1977-Vasary-Ahronovich-LSO - Rachmaninov-Piano Concerto #3

[Scion7]

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The LSO - which is often a jack-of-all-trades "for hire" is not Britain's greatest orchestra.
But Ahronovich directed them to a strong performance.  Hungarian former-child prodigy
Vasary, winner of the Franz Liszt Competition in Budapest at 14, was 43 at the time of this recording. 

             from Gramophone

RACHMANINOV. Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, ® Op. 30. Tamas Vasary (pno); London Symphony Orchestra / Yuri Ahronovich.
DG. Privilege 2535 493; C1 3335 493. From 2530 859 (6/77).

Vasary's performance attracts at once by his beautifully simple, yet expressive, opening statement, so often either played too fast or wilfully pulled about. Those who know this artist's playing well will not expect the whole conception of the concerto to be on as big and grand a scale as some players give us. Yet it is not at all without power and there are fine climaxes. He chooses the big alternative cadenza and this, for example, is shaped to a strong culmination; and there is plenty of power in the middle of the centre movement too (before the scherzando). Another fine climax can be heard in the finale. So if the performance is not on the largest scale, it is shaped with a satisfyingly intelligent sensitiveness.
Yuri Ahronovich accompanies with the greatest perception and soloist and orchestra are well balanced. The softer piano tone is warm and natural and it was only at the loudest moments that I thought a touch of hardness was apparent. However, this is without doubt a recommended bargain version (and that is not to suggest that it is only worth considering as a bargain).    ~T.H.

RACHMANINOV. Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30. Tamas Vasary (piano), London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Ahronovich. DG 2530 859 (£.3 •59); 0 3300 859 (£3 • 69).

Vasary is a pianist I have long admired. Now, with a Russian conductor (and a very good one at that) and a Russo-American concerto which I haven't heard him play before, he again swims into view with all his accustomed brilliance and charm, offering a possible challenge to Ashkenazy's two fine recordings listed above.
Vasary's reading falls midway between the mutedly beautiful, immensely beguiling early Ashkenazy version on Decca and his bigger, brighter, more powerful version with the Philadelphians on RCA. Technically Vasary is never quite as robust as Ashkenazy. Beautifully as he encompasses the big, Brahmsian alterna live cadenza in the first movement, his phrasing is never quite as grand, as decisively shaped, as is the case with Ashkenazy; and there are a couple of instances—the scherzando in the second movement and some of his playing near the start of the finale—where Vasary's runs, skips and trills sound a little too prickly for comfort. On the other hand, the scherzando of the finale is beautifully done, as are the same movement's several extended lyrical sections.
In the first two movements Ahronovich is a great help. The LSO, of course, know the Concerto inside out by now, having also recorded Ashkenazy's second and least successful version (SXL6555, 9/72); but it is not the easy virtuosity of their playing (or their remarkably Russian-sounding horns) that impress so much as the sensitive, beautifully drilled rhythmic momentum of the first movement, the exquisite balance of piano, bassoon, cellos against a discreet rustle of strings at the principal theme's return in the coda (always a good testing point), not to mention the beautifully landscaped, elegantly sounded start to the second movement Intermezzo. Throughout transitions are skilfully judged by both Vasary and Ahronovich, with the latter ever alive to the quiet, elegant, undulating, finely-grained qualities of Vasary's playing, and the sudden surges and plummets as, quickly and characteristically, the music dashes impetuously on or dies into near silence at the end of some bravura excursion. I only wish that the actual sound of the piano had been a little fuller. At times it is beautifully balanced but dry; the gorgeous lyrical subject eight bars after fig. 6 (the one Horowitz on RCA Victrola mono VH004, 6/74, so magically silvers and spins) oddly lacks bloom.
A good performance, then, nicely poised between the two Ashkenazy performances from the collector's point of view; though not, I think, quite superseding either.   ~R.O.

Among Concerto No. 3's merits are a lovely statement of the Allegro's second subject by Vasary, especially of its intensification at fig. 8. He plays the more difficult cadenza, and gives a dramatic account of it (although he is not quite so good here as in the cadenza of Concerto No. 1). Ahronovich shapes the orchestral opening of the slow movement sensitively.   ~M.H.

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