Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with Clifford Curzon and George Szell

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Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with Clifford Curzon and George Szell · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:05
  This is Jed Distler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:09
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:13
  I hope that you will consider a paid subscription.
• 0:18
  to the Piano Maven podcast through my Substack
• 0:22
  page. And I've put a link to find that in the
• 0:25
  episode description. And paid subscribers get
• 0:29
  all kinds of goodies like a download of the month
• 0:32
  and Zoom meetings where we hang out and talk
• 0:37
  about all kinds of piano topics. And at a certain
• 0:40
  point, we will have guests. to speak with us
• 0:44
  who are in the piano world and the piano collecting
• 0:47
  world and involved with labels and, oh, I don't
• 0:52
  know, I have some plans up my sleeve. So do consider
• 0:56
  subscription to keep this podcast alive and afloat
• 1:01
  through the rest of the year. For this episode,
• 1:04
  I want to talk about a live broadcast performance.
• 1:08
  of the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Johannes Brahms.
• 1:12
  And this broadcast featured piano soloist Clifford
• 1:17
  Curzon with the New York Philharmonic under the
• 1:21
  leadership of George Sell. And this stems from
• 1:25
  a broadcast that dates January 11, 1953. Now,
• 1:32
  the performance that transpired the following
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  day at the Philharmonic. has gotten considerably
• 1:39
  more attention because it wasn't the Brahms Concerto,
• 1:43
  but it was the Tchaikovsky First Concerto, marking
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  the 25th anniversary of Vladimir Horowitz's New
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  York Philharmonic debut. And Horowitz played
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  the Tchaikovsky Concerto with George Sell and
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  the New York Philharmonic on January 12, 1953.
• 2:01
  That performance, of course, is legendary, and
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  it's wild and over the top, and it's been talked
• 2:08
  about by piano mavens for decades. But the Brahms
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  broadcast with Clifford Curzon from the day before,
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  from January 11th, doesn't seem to get talked
• 2:19
  about all that much. In fact, I have to admit
• 2:23
  that I had not known about this performance until
• 2:27
  very recently. I have a good number of concerto
• 2:31
  broadcasts from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s in my
• 2:36
  collection. But for some reason, this Brahms
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  second was never on my radar. I got hold of it
• 2:43
  from a news group, but then I discovered that
• 2:47
  it actually had come out on CD on the West Hill
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  Radio Archive label. as part of a collection
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  of George Sell broadcast performances, and I've
• 3:00
  provided a link to that in the podcast description,
• 3:03
  as well as a YouTube link to the Brahms performance.
• 3:08
  In fact, this performance is available on several
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  quote -unquote independent labels, and I have
• 3:16
  not heard those transfers, so I cannot vouch
• 3:19
  for which one of these has the best sound. But
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  I can vouch for the quality of this performance,
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  which I think is very special in several ways.
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  First of all, the New York Philharmonic plays
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  fabulously for George Sell in this performance.
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  The ensemble precision and the clarity and the
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  balances between the orchestral strands reflect
• 3:48
  the kind of chamber music ideal that Zell pursued
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  as the Cleveland Orchestra's music director.
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  And basically, he gets the New York Philharmonic
• 4:00
  to play like the Cleveland Orchestra in this
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  regard. And you hear all kinds of counter lines
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  from the solo horn and from the bassoons and
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  the clarinets that tend to get buried in other
• 4:13
  performances. And Clifford Curzon is on great
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  form throughout. He really nails that opening
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  cadenza without having to scale back the tempo
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  to accommodate those big leaps. And the intense
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  and combative interaction between the piano and
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  orchestra in the second movement is an example
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  of power without bombast. And the sheer transparency
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  and chamber -like aesthetic presented in the
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  slow movement speaks volumes for itself. I suspect
• 4:51
  that Leonard Rose is the first desk solo cellist.
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  And also what lightness and sparkle and humor
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  in the finale and that feathery quality that
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  Clifford Curzon gets in those fast unison runs
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  in both hands. It's simply magical. He is on
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  great form, like I said. So in short, this is
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  a Brahms second concerto that's genial and disciplined
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  at the same time. Now, the later studio recording
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  that Clifford Curzon made of the Brahms B -flat
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  with the Vienna Philharmonic and Hans Knoppertsbusch
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  conducting is genial and very lovely to listen
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  to, but the orchestral discipline is not the
• 5:41
  greatest in the world. You know, you really cannot
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  expect that with Hans Knoppersbusch on the podium.
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  And there's a cool little story in John Colshaw's
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  biography called Putting the Record Straight.
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  He wrote about recording the Brahms second with
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  Curzon and Knoppersbusch. John Colshaw said that
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  George Sell happened to drop in for a bit to
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  listen to the session, and he left a note for
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  Clifford Curzon, who was a friend of his, that
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  said something like, Congratulations, despite
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  everything going on around you. But have a listen
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  to this Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, live from
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  Carnegie Hall with George Sell and the New York
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  Philharmonic and piano soloist Clifford Curzon.
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  dating from January 11th, 1953. You know, there's
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  always something new to discover in the vast
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  world of piano recordings, and I'm very happy
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  to count this performance of the Brahms second
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  among my most recent discoveries. I'm sure that
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  many piano mavens already knew about this performance
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  long, long before I did, but... At least I'm
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  glad I just discovered it because now I can share
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  my enthusiasm for this performance with you.
• 7:06
  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. I look forward to being
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  with you for the next episode. Take care.