The Concerto appears a year after, but was recorded six months before, Gavrilov's live Moscow performance (also on EMI). Not surprisingly the approach is broadly the same, and once again the result is only partially successful. The problem is that Gavrilov responds so readily to the music's surface excitement, and is technically so well equipped to communicate it, that the excitement more deeply concealed in the structure gets less than its due. Hence, I think, the self-conscious hold-ups, the huffing and puffing on the way to big climaxes, and the many passages where shaping and momentum are out of kilter.
The more demanding listener may not get beyond the portentous opening gestures, the small fluff at 0'32'' and the severe over-pedalling which follows. That would be a pity, because there are numerous instances of pianistic excellence which only a top-class artist could deliver, and Gavrilov could certainly never be accused of being lukewarm. Still, the Rhapsody is more his piece, I feel, with its shorter spurts of invention and more obvious drama. Gavrilov drives it well, though losing out slightly on fantasy as he does so. Not until 1'27'' into the big Variation No. 18 is there a touch of the extreme self-consciousness so evident in the Concerto. In both works the Philadelphia Orchestra's contribution is a distinguished one, without ever suggesting the kind of meeting of minds evident from Richter with Wislocki (DG) and Wild with Horenstein (Chandos, though I see Chesky have put out a single disc, which I have yet to hear, coupling the Rhapsody with the First and Fourth Concertos). There are a dozen or so alternative versions of this particular coupling, but since none of them is recommendable without serious reservation (Ashkenazy and Previn on mid-price Decca would be my choice if forced) I have confined myself to versions I can so recommend.
Like the Moscow performance this one sounds best with the volume level slightly raised. But I have to say I found the orchestral recorded sound less then inspiring, with a good deal of fuzziness around the cellos and flutes; there is an awkward edit at 2'17'' in the Concerto slow movement.'