Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2 - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2

Denis Matsuev won the International Tchaikovsky Competition back in 1998 at the age of 23 and has continued to plow the Romantic piano concerto furrow with colossal technique and seemingly unstoppable energy. A regular piano partner of Valery Gergiev, he’s spent much of his career working his way through the great Russian piano concertos. Here, Rachmaninoff’s über-Romantic Concerto no. 2, all surging climaxes and sweeping melodies, sits alongside Prokofiev’s no. 2, a work whose technical demands have put pianists off for years. Matsuev offers barnstorming performances of both, firepower taking precedence over poetry, blistering octave runs over singing lines. It’s not subtle, but it is thrilling.