This release from the London Symphony Orchestra's LSO Live series features a program that the orchestra must have played hundreds of times over its long history: Mendelssohn's well-loved Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ("Scottish"), and Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, with the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, in between. There are substantial attractions, but they don't necessarily come where some think they might. What truly sets this recording apart is the extraordinarily graceful performance of the Schumann by Portuguese (and now Brazilian) pianist Maria João Pires, with the LSO keeping itself carefully subordinated to her unusually quiet performance.
Live recordings from Austrian Radio broadcasts (ORF) released for the very first time by one of the greatest musicians of all time. The Schumann Piano Concerto requires virtually everything a pianist should have to offer: poetry, virtuosity, poised restraint – Brendel passes the test on all accounts with his passionate, insightful and refreshing interpretation.
Deutsche Grammophon has another excellent Schumann Concerto in its catalog, the Pollini/Abbado, with the Berlin Philharmonic, coupled with a good but not great Schoenberg Piano Concerto. Not surprisingly, Pollini is more muscular and evenly balanced in the Schumann, even if he is, as usual, a bit straitlaced. Pires is always the sensitive and probing artist, or so it seems. Here, she is alert from the opening descending chords to the expressive potential in every bar. She puts much more thinking and feeling in her interpretation than Pollini and most others I've heard.
The Naxos coupling of Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto (with Francesco Nicolosi) and Piano Trio was a MusicWeb 'Recording of the Month' review. Now along comes this Tudor offering, providing strong competition and there’s an extra work thrown in. Veronica Jochum - yes, his daughter - is a more than able pianist. She has the advantage of a well-respected orchestra behind her which brings drama and a brisk approach to the opening. The recording has a fine depth but someone was perhaps a little too lavish with the reverb, I would suggest.
If you want to judge a pianist's versatility, listen to his or her recording of the Schumann Piano Concerto. It requires virtually everything a pianist should have to offer: poetry, virtuosity, expansive expression alternating with poised restraint. What a glorious test piece this is. Richter, who was famous for his Schumann playing, passes every test here. His meltingly beautiful delivery of Schumann's melodies touches the heart, and his execution of the most difficult passages is so smooth and effortless that it never calls a bit of attention to itself. In this piece and the Introduction and Allegro, the excellent orchestra also covers itself with glory.
Delivered in a limpid tone and with neat fingerwork, Argerich’s 1978 account of the Piano Concerto is characteristically resolute. Though she enjoys its moments of display, her sympathy with its poetic moods is keen. She also listens to the orchestra, which provides some attractive woodwind solos. Her accompanist, Rostropovich, is a good listener too, and doubtless the better for being a soloist himself, as in the 1961 performance of the Cello Concerto under the supportive Rozhdestvensky. A curiously sketchy work, the Concerto’s inward qualities receive passionate treatment, though the sound is rough.
Claudio Arrau recorded these concertos twice for Philips, the present performances in 1963, and then again in 1980 with Colin Davis and the Boston Symphony. There's very little to choose between them. Tempos are almost identical, and contrary to what one might expect, the slow movement of the Schumann concerto is actually a bit faster in the later version. Arrau's way with the music is wholly characteristic of the man: serious, even reverential (at the beginning of the Schumann), and played with drop-dead gorgeous tone. The result enhances the stature of both works, but the Grieg in particular. The climax of the finale has an epic grandeur without a hint of bombast that you simply won't find in any other performance. Dohnányi's accompaniments are also distinguished: he lets Arrau lead but isn't afraid to permit the orchestra to assert itself where necessary; and of course the playing of the Concertgebouw is top-notch. If you haven't heard Arrau in this music, it really doesn't matter which of his recordings you wind up with, but do try to get at least one of them.
The exceptional and unaffected Martha Argerich gives here a spellbinding performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto.
The Beethoven Triple Concerto is a strange work, with the most important–-or at least prominent–-solos given to the cello; it is the instrument which introduces each movement. The remarkable Martha Argerich wisely allows Mischa Maisky to shine in his solos and leading position, but her contribution is anything but back seat. Her customary virtuosity is everywhere in evidence, and, in a way, she turns the piano into the spinal column of the work, with the violin and cello playing around her. Every time Maisky is about to lapse into a mannerism which might detract–-too much sliding, a dynamic slightly exaggerated–-Argerich brings him back, and both of them play with handsome tone. Capucon's violin is recorded a bit stridently (this was taped live in Lugano), but his playing is equally stunning. Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky leads the orchestra matter-of-factly until the final movement, when he catches the proper fire. In the Schumann A minor concerto Argerich is wonderful the solo passages and a fine partner in orchestrated ones and she really makes much of both the lyrical runs and the dance-like passages in the last movement. Recommended.