concerto No. 3, is a less flashy work, but even dreamier and even more delightful--Prokofiev could be a charmer when he wanted to. As could Bartók--his Third Concerto starts with experimental pyrotechnics of the sort we associate with its two predecessors, and moves in its finale, without betraying their radical promise, to a Romantic Big Tune to end all such. What these three concertos have in common--their combination of aggressive athletic solo writing with a bitter-sweet emotional content--is precisely what makes Martha Argerich one of their ideal interpreters. The sensitive intelligence of her playing is matched by its ruthless brilliance of sound and energy; Charles Dutoit's discreet management of orchestral sound make these very much soloist-dominated performances, unlike some recordings of the Prokofiev 1 and Bartók 3 where the temptations offered by the orchestration are too much for some conductors. --Roz Kaveney