Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No 2 is one of his lighter optimistic works. Gianandrea Noseda briskly dispatched the witty orchestral support in the lively first movement, although he preferred extreme tempi, with an Allegro closer to Presto. The lovely Andante veered towards Adagio in its introduction by the strings. The result initially seemed deliberate and dry, although this restrained interpretation enabled soloist Mikhail Rudy to be especially flexible and sweet. The ideal balance was achieved in the spontaneous and playful third movement.
Khachaturyan's seldom-heard Piano Concerto was more earnest yet infinitely less communicative. The music's frequent nods towards Ravel arguably suited the French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, who charismatically handled the melting pot of Georgian, Armenian, Soviet and Gallic overtones. The most notable feature was the use of a Flexatone, an instrument that rather resembled a pneumatic drill chugging away. Thibaudet was awesome, managing to make every note seem utterly indispensable.
Soloist Severin von Eckardstein was lucid and poignant in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 2, although the concerto was a brusque and rather charmless vehicle for him. The concerto showed how Prokofiev's solemn and fiendish piano-writing was heavily indebted to the acrobatics of Liszt and Chopin while sharing little of their sentimental elements. Noseda's assertive conducting resembled a hungry tiger pouncing upon his prey.
Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 injected some pleasantness into the evening. The opening motif on horns paved the way for music that swayed rather than struck. Barry Douglas's solo passages were sensitive and melancholic, and he successfully integrated his playing with the orchestra. The inspirational finale was a simple pleasure.
The intention behind the programme was noble, the execution peerless. It was a privilege to hear four pianists of such high calibre, yet four long Russian piano concertos in one concert made unfair comparisons between both soloists and composers inevitable. Taken as a whole, it risked overkill.
