Yefim Bronfman (piano); Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Jakub Hrůša
RCO Digital EP 17:73 mins
Silk-spun melodies hang undisturbed across an orchestral pathway that is dotted with flickering woodwind. Work on the spider’s web is interrupted as the builder, here pianist Yefim Bronfman, crashes into a corner in a clatter of chords. Elena Firsova’s first piano concerto – co-commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra – is short and sweet, skipping between mystic, Scriabin-sourced pianism and an accessible, narrative-driven score based on the life-long presence of looming death.
Tension is flung, fully formed rather than built, into the compact middle Allegro, which, with its central three-note motif, calls to mind the ‘Dun, Dun Duuun’ sting composed by Dick Walter that has become shorthand for ‘something scary is about to happen’. Firsova doesn’t focus on diabolic intervals for long, however; the final Andante is the longest and most important movement (following a similar format to the composer’s 2017 Double Concerto for violin and cello), where the previously scattered melodic crumbs lead to a perfectly risen loaf.
Bronfman – recorded during performances in 2022 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Jakub Hrůša at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam – is nicely forefronted and on form throughout, saving his greatest restraint for the pendulous upper-octave grand finale. Representing a ticking second hand and, by implication, the creeping onset of our demise, the short rhythmic section is more terrifying than any Lisztian fireworks. Bronfman brings the concerto to Liverpool later this year – date as yet to be announced.