The chief attraction here, at least as far as budget-conscious collectors are concerned, is Taneyev’s ‘completion’ of the Andante and Finale, part of the concerto that Tchaikovsky had intended for pianist Louis Diemer. Presented in tandem with the better-known (and musically superior) Allegro de Concert it makes a speculative Third Piano Concerto out of symphonic material that the composer himself evidently had little time for. I’ve always had a fondness for the Allegro, especially its full tutti passages (their exuberance reminds me of the grander episodes of the great ballets) but although the Andante has its tender moments, the Finale really is third-rate music. Prize-winning pianist Bernd Glemser is every bit as creditable as Peter Jablonski on a full-price Decca CD and Antoni Wit’s conducting suggests that Naxos might profitably persuade him to record Semyon Bogatiryov’s equally speculative Tchaikovsky ‘Seventh’ Symphony (which uses the musical material that’s presented here, plus more).
Glemser gives a solid enough performance of the First Concerto, rhythmically taut in the second movement’s “waltz-scherzo” and with a brittle, fairly clipped finale. Again Wit scores with some fine conducting, most notably towards the concerto’s final cadenza where woodwinds are very clearly underlined and the mounting timpani crescendo raises a real storm. The first movement doesn’t quite hold together (some tempo relations are a little erratic) and the lyrical moments lack sensitivity.
Quite frankly, given the current competition – especially Martha Argerich’s latest offering, which, in artistic terms, is worth at least three times its full price – I would count this performance of the First Piano Concerto as a workaday fill-up to a worthwhile curio. As such it receives a qualified recommendation.'