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The Young Sokolov · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Dissler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:10
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:14
  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven by clicking
• 0:17
  on the link that I've provided in... our program
• 0:22
  description notes. It's a link that takes you
• 0:24
  to my Substack page where you can subscribe to
• 0:27
  this podcast. And if you're a paid subscriber,
• 0:30
  you get such goodies as free downloads at the
• 0:33
  start of each month. And from time to time, we
• 0:36
  have Zoom meetings with fellow piano mavens.
• 0:39
  So it's well worth sponsoring us and contributing
• 0:43
  because it helps keep this podcast going. Although
• 0:47
  the Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov turned 75
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  a few months ago, it seems as though it was only
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  not all that long ago when one could speak of
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  him as a young pianist or youngish pianist. And
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  we have to remember that he was all of 16 years
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  old when he won the gold medal in the 1966 Tchaikovsky
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  competition in Moscow. And very soon after his
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  gold medal victory, Sokolov went into the recording
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  studio with Nemi Yerevi and the USSR Symphony
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  Orchestra to record the first Tchaikovsky concerto
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  and the second concerto by Camille Sasson. These
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  recordings have had a number of compact disc
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  incarnations. One was a 1997 release on the BMG
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  label when BMG was licensing material from Russian
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  Melodia. And so volume three in a series called
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  Neme Yervi, the early recordings, consisted of
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  the Tchaikovsky and Sasson concertos with the
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  teenage Sokolov. And these concertos also came
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  out in a four -disc Sokolov collection on Melodia
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  on CD. And curiously, Sokolov is credited, but
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  not the conductor nor the orchestra. It's very
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  strange. Anyway, I have the BMG version in my
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  collection, and I had not heard it in a while.
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  But I took it out again, and I really enjoyed
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  listening to it. The sonics, I have to admit,
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  are not quite state -of -the -art for her. 1966
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  or 67 whenever that was recorded especially when
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  you compare it to western recordings but it's
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  certainly listenable and the piano and orchestra
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  balance is generally good although sometimes
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  the piano is a little too much out front, especially
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  in the second movement of the Tchaikovsky Concerto.
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  But it's interesting to hear samples of Nemei
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  Yerevi when he was a young conductor, because
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  even back then he was a really forthright, pedal
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  -to -the -metal type of conductor, and he always
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  was a superb accompanist. But the main focus
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  of this release is the teenage Sokolov, and he
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  certainly does not play like a teenager or sound
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  remotely immature. The immense poise and polish
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  of his keyboard workmanship is really that of
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  a mature world -class artist in these performances.
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  I mean, there are times when he will broaden
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  a phrase in the Tchaikovsky with a slightly mannered
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  emphasis that's not all that subtle, but, you
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  know. All Russian pianists did that in the Tchaikovsky,
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  and he doesn't do it very often. It's interesting
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  how Yerevy sets a relatively brisk tempo at the
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  Andantino's outset in the Tchaikovsky concerto,
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  only to have Sokolov enter at a slightly slower
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  pace. But the soloist and conductor quickly find
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  common ground. By the way, the flute soloist
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  at the top of the movement is really out of tune.
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  It's not very pleasant to listen to. But the
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  brass solos don't have that kind of watery vibrato
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  that you often got from Russian orchestras back
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  in the day. But listen to Sokolov's super speedy
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  tempo in the middle of the Andantino. Wow, I
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  mean, it's just amazing. absolute control and
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  precision of his articulation and attack it's
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  just staggering and in those final octaves in
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  the last movement his gradual slowing down toward
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  the end of that sequence is so impeccably calibrated
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  and proportioned it's almost as if they are being
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  conducted Purely in terms of Sokolov's solo work,
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  the Saint -Saëns Second Concerto is really quite
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  dazzling technically, and his tempos really take
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  off in the second and third movements, and you
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  cannot deny his... absolute poise. I used that
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  word poise before, didn't I? Well, that's what
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  it is. It's poise. And those balances in the
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  chords have no splintering, no vagary. Everything
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  is absolutely solid and in proportion and in
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  balance. And the first movement... kind of has
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  a monumental, almost Brahmsian cast to it. Although
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  it certainly moves and it doesn't sound static,
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  but I kind of miss the lightness and the transparency
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  that you get from, oh, say, the Ciccolini recording
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  or Arthur Rubinstein, or even that really underrated
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  recording with Howard Shelley conducting from
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  the piano that I spoke about all the way back
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  in our second episode. which was almost a year
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  ago, my goodness. So you'll find more superficially
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  charming editions of the Saint -Saëns Second
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  Concerto on disc, but the unstinting focus and
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  total authority of Sokolov's pianism as a teenager
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  really, really impresses. He had it all, even
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  back then. And of course, Nemi Yervi is no slouch.
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  So check out these early Grigory Sokolov recordings
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  of the Tchaikovsky First and Saint -Saëns Second
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  Concertos. The sonics may not be state -of -the
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  -art, but... The piano playing most definitely
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  is. This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. I hope you will tune in
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  for our next episode, and I look forward to being
• 6:47
  with you for that. Take good care.