Customer Reviews

Bartók: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-3

5 star:		(3)
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Yes, this is the same set of Bronfman/Salonen/LAP performances still available at mid-price from 1995 -- Sony has now released the disc as part of its "Essential Classics" series, for a nice budget price, perfect for a recession. Gorgeous music, played suberbly! Bartok combines Bach, Beethoven and Debussy with elfin wit, Hungarian folk music, and a modern attitude. With that modern attitude comes the occasional dash of dissonance, but this is music that is easily accomodated by any Romantic listener. Bartok was a great pianist, like Beethoven, and Bronfman makes me laugh with pure joy throughout this recording -- it's hard to imagine a more perfect version of these early 20th century classics.

Summary for busy individuals: Pro - outstanding performances by soloist and orchestra; tough to beat for 8 bucks. Con - sub-par sound engineering.

Details: These are truly wonderful performances of Bartok's great piano concertos; but if you have other recordings of these pieces, you may be disappointed with the overall sound balance. Bartok's orchestral works require a high level of virtuosity from the soloist and orchestra. I enjoy these works more when the often-delicate interplay between the pianist and individual orchestra members is more clearly captured.

To appreciate the difference, you will need to spend a few more dollars to purchase the Peter Donohue/Simon Rattle digital recording (EMI 7 54871 2) where you will easily hear details which are oft-times rather muddled on the Sony disc, particularly during more frantic segments of "Allegro" movements in the first and second concertos. Following along with a copy of the score will help even more. They did a bit better during the slower-paced, lower level second movements; but it's not what I would expect from "24-bit technology...used to maximize sound recording" (as described in the liner credits).

My guess is that they didn't do their homework analyzing the acoustics of the chosen recording sites. They wisely chose to avoid the sonically questionable Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, heading to Long Beach for 1 & 3 and UCLA's Royce Hall for #2. Of these, the second concerto (which starts the disc) sounds best to me. Maybe they let interns set up the mikes and run the mixer - hard to say, but the rather distant sound doesn't do justice to these remarkable performances. Makes you wish they would have sub-contracted recording to a crew from Telarc, EMI or London.

Another alternative, still a benchmark after 40 years, is Geza Anda's award-winning DGG recording from 1960 (447 399-2 - another Amazon "Most Popular" choice), now digitally re-mastered and available for only a couple of dollars more. If you love this music, you will want this one anyway - it still sounds fresh and exciting, a tribute to Deutsche Grammophon's cutting-edge analog technology from those days. Bronfman's performance is actually quite reminiscent of Anda's, appropriately percussive and energetic for the allegros, delicate and refined for the adagios; and the orchestra plays splendidly at all times.

Again, probably not worth quibbling about details given the price; but you should know that it could have sounded better with more attentive engineering.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is one of the finest collaborators with concerto soloists on the podium today. His intense musicality, his gentlemanly respect for the soloist, and his penchant for keeping an astute eye on the overall architecture of a work make him a soloist's dream. Couple that with the grandeur of playing of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the results are almost guaranteed.

This very fine recording of the three Bartók piano concerti with brilliant pianist Yefim Bronfman is a case in point. The three concerti each have particular demands and not every pianist is successful in interpreting all three (Boulez' recent superb recording used three separate pianists and orchestras; Zimerman and Chicago, Andsnes and Berlin, Grimaud and London). But there is a magic that occurs here with the consistency of forces that makes this recording indeed one of the finest. Bronfman is equally at home with the ferociously percussive sections as he is with the almost inaudibly gentle musings of the slow movements. Salonen partners him with his usual inimitable stature of collaboration. The CD is a must for anyone's collection.

At a recent performance of the LA Phil, Salonen brought Lang Lang to the stage for the Bartók #2, apparently for the purpose of recording the work live for DGG, the first recordings to be made in Disney Hall. While this may seem an interesting venture on paper, in the hall Lang Lang seemed out of place, glued to the musical score that captured more of his attention than the passion of the work. But the recorded performance without the visual distraction of seeing him rely on a score may prove better to the ear than the performance.

While the Boulez traversal of these three concerti is hard to beat, this recording is very strong and at this exceptional value it is a perfect introduction to those unfamiliar with these great works superbly played. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, January 06

As Harris Goldsmith states in the 4-page essay that accompanies this CD, "Bela Bartok's works for piano and orchestra have an authority and individuality that bespeak first-hand knowledge and experience. Present-day musicians tend to forget that the Hungarian master was one of this century's greatest pianists - a keyboard virtuoso of incandescent brilliance as well as a unique, creative genius. Most of what he composed for the piano was tailored to fit his own persona and larger-than-life instrumental gifts."

