Customer Reviews

Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 / Haydn Variations / Tragic Overture / Academic Festival Overture

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to believe that Barenboim was only in his 20s when he recorded these concertos; the performances show emotional depth far beyond his years. Barbirolli and the New Philharmonia provide beautiful playing and the entire production is cohesive, powerful, and the remastered sound is amazingly good. While it won't displace the Fleisher/Szell or the Gilels/Jochum sets, it's essential listening for anyone who loves this music.

This set of the Brahms Piano concerto's blew me away. Barenboim was on fire, he plays them big and chunky (just the way I like it!) and as if they were live performances! Barbirolli and the New Philharmonia Orchestra give such blazing support in both that my jaw dropped!

Here's the thing:

Otto Klemperer never got a chance to record the Brahms piano concertos with Barenboim (like in the Beethoven concertos). But "Danny-Boy" and "Barber-Oily's" recordings are as close as we can get to an interpretation Klemperer would have had. Recorded in the late 60's, you can tell that there's that "Klemp" sound in the New Philharmonia, as if he was conducting!

All I have to say is this:

"Gilels/Jochum, you have competition now, watch out!"

This five star production infuriates me--why has Barenboim inflicted himself on the world as a two-star conductor when he was consistently doing five-star work from the keyboard?

This is the perfect case in point. This is one of the great traversals of these two big things, individual without being quirky, technically assured, interpretatively clear, thoughtful, astute. Of course, Barbirolli is responsible in part for this, but his collaboration is what was needed to fill out a perceptive rather than noisy and even elegant presentation. All this in Brahms: that's rare.

We're not going to be forgetting Rubenstein, Fleisher, Backhaus, Gilels, Richter on a good day, Bachauer and a few others. We're just going to keep remembering to include Barenboim in that select group.

This disc would be unalloyed joy...if we just didn't have that nagging feeling that we're listening to a great artist who took the advice of a mediocre career counselor.

The other reviewers have stated all the things I feel about this 1967 set of the two Brahms concertos from Barenboim and Barbirolli. These are grand, broad readings--the Second Concerto in particular is among the slowest on record. (Gilels and Jochum, also slow, sound ponderous and "official" by comparison.) Soloist and conductor give themselves time to phrase with great expressivity, but what really keeps the tempo from lagging is Barenboim's powerful pianism, abetted by EMI's under-the-lid miking. There's not a seocnd when the piano sound isn't two inches from your ears.

If you want to hear Brahms interpreted very personally, as if he really matters, this set is one of a kind.

A fantastic 2-CD set of some of the finest piano music out there. I'm a big fan of Mozart's piano concertos, and this is going to proudly share the same shelf with those CDs. Highly recommended!

These are big, bold, craggy performances aided by close-up sound. Barbirolli and Barenboim nail all the emotional high spots. Everything is well inflected and the slower tempos allow the performers to infuse every phrase with meaning. The sound is excellent and at this price a steal.

Maybe, the most important aspect to remark respect this performance resides in the fact the whole approach given by Barenboim is the lack of that vapid romanticism that somehow has permeated the figure of Brahms. According the canons of the tradition (the tyranny of the memory) you must play this concerto without inquiring anything else.

But there is much more to seek. As a matter of fact, Kapell had played a monumental performance in the fifties, exploring the material with epic affirmation, vitality and mercurial tension.

In this sense, the lack of extreme slenderness is precisely what it gives it presence and originality, because it challenges the patterns and breaks the rules.

One of my favorite versions of these famous concertos.

I know of a DG Cto 1(Bohm-Pollini) + cto 2 (Abbado-pollini)+ tragic overture (Bohm) + haydn variations (Bohm), all with wiener philarmoniker. This release under Barbirolli is superior in every way.
Cto 1 under Bohm in surface is more pleasing because of speeds, faster, more comfortable. But brass is well behind the orchestra (not here) and Pollini is ... simply boring. Barbirolli is slower but more intense, and Barenboim really understand what romanticism and brahms is about. Pollini plays on automatic pilot, not Barenboim.
Cto 2 is another matter. Barenboim/barbirolli show the same virtues (which may compell you to buy this), but Abbado uses tempi and phrasing which gives the whole concerto a spring-like atmosphere, more spontaneous. Both are valid approaches. The wiener philarmoniker has all the warmth possible (its speciality) but the sound was badly taken, with muffling textures, lacking clarity (which is evident in Barbirolli's release). Pollini is perhaps better than with Bohm here; Barenboim also shows he was born to play these pieces.
The orchestral pieces are well interpreted by Barbirolli. In Tragic overture is better than Bohm, more spontaneous. But, although this virtue is evident also in Variations, Bohm shows a more contrasting landscape of the different episodes, and with much, much better sound. One would say Bohm is more majestic, more "smart" than Barbirolli. Barbirolli ins more fluid (more than a minute faster) overall, but with a more homogeneous approach. I would choose Bohm for the variations. But since Cto 1 has a bad pianist, a middle-of-the-road and too stately tragic overture, a badly recorded cto 2 and academic overture simply lacking, the clear winner is Barbirolli. It is interesting to see there are 2 Barbirolis here: the slow and trascendent ctos conductor (both are slower than the DG release) and the WP conductor, with faster tempi than Bohm, and perhaps as tracendent as with Barenboim, too.

THE BARENBOIM SOUNDS LIKE A LULLABY. LACKS FORWARD MOVEMENT, EXCITEMENT AND PASSION. I AM FOND OF MR. B'S PIANISM GENERALLY, BUT THE MID FIFTIES SERKIN/ORMANDY (THE 2ND OR 3RD RECRODINGS THAT THEY MADE OF THE 2ND, THE ONE WITH THE YELLOW BACKGROUND ON THE JACKET, "KNOCKS ME OUT". BARENBOIM/BARBIROLLI HAS NO URGENCY. I BELIEVE THE FAULT IS MORE BARBIROLLI'S. I AM LISTENING TO ANGEL S-36526: Barenboim/Barbirolli/the new philharmonia orchestra/brahms 2nd piano concerto.