Leon Fleisher Plays Brahms [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Jules Eskin (Performer), Johannes Brahms (Composer), George Szell (Conductor), Cleveland Orchestra (Orchestra), Leon Fleisher (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Jules Eskin, Leon Fleisher
• Orchestra: Cleveland Orchestra
• Conductor: George Szell
• Composer: Johannes Brahms
• Audio CD (October 14, 1997)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000029YK
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,665 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #27 in

  Music > Classical > Featured Performers, A-Z > ( C ) > Cleveland Orchestra

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Wow! George Szell owned the First Piano Concerto. He played the opening movement like no one else, and he recorded the work with three outstanding pianists: Sir Clifford Curzon, Rudolf Serkin, and this performance with Anton Fleischer. When I say this is the best of the three, I'm making a tough choice, but Fleischer brings a youthful vigor and rage to the music that complements Szell's fiery accompaniment so well that they sound like they're both performing from the same musical brain. The Second Concerto is a gentler work, but it's played with no less vigor and dash. Along with the Emil Gilels/Eugen Jochum performances on DG, these are the Brahms piano concertos to have above all others. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous collaboration from the 50's, April 9, 2004

By	Huibert Jonkers (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

A story I read about Leon Fleisher told that the repetitive strain injury that made an early end to his two-handed career, was a result of his heavy studying of the second Brahms concerto. Whether that is true or not, it sheds a rather strange light on these recordings that are otherwise among the most enjoyable readings of Brahms' piano concertos. The booklet of this double-disc quotes director Pierre Monteux who proclaimed Fleisher the `pianistic find of the century', and he got it quite right. Judging from these recordings, Fleisher has an almost impeccable technical control, a very rare musical sense and an irresistible freshness in his playing.

Fleisher takes a very classical and unexaggerated approach. He makes a fascinating complementing collaboration with Szell, a director who has a more extrovert style. Lots of details that are normally skipped clumsily get into the foreground in these performances. And there's a warmth and satisfying sound in the playing of both parties that makes both concertos and the filler pieces so enjoyable.

The Fleisher/Szell D minor concerto is, in my opinion, better than the one Szell did with Serkin (I haven't heard Curzon's performance yet) and it is also one of the best I've heard anyway. Fleisher's very lyrical, intensely beautiful and flowing touch makes an ideal balance with Szell's passionate, sometimes aggressive and rough conducting.

There's an incredible intensity but it never goes at the cost of the beauty of the piece, which sometimes happens in Serkin's performance. Fleisher touches exactly the right snare in the solemn major theme that appears twice, and also in the scenes afterwards, where all tension has sunk away.

The peaceful and aggressive elements are presented very contrastingly, with very surprising results. The climactic storm that starts after 10 minutes receives an absolutely white-hot performance. And Fleisher's playing of the frequent trills here is simply better than anyone else's. Combined with the wild and aggressively sweeping strings, there's an unbelievable tension present. And in the blazing conclusion they really play their socks off! You'll seldom hear musicians with this level of engagement!

In the Adagio, the same formula is used, with quite equal results: the orchestra playing with a gorgeous, burnished sound while Fleisher flows through the notes like in a dream. He doesn't sustain quite the same huge tension as Serkin but I think he's more transcendent and beautiful overall. His trills in the last minute of the piano part are completely mesmerizing.

The whole final is simply great, with a stunning drive and spirit. Virtually the entire movement is one long engaging run towards the finish, without ever sounding rushed. Fleisher's playing again has a lot of vitality and freshness, and the orchestra shares in the same enthusiasm. Some details come out very well at this tempo, such as the instrumental echoing after 5 minutes. Overall the movement is exhilarating and a superb finish to one of the finest D minor concertos around.

The B flat major concerto fares almost equally well, also because they take a somewhat alternative approach. Fleisher's quite restrained and poetic performance turns the whole concerto, even the normally high-octane first movement, into 45 minutes of chamber music. And it's absolutely delighting. Fleisher's rather modest approach is all the more fascinating because it leaves space for the orchestra to point out a lot of often hidden details.

Fleisher makes the first movement flow unendingly, and it gets fresher with every minute! In the meantime, the orchestral sound is passionate but also very crisp and sunny. I can't tell often enough how refreshing and delighting this performance is! I like Schnabel's stormy heroism, Arrau's ponderous pensiveness and many others too, but Fleisher shows here how simple the piece can sound in the right hands. The sheer excitement lacks a bit in the piano interruptions starting after 45 sections, but it nevertheless sounds very *good*. And in the more singing sections of the movement, like after 11 minutes, Fleisher is unsurpassable.

