The Arts Desk’s Graham Rickson has praised the “luxuriant” form of Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Philharmonic on Prokofiev & Shor, the new album with pianist Behzod Abduraimov available on Alpha Classics.
He writes, “Petrenko understands the first movement’s debt to Rachmaninov, its opening minutes some of the most achingly romantic music Prokofiev wrote. Abduraimov’s first-movement cadenza is as imposing as any you’ll here, and Petrenko lets the brass off the leash when the orchestra re-enters at 1’22”, to my mind one of the greatest moments in any concerto. The scherzo zips by, Petrenko allowing a wealth of often-hidden woodwind detail. Listen to the lower strings at the beginning of the third movement, Abduraimov responding in kind. It’s exciting stuff, capped by an explosive finale, time standing still in the slow passage before the race to the finish. I’m fond of Ashkenazy and Bronfman in this work, but Abduraimov might just supplant them in my affections.”
Alpha writes of the recording, “Many people have been waiting for Behzod Abduraimov’s performance of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto — that powerful work which caused a scandal when it was first performed near St Petersburg in 1913 because it was considered too futuristic. The work that we hear today is a version that Prokofiev himself reconstructed and reworked in 1923, as his first version was burnt on his departure from Russia. Abduraimov gives a dazzling performance of the work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and its conductor Vasily Petrenko. The Prokofiev stands in stark contrast to Alexey Shor’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which was composed and first performed in 2023. Abduraimov embraces the juxtaposition of the two works: “the depth and complexity of Prokofiev’s universe is set against Shor’s more lyrical and accessible art: each work reflects different facets of the human experience, and I think it’s good to share this diversity of feelings, textures and moods”.
