Beethoven: The Piano Concertos

Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Bernard Haitink (Conductor), Dresden Staatskapelle (Performer), András Schiff (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Dresden Staatskapelle, András Schiff
• Conductor: Bernard Haitink
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (September 16, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 3
• Label: Elektra / Wea
• ASIN: B000000S92
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,332 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Piano Concerto No.1 In C Major, Op.15: Allegro con brio - Staatskapelle Dresden

2. Piano Concerto No.1 In C Major, Op.15: Largo - Staatskapelle Dresden

3. Piano Concerto No.1 In C Major, Op.15: Rondo: Allegro - Staatskapelle Dresden

4. Piano Concerto No.2 In B-Flat Major, Op.19: Allegro con brio - Staatskapelle Dresden

5. Piano Concerto No.2 In B-Flat Major, Op.19: Adagio - Staatskapelle Dresden

6. Piano Concerto No.2 In B-Flat Major, Op.19: Rondo: Allegro molto - Staatskapelle Dresden

Disc: 2

1. Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37: Allegro con brio - Staatskapelle Dresden

2. Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37: Largo - Staatskapelle Dresden

3. Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.37: Rondo: Allegro - Staatskapelle Dresden

4. Piano Concerto No.4 In G Major, Op.58: Allegro moderato - Staatskapelle Dresden

5. Piano Concerto No.4 In G Major, Op.58: Andante con moto - Staatskapelle Dresden

6. Piano Concerto No.4 In G Major, Op.58: Rondo: Vivace - Staatskapelle Dresden

Disc: 3

1. Piano Concerto No.5 In E-Flat Major, Op.73: Allegro - Ludwig Van Beethoven

2. Piano Concerto No.5 In E-Flat Major, Op.73: Adagio un poco moto - Ludwig Van Beethoven

3. Piano Concerto No.5 In E-Flat Major, Op.73: Rondo: Allegro , ma non troppo - Ludwig Van Beethoven

4. Piano Concerto No.5 In F Minor, Op.57 - 'Appassionata': Allegro assai - Ludwig Van Beethoven

5. Piano Concerto No.5 In F Minor, Op.57 - 'Appassionata': Andante con moto - Ludwig Van Beethoven

6. Piano Concerto No.5 In F Minor, Op.57 - 'Appassionata': Allegro ma non troppo - Ludwig Van Beethoven

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle of the Current Digital Era, August 1, 2001

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beethoven: The Piano Concertos (Audio CD)

Andras Schiff's splendid traversal of the Beethoven piano concerto cycle is definitely one worth owning. His performances are richly steeped in lyricism and poetic beauty. They are also steeped in the fiery dramatic tension that I've come to expect from the likes of Arrau and Kempff. Of the current crop of distinguished pianists, Schiff is the only one who comes close to scaling the emotional heights shown by Arrau and Kempff. His transcendant performances are as good as those of Kovacevich and Perahia too. Unlike Perahia, Schiff is better at stressing the lyrical qualities of the piano, though it lacks some of the emotional intensity and drama that I've heard with Perahia's Sony cycle with Haitink conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra. For example, Schiff's performances of the 4th and 5th piano concerti are among the most lyrical I have yet heard. Speaking of Haitink, his conducting of the Dresden Staatskapelle is exemplary, and is comparable to his excellent work with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. However, due to Teldec's state of the art digital recording, the sound quality is substantially better. Most noteworthy are the fine performances of the woodwind and string sections. If you are looking for one superb Beethoven piano concerto cycle, then this has to be it. Otherwise, it belongs on the shelf with the exceptional cycles of Kempff, Arrau (either with Haitink or Davis conducting, though I give the nod to Davis), Kovacevich and Perahia.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, elegant and underpowered, April 8, 2011

By 

Jurgen Lawrenz (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beethoven: The Piano Concertos (Audio CD)

I disagree with the other reviewer - and I hope you will find that this is how it should be, so that you, the reader, have another point of view to consider. The other review is aiming far too high with appreciation; it seem like a momentary, enthusiastic endorsement on a single audition.
These 5 concerti span a large portion of Beethoven's creative years; they can seem like the work of two different composers. Schiff's playing takes account of this by varying his attitude to fingering and phrasing. In No. 3 for example, he is as gruff and blunt as the music suggests; when you come to No. 4, he exhibits an astonishing array of interpretive finesses and quicksilver responses to especially glissandi and arpeggios (they are always varied, so that you don't get stale with their repetitiveness). And truly, they leave you breathless with admiration. It is this facility that can easily arouse enthusiasm; and clearly the pianist has done a lot of thinking beforehand. His relatively light touch also tells in the earlier concerti with their admixture of Haydn's humour and Mozart's elegant melancholy.
But Schiff is conspicuously unhappy with the "imperial", "imperious" stance of No. 5, Beethovenian E flat heroism. Here the quicksilver is positively misplaced; and when he indulges in it, you might come to feel that it's an irritant of which will may tire on further hearings. The massive rhetorical chords of the first movement don't sound heavy enough to my mind. In short this is a lightweight rendition, if you like: a continuation of the line from 1 through to 4, whereas there is arguably a qualitative leap between 4 and 5 in sheer grandeur and inventiveness.
Haitink is the perfect accompanist, but this is not in this context a compliment. He follows his soloist faithfully, but left his artistic intuition at home. By which I mean, he does not conduct on the same level of inspiration as the soloist's work seems to demand. In fact, from the first to the last, his approach is the same. The lightness of Schiff's pianism in the earlier works is not echoed in the orchestral contribution; and in the 5th one gets a sense that he overpowers the pianist. In contrast the Staatskapelle plays in such rich and cultured tones that they are almost in a class by themselves in this repertoire. So the fault is not theirs, but the conductor's. The sound recording matches their playing in quality, rich and luminous.
So this is a mixed bag. Much of it good, even superlative. But the little that is not so good, and certainly not superlative, tilt the balance in a way that leaves this set on the second tier. This is not a serious rival to the truly great sets from Backhaus, Kempff, Arrau - though arguably on par with the better second rung recordings of Brendel, Barenboim, Ashkenazy, Serkin et al.