Not less fascinating is the second movement. The dialogue between the two parties at the start nowhere sounds better. Here, Fleisher chooses a less extrovert sound than other pianists, and the result is that the constant sweeps of the orchestra are wonderfully exposed. He plays the rest of the movement utterly simple and light-fast, and it doesn't bore for a second. Szell's fiery accompaniment is very well in place.

The Andante is completely gorgeous: from the initial cello solo to the very lucid and meditative piano sound; the whole movement sounds out-of-this-world. It is profoundly moving in every second, and I just wish it would last for hours! Describing more has no sense.

In the fourth and final movement, a chamber-music sphere is ever present, and Fleisher and Szell take it even further than usually. Here too some interesting details show up. When the strings take over the main theme after 45 seconds, the accompanying cellos are much better audible than in any other recording, even from Szell. It's that kind of details that makes the superbly lucid and fresh performances even more enjoyable. The movement, as does the whole concerto, just sparkles from beginning to end.

The filler solo pieces are just as delighting, featuring the Handel Variations and some Waltzes. Fleisher responds very enthusiastically to the variations (though I prefer a more declamatory manner, as in Arrau's live rendition on Aura). and gives beautifully poetic accounts of the waltzes. It also features the very well known A major waltz (no.15), a piece that could summarize the sphere of the whole second concerto quite well: subtle, lyrical, beautiful and majestic.

Anyway, this is one of the best Brahms concerto sets available. The cooperation of Fleisher and Szell works wonders everywhere, whether in the stormy first or the poetic second concerto. And the recorded sound puts many modern recordings to absolute shame (really!). The packaging is great, with an essay of Fleisher in the booklet and some enjoyable pictures too. I don't know of any reason not to get this set. Top recommendation!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great works; great performances by a heroic artist, April 5, 2000

By	Allan Brain (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Leon Fleisher was a major youthful talent, not to say"prodigy" in the '40s and '50s. Largely accompanied by theCleveland Orchestra and Szell, he recorded many of the greatest concertos for piano--all five Beethoven concertos in a set that was a best seller for years, the Schumann and Grieg concertos, and the two Brahms concertos. The Brahms are the best piano concertos ever written, I think, because they are endlessly inventive, always interesting musically and emotionally, and are showpieces not just for the piano, but also the orchestra. Fleisher and Szell are perfect partners in these works--one never gets the idea that either musician is showing off, yet these works are written such that there are sometimes what seem to be struggles, even combat, between the orchestra and the piano. (Just try listening to the second movement of the Brahms second concerto, and you will hear this.) That is the nature of the compositions, and that is among the reasons these particular performances work so well. Also included in this release are some solo works by Brahms, recorded in the mid-'50s. As one of the Sony "Heritage" releases, the package contains interesting information about the original recording sessions, photographs, and facsimiles of the original LP jackets.

I highly recommend this set and wish Sony would come out with a Fleisher edition; this is a wonderful artist who would have had a stellar career if he had not had the misfortune to suffer from the neurological problem directly related to his playing (carpal tunnel syndrome is a repetitive stress injury) at the peak of his career and at a time when classical music was still promoted even on prime-time television.

One can only admire Fleisher for his dedication and determination to continue his career in music. Let's hope he records the two-handed repertoire again too!

Finally, a word about the sound: it's not up to today's digital recordings, and there is some tape hiss, but these classic performances are not to be missed. You will want to hear these again and again. END

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, Simply Magnificent!!!, January 20, 2003

By A Customer

I have never, until now, heard a recording that didn't make me want to go out and buy another recording of the piece to hear another interpretation of it. This one is so wonderful, so definitive, so perfect (something I thought no classical album could attain), that it makes me content (well, almost content) to just have these performances and dispense with all others. Of course, my common sense will prevail, and almost purely out of habit, I will buy more performances of these masterpieces, Gilels/Jochum and Binder (is it Binder, I forget)/Harnoncourt next in line. But really, these are the first recordings of these pieces to get, and if you can only get on recording of them, this is the one. The fillers, Waltzes and Variations for solo piano, are also marvellous. Wonderful.