Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ Cliburn [Hybrid SACD - DSD, Original recording remastered]

Ludwig von Beethoven (Composer), Robert Schumann (Composer), Fritz Reiner (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Van Cliburn (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Van Cliburn
• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Fritz Reiner
• Composer: Ludwig von Beethoven, Robert Schumann
• Audio CD (June 26, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Hybrid SACD - DSD, Original recording remastered
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000QEIM8M
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,925 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54; Allegro affettuoso

2. in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Rondo: Allegro (Redbook Stereo) 7. Piano

3. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Allegro (2007 SACD

4. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Adagio un poco mosso

5. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Rondo: Allegro (2007

6. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54; Allegro affettuoso (5.1 Surround

7. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54; Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso (5.1

8. Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54; Allegro vivace (5.1 Surround Mix)

9. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Allegro (5.1 Surround

10. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Adagio un poco mosso

11. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat, Op. 73 "Emperor"; Rondo: Allegro (5.1

12. "Emperor"; Adagio un poco mosso (Redbook Stereo) 6. Piano Concerto No.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, August 31, 2007

By 

C. Wynn - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ Cliburn (Audio CD)

It's getting difficult reviewing the Living Stereo SACD series, because I ran out of superlatives long ago.

You simply can't go wrong with any of them. They are all masterpiece recordings, cherry-picked and beautifully, lovingly restored. The sonics are simply the best that current technology can achieve.

Every time I listen to one of the Living Stereo SACD's, I feel like I have stepped into a time machine and been transported to a legendary concert 40 or 50 years ago.

Listening to this disc of Van Cliburn and Fritz Reiner performing Schumann's Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, I feel like the time machine has dropped me off at the concert venue (50 years ago) so remarkable is the sense of freshness and vitality in the recording.

The artistic interpretations are timeless (and have rarely been equalled), the sonics superb...I just can praise this recording and this SACD series highly enough.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An object of affection, May 4, 2010

By 

Jurgen Lawrenz (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ Cliburn (Audio CD)

About 30 years ago, a German music critic reviewed 54 recordings of the Schumann concerto (op. 54 -- get it?) and found none of them "perfect". Well, I could have saved him the trouble. There are no perfect recordings, period. More to the point, Cliburn's effort rated only a by-the-way mention. So much for prejudices.
I myself heard it first in 1964, in a record shop. I was immediately captivated, but as an impecunious teenager I could not afford to buy a second recording to the one I already owned Piano Concertos -- still fond of it! Twenty years later I bought a Schumann box from Reader's Digest and there it was! Ever since then, it has been a bitter-sweet love affair for me. Cliburn has always struck me as a "dry" player; but while Reiner conducted for him, he often caught fire, and so here. There is a yearning, longing feel to this music making, very much a young man's music; and when things turn "brilliant", he has the flashing fingers to ride off in a wild gallop. What I'm trying to say here is, that this does not seem premeditated to me; it seems rather as if the two men are engaged in profoundly romantic (and nostalgic) story telling and pass the word from one to another apparently without deliberate cueing. And so the flow of the music undulates; one thinks of vast corn fields and nights in the forest with the moonlight flashing through the branches -- and of a heart pounding with love that seeks its solace in nature. All this is ineffably caught in this interpretation; and because it is ineffable, it can't easily be put into words. It is a quality that I miss in too many other recordings; and much as I admire (e.g.) Pollini Schumann: Piano Concerto or Perahia Schumann: Piano Concerto Op. 54; Grieg: Piano Concerto Op. 16, they don't fill the bill for me in this indispensable aspect of Schumann's music.
The Beethoven concerto is very well done. Fairness demands that Reiner be given the credit he deserves. This is a mature interpretation precisely because of his input. But the competition is fierce. There is not as much room for thought spinning in Beethoven; you have to drive this in quasi-military fashion; and Cliburn is scarcely the heroic type who seems to make the biggest waves in this work. Still, if you have no other version than this, you are well served.
The sound is remarkably good for its age.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The blockbuster here is the Schumann piano concerto recording., December 12, 2011

By 

Judy Spotheim "SpJ Judy" (Belgium, Europe) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ Cliburn (Audio CD)

Referring mainly to the audio qualities of this gem of RCA Living-Stereo SACD, we have here - controversial as it might look - a mixrd bag of sonic qualities, with the Beethoven Emperor being the lesser one.

It is hard to believe when hearing the Beethoven concerto that the transfer to SACD team was using the original triple track tape recording from 1960: The sound is slightly mellow, distance, a bit lacking in ultimate resolution and is limited at the bass range and dynamics all throughout (contrary to other Reiner's transfers to SACD).
It sounds like the transfer team, for whatever reason were forced to use a second generation tape-copy here.
It simply doesn't sound better than any DDD recording of this work and some of the Decca DDD recordings of this work sounds even better, (with piano sound that is much to be preferred) to wit; Decca /de Larrocha/Chailly, Decca Ashkenazy/VPO/Mehta, and RCA's Emanuel Ax/ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Previn.

The Schumann portion of this SACD is almost heaven...!
It is taken from upfront closer to the microphones. The frequency range, the details, the dynamics, the width of the sound-stage, the orchestral nuances and the piano tone is good too, yet, it eluded RCA's engineer Lewis Layton who almost never could captured that degree of piano tone purity and fidelity that the Decca recording engineers had in their bag right from the beginning of the Decca piano recordings.

However, it is for the Schumann portion on this RCA Living-Stereo SACD that one should rush out and grab; a masterpiece of playing, conducting and insights. A Marvel.

One should be aware of the fact that SACD technology has a much higher sampling rate than the normal CD and that the dynamic range on SACD is about 120dB. The SACD utilizes a Direct Stream Digital (DSD) - these factors makes the SACD potentially the best of today's medium for storing and for playback.
Note that CD editions that offer a 24-bit/96Khz transfers are still in the realm of just a PCM and are subjected to the normal digital filter-clock.

As for the notion that a SACD "need" added speakers in the living room or in the listening room (wife acceptance factor gets into troubles here), and routing the signal through multiple channel amplification in order to enjoy play-back of SACD - this notion is grossly misleading.
One can comfortably and fully enjoy the super technology with the existing two front channel stereo playback system provided that your CD player can read a SACD. The benefits of the SACD does not - repeat, does not - lie in how many speakers and channels are present, but by the DSD technology which offers a higher sampling and higher dynamic range.
Many of the cherished SACDs do not have any signal information for the rear channels (the RCA SACDs) and more modern recordings have little to offer for the rear channels; at best, that rear-channel information offered is some sort of summation of what it is on the front channel - a summation and separation with some added reverberation that most of the time is quite unnatural.