A pianist acquaintance characterized one winner of an international piano competition as “A BMW without the driver.” After hearing a recital where Andrei Gavrilov hammered the Chopin Ballades to smithereens, the comment hit home. In the recording studio however, Gavrilov’s bionic fingers generally keep apace with his brains. In fact, the least flamboyant music in this collection inspires the Russian firebrand’s most interesting and perceptive playing, like the Bach and Handel Suites, for instance. Gavrilov’s frisky tour through Schumann’s Papillons beefs up the composer’s fanciful mood shifts and spicy harmonic nougats. Mozart’s D minor Fantasia, though, gets a dutiful, even stiff reading that lacks the operatic urgency distinguishing other versions. By contrast, Balakirev’s Islamey and the Scriabin Fourth Sonata are loaded for bear and laced with caffeine, yet leave a lingering, metallic aftertaste. Power and poetry work together to more satisfying musical ends in the Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Chopin, Rachmaninov, and Grieg solos. For all the excitement and finger-breaking fun Gavrilov brings to the Prokofiev First Concerto, Toradze, Janis, and Argerich are more playful and flexible. This well-chosen collection, however, presents an ideal context for listeners to weigh Gavrilov’s strengths and limitations.
