Page 73 - BBC Music (January 2020)
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Concerto Reviews
Beethoven – direct in expression and
unashamedly Romantic – rapidly
Piano Concertos Nos 1-5
became established in the
Ronald Brautigam (fortepiano); 20th-century repertoire. Barton
Die Kölner Akademie/Michael Pine delivers another terrific
Alexander Willens performance blending high energy
BIS BIS-2274 (hybrid CD/SACD) with exquisitely focused tone that
157:13 mins (2 discs) is often reminiscent of the work’s
These are highly dedicatee, David Oistrakh. Teddy
individual Abrams directs with understanding
performances and involvement and the
of extremely orchestra’s woodwind soloists
familiar works, shine particularly in the first
and even if the two movements. A slightly more
actual sounds made by these copies ambient sound would have helped
of instruments contemporaneous the orchestral detail, but as a whole
with their composition don’t these performances are extremely
always sound agreeable, they are accomplished. Jan Smaczny
fresh and life-giving. Speeds are PERFORMANCE HHHH
mainly traditional, though the RECORDING HHHH
fortepianos on which Brautigam
Exquisite focus: Ginastera
plays lack sustaining power, so the Rachel Barton Pine
slow movements tend to be on the digs deep with Dvorˇák Harp Concerto; Variaciones
brisk side, but not disconcertingly. concertantes
In the orchestra the winds, Sidsel Walstad (harp);
especially the woodwinds, sound Norwegian Radio Orchestra/
prominent and sometimes like Brahms and Dvo!ák • Khachaturian Miguel Harth-Bedoya
assiduous woodpeckers, while Schumann’s most Dvorˇák: Violin Concerto; Lawo Classics LWC1182 48:52 mins
the brass is positively uproarious, misunderstood Khachaturian: Violin Concerto Alberto Ginastera
with the strings recessive and concertos make Rachel Barton Pine (violin); was one of
easily drowned. Nonetheless, the an unusually Royal Scottish National Orchestra/ the foremost
overall impression is of energy and effective coupling. Teddy Abrams 20th-century
sometimes fun, and the Fourth Knowledge that Schumann’s Avie AV2411 73:14 mins composers of
Concerto, which I expected to Violin Concerto was the last major Composed in the Americas. A
fare worst from this treatment, work he finished before his final 1879, and revised mentor to Piazzolla in the 1940s,
offers a combative account of the psychotic breakdown has coloured thoroughly over Ginastera himself later studied
relationship between soloist and its reception. Joachim, who was to the next three with Aaron Copland and went on to
orchestra, rather than the usual have premiered it, might have made years, Dvo!ák’s co-found the Argentinian League
collaborative one. some helpful suggestions – as he Violin Concerto of Composers. Much of his music is
The Fifth is adequately did with Brahms’s Violin Concerto; is both conservative and radical. yet to receive the acclaim it deserves,
imperial, though Brautigam – or but he could hardly have made it On the one hand, it clearly displays but these two dazzling orchestral
his instrument – doesn’t have the more poetic or moving. Schumann the influence of his mentor Brahms pieces have become justly popular
power to make the huge climax of described it as his ‘path to joy’, which in the first movement and also concert works.
the first movement as thrilling as it under the circumstances seems makes spirited use of his ‘Slavonic Ginastera’s Harp Concerto (1965)
can be. All told, the early concertos painfully ironic. Antje Weithaas dance’ manner in the finale; on the