This fascinating survey of the Russian (and Polish!) piano concerto includes the masterworks of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov - beloved examples at the pinnacle of both Russian music and the piano concerto genre - along with more- and lesser-known yet all eminently worthy works by composers from both Imperial and Soviet Russia and those by Paderewski, Scharwenka and Moszkowski, who were born in what today is Poland. Though the piano concerto is now inextricably linked in modern minds to the Russian repertoire, the area's isolation meant that it would take some time for the genre to take hold there, but that it would grow into a unique, characteristic and varied expression. Apart from the jaw-dropping virtuosity and orchestral brilliance of these works, they share that common Slavonic flavor, an undefinable mixture of melancholy and passion, whether smoldering or blazing. The recordings on this release date from between 1964 and 2016.

Poles apart? Ignacy Jan Paderewski is a familiar name, but the same can hardly be said of Jerzy Gablenz. Jonathan Plowright makes the strongest case possible for Gablenz’s piano concerto: a substantial work rich in melodic invention and thunderous pianism.

Defining Polish composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s musical personality inevitably sends commentators rushing for comparisons with influential predecessors and contemporaries: Chopin is usually in the lead, followed in short order by Liszt, Wagner and Rachmaninov. But at his best, and that is very much the case with the works recorded here, there is much more to Paderewski. Chopin may be clearly evident in the Piano Sonata of 1903, but a distinctive and distinguished melodic voice shines through in the slow movement and everywhere there is always a strong sense of forward momentum. The A minor Variations from the mid-1880s inhabit a very different world. A soulful, almost neo-Baroque theme sets the tone for wide-ranging figuration over which the spirit of Brahms hovers perceptibly. Although the E flat minor Variations were originally composed at much the same time, a major rewrite in 1903 gave them far greater scope and seriousness with much richer textures and a questing musical accent sometimes of quite modernist cut. In Jonathan Plowright these works have a near-ideal interpreter. Not only does he negotiate Paderewski’s dizzying virtuoso demands with evident ease, but also his ability to bring an almost string-like tone to the more lyrical passages constantly fascinates in this excellent recording.