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Five Beethoven Fourths · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Dissler and welcome to another episode of the Piano Maven, your friendly
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  podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Today is Beethoven's birthday, December 16th, and I actually had planned today's episode
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  around this monumental milestone.
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  This is also the birthday of Noel Coward, by the way, and also the birthday of the great
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  American composer Gerald Busby.
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  But somehow Beethoven inevitably gets first birthday dibs on this date, December 16th.
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  Remember a few weeks back when I recommended five recordings of Beethoven's piano concerto
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  number five, the Emperor Concerto, where my challenge was to come up with five recordings
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  that were standalone recordings, meaning that they were not part of any complete Beethoven
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  concerto cycle by that pianist in question.
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  So for today, I thought I would try the same thing with Beethoven's piano concerto number
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  four.
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  And I wondered, could that be possible?
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  I admit that I had to think quite a bit and to really dig into my collection.
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  But I was able to come up with five truly excellent and distinctive recordings of Beethoven's
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  piano concerto number four that are not part of cycles that are standalone recordings and
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  also recordings that are quite different from one another.
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  So let's begin.
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  First we have the great Romanian pianist Clara Haskell, who lived from 1895 until 1960.
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  And I recommend a recording that she made in 1947 for the DECA label in the UK with
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  Carlo Zecchi conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
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  It's true that Clara Haskell could sometimes be a rather soft edged and reticent Beethoven
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  player, which is evident in her various recordings of the third concerto and the tempest sonata.
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  But she's not reticent or soft edged in the fourth concerto.
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  I mean, there is plenty of rumination when it's needed, but she has such a strong sense
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  of inner rhythm and the animated direction of her phrases provide a stimulating counterpart
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  to the London Philharmonic Orchestra's really excellent and very rhythmically alert playing
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  under the direction of Carlo Zecchi.
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  And Zecchi was a fellow pianist and he was a really great pianist in his own right.
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  And I think he should be the topic of a piano maven episode in the future.
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  Anyway, this 1947 recording also had a big sonic advantage back in its day because DECA's
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  full frequency range recording techniques were almost state of the art in the late 1940s.
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  And on many of the DECA recordings from that period, you got a wonderfully alive ambience
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  and sense of room tone and sonic depth.
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  For example, there was a recording of Stravinsky's Petrushka with Ernest Ancermay in the late
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  1940s that drove audiophiles back in that day kind of crazy at the end of the 78 RPM
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  era that was considered like a real audiophile showcase.
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  And likewise, the Clara Haskell Beethoven fourth is very well recorded for its time.
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  And it's a marvelous performance that's held up very, very well over, oh, I guess more
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  than 77 something years.
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  I should mention that Clara Haskell plays the more commonly heard first movement cadenza
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  that is the same one that Arthur Schnabel played and Leon Fleischer and Claudio O'Rourke
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  favored as well.
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  Now for our next standalone Beethoven fourth concerto recording.
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  I've always loved this recording from 1953 with Edwin Fischer conducting the Philharmonia
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  Orchestra from the piano.
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  Mainly I love this recording because no matter how gorgeously Edwin Fischer's velvet paws
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  navigate Beethoven's rippling passage work and the outer movements, he always treats
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  the music as an ensemble piece even when the piano should have the spotlight.
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  You always hear first desk soloists emerging to the forefront and you'll catch bassoon
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  lines or clarinet parts that often get buried.
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  And I also like how when climaxes start to build, Fischer tends to get a little excited.
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  So sometimes things come just a smidgen out of alignment for just a few seconds here and
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  there, but they snap back in and pull right into focus right away.
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  And you really get a feeling that this is a real performance, not a kind of snip, snip,
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  snip editing job.
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  And Edwin Fischer plays his own cadenza in the first movement and he opts for a third
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  movement cadenza by Eugene Dalbert.
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  This is really the kind of recording that catches you unaware and it kind of sneaks
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  up on you as you listen.
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  First you start listening and you think, oh, it's a little soft edge maybe and what's so
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  special about it?
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  It's a little bit on the sedate side, but then once all the elements that I just spoke
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  about start kicking in, you are hooked before you know it.
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  At least that's what happened to me when I re-listened to this performance after many
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  years.
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  Anyway, Edwin Fischer conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra from the piano really deserve a
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  listen.
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  Now if Edwin Fischer's sonics seem a little distant and diffuse, a 1963 Beethoven fourth
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  concerto with the great Czech pianist Ivan Morovinc is vividly engineered with every
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  detail accounted for.
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  Yet nothing ever sounds way too close up or claustrophobic.
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  Martin Ternovsky, who was Morovinc's brother-in-law, conducts the Orchestra of the Vienna Musikverein,
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  which is a pick-up ensemble.
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  Although I wouldn't be surprised if this ensemble actually was the Vienna Philharmonic in disguise
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  because they sure as heck sound like it.
