• Whether in Tchaikovsky or Liszt, Brahms or Scriabin, the Russian-born pianist Kirill Gerstein has already made a name as a formidable technician and an independent-minded musician. It turns out he is also an ardent jazz player, having initally taught himself before, at the age of 14, going to study jazz piano in Boston. His mentors include vibraphonist Gary Burton, who makes a guest appearance on this album: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F (Myrios), with the Saint Louis Symphony conducted by David Robertson. Including works by Earl Wild and Oscar Levant, the disc gives full rein to Gerstein’s jazz talents in all their liquid, apparently effortless variety. The Rhapsody is heard in a live performance – full of fat, moody brass – of the jazz-band arrangement (orchestrated by Ferde Grofé).
• Two earlier 20th-century works, the Piano Concertos No 2 of Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, feature in Valery Gergiev’s latest live recording with the Mariinsky Orchestra (on the Mariinsky label), with Denis Matsuev as steely, passionate soloist. The Prokofiev crackles with energy, the Rachmaninov surges with heart-in-mouth emotion from start to electrifying finish. Gergiev keeps up the pace, with idiomatic playing – you would expect nothing less – from the orchestra: a great pairing if you haven’t already got these concertos.
• Varieties of Bach on BBC Radio iPlayer… It is his B minor Mass from Bath Abbey as part of the city’s Bachfest, in a period instrument performance by the English Concert, the Erebus Ensemble and soloists, conducted by Harry Bicket. In contrast there’s still time to hear the historically revealing Mendelssohn arrangement of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, with Peter Dijkstra conducting the BBC Singers and St James’s Baroque. Then sample the talents of two of Bach’s sons, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christoph Friedrich, in symphonies performed by the OAE and the New Bach Collegium Musicum of Leipzig.
