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- Producer's Note
- Full Track Listing
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Fanfare Review
A truly great performance that anyone who loves the work should hear
REVIEW OF PIANO CONCERTOS 4 & 5
Pristine Audio has recently issued an all-Beethoven Wilhelm Backhaus Edition containing his first cycle of the sonatas, recorded for Decca in the 1950s, the Diabelli Variations, and the five piano concertos with Krauss, Böhm, and Schmidt-Isserstedt conducting. These recordings from 1951 (No. 4) and 1953 (No. 5) are Pristine’s Volume 11 in the series. Backhaus is inconsistent in the sonatas. He plays some of them with authority and real engagement, but others sound perfunctory, not fully interpreted. This is also the case with the two concertos. While the Fifth represents his playing at its most controlled and communicative, he doesn’t seem to identify as much with the less monumental Fourth.
The “Emperor” had quite fine sound to begin with, but Andrew Rose has corrected pitch problems along with issues of background hiss and tonal balance in both concertos. The result is a rich depth of texture in the orchestral sound that’s splendid indeed. No doubt, some of the pleasure comes from the orchestra being the Vienna Philharmonic at a time when the sound of its strings—lush but somehow sweetly personal—and winds was still very distinctive.
Clemens Krauss is a fine Beethoven conductor who offers shapely phrasing and detailed dynamic control. In the livelier sections of the Fourth, he seems to be accompanying a more nuanced performance than Backhaus gives. This is not to say that there aren’t admirable moments. The piano’s opening statement is very beautifully played, and Backhaus is extremely sensitive and precise in the second movement, but his passagework, while accurate, often sounds like he’s on autopilot: driven, metronomic, and without much shape or emotional character. (A good antidote is Schnabel’s joyful, more polished 1933 recording of the Fourth with Malcolm Sargent’s deft accompaniment, but maybe it’s unfair to compare 67- and 51-year-old pianists.)
While tempos in both concertos are fairly standard, the start of the Fourth’s finale sounds miscalculated. It begins deliberately, slower than it should be, and Backhaus’s opening statement sounds restricted and lumpy. A few lines later, he switches gears, creating a true vivace, and the performance improves. I wish that Pristine had identified the rambunctious cadenza—it’s more chromatic and raucous than the usual one by Beethoven—that Backhaus plays in this movement. I wonder whether it could be his own.
The “Emperor” Concerto shows Backhaus at his absolute best in playing that’s steady but not rigid, with rock-solid rhythm and fluent, all-encompassing technique. He has a majestic concept of the first movement, projects strength and good spirits in the third, and gives a direct, heartfelt reading of the slow movement that I find very moving. The recorded sound of the piano is clearer here than in the Fourth. This is not simply a worthy historical recording of the “Emperor,” it’s a truly great performance that anyone who loves the work should hear.
Paul Orgel
This article originally appeared in Issue 36:1 (Sept/Oct 2012) of Fanfare Magazine.