Kabalevsky : Les quatre concertos pour piano. Francis.

Piano International (Mar, 2013)
Teachers know Kabalevsky’s Sonatinas and short pieces for beginners; Horowitz, no less, used to play the Prokofiev-saturated Third Sonata. What are these practically unknown concertos like?

Both musically and politically, Kabalevsky (1904-87) was a magpie, his soundworld recalling not just Prokofiev but Glazunov, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov too. He composed in the era of The Terror, and it was only by adroit ducking and diving that he – almost uniquely among Soviet composers – avoided Stalinist censure.

The first two concertos (1928 and 1935) recycle the Romantic Grand Manner at satisfying length (32 and 24 minutes). The Third (1952), deliberately written – like the better-known C major Violin Concerto, Op 48 – …