There are a number of excellent recordings of these three great piano concertos, made by some of the most talented pianists in the world, from the benchmark 1961 recording by Bartok's Hungarian compatriot, Geza Anda, to more recent releases by other Hungarian pianists, Zoltan Kocsis, Jeno Jando, and Andras Schiff, to recordings by Martha Argerich and Sviatoslav Richter among others. In the end, selecting a favorite interpretation is ultimately a matter of nuances and individual preference.

Regarding the comments by the reviewer, Robert Estes, about the sound engineering on this CD, perhaps if a Telarc-like crystal-clear bright sound had been attempted on these three dynamic and powerful concertos, it might have yielded a sonic impression that would not necessarily be "front-row-center" but rather "in-your-face," with the listener rushing to adjust the volume control with each change from an allegro to an adagio movement, and back again. In fact, that is essentially the experience I had after following Mr. Estes' recommendation and ordering the recording of these concertos by Peter Donohoe, with Simon Rattle conducting. The sound was somewhat more clear and bright, but with the downside that on some sections, particularly those featuring percussion or horn instruments, the sound quality went beyond being clear to being, at least for me, uncomfortably sharp. Of course, someone else with a different sound system, and making their own adjustments to their graphic equalizer, might have a better listening experience with the Donohoe/Rattle recording. However, in addition, while I found the Donohoe/Rattle performance to be very good, even excellent, something about it, at least for me, lacked the inspirational, magnificent quality of this Bronfman/Salonen recording. These are admittedly subjective impressions, probably influenced by the type of stereo system, including graphic equalizer and type of speakers, and perhaps even by the acoustics of the room where one is listening to these performances. Nevertheless, having listened to each of these performances not once but several times, on my stereo systems at home, in the office, and in my car, I still prefer this version, by Bronfman/Salonen.

On the Bronfman/Salonen recording, the sound engineers have provided a sonic picture that places the listener not at front-row-center, but at about 20th-row-center, which is still a very good place to be. What may be lost in terms of a feeling of immediacy of the instruments is gained by an impression of the concert hall's spaciousness. As for the clarity of the recording, I was quite pleased. Every note in this inspired performance is captured, from the loudest, most percussive, rapid-fire fff fortissimo measures, resounding with earth-shaking power, to the softest, most gentle and slow ppp pianisimo measures, sounding like an aural impression of the touch of the softest silk.

Having recently bought Yefim Bronfman's recording of Beethoven's 3rd and 4th Piano Concertos, with David Zinman, and now his recording of Bartok's three piano concertos, have made me a Bronfman fan.

His performance of these Bartok concertos is stunning. Bronfman sails through the most technically challenging rapid passages, playing machine-gun-rapid successions of staccato chords and octaves with complete mastery and passion, and plays the adagio passages with the utmost finesse and beautiful sensitivity. Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic are also in top form, with the pianist and the orchestra in perfect balance and harmony.

Bronfman's fantastic pianistic pyrotechnics illuminate the beauty and energy of Bartok's music. He is a gifted pianist who gives a brilliant performance of these three concertos, evoking the whole spectrum of human emotion, from the power and exuberance of the allegro passages to the tender, romantic, wistful feeling of the adagio passage of the third piano concerto, written in the final year of Bartok's life, when he knew he was dying of leukemia and wanted to leave something to his wife, through this concerto, that would bring her some financial support after his death. The third piano concerto, especially the adagio passage, is a very moving musical statement of a dying man's love for his wife. Bronfman's performance of this movement, as of all the other movements of this and the two other piano concertos, is sublime. Very highly recommended. Total Playing Time = 75:40.

As someone who knows and loves these three works, I expected a great deal from an avowed modernist like Salonen and the Russian emigre virtuoso Yefim Bronfman. But what we get here is raucous and disorganized readings--it's literally as if Bronfman just sat down and banged out the notes. Nor does Salonen offer much help; he has no overall conception of any of the three concertos--there's a good deal of detailed twiddling but very little in the way of atmosphere or emotion. YOu would think that Bartok wrote strings of difficult keyboard music with not much intention except to make a noise, along with some striking incidental effects. I will stick with individual favorites like Argerich/Dutoit in the First, Pollini/Abbado in the Second, and Ashkenazy/Solti in the Third, with backups such as the brilliant partial set from Barenboim and Boulez on EMI--buy that disc if you want to hear what color, emotion, and inner vitality are all about.

This is a pretty good recording and probably worth the money, but not the one I'd recommend. Maybe just the fault of the sound engineer, but the piano does not come through strongly enough. Instead go for Andras Schiff with Ivan Fisher and Budapest Festival Orchestra.