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Under the Radar - Anton Kuerti's Beethoven Concerto Cycle · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  you This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven by going
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  to my Substack page, and I've provided a link
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  in our episode description. And please do consider
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  taking out a paid subscription that entitles
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  you to receive free downloads at the start of
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  each month. And your contribution helps to keep
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  this podcast alive and afloat. And the words
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  alive and afloat, along with the words muscular
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  and virility and vitality, pretty much describe
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  a Beethoven piano concerto cycle that I think
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  is one of the most engaging versions out there
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  in the catalog. But it seems to receive little
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  attention. Not that it received all that much
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  attention when it was released nearly 40 years
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  ago. But I started thinking... about a couple
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  of years ago when I was talking about Beethoven
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  concerto cycles with my late friend Joseph Patric,
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  the recording engineer. And he told me, in fact,
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  he was very insistent about this, that his favorite...
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  Beethoven concerto cycle on commercial discs
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  was the one from pianist Anton Cuerti with the
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  Toronto Symphony Orchestra under the direction
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  of Andrew Davis. This was recorded 40 years ago
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  in 1985 and originally issued on the CBC label.
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  My copy of this cycle, my CD copy, is the original
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  three -disc set that was issued in 1986. But
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  the main problem with this release was that each
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  concerto had only one tracking point, just one
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  track for the entire concerto, meaning that the
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  three movements in each concerto did not have
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  their own tracks, as they usually do. So if you
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  wanted to hear the finale of the Emperor Concerto,
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  for instance, you'd have to fast forward. And
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  it was just such a pain to do that. I mean, you
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  might as well have had cassettes. Fortunately,
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  subsequent issues of this cycle on individual
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  CDs did provide tracking for each movement, thank
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  goodness. And the same goes for downloading,
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  of course. So if you see that original 1986 three
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  -disc, you know, with a copyright of 1986 in
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  your local used record emporium or charity shop,
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  proceed with caution. But what's really important
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  is that Anton Querti is a stylish and enlivening
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  Beethoven player. I found his 1970s recordings
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  of the Beethoven sonatas very finicky and weighed
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  down in detail. But in the concertos, it's a
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  totally different picture. He conveys the gruff
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  angularity and the inner drive of his teacher,
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  Rudolf Serkin, in this repertoire. But I think
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  with more warmth and sustaining power, especially
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  in the slow movements. And you also get some
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  of those... exciting dynamic surges that Beethoven
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  indicates, and that pianists like Arthur Schnabel
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  and Leon Fleischer illuminated by intensifying
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  them, sometimes ever so slightly rushing ahead,
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  which really contributes to the thrust and excitement
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  and momentum. And left -hand accompaniments like
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  Alberti basses have more shape and direction
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  in Cuerti's hands than you usually hear. But
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  there's plenty of inward calm and repose and
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  singing legato in the slow movements. And the
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  conductor, Andrew Davis, for his part, is an
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  excellent accompanist. Now, you don't get the
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  incisive and impeccably regimented ensemble values
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  that George Sell and the Cleveland Orchestra
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  bring to the table. But the Toronto Symphony's
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  superb first -desk soloists, are real assets
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  here. And also, the particularly sweet yet never
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  cloying strings are also a strong asset to these
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  recordings. And also, as part of this cycle,
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  we have one of the very best recordings ever
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  of Beethoven's choral fantasy. And there's a
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  very good performance here, too, of the not -so
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  -interesting King Stephen Overture. So if you
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  happen to see a physical copy of Anton Kuerti's
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  Beethoven Concerto cycle, it certainly will do
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  no harm to add it to your collection. You can
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  also sample it, of course, by way of streaming.
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  And I think if you hear this cycle, you're going
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  to like it as much as I do. And I've been really
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  happy to reacquaint myself with it recently.
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  It's really held up well. This is Jed Disler,
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  and you've been listening to The Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I look forward to being with you for our next
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  episode. So take care until next time.