Bartók: The Three Piano Concertos (1995)

The Bartók concertos make for a challenging trio. The Second of the group is, along with the Prokofiev Second and Rachmaninov Third, the most difficult hurdle in the literature of piano/orchestral music. You don't venture onto this highway unless you're willing to drive through a gauntlet of pianistic nightmares. Yefim Bronfman smoothly negotiates every treacherous turn, every slippery curve with convincing skill. But it's not technique that reigns supreme in these concertos, it's cultivated musical insight. Listen to his ... Read More

The Bartók concertos make for a challenging trio. The Second of the group is, along with the Prokofiev Second and Rachmaninov Third, the most difficult hurdle in the literature of piano/orchestral music. You don't venture onto this highway unless you're willing to drive through a gauntlet of pianistic nightmares. Yefim Bronfman smoothly negotiates every treacherous turn, every slippery curve with convincing skill. But it's not technique that reigns supreme in these concertos, it's cultivated musical insight. Listen to his deft rendering of the Second's first movement cadenza (track one; 6:48); hear how he catches its menace, its Bartókian folkish impudence. And does anyone, with the possible exception of Anda/DG, impart a greater sense of foreboding and mystery to the second movement? Bronfman's account of the First Concerto, driven but not impetuous, brash but not fulsome, challenges the classic Serkin/Columbia (which Sony ought to reissue). He may actually surpass Serkin in the mechanical,... Read Less