The Other Side of the Mountain : Since Leaving Russia, Pianist Gavrilov Has Scaled Western Repertoire and Elevated His Playing Style

Russian pianist Andrei Gavrilov, winner of the 1974 Tchaikovsky Competition, last appeared in Southern California more than a decade ago. Reviews talked more about extroversion and technique, less about poetry and intellect.

It was the same year, 1985, that Gavrilov became the first Soviet to be granted permission to remain in the West without filing for political asylum. So what’s he been doing for 10 years?

“Europizing,” said Gavrilov, now 40 and living in a suburb of Frankfurt. He was reached by phone last week in San Francisco, where he appeared with the San Francisco Symphony. Tonight and Thursday in Costa Mesa, he’ll serve as soloist with the Pacific Symphony.

“In Russia, you’re on one side of the mountain. My repertoire has changed dramatically. It was Russian Romantics before; now I play a lot of Western music. I learned to play miniatures. I extended my color palette. We were trained to play a beautiful color, a crystalline sound, but the same sound for all composers, like an axiom. Very good legato, very singing sound--cantilena was the most important--and very expressive.

“That wouldn’t do for Ravel,” Gavrilov pointed out. “It wouldn’t do for Mozart, never.

“Now I can say to myself, it’s an incredible privilege to sit on the top of the mountain--to have that background, and at the same time to see the other side.”

For his West Coast appearances, Gavrilov has chosen works from both sides of the mountain: Franck’s “Les djinns” and Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 1. Pacific Symphony music director Carl St.Clair will also conduct Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” (The Rite of Spring) and Ravel’s “Pavane pour une infante defunte” (Pavane for a Dead Princess).

Gavrilov has been looking forward to playing the Franck and Prokofiev works for some time.

“In 1968, I heard Sviatoslav Richter under Kiril Kondrashin play these two,” he recalled. “I was absolutely stunned. I said to myself, when I grow up musically, I will play this combination. It is my absolute favorite; it is unbeatable.

“The Franck, of course, is almost unplayable--even for me, and my left hand stretches almost two octaves. Maybe Franck”--an organist--”thought about supporting it with his legs. [Vladimir] Ashkenazy’s recording takes very slow tempi, and he just leaves out the middle voices.”

He and Ashkenazy together recorded Stravinsky’s complete works for two pianos. They decided that his piano arrangement for “The Rite of Spring” was “very poor” and that it needed a third piano. Gavrilov overdubbed it. “It sounds sensational,” he said.

A happy consequence of settling in Wiesbaden, famous for its casino, is that the casino has a hall that Gavrilov now uses as his private recording studio. Deutsche Grammophon recently met him there to produce albums of Bach (Goldberg Variations and the French Suites) and Prokofiev (four sonatas).

There are other benefits as well.

“After total disarray and dishevelment in Russia, I thought it would be a little boring in Germany, where everything is in order,” Gavrilov said. “But I live in the nature, in a beautiful house, and only 15 minutes from the airport. I am so spoiled. I can have breakfast with my family, and I can play in Rome, or anywhere in Europe, the same day.”

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Not everything was disheveled in Russia. In fact, Gavrilov now realizes that some things, notably his training at the central music school in Moscow, may have been too structured.

“Like in a circus they trained us,” he recalled. “We played scales, different exercises, for hours and hours and hours. This was combined with schooling, so we were spending all the day in the same building, from 8 in the morning till 10 in the evening. We just practiced and practiced and practiced, and all we were dreaming about, the golden dream, was the Tchaikovsky.”

Gavrilov realized the golden dream--about eight years before he planned to enter:

“One day, the Minister of Culture called and said, ‘We would like to have one dark horse, very young, and it will be you.’ That’s it. In three weeks, I prepared the program.”

But then, Gavrilov--who stepped in for Richter at the Salzburg Festival the same year to make his international debut--always has been one to seize the moment.

“Absolutely. 100%,” he said. “Life is too short, and it’s running too quickly.”

* Pianist Andrei Gavrilov serves as soloist with the Pacific Symphony in works by Franck and Prokofiev tonight and Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Carl St.Clair also will conduct works by Stravinsky and Ravel. 8 p.m. $15-$47.45. Ticketmaster, (714) 740-2000.