Customer Reviews

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 / Choral Fantasy

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

 

 

Both recordings are classics, suberbly interpretted and recorded. The Westminster Choir is particularly sharp as they perform the choral fantasy, incidentally Sony released this on its Prince Charles series and charges more for the same recording. I listen to this recording regularly.

In a lifetime of playing Beethoven, I doubt that Serkin ever had a better partner than Bernstein on these occasions. The Choral Fantasy, a Serkin favorite that closed eveyr summer season at Marlboro, is performed with incredible impetuosity--you'd think this was a masterpiece. The Third Concdrto is scarcely less.

One of the many reasons that Beethoven's music, like that of illustrious predecessors such as Mozart and Haydn, has remained timeless is the fact that so many of them were created by a man who was steadily going deaf (a process that became total by the time he reached his Ninth Symphony), and who also had contemplated suicide on occasion. His works are thus miraculous in nature.

And here on this recording of his Piano Concerto No. 3 (composed in 1803) and the Choral Fantasy (composed in 1808), the miracle is interpreted in exquisite fashion by the great pianist Rudolf Serkin, along with Leonard Bernstein and the great New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Serkin skillfully manages to weave his way through the often-turbulent tapestry of the concerto (in Beethoven's favorite key of C Minor), with Bernstein and the N.Y. Phil in fine form. The moody parallels with Mozart's 24th Piano Concerto, which is also in this same key, are readily apparent.

Equally stunning is Serkin's interpretation of the Choral Fantasy, a work that begins as a stunning virtuosic piece for solo piano, then takes on the feel of a concerto, and then a cantata for piano, orchestra, and chorus. Often ignored in the past, the work really took off as a result of Serkin's recording here. The very presence of a chorus (in this case, the Westminster Choir) and the choral text's similarity in melody to the "Ode To Joy" of the Ninth Symphony make this piece a fascinating experiment, and not only as a dry run for that ground-breaking work to come.

Though these works were recorded, respectively, in 1964 and 1962, they still sound as fresh as the day they were made, thanks to CBS's remastering personnel. And last but not least, kudos should go out to Serkin, Bernstein, and company for having made one of the great Beethoven orchestral recordings of the past half century. Essential listening for music lovers in general, and Beethoven completists in particular.

I love this CD. Beethovan is my favorite classical composer and Serkin plays his piano compositions with power and real joy! The mixture on all the pieces in this recording is a delight to hear, and I love the way the melodies repeat themselves with the orchestra, the piano, and in the Choral Fantasy, the choir. It may be less than one hour, but it is the quality not quantity that I appreciate!

The pairing of the 3rd piano concerto and the Choral Fantasy was the one of the original LP, Columbia ML 6016 (mono) and MS 6616 (stereo), so it is understandable that Sony should reissue it as it was, although the 4th piano concerto would have made a more fitting coupling with the Choral Fantasy, since the two compositions were premiered together, at the infamous 22 December 1808, four-hour long concert which also witnessed the premieres of the 5th and 6th symphony, and portions of the C-major mass for good measure (in an unheated hall). If fact, the pairing of the 4th and the Choral Fantasy is such an obvious one that it is amazing that apparently no record label has ever thought about it.

Anyway, let's satisfy ourselves with what we get, now and in 1964 (The 3rd Piano Concerto was recorded n January of that year; the Choral Fantasy was done in May 62, during the same sessions with the Emperor). The combination of Serkin's classicim and preference for a dry staccato touch, and Bernstein's heart-on-sleeve passion and involvement may not seem an obvious one, but it has yielded here fine results. In the first movement of the 3rd Piano Concerto they offer an urgent and muscular reading, vehement even, with Serkin always underlining the music's muscularity rather than its delicacy, his dry touch conveying a crispness even in the more lyrical passages. The Largo may not have the hushed and dreamy quality and sensuous orchestral environment of Katchen-Gamba (Art of Julius Katchen 1), and the finale their boisterous dynamism, but they are fine nonetheless, the Largo especially, played with beautiful restraint. The finale is crisp and muscular, if lacking the last touch of forward momentum.

While Serkin and Bernstein's reading of the 3rd Piano Concerto is good, their Choral Fantasy is (like their Emperor) outstanding. Many people, even Beethoven lovers, seem puzzled by the Choral Fantasy, presumably because it seems piecemeal and disjointed, and because they cannot categorize it: a piano concerto of sorts that starts with a huge improvisatory cadenza, and ends with a chorus, something like a sketch for the 9th Symphony, that erups only in the last minutes of the circa 18 to 20 minute-composition. I love the Choral Fantasy, not only because it is filled with melodies and touches of orchestration that are equal to Beethoven's best, but also because it follows no other rule than those of Beethoven's inspiration (it was written in great haste).

Serkin and Bernstein pull all these strands together magnificently. As befits the composition's episodic nature, it is a version of contrasts, urgent AND lyrical. It starts with an urgent and highly dramatic introductory cadenza, a far cry from the more grandiose and stately approach of Katchen (Art of Julius Katchen 2), Barenboim (Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5/Choral Fantasia) or, more recently, Aimard with Harnoncourt (Beethoven: Triple Concerto; Rondo in B flat; Choral Fantasy). The same spirit of menacing urgency imbues the first phrases of the orchestra, first entoned by cellos and double basses (2:51), as well as the "allegro molto" section at at 7:37, which exudes an almost raging energy, and the biting Marcia at 12:18 (track 4). But Serkin commendably relaxes for the more lyrical utterances, as when the main theme is stated by piano alone at 4:12, with the ensuing woodwind chirping conveying a fine sense of pastorale bonhomie, or in the dreamy and delicate Adagio (9:17). The vocal soloists are from the chorus and, while not exceptional, they are very acceptable, and I could hardly detect a trace of American accent in their delivery of their German lines. The final chorus is powerful and triumphant. Other than some important pizz accompaniment figures that are covered by the piano at 1:09 track 4 (13:17), the sonics are great, the soloists sing with utmost clarity, every word can be understood. This is, indeed, a great performance of the Choral Fantasy. The same has been issued on volume 11 of the Bernstein collection, paird with the Missa Solemnis and Haydn's Theresienmass: Beethoven : Missa Solemnis / Choral Fantasy & Haydn : Theresia Mass.

There is less than an hour of music on this disk.

Serkin, as usual, plays straightforwardly; that's what makes his Beethoven sonatas so great. But any soloist in the 3rd cto has to play powerfully. Beethoven himself did.

The Choral Fantasy is played well, but it's a bad work. I can't imagine anyone listening to it more than twice in a lifetime cf. the Triple Cto.