Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 – Alfred Brendel

Reviews

Gramophone Classical Music Guide 2010

“Happily, Alfred Brendel’s fourth recorded cycle of the Beethoven piano concertos shares with the previous three qualities of energy, sensibility, intellectual rigour and high pianistic finish which made the earlier recordings so interesting.

Brendel has always played all five slow movements supremely well, drawing the orchestra around him like a celebrant at the communion table and here we have even finer performances than previously.

In the two early concertos the Vienna Philharmonic’s playing has a sweetness and allure, in the grander, later works a black-browed power, that’s specially its own. Brendel’s playing in the early concertos recalls his fine recordings of the early sonatas and the early and late Bagatelles, but it’s as a private person impatient with the conventions and frock-coated formalities of the concertos as ‘public’ works. With No 3 we move into a different world. This is a marvellous performance from all three partners, purposeful and robust, the tonic C minor the cue for a reading full of darkness and menace, basses to the fore, drums at the ready. The finale is particularly ominous (relieved only by a lustrous clarinet solo) after an account of the slow movement, full toned yet deeply quiet, the like of which is rarely heard. The C minor Concerto’s heroic antitype, the Emperor in E flat, fares less well. Not the slow movement or finale, but the first movement which is slower than previously, to no very good effect. Perhaps interpreters nowadays are less happy than their predecessors were with Beethoven’s heroic persona.

Back in the private world of the Fourth Concerto, soloist, orchestra and conductor are at their inspired best. Brendel’s glittering, wonderfully propelled account of the solo part is superbly backed by playing of real fire and sensitivity. The recordings are first rate.

Penguin Guide 2010 edition

“With each concerto recorded immediately after live performances, the results have an extra spontaneity, usually at speeds marginally faster than in his previous recordings. The dynamic range is greater, too…The ambience of the Musikverein casts a warm, natural glow over the proceedings…A fine achievement.