Customer Reviews

Brahms: Piano Concertos 1 & 2

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I have been reconsidering British pianist John Lill lately, ever since I had another listen to his complete Beethoven piano sonatas ... thankful hat tip to that budget label friend of the music fan, Brilliant Classics. Then I went on to his solo Brahms and Schumann piano music disc. Now I've had another sitting with the two Brahms piano concertos.

The plain, direct manners in Brahms playing that tended to put me off when I was far younger, now draw me in - and deeply so, as it turns out. I still like a juiced-up, romantic outing with these concertos on occasion, and then it is easy to pull down Arrau/Giulini or Moravec/BehlolavekBehlolavek from the shelves and spin away with great delight.

Yet the current two discs will also find a home on the keeper shelf.

From the opening trills and wide leaps of the first concerto, first movement; through the mesmerizing but unexaggerated flow of the first concerto, middle movement song; to the congenial, lively intellect and feeling of the concluding Rondo; I feel quite satisfied to be getting the first concerto, whole and alive. I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, I would imagine that John Lill has huge hands. He simply masters the Brahms chords and runs and octaves as if they lay easy under his hands. He spans the keyboard with energy and resonance, so that the modern grand piano indeed becomes a symphonic instrument. He more than holds his own with the accompanying Brahms orchestra.

The horn solo that opens the second concerto, first movement, is just so, preparing the way for the piano entry; then before you know it, we have built into strong musical ideas which Lill serves up, poised and intact. Lill's virtuoso mastery of the keyboard is fulfilled - no less than another set which I also like very much, Dimitri Sgouros as virtuoso soloist; yet the heady athleticism of these players is always in service to the musical message. And that message always seems to have a fulsome but fair balance of warm feeling and sharp intellect. In this regard, Lill and company reveal the composer as a real deal, Renaissance-like figure - reminding us that music can be as much a part of the grand legacy Humanities, as it is a founding member of the Arts?

The big energy of the second movement is all about the shifting, tectonic plates of Brahms' harmony. When the contrasting lilt of the trio-like sections arrive, neither the piano nor the Halle strings and winds need to over-inflate the contrast effect of that lightening of the warp and weft of the instrumental fabric, either by messing with tempo, or by indulging in distorted phrasing. By the end of this second movement, Lill and company have very deftly brought all threads, all musical forces together into an imposing and declamatory whole.

The solo cello and the woodwinds lay out the third movement song for quite a while before Brahms asks the piano to enter; and Lill's magnetism is such that his quiet entry electrifies and etches the moment with a sort of bold calm. Those elaborating arabesques in the piano which other players take as opportunity to underline and italicize are put forth with directness; the point being the sweetened shape of their heightening of the going harmonic frames. The quiet ending is also unhurried though always flowing.

The last movement takes off sprightly, set in a framing tempo which invites the music to sparkle as well as speak. What at first might seem just a tad too relaxed proves a sure, steady, flowing foundation for the give and take between piano and orchestral departments. Brahms palpable-imposing musical intellect is very light on its feet, after all?

Throughout, James Loughran and the Halle Orchestra partner well with Lill. Theirs is a meeting of musical minds and hearts, so that everything mirrors and meshes into that one larger whole which is innate to the merits of these two readings. Each department of the band is pretty much on best behavior, and innumerable passing instrumental touches help to illuminate and shape the big picture. And in the end, that is the appeal of this set, that it gives us a big, big Brahms - alive with deep but never maudlin or adolescent feeling, and argued with a musical directness of intelligence that connotes volumes of very well-read association without having to spell everything out sophomorically.

Lately we have had the benefit of several good performances of the Brahms concertos. If Lill and company don't meet your expressive preferences, you can check out Paul Badura-Skoda in Russia with Felix Korobov conducting, for the first concerto. (That is another disc whose strong, plain musical utterance reminds me of Wilhelm Backhaus in Brahms.) Or, Nicholas Angelich with Paavo Jarvi conducting, for both first and second concertos. For now, I'm newly appreciating John Lill, James Loughran, and the Halle Orchestra in what strikes me as an obvious keeper set that I missed before, as I failed to appreciate the strength, poise, and directness of musical utterance.

Thank goodness, even if you mileage varies, we have no shortage of very fine Brahms piano concerto recordings in our current catalog.