Prokofiev: Piano Concertos Nos 1, 4 & 5

With this disc Demidenko completes his cycle of the Prokofiev Concertos with the London Philharmonic and Alexander Lazarev.

The First Concerto launched the youthful composer's career—he wrote it for his graduation concert (his playing of it won him first prize) and its youthful high spirits and virtuosity make it an instant crowd-pleaser. The Fourth and Fifth Concertos are less well known though with the Fifth it is hard to see why. The Fourth was written for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein who didn't like it (he didn't like Ravel's left-hand Concerto either!) and refused to perform it; hence it is only recently that the work has been taken up.

CDA67029  66 minutes 29 seconds
‘Dazzlingly virtuosic accounts of the youthful D flat, the left hand and the brilliant G major. Outstanding accompaniments … put these performances in the class of the celebrated Ashkenazy/Previn ...
‘A perfect follow-on from Concertos 2 & 3 by the same team, and another feather in Hyperion's cap’ (Hi-Fi News)