Customer Reviews

Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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In this release, Brendel again ventures - or should I say, ventured (back in 1983)? - forth on well-trodden ground, but his performance is defeinitely the best he has produced so far and much better than his recent live performances (BPO, VPO). It has a clarity and freshness that stands in sharp contrast to his later, more rigid and inflexilbe style. Levine and the CSO provide a perfect orchestral foil for his playing. The range and quality of sound are impeccable as well. (Wolfgang, from Vienna, Austria)

Alfred Brendel is probably the most knowledgeable Beethoven interpreter that we have seen in the past half century along with Richard Goode. It also helps that he is a phenomenal pianist and chamber musician. When listening to these performances I got a sense of a warmer more intimate ideal for the works, not everywhere, it was as soloistic as these need to be, but the connection between melody and accompaniment was very well balanced right on par with Fleisher and Szell. Levine gives the music everything it needs and the Chicago Symphony plays wonderfully. The live recording gives these works a wonderful atmosphere and the audience is reverently silent. If you want to seek out individual performances of these concertos by all means do it but for a box set of them all I would recommend this as well as his more recent with Rattle, as well as Fleisher and Arrau. All of them are wonderful however this is by far the best live recording of these works. Highly recommended

Alfred Brendel doesn't come across as a meticulous craftsman, but instead, as a lyrical, joyful interpreter of Beethoven in this version of Beethoven's piano concerto cycle which he recorded with James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the CSO's Ravinia Festival in the early 1980's. While this won't replace my recordings of Arrau, Perahia, Kovacevich or Ashkenazy performing these concerti, Brendel's third traversal is one of the best performed - and recorded - versions currently available. His warm, expressive playing reaches its peak in the last two concerti. Both Levine and the CSO are admirable, sympathetic accompanists. If you are looking for your first set of Beethoven piano concertos or your latest, then you certainly won't go wrong with these fine performances.

It should come as no surprise that Alfred Brendel has important things to say about Beethoven. He has been doing so on recordings for almost half a century. This set is continually interesting. I don't think I've ever heard a Beethoven Concerto cycle that holds your interest so compellingly throughout. There are a few drawbacks, however. The recordings were made in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, and the dry acoustic seems to have given the engineers some problems. The orchestra sounds full toned and clear, but there is no resonance to the sound. Likewise, Brendel's tone comes across as somewhat clattery in fortes, not at all like I remember from hearing him in concert. I suspect this is the engineers' doing, too. Nevertheless, the gain in concentration and excitement from recording these performances live is clearly palpable. Brendel and Levine are hand in glove, which is really saying something given Brendel's range of expression. The highlight of the set, I think, is No. 3, where the play of light and shade fits well with Brendel's intellect and sense of Beethoven's darker side. All the concerti are among the best ever recorded, although, except for the 3rd, I could easily cite other preferences, including Richter/Munch in 1, Fleisher/Szell in 2, Arrau/Haitink in 4, and perhaps (don't make me stick to it) Cliburn/Reiner in the Emperor--which sounded much better on LP that on CD. However, for one pianist's take on the entire series, Brendel/Levine is hard to beat.

I am in my sixties and have "rediscovered" music as a past-time. Although I have heard a couple of Beethoven's pieces in the past, I never spent much time really LISTENING to the musical journey that Beethoven is such a genius at leading the listener on. That changed when I purchased a budget disk at a local store. There were just a couple of so called favorites on the disk but it was enough to make me ravenously hungry for more. So I began to search for different versions of Beethoven's works played by various artists. There is a wonderful variety. I did notice though that not all of them performed with not only technical preciseness, but with heartfelt feeling for the journey that Beethoven hides in each of his pieces. Alfred Brendal does so as naturally as breathing. A couple of others may also convey that journey well but, in no way do they surpass Brendal. No buyer of this set will be bored with the performance. The music is chock full of feeling!

Echoing another reviewer, I don't believe Brendel's third go-round with the Beethoven concerto cycle is on a par with Arrau or Ashkenazy, but it is by far Brendel's best effort, demonstrating lyricism that, unfortunately, one cannot always depend on. It is a worthy addition to the serious music lover's collection, although I would not want to make it my only resource for the Beethoven concerti.

I had this years ago on cassette tape but they got clapped out from playing them so much. This set is a real joy, tremendous rapport between all parties involved. Rarely has a live performance been so full of life!

Although both recorded sets of complete Beethoven concertos the legendary Alfred Brendel achieved in his full maturity - the one with Chicago Symphony under James Levine and the one with Vienna Philharmonic under Simon Rattle - are my favourites compared to any others in the market, I must admit that when I am looking for the spontaneity, directness, and freshness in the soloist proceedings this very set I choose. The recording was made in 1983, so here Brendel is in his early fifties - a time of glory for any musician and especially for a refined one as the case is here. He addresses the core of the Beethovenian mood with all his knowledge and inspired insight, displaying a plethora of pianistic means to convey flamboyance and rigour, reflectiveness and exuberance, love and despair, passion and resignation. Every note gains its right nuance. The logical line is followed strictly, the required atmosphere surfaces the proceedings, yet within their margins what a superb personal point of view Brendel accredits. His approach favours both the drama and the soaring, in a perfect match with a sound-quality-oriented orchestra led supple by Levine. Brendel's approach is intellectual and passionate at the same time. His long expertise in classical Viennese composers helps here in making those masterpieces properly spark. Being captured live, these recordings also contain the immediacy and the fervour only a deep understanding and empathy can supply. What a marvellous Emperor or a gracefully lyrical Fourth! Lively and playful are the first concertos, and mighty in its grandeur the Third!

Top of the top!

Quite simply, Brendel & Levine create one of the most emotionally rewarding performances of the Beethoven piano concertos - especially the 4th concerto.