Beethoven: Triple Concerto; Choral Fantasia

Matthias Henneberg (Performer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Herbert Kegel (Conductor), Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra (Performer), Elvira Puschkarova (Performer), Peter Rösel (Performer), Margot Stejskal (Performer), Eckhard Wagner (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Matthias Henneberg, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Elvira Puschkarova, Peter Rösel, Margot Stejskal, et al.
• Conductor: Herbert Kegel
• Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
• Audio CD (December 21, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capriccio
• ASIN: B000001WKZ
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,874 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Concerto for piano, violin, cello & orchestra in C major ('Triple Concerto'), Op. 56: Allegro - Dresdner Philharmonie/Herbert Kegel

2. Concerto for piano, violin, cello & orchestra in C major ('Triple Concerto'), Op. 56: Largo - Dresdner Philharmonie/Herbert Kegel

3. Concerto for piano, violin, cello & orchestra in C major ('Triple Concerto'), Op. 56: Rondo alla Polacca - Dresdner Philharmonie/Herbert Kegel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars you won't go wrong with this version, but it is not the best you can find either, December 28, 2010

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Discophage (France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Beethoven: Triple Concerto; Choral Fantasia (Audio CD)

The pairing of Beethoven's Triple Concerto and Choral Fantasy became a customary one starting in the 1990s (see Beethoven: Triple Concerto / Choral Fantasy, Beethoven - Triple Concerto ~ Choral Fantasy / Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Berliner Phil., Barenboim, Beethoven: Triple Concerto; Rondo in B flat; Choral Fantasy), but it is really this Capriccio CD, published in 1986, that launched it all. The pairing is also a logical one: both compositions are concertante works featuring the piano, but both with a twist that single them out. The triple concerto is of course the unique case in the 19th Century of a concerto for piano trio, and the Choral fantasy is a hybrid work, one that follows no other rule than those that Beethoven invents for the occasion, something like a symphony concertante with piano and conclusive chorus. Both are also - probably because they fall out of any easy obvious category - the two Beethoven masterpieces that are the most easily looked down upon even by people who claim to be Beethoven aficionados.

So the Capriccio disc disc is in good company now. Not that Herbert Kegel with his team of still East German (the recordings were made in 1985 and 1986) are quite in the league of those who came after, but they have some nice things to offer. The Triple Concerto is a solid performance, with a first movement taken at a middle-of-the-road tempo and offering no special insights, but a slow movement and a finale that do: the first for its held-back tempo, almost as expansive as Karajan's, and the finale for its carefree dynamism and forward movement. Still, the lack of a truly electric presence and of a truly distinctive tonal personality from the two string soloists, and Kegel's gliding over too many opportunities to really do something ear-catching with Beethoven's orchestration, prevents this version from reaching the top-tier. But anybody with only this version would not be short-changed.

The same can be said of the Choral Fantasy. It also offers some nice touches - while it starts, like the Triple Concerto, very traditionally and with very middle-of-the-road tempos, I particularly enjoyed the brisk and lively pace adopted from the "meno allegro" section starting at 4:21 (with the chirping woodwinds and string quartet) to the end. As in the Triple Concerto I have no particular comment on pianist Peter Rösel: he acquits himself well. But the sonic perspective favoring the strings and dulling brass and woodwinds frustratingly deprives the Fatasy of much of its bite in the tutti (though the timps are fine in the Marcia), and the antiphonal effects between first and second violins at 8:27 hardly register. The vocal soloists seem to come from the chorus and they are OK without being of major stature, but convey a nice feeling of chamber music and friendly music making. The chorus is powerful and sounds as if it were in a number better suited to the 9th Sympony thant to the more intimate setting of the Fantasy; and I can't help but think that their impressive crescendo at 16:37 was produced in the control room rather than by their chests. And a curio: I'm not sure what it is that they sing, but it is not exactly the text set to music by Beethobven. Without any text in the liner notes it is hard to say, and I'm not sure if it is simply a modernization of the poem, or if it was made with the purpose of removing all the references to God and The Spirit. Former East-Germany, right? So, in a (twisted) way, you can say this is a unique version. Not that it matters much.

I've greatly enjoyed some other recordings of Herbert Kegel, especially in the 20th Century Classics (many of those recordings are now gathered on Legendary Recordings of Herbert Kegel [Box Set], and those specifically devoted to Berg-Schoenberg-Webern on Herbert Kegel Conducts(Box); his recording with Peter Rösel of Stravinsky's Capriccio is one of the best, Pulcinella; see also my reviews of Carl Orff: Trionfi and Orff: Die Kluge/Der Mond), and I've often found him a much more interesting conductor than the more prominent but very traditional-minded and uninspiring Masur. But Kegel was better served sonically by the East-German engineers from Eterna: those recordings (now on Berlin Classics) were nothing short of stupendous. The most exciting version I've heard recently of the Choral Fantasy is Zinman's, Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 or Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Choral Fantasy, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage.

TT 53:54