Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos / Mozart: Concerto No. 25 ~ Fleisher

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), George Szell (Conductor), Cleveland Orchestra (Orchestra), Leon Fleisher (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Leon Fleisher
• Orchestra: Cleveland Orchestra
• Conductor: George Szell
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Sony / CBS
• ASIN: B0000026GM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,568 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fleisher-Szell=Poise & Power, September 11, 1998

By 

Todd S. Schurk "patterbear" (San Jose,Ca. U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos / Mozart: Concerto No. 25 ~ Fleisher (Audio CD)

In an interview,Leon Fleisher said that he had been in awe of George Szell from an early age-thanks to a recording of the Brahms D-minor concerto that his parents had given him featuring his future piano teacher (Artur Schnabel!) and Szell conducting. Many years later Fleisher himself would make a series of records with Szell and the Cleveland orchestra in music ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Grieg and Rachmaninoff. Along with their sublime set of the two Brahms concerti(also now available)this set remains a classic in the anals of recording for their forward impetus,sweep,power and poetry.Szell never just supports his soloist,but offers instead an ongoing dialogue between pianist and orchestra.Fleisher plays with all the fire and poetry that hallmarked his famous teacher,and with technical aplomb.The orchestra was at the top of their form-in a word,magnificent! The piano sound is a little hard in places,but the balance is fine. This set is a must for every Beethoven lover,it will never be bettered.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The young Fleisher in dazzling form, May 8, 2007

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos / Mozart: Concerto No. 25 ~ Fleisher (Audio CD)

Sony has been eprverse with this classic set of Beethoven piano concertos, now over forty years old. It has never let it out of its sight but has never given the cycle the remastering it deserves. Here the sonics are better than the hissy, shallow original LPs form Epic, but at long last Sony has upgraded Concertos 3 and 4 to best sound in the newest Great Performances series. The Emperor desperately needs the same treatment but hasn't got it yet. A word of caution: don't bother sampling the dozens of recouplings that the Fleisher-Szell readings have gone through. None of them is any better than what we get here, and quite a few are worse.

Instead of adding the Triple Concerto, the last CD is filled out with a masterful performance of the Mozart C major K. 503 concerto. Szell's quicksilver Mozartean style is also present in the early Beethoven. He and Fleisher are out to dazzle us with rapid passagework and to make the music zip along in constant high spirits. Their approach is extremely successful in Concerto 1 and 2, perhaps less so in the later works where more heroism and variety are called for.

To most listeners, however, that will seem like a churlish quibble. These are adored recordings that some of us have lived with since we ere kids. As a pupil of Schnabel, Fleisher had much more depth than he displays here; listen to his latest recordings and you will hear what's missing. Yet on the whole no complete Beethoven cycle has ever been better, or even come close to the high polish and technique of Fleisher-Szell. Now let's get the updated sound that it richly deserves.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fleisher-Szell=Poise & Power, September 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos / Mozart: Concerto No. 25 ~ Fleisher (Audio CD)

In an interview,Leon Fleisher said that he had been in awe of George Szell from an early age-thanks to a recording of the Brahms D-minor concerto that his parents had given him featuring his future piano teacher (Artur Schnabel!) and Szell conducting. Many years later Fleisher himself would make a series of records with Szell and the Cleveland orchestra in music ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Grieg and Rachmaninoff. Along with their sublime set of the two Brahms concerti(also now available)this set remains a classic in the anals of recording for their forward impetus,sweep,power and poetry.Szell never just supports his soloist,but offers instead an ongoing dialogue between pianist and orchestra.Fleisher plays with all the fire and poetry that hallmarked his famous teacher,and with technical aplomb.The orchestra was at the top of their form-in a word,magnificent! The piano sound is a little hard in places,but the balance is fine. This set is a must for every Beethoven lover,it will never be bettered.