The E flat Concerto sets off promisingly to a pert, full-bodied orchestral introduction and a bold response from Berezovsky. Teldec’s recording (made in December 1994) harnesses the concert hall of The Maltings, Snape for maximum immediacy, with strings to the fore (there’s some rattling col legno in Totentanz) and a boldly balanced solo profile. Berezovsky coaxes some rapt soft playing in the calmer episodes of the First Concerto’s first movement, but I was less than happy with a somewhat self-conscious cantabile near the beginning of the Quasi adagio. In addition, the high trills at the end of the movement sound uncomfortably exposed and rather untidy.
The Second Concerto is given a more integrated reading, albeit one that leaves a less positive impression. Here, refinement rather than excitement is the order of the day, although there is plenty of filigree detail and a good deal of warmly brushed tone. Totentanz starts out in top gear (at least twice as fast as, say, Michelangeli in his 1962 Vatican recording) and proceeds through its sundry variations with a combination of energy and precision – except for the final cadenza, which shows signs of buckling under pressure. Otherwise, this is a good trio of performances, very well conducted, with a competitive E flat Concerto as its main attraction but with formidable (and ultimately preferable) competition from Richter in the A major and Michelangeli and Janis in the Totentanz.'