Review Piano concerto – viola concerto No 1 | Airat Ichmouratov: of unequal interest

After the composer saw his first opera, The man who Laughspremiered at the Festival Classica on May 31, a third recording of his orchestral works will be released next week on the Chandos label.

If the other two, released in 2019 and 2020, involved relatively confidential orchestras, the British record company this time released the Rolls-Royce: the London Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble conducted since 2017 by Simon Rattle . Doctor in orchestral conducting, Ichmouratov himself took the controls during the recording, made last year in the old church of St Luke’s Old Street in London.

It is on two concert scores written between 2004 and 2013, but revised in 2021, that Chandos has this time set his sights: the piano concertoopus 40, and the Concerto for viola n^oh 1opus 7. They are played on the recording by their dedicatees, the pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, who collaborated in the piano writing, and the violist Elvira Misbakhova, wife of the composer, originally like him from Tatarstan in Russia .

It’s the piano concerto which seemed to us the most interesting, the most generous in terms of inspiration. The first movement is disturbingly reminiscent of that of the Concerto n^oh 3 by Rachmaninoff (an impression shared by our colleague Arthur Kaptainis, who signs the program notes), whereas the finale looks more towards Prokofiev. The writing for the winds stands out on the whole for its virtuosity (Ichmouratov is a clarinetist), and the percussions are not left out either. Very familiar with this eminently pianistic post-romantic music, Jean-Philippe Sylvestre is at home in this concerto.

THE Concerto for viola, composed ten years before, is more atmospheric, cinematographic one could even advance. Time passes more slowly, too slowly perhaps. The finale, a sort of mad rush with syncopated rhythms, is certainly more catchy than the first two movements. The soloist’s playing, on the whole, seems to us rather monotonous, sometimes lagging behind the orchestra, and without any particular charm in terms of sound.

Note that the live creation of the piano concerto will be on 1^er May 2024 in Quebec City with Sylvestre, Ichmouratov and the Orchester symphonique de Québec.

Classic

Piano concerto – viola concerto No 1

Airat Ichmuratov

Chandos

7.5/10