Don Satz wrote about Volodos at Carnegie Hall winning Gramophone's
Instrumental Disc of the Year award.]

>I'm sorry to hear of that result.  The other finalists were Kovacevich
>for his Beethoven sonata disc on EMI and Schiff for his Haydn sonata disc
>for Teldec.  My opinion is that Schiff, of the three, was easily the best
>- great sound, great music, and great interpretations.  The sound for
>Kovacevich was brutal, and the Volodos repertoire left much to be desired.
>Once again, my views are not held by the majority.  I could develop a
>complex about this.

I'm with you on this one (though I haven't heard the Kovacevich).  Volodos
is an amazing talent, but the Carnegie recital was weirdly programmed --
too much vaporous Scriabin for one thing (and I like Scriabin in
appropriate doses); his debut disc was much better.  The Schiff Haydn
collection was superb throughout.

But then Sony bought a lot of ad space for Volodos.  Gramophone is
becoming increasingly hard to digest.  If it weren't for my interest
in English music and in the London concert scene I would have bailed on
my subscription some time back.  And now they sport (again) a brand new
design, apparently trying to emulate cluttered, graphics-loaded web pages.

Art Scott
Livermore, Cal.