The best recording
Xiayin Wang’s powerful virtuosity shines through
Xiayin Wang (piano)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/ Peter Oundjian
Chandos CHSA5167
Hamelin and the LPO’s 2014 Southbank performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and, while not currently available as an official recording, curious listeners can easily find it online. (Perhaps an enterprising producer could add it to the Hyperion Records catalogue, as the work appears to be missing from the label’s otherwise extensive piano concerto collection.) Hamelin’s energy, flair and technical precision is rarely matched, which makes Xiayin Wang’s recording for Chandos all the more significant – the American-Chinese pianist’s 2016 version with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) is never less than thrilling.
Conductor Peter Oundjian sets a restrained pace, allowing the swell of sound to develop at a moderate speed and leaving space for the music to breathe. Wang’s detailed phrases are impeccably mic’d: every single note of each glissando is detectable, and the cadenzas – particularly the all-important long one in the first movement and the riotous solos in the Allegro brillante – are clear as a bell.
Crucially, the RSNO is enlarged by a flexatone rather than a musical saw in the Andante con anima (player uncredited, unfortunately). As the plaintive, pared-back piano melody unfolds across the upper register, closing back into a simple scalic passage, the unmistakable eerie wo
