Customer Reviews

Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto ~ Cliburn

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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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.

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.

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.

Those of us who were caught up in the ticker tape parades and Cold War triumphalism of Van Cliburn's win at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958--I was eleven -- gradually lost sight of him afterwards. Despite his extensive catalog for RCA, Cliburn proved to be a reluctant hero, spending many years in semi-retirement. So it came as a shock to hear this Schumann Cto., made in 1962 when the pianist was just 26. It's riveting, a large-scale virtuosic reading that recalls a bygone era. Cliburn was born to play on a grand stage, and with Reiner providing the best of all possible accompaniments, I feel guilty that I have had such a diminished view of Cliburn for so long.

No one could listen to this recording without getting immediately involved. (As a commenter rightly says, the playing is relaxed and generous, for all the big technique.) The Intermezzo is a bit clipped and impersonal, played with restraint by both pianist and conductor. But that's nothing when compared to the wonderful execution of the Chicago Sym. and Cliburn's obvious relish in every note. His innocence and lack of fussiness are special qualities, and although there are other, more sophisticated readings to be had, I am very glad I returned to this one from fifty years ago.

Cliburn made a slew of recordings while he was still a hot property, and this "Emperor" Cto. also dates from 1962. At the time this work was always played as a Romantic showpiece -- the period performance style was a few decades away and the shadow of Horowitz still loomed large -- so the concerto suits Cliburn very well. Reiner's sweeping accompaniment is in keeping with the pianist's grandness. Neither veers into excess, however. The Gramophone compared this recording favorably with the "fired up" Gilels with Leopold Ludwig, but that's all but laughable, since Reiner is ten times the conductor. One can find more personal and poetic accounts of the Adagio, which Cliburn seems a touch impatient with. The finale is played with flair and power, however, and Reiner keeps the orchestra in propulsive mode. I suspect that the old man had a strong influence on the youngster; RCA was wise to give Cliburn the best conductor they had, by far.

In all, if you want to hear what Cliburn mania was all about and have experienced only his mega-bestseller, the Tchaikovsky First, here is a grand follow-up. In both recordings the piano sounds very good, but for some reason the orchestra is somewhat muffled in the 'Emperor.'

Though Bach is my poison, Van Cliburn makes me love everything he plays.

No muddled playing for him, just a crisp fluid romantic touch. It feels like his hands make love to the piano and all that love transcends to the listener, this listener for sure.

Van Cliburn and Dinu Lipatti are my piano gods.