With this startling combination of opposites Saskia Giorgini takes us on a humanly rich and varied journey. For her, there is Mozart in one of his most beguiling of his early Concertos, 'seren, light and smiling,' Shostakovich's high-jinks in his First Piano Concerto(though including an 'Andante' like 'a slow, frozen waltz that never takes flight') and finally and most powerfully the tragic world of the Second Piano Sonata evoking the horror of The Siege of Leningrad but also, and more personally, a plea for musical empathy.
After her previous Liszt and Debussy recordings this is a major departure. But while I would strongly commend the vivid sense of scope and adventure, I would question Giorgini's determinedly robust view of Mozart. While her vigour is a welcome alternative to over-refinement, I found myself longing for greater subtlety and a more engaging play of light and shade.
However, the Shostakovich is another story, music where exuberance in the Concerto is a major virtue and where Giorgini seizes the opportunity to let go. And here she is admirably partnered by Per Ivarsson in his trumpet solos. She is admirable, too, in the dark, indeed nihilistic world of the Second Sonata, most notably in the final 'Moderato's' relentless build up.
The imaginative and audacious juxtaposition of works makes this an exceptional disc, even when there are recordings of all three works of a different level of achievement. Murray Perahia in the Mozart, as vital as he is delicate, Argerich at her most compulsive in the Shostakovich Concerto, and Gilels, magisterial and of an all-Russian authority in the Sonata.
I would have liked more transparency, less hefty recorded sound in the Mozart, but the joviality and bleakness of the Sonata are ideally caught.
Bryce Morrsion