Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg: Piano Concertos

Philippe Entremont, Rudolf Serkin | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: August 13, 1991
• Label: Sony Classical
• Copyright: Originally released 1958, 1965 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (C) 1991 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
• Genres:
• ASIN: B00138HABA
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,274 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Grieg, Stunning Schumann, March 30, 2003

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Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grieg: Piano Concerto / Schumann: Piano Concerto; Konzertstück,Op.92 ~ Serkin / Entremont / Ormandy (Audio CD)

In the 1950s and 60s, CBS/Columbia (now Sony Classical) had the great fortune to have three of America's best orchestras and their conductors on its recording roster -- Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. Nearly a half-century later, only Leonard Bernstein remains a name that even the non-classical music world knows well. But in the world of the compact disc, this is a wonderful thing, because while Leonard Bernstein analog stereo recordings sell at mid-price, classic performances by Ormandy and Szell are regulated to the budget line. Well, my friends there is justice in the world because the vast majority of these "budget line" recordings are simply amazing. This particular disc features Ormandy and the Philadelphians with the great pianists Philippe Entremont on the Grieg Piano Concerto, and Rudolf Serkin on Schumann's Piano Concerto and Konzertstuck. The Grieg/Schumann coupling is a frequent one -- both composers only wrote one concerto for the instrument, they are both from the romantic period, and mostly both concertos are written in A Minor. There are many great recordings out there -- Kovacevich/Davis, Lupu/Previn, Perahia/Davis, Rubinstein, even classic mono performances by Lipatti and Michelangeli -- but they are all midline, and even without price as a factor this would be my first choice. Enjoy!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unmissable bargain, June 25, 2010

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Ralph Moore "Ralph operaphile" (Bishop's Stortford, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grieg: Piano Concerto / Schumann: Piano Concerto; Konzertstück,Op.92 ~ Serkin / Entremont / Ormandy (Audio CD)

You cannot go wrong with this disc: two of the most popular piano concertos (the "Cav 'n Pag" of their genre) on a super-bargain disc which is almost being given away on Marketplace, in excellent sound for 1958 and 1964 respectively, played in the grand, old-fashioned style by two master pianists accompanied by the lush, velvety sound of the Philadelphia in their prime under Ormandy.

Comparisons between Barenboim on EMI (conducted by Fischer-Dieskau!) and the peerless Serkin in the Schumann are revealing. Barenboim sounds positively clumsy and jerky, as he clatters away on a piano with suspect tuning, and he completely fails to find the poetry created by Serkin with his beautfully judged arpeggios; Barenboim is simply matter-of-fact, lacking Serkin's gravitas and majesty. Osorio, in an excellent 1984 account with Batiz and the RPO, is jaunty and fleet; both approaches are preferable to Barenboim's mundanity.

In the Grieg, Entremont is similarly grand and wise if not as rhapsodic or delicate as Bäkkelund in Oslo, recorded around the same time and I think this is marginally the weaker of the two interpretations here - but this is still a very satisfying performance, full of elan.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serkin's Schumann Concerto takes us to rare heights, February 19, 2011

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Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Grieg: Piano Concerto / Schumann: Piano Concerto; Konzertstück,Op.92 ~ Serkin / Entremont / Ormandy (Audio CD)

Martha Argerich has made such a rousing specialty of the Schumann Cto. that it's hard to remember a time when another pianist attacked the work with as much passion and spontaneity -- but here is Rudolf Serkin from 1964 to remind us. Ormandy was at his best as an accompanist, yet he excels himself here with an orchestral part that is vivid and urgent, not what one expects from him. Serkin always favored very close miking of the piano -- essentially under the lid -- and we're lucky that this cheap digital remastering isn't hard or glassy; in fact, it has considerable visceral impact while still sounding fairly natural -- a bit of shallowness is all that I can complain about.

The hallmark of this reading is that it takes in the whole concerto at a sweep, in one long romantic flight. Serkin plays with a clean, direct tone that is quite bracing, but he applies enough rubato here and there to allow for breathing room in the phrasing -- that said, this is a boldly masculine reading in the heroic style of Beethoven. Nothing could be more thrilling, and among the great stereo recordings of the Schumann, Argerich, Pollini and Richter are given a run for their money. Serkin recorded the op. 92 Konzerstuck the day before, and although I've never heard it programmed in concert, he gives a sympathetic reading that makes the pie e sound better than it actually is.

The Grieg cto. form Entremont dates from 1958 when the pianist was a brilliant 23-year-old, and he plays with vibrancy and attack. ormandy is also energized, and the reading would be an outstanding one if it didn't have to stand comparison with Serkin's Schumann. What's lacking is depth, a rare commodity in readings of tis warhorse, but Richter on EMI shows that depth and greatness are possible. Short of that summit, Entremont is exciting in his own right.