Piano Concerto No. 3 in D major opus 50

Combined with:
Robert Muczynski: Piano Concerto No. 1
Robert Muczynski: A Serenade for Summer Robert Muczynski: Suite

Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Paul Freeman (conductor)
James Johnson (piano)

Centaur CRC 2089

Recorded on 13 & 14 September 1989 in Ljubljana, Slovenia; Suite on 20 March 1990, Fairbanks, Alaska

Aside from a certain tubbiness in the Slovenian recording image this is a very agreeable disc. Johnson and Freeman deliver a joyous and excitable performance of the Kabalevsky which for its formula and gesture works a treat. The melodic content is excellent. Listen also to the Colas Breugnon references in the finale. The perspective and sound is better than that on the recent Chandos Kabalevsky collection with Kathryn Stott. The pattern adopted by this concerto also helped fashion Shostakovich's Second Concerto - a work which rises above the formula and serves to redefine it.

The Muczynski concerto is an early work which at first and later pours on torrents of romantic layering and protest like superheated Creston or Flagello. It lightens this element with a neo-classical cool (tr.4. 1.48, tr. 5, 00.14) and with bone china fragile vitality. The allegretto pastorale is a beauty of reflective writing. The favourable impact of the work is enhanced by its pocket dimensions - succinct and apt to its inventive material. The same can be said of the quicksilver solo piano Suite which emphasises rhythmic tightness over the lyric voice. The lovely orchestral Serenade is evocative of the composer's childhood days in the sultry summers of the Midwest. It is warmly written, a little like Barber, moonrisen and brimming with the razor edge of nostalgia. The celesta-painted moonlight is especially notable at 2.30 and the same instrument presides over the work's close. This is a most wonderful and neglected classic of the American repertoire.

A very successful mix though the playing time is short. Some extremely pleasing music here with playing to match.

Rob Barnett
MusicWeb, October 2003