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Three Recent Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycles Considered · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  Thank you. This is Jed Disler, and welcome to
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  The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. Consider taking out a subscription
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  to The Piano Maven by going to my Substack page,
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  and I've provided a link to do so in our episode
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  description. If you are a paid subscriber, you
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  get a free download at the start of every month,
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  so consider a paid subscription because that
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  helps to keep this podcast alive and afloat.
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  One subscriber asked me to recommend a recent
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  recording of the Beethoven concertos to consider.
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  And I have written about several recent Beethoven
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  cycles. I think that they are really, really
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  worth considering. You know, usually when we
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  talk about what Beethoven concerto cycle should
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  we recommend, we have the classic reference versions
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  like Leon Fleischer or Wilhelm Kempf or Claudio
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  Orau or Emil Gilels. And then I talked about
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  the Anton Querti cycle from the 1980s that doesn't
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  get a lot of attention. I did an episode about
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  that, remember? And then there have been some
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  wonderful recent cycles, which are like period
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  instrument style on modern instruments. You have
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  Yefim Bronfman with David Zinman conducting,
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  and then you have the Boris Berezovsky cycle
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  with Thomas Dausgaard conducting. But I'm going
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  to talk about three cycles in particular that
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  I have reviewed in recent years that I really,
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  really like. First... There's a terrific Beethoven
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  concerto cycle on the Pentatone label featuring
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  pianist Enon Barnaton. And it has Alan Gilbert
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  conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
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  And this cycle stands out for all -embracing
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  musicianship on both the soloist and conductor's
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  part. It has finessive execution on every level.
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  real genuine stylistic perception. And there's
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  a bracing precision and refinement that Alan
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  Gilbert conveys in terms of ensemble attacks
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  and releases. And he has a really good ear for
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  ensemble balances where you hear almost everything
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  in the orchestra parts in proper perspective.
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  But more to the point... Inon Barnaton delivers
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  incisive and invigorating solo piano work and
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  he breathes fresh life into this overly familiar
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  music. There's a real sense of direction that
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  consistently informs Barnaton's clipped articulation
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  of fast runs, and they never sound glib or exaggerated.
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  And he has a real strong linear awareness where
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  you have a real conversational trajectory between
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  the hands. For all of Barnaton's strong soloistic
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  kind of profile, he is enough of a team player
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  to step back and accompany when necessary. I
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  also want to say that the buoyant and very chamber
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  -like interplay that we hear in the five piano
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  concertos, if anything, sounds more vibrant in
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  a really terrific recording of the triple concerto
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  that's included in the set. And there's also
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  an excellent choral fantasy where the music's
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  disparate and rather discontinuous elements at
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  times really coalesce in perfect perspective.
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  brisker and brasher performances out there in
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  choral fantasy land. But this one is really,
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  really good. You also get Beethoven's piano version
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  of the violin concerto. And here, Enon Barnaton's
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  tonal warmth and his singing tone are very attractive.
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  But if you want a leaner and edgier interpretation,
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  I think that the Berezovsky Daucegard recording.
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  may do the trick. But altogether, the Barnaton
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  -Gilbert cycle will not steer you wrong, and
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  I highly recommend it. Also well worth hearing
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  on the reference recordings label is the Beethoven
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  concerto cycle that Garrick Olson and Donald
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  Runicles recorded over five consecutive days
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  in July 2022. And if that seems like having to
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  work under pressure, Well, all I have to tell
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  you is that these performances are as unpressured
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  and as genial and as poised as they come. You
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  have the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra,
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  which is basically a pickup aggregation, but
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  Runicles really gets world -class results from
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  them by way of clear -cut balances between orchestral
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  strands and real... of ensemble attacks and releases.
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  And Garrick Olson's fingers are operating at
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  full capacity. Runs and trills are as accurate
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  and as assured and as directional as ever. Themes
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  are thoughtfully characterized and articulated
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  with a lot of variety. And unlike many pianists
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  who just rattle off the Emperor Concerto's introductory
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  cadenza like a day at the races, Garrick Olson
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  plays it with very shapely phrasing. And basically
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  he draws attention to the composer rather than
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  himself. I'm especially taken with Olsen's vocally
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  informed legato and his rapt sustaining power
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  in all of the concerto's slow movements. And
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  I think here he strikes a happy medium between
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  his one -time mentor Claudio Arrau's rhetorical
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  inflections and Wilhelm Kempf's luminous intimacy.
