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Review by JJ January 24, 2009 (5 of 5 found this review helpful)
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Beethoven's Concertos for Piano, numbering five, of which the N°1 in C major Op.15 and the N°3 in C minor Op.37 here proposed, were undeniably a poetic melting pot. "In the context of the concerto wherein soloist and orchestra play off each other," states André Boucourechliev, "Beethoven discovered the living origins of a free poetic dialogue which, while preserving the traditional form of the genre, allows itself to be forgotten: the Beethovian concerto resounds pure of all formal convention. Its temporal and sonic dimensions are thereby largely enhanced: the symphonic conception of developments and themes, of piano composition itself wherein rivals engage in a discourse of equal to equal." Conductor Andrew Pqrrott directs the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, created back in 1912, and the pianist Ronald Brautigam here captivate us (on a modern piano) by an ideal balance transversed by a fine poetic fiber that is manifest, and stunning. The articulation, phrasing, sonic dimension of the attacks exemplary of musical lucidity. Brautigam pulls it off thanks to where the instrument was placed during the recording, making each note's emotion tangible. "After having played these concertos on a piano forte", he states, "one cannot but be influenced by the different sound quality, the balance and the setting. A good number of the characteristics, for example, are hard to hear when played on a period instrument, and I truly believe that the composer was thinking about chamber music rather than a batle between orchestra and soloist. This setting, in which the members of the orchestra have a much closer contact with the pianist than in a concert setting where the pianist is in front of the orchestra, thus separated from him, woderfully enhances the dialogue. This SACD, in a finely polished multicanal and stereo recording; is an absolute must.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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