Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos - Choral Fantasy / Levin, Gardiner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Together with Christopher Hogwood and Steven Lubin's version on L'Oiseau Lyre, these are tremendously thrilling performances, with the added clarity of a more recent recording. Far from being an academic exercise in authentic performance, the recording of the 5 piano concertos sustains such energy and spontaneity that puts many performances on modern instruments sound anemic by comparison. An added delight is Robert Levin's improvisations for the lead-ins and cadenzas. Hogwood's traversal of the same concertos are contained in a 3-cd set but this one is a 4-cd set but you get the Rondo which was originally attached to the Piano Concerto No.2 together with the Choral Fantasy and the chamber versions of the Symphony No.2 and the Piano Concerto No.4.

This is an incredible set of Beethoven's piano concertos played on pianoforte and authentic orchestral instruments. Robert Levin's playing consistantly exhibits fire and spontaneity. John Eliot Gardiner's conducting has plenty of power and momentum.These are wonderful performances. That being said, I don't understand why Levin always settles for a low level recording of the pianoforte. The balances may be what audiences in Beethoven's time heard but they make difficult listening on modern stereo equiptment. The same is true of the Levin / Hogwood series of Mozart concertos, though in the Decca recordings the orchestral textures are lighter allowing the pianoforte more prominence. In the Bilson / Gardiner Mozart recordings the balances are fine. One other caveat, I wish the 4th disc had readings of the Archduke & Ghost trios rather than the chamber versions of the 4th concerto & 2nd Symphony. Apart from these minor points, this is a set to cherish.

I have found in this CDs an example of the great evolution of the great german composer as well as the piano: in those 20 years it changed dramatically its shape and its sound. Levin payed four diferents pianofortes, corresponding each one to the years of the first perfonce of the works. In my opinion, this os one of the most interesting performances of the Beethoven's piano conciertos.

For me the 4th Piano Concerto is my favorite. This reading is quite diferent than what I was used to. Robert Levin's playing is amazing. Sometimes it seems that two people must be playing. There are many renditions of these Concertos, Brendel, Serkin and others. Not to take anything away from many talented performers, I find this the best. I like Levin's scholarly playing and especially his complex cadenzas. The recording quality rewards a good music installation.

It never ceases to amaze me when the modern-piano chauvinists make damning declarations about recordings like this one. What is contained on these three discs are performances which exhibit a great love for the concerti of Beethoven, a strong desire to get as close to the music and the spirit of the music as possible, and a clear manifestation of a desire to allow these works to live in grace and be heard in context.

One of the nicest features of this recording is the fact that Mr. Robert Levin uses a fortepiano from around the time each concerto was composed. Mr. Levin's playing is very affecting and I am profoundly satisfied with his approach and his meticulous attention to detail, while, at the same time, he interprets the poetry and passion and revolutionary qualities of these works very strongly. Robert Levin does some of his own cadenzas and in this respect he is very "in touch" with the performance practices of this period. For those who fancy hearing alternatives to Beethoven's own improvised introduction to the Choral Fantasia, Mr. Levin provides two of his own at the end of the disc. I quite like them, although they are no real substitute for Beethoven's own.

The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique is in fine form and they compliment the sounds of Robert Levin's various fortepianos in a very colourful and powerful way. One can hear how hard Beethoven drove both his orchestra and the soloist in these recordings, he frequently pushed the players to the edge, and then some. Modern orchestras using modern instruments are never really "tested" by this music, no matter how loud or grand they make the music sound.

Of course, what makes this recording of these works so interesting and compelling is that we have the opportunity to hear a basically 18th century orchestra and instruments pushed and pulled as hard as possible by Beethoven. The sound is a lot "edgier" and more brittle than that of a modern orchestra - and a smaller but more "driven" sound. There are other HIP recordings of these works - Hogwood, Immerseel and Norrington have all recorded the Beethoven fortepiano concerti, and I've enjoyed many things about all of them (Immerseel's Emperor is probably the most powerful HIP rendering of this work I've heard) - but this Levin / Gardiner recording is my favourite. If you're only interested in one recording of these works on the fortepiano, then I would suggest that this is the one to go for.

Highlights? The 3rd and 4th concerti are my favourites and both the soloist and orchestra are absolutely wonderful in these two works on this recording. Gardiner's and Levin's Choral Fantasia is simply the best I've heard - it is performed with a great sense of fire, wit and élan! And, of course, you are free to nix Beethoven's intro ... if you feel like it!

Shame on DG and Universal if this marvellous and essential set is no longer available!