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  I also want to draw attention to those very suavely
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  dovetailed rapid exchanges between soloist and
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  orchestra in concerto number four's Rondo. Either
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  this is the result of painstaking rehearsal or
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  unusually deep telepathy. Now, to be sure, not...
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  everything is perfect. For instance, the tempos
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  start bogging down in the first concerto's allegro
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  combrio from the development section on, while
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  number two's rondo finale seems kind of underplayed,
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  and it lacks that bracing angularity that you
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  hear from Schnabel or Capelle or Glenn Gould
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  or Leon Fleischer. But these are just quibbles,
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  and The sonics are just gorgeous, so this is
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  a Beethoven concerto cycle worth hearing. However,
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  the third one in this group of three that I'm
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  going to talk about really, really impressed
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  me, no end. And it comes from the pianist Haochen
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  Zhang, and we have the Philadelphia Orchestra
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  conducted by Natalie Stutzman. It was released
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  on the Beast label. And these are performances
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  that compel you to listen to familiar music with
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  fresh ears again. And the performances do so
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  without resorting to any kind of interpretive
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  gimmicks or weird conceptual theories or exaggerated
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  tempos or all that kind of stuff. First of all,
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  Nautilus Stutzmann. is not a conductor who phones
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  it in at all. She sets the stage for each of
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  the five concertos with truly energetic and vividly
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  detailed ritornellos. And the strings... of course,
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  are leaner and less caloric than what you heard
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  from Eugene Ormandy in his heyday, you know,
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  the recordings he made with the Philadelphia
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  Orchestra or the Rudolf Serkin. But the strings
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  certainly do sing out. And Stutzmann not only
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  gives the woodwinds and brass their just due,
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  but she brings out a degree of linear interplay
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  between orchestral strands that are done in a
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  way where you can almost take dictation from
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  what you hear. And one arresting example of this,
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  I think, can be found in the C minor concertos
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  rondo, the concerto number three, where the bassoon
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  part almost, but never quite, upstages the solo
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  oboist's theme. They really coexist in a way
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  that you really don't hear in a lot of recordings.
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  But... At the same time, you will rarely hear
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  such shapely left -hand counterpoint from any
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  piano soloist. And both Hao Chen Zhang and Natalie
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  Stutzman liberate the Emperor Concerto's outer
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  movements from decades of accumulated pomposity.
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  And they must have had a lot of fun tossing those
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  first movement development sections, upward and
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  downward scales, back and forth. You know, this
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  passage just sounds really impetuous and playful.
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  It's not just playing the notes here. And the
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  first concerto's rondo has a real rabble -rousing
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  quality to it. I kind of call this interpretation
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  serious fun. You certainly get a sense of the
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  opera buffa implications of this music. And the
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  second concerto's hard -driving vigor, and it's...
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  really touching moments of lyrical respite evoke
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  memories of that glengooled Leonard Bernstein
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  recording I mentioned before, but with the advent
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  of state -of -the -art engineering. Those looking
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  for an expansive and inward fourth concerto in
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  the manner of Claudio Arau or Emil Giles may
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  find our present protagonists a bit aggressive,
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  but In the slow movement, I'm really struck by
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  the contrast between the strings' stern militancy
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  and the pianist's rather plaintive restraint.
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  It's a fascinating contrast. What I think makes
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  these performances special is that they honor
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  the score, but they... also imbue the score with
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  a lot of individuality and a genuine point of
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  view for each work. And that is no easy task.
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  So among these three cycles, all of which I really
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  recommend you hearing, I slightly lean toward
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  Hao -Chin Zhang and Natalie Stutzman with the
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  Philadelphia Orchestra on the BIS label. You
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  will not regret picking this up. This is Jed
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  Disler, and you've been listening to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  And I look forward to being with you for our
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  next episode.