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  There are lots of small tempo adjustments and dynamic changes that might raise a purist's
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  eyebrow or eyebrows, but these gestures are so organically integrated into the whole.
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  And also the ravishing refinement of the pianist's runs and double notes and his minutely balanced
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  chords will keep many aspiring pianists humble.
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  This recording of the Beethoven fourth has been a personal favorite of mine for decades.
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  And by the way, Morovinc plays the more disruptive Beethoven alternative first movement cadenza,
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  which is the same one that I think, yeah, Walter Gieseking plays it, Alfred Brendel,
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  and also Emil Gielels played that same cadenza.
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  Compared to Morovinc and Ternovsky, though, Eugene Istamen and Eugene Ormandy, the two
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  Eugene's, sound comparably conservative in their recording of the Beethoven fourth, which
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  is another standalone recording.
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  But I think Istamen has much more sustaining power in his long lines than does, let's say,
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  Rudolf Sirken in his recording of the Beethoven fourth with Ormandy from just a few years earlier.
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  And I also think there's more conversational inflection between Istamen and Ormandy and
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  the world-class Philadelphia Orchestra of Musicians than in the relatively spikier and
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  more confrontational Sirken-Ormandy collaboration.
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  So about the Istamen-Ormandy Beethoven fourth, let's say you can imagine the Leon Fleischer-George
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  Sell recording in a slightly less angular and more urbane and texturally ripe guise.
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  And you'll have an idea about what Istamen's recording is all about.
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  And I really, really like this recording a lot.
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  I've always had a soft spot for it.
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  It only first appeared on CD, by the way, as part of Sony BMG's collection of Eugene
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  Istamen's complete Columbia Masterworks solo and concerto recordings, for which I happen
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  to have written the annotations.
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  However, I'm going to save my biggest surprise for you last, the fifth of my standalone Beethoven
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  fourths.
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  Actually you get two performances of the Beethoven fourth in this release, featuring pianist
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  Jerome Lowenthal, supported by Carl Topolow conducting an unnamed orchestra that was
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  based in Cleveland.
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  And actually these two performances are the same performance, except for the first performance,
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  Jerome Lowenthal inserts Beethoven's original cadenzas in their proper place.
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  And then you hear the concerto presented again, but with cadenzas by Frederik Zhevsky spliced
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  in and Zhevsky's cadenzas are decidedly un-Beethovenian, to say the least.
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  And these are live archival recordings, I believe.
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  And I think that Lowenthal's imaginatively inflected playing reminds me a little bit
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  of Arter Schnabel's nervous energy and angularity.
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  But Lowenthal definitely goes his own way and he's always creative in his phrasing,
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  without ever doing violence to the music.
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  Now for this double album, Jerome Lowenthal also includes on standalone tracks alternate
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  cadenzas for the first and third movements by Clara Schumann, Anton Rubinstein, Hans
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  von Bülow, Johannes Brahms, Camille Sasson, Frederik Zhevsky of course, which was inserted
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  in the full performance.
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  You have cadenzas of Ferruccio Busoni, cadenzas of Leopold Godowski, Ernst von Dochnani,
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  and Nikolai Metner.
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  And if you want to, you can easily program your CD player to place any of these individual
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  cadenzas in context within the concertos.
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  And it's fascinating to hear all these cadenzas.
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  Actually Maria Judina recorded the Brahms cadenzas and her recording of the Beethoven
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  4th, which is another standalone recording actually.
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  And Arthur Rubinstein's standalone recording of the Beethoven 4th with Thomas Beecham from
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  1947 used the Sasson cadenzas.
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  But with the Jerome Lowenthal release, just the novelty of being able to pick and choose
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  from so many cadenzas really makes this release quite enticing.
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  It's on the LLP Classics label.
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  And Jerry Lowenthal wrote some really informative notes for this release that include more than
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  a few amusing anecdotes.
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  And while I'm thinking about it, if you want other recordings of the Beethoven 4th with
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  non-Beethoven cadenzas, Joseph Hoffman's various Erichek performances used the Karl
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  Rheinecke cadenza.
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  And so did Wilhelm Bachhaus.
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  He used the Rheinecke cadenza.
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  Also Alicia de la Rocha, curiously enough.
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  Wilhelm Kempf always played his own cadenzas in the first, second, third, and fourth concertos.
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  And I'm sure there must be many more recordings out there.
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  You know, the topic of cadenzas alone could cover a whole bunch of piano maven episodes.
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  So to sum up this discussion, if you want to explore Beethoven's fourth piano concerto
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  and who can deny that this music is special and enormously gratifying, you will get lots
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  of listening pleasure and illumination from Jerome Lowenthal, Eugene Isterman, Ivan Morovitz,
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  Edwin Fischer, and Clara Haskell.
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  These five recordings of the Beethoven 4th concerto hold a special place in my collection,
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  and hopefully they will in yours.
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  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening to the piano maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  Thank you for listening, and I look forward to being with you for the next episode.