It is agreeable to have a recording by Bella Davidovich of Chopin's Concerto No. 1 (known as No. 2) to put beside her account of his Concerto No. 2—called No. 1—on Classics for Pleasure (CFP40285, 7/78). This field tends to be dominated by Arrau, on the reissue of whose eloquent version of the F minor Concerto I commented last month (part of a nine-disc boxed set—Philips 6768 354), and Rubinstein. On the latter's RCA recording Ormandy is forceful in the speedy tuttis and the pianist is balanced well forward, his forte tone seeming rather hard. But Rubinstein's reaction to the lyrical side of Chopin's invention is such that one repeatedly feels he is revealing the very essence of this music with his precisions of tonal nuance and timing, above all in the Larghetto of course. Like Arrau, Davidovich has the advantage of a greatly superior (digital) piano sound, and Marriner gives her more shapely, less hard-driven, orchestral passages.
Also like Arrau, she does not push ahead so insistently in the Maestoso, though her accentuation in some parts of the development section is too regular. There are good perceptions here, but the slow movement and finale are more completely satisfying, especially the melancholy rhapsodizing of the former. There is a charming piquancy, also, to the rondo, but this issue clearly is not going to supplant Rubinstein or Arrau and one can only wonder at so many pianists being recorded again and again in the same few concertos. This reading of the Krakowiak, however, deserves every success. Here the only rival is Arrau's far too portentous performance, which is included in the above-mentioned boxed set, and Davidovich plays the introduction with striking purity and freshness; note her shading of the quintuplets which lead into the Allegro. Marriner projects a dancelike vigour in the tuttis and the keyboard's almost unrelenting semiquavers are played with much grace.'