Brahms Piano Concerto No 1
Invaluable‚ skilfully remastered recordings of irascible and spontaneous Schnabel
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms
Label: Naxos Historical
Magazine Review Date: 12/2001
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 62
Mastering:
DDD
ADD
Catalogue Number: 8 110664
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Artur Schnabel, Piano George Szell, Conductor Johannes Brahms, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
(3) Pieces, Movement: No. 1, Intermezzo in E flat |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Artur Schnabel, Piano George Szell, Conductor Johannes Brahms, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
(7) Pieces, Movement: No. 2, Intermezzo in A minor |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Artur Schnabel, Piano George Szell, Conductor Johannes Brahms, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
(2) Rhapsodies, Movement: No. 2 in G minor |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Artur Schnabel, Piano George Szell, Conductor Johannes Brahms, Composer London Philharmonic Orchestra |
Author:
Here‚ in the first of two records devoted to the Brahms Piano Concertos‚ is Schnabel in all his idiosyncrasy and glory. If one word can define his quality it is ‘eloquent’‚ a word that none the less invites qualification. Haunting and robust‚ his playing was rarely without its rough edges and an impulsiveness – a rushing of fences – that could provoke those with neater expectations. Yet it is as easy to take a superficial view of Schnabel’s supposed technical limitations as it is of‚ say‚ Cortot’s or Edwin Fischer’s. All three were mechanically erratic players but‚ at their greatest‚ they possessed superb technique in the widest sense of the term. As Jonathan Summers points out in his excellent notes‚ Schnabel’s early critics took issue with what they saw as the sin of ‘rushing’ and of general untidiness in this 1938 recording of the First Concerto. But Schnabel scorned surface polish‚ fiercely intent only on the music’s inner spirit and character. Confronted by his producer’s plea for greater precision in the first movement’s massive octave outburst he replied‚ ‘I could play it more accurately‚ but I couldn’t play it better‚’ a richly deserved riposte. His first entry is hardly evocative of Bach’s St Matthew Passion (to cite Tovey)‚ but is typically more robust than communing‚ and he has little time for romantic dalliance in the poco più moderato second subject.
Freedom‚ a term less precise or limiting than rubato and a quality Schnabel prized‚ as well as eloquence‚ come to mind in the central elegy. Everything emerges with a vitality that has nothing to do with stale custom or convention‚ and the finale‚ for all its raggedness‚ its irascible pellmell of events‚ hurtles forward like a river in full flow.
George Szell (who later showed himself a superb collaborator with Serkin‚ Curzon and Fleisher in this Concerto) follows his soloist’s flight with all the assurance of a likeminded spirit‚ and even when ensemble becomes a hit or miss affair‚ the essential line and authority are never lost. Schnabel’s encores‚ so to speak‚ show him no less rich and untamed‚ and the producer Mark ObertThorn tells of his struggle to make the substandard sound in the Concerto more presentable. The 1947 solos emerge in a better light. This is an invaluable issue and Naxos’s release of the Second Concerto is eagerly awaited.
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