It is encourgaging that HIP versus traditional performances can still generate polarized responses after all these years. People are actually listening. After several years of listening to Tan/Norrington, van Immerseel/Weil, Newman/Simon and Lubin/Hogwood I decided to hear what Levin/Gardiner had to say about these much loved warhorses. I'd say a great deal. If you don't care for period instruments and the smaller scaled sound of fortepianos, I doubt you'll care for it. If you have a more open mind you will find things to fascinate and enjoy. Yes, there are times when the soloist sounds a bit swamped by the orchestra, but I'll take the more natural balance over gimmicks. Furthermore, the sense of struggle adds to the excitement of the performances. Would I give away Brendel, Fleisher, Rubinstein et al? Of course not. Beethoven's genius is multi-faceted and I want a range of interpretations both traditional and HIP. As Despina says to the sisters in Cosi fan tutte: "Eat the fig but don't throw away the apple."

Too often, keyboard scholars spend too much time and energy researching historic performance practices and justifying instrument selection while the performances proper often suffer. Not here, however. Levin and Gardiner form a perfect partnership, delivering a fantastic set of concertos that can stand side-by-side with the modern instrument sets of Fleisher, Perahia, and Arrau.

Of course, those familiar with Gardiner's ground-breaking period-instrument set of the symphonies know what to expect from orchestra and conductor. Full-bodied period strings, pert winds, and warm brass all form as solid of a backbone as any for Levin's fine solo work. And there are many moment where Gardiner makes a case for period instruments. Take, for example, the development of the C major concerto, where the winds, playing the octave main theme, are supported by the swelling strings. The effect is entirely different, and wholly more atmospheric, than anything from modern instrument ensembles. In the B-flat major concerto, the healthy presence of the horns makes the concerto sound less diminutive than it often does in other performances. In the rondo-finale of the third, the honky oboes and bright trumpets make the dreamy entrance of the watery clarinet in movement's middle all the more startling. The strident strings in the forth's slow movement are particularly frightening while the rondo is particularly lively due to the crisper than usual string work. The fantasy is great fun, as it always is, but is all the more exciting because the period winds imbue their variations with endless color.

Instrument-wise, Levin uses a variety of instruments to reflect improvements made to the piano-forte over Beethoven's lifetime. The very clangy instrument of the B-flat major concerto sounds very different compared to much fuller sounding instrument in the fifth. As far as the soloist is concerned, Levin is as fine as any, with perfect technique and an ability to project his instrument through the orchestral thicket.

There are only two real general concerns with this set. First, Gardiner is a committed, but aggressive, accompanist. Thus, while he always takes care to allow the soloist to emerge, his explosive tutti outbursts sometimes rob the music of excitement because the period keyboard just simply cannot compete. Thus, dynamically the set is very up and down. For example, Gardiner's healthy interjections in the slow movement of the forth don't quite dovetail in the same way with the keyboard's very quite answer in the way they should. Second, and more controversially, Levin improvises all cadenzas and "lead ins," which is certainly a consideration when purchasing this set. In that regard, it cannot be recommended as a first choice - to that, honors go to the above mentioned sets - because Levin's well meaning and very fine improvisations still don't compete with those of Beethoven. The cadenza in the third's first movement isn't nearly as exciting as Beethoven's own and the forth's first movement cadenza is not as harmonically radical as the original. In the rondo of the third, Levine improvises the "lead ins" before every successive entrance of the rondo theme. His playing is certainly energetic and quite exciting, but sometimes causes tension to falter due to their length and vigor - in some ways the entrance of the rondo theme cannot compete. Still, Levin's contributions are most tasteful, intelligent, and respectful contributions to the music and are certainly worth hearing. A most wonderful set, a must have for a well rounded Beethoven collection, and certainly full of surprises along the way.

People, for God sakes... don't tell me you like Robert Levin's exaggerated playing on the worst fortepiano sound I have ever heard. It seems that he shapes each phrase with the same arrogance that made him produce the folowing sentence, which I heard in one of his lectures: "if you take the orchestra part out in a Rachmaninov concerto, the piece remains unchanged"--Levin was just trying to make a amusing comment on how the composer did not write an interesting orchestral part for his concerti. Could you imagine the beginning of BOTH first and second movements of the Rachmaninov's second concerto, for example, without the orchestra?: yes, just a series of arpeggios. 'Scholar' arrogance excluded, Levin is NOT a fine pianist neither on the historical nor modern instruments. His sound is poor, lacking of colour and contrast. His phrasing, exaggerated most of the time, emphasizing artificial crescendi and diminuendi. I would prefer many recordings to this one: Brendel, Arrau, Schnabel (there are some good remasterings of his old recordings) Backhaus, just to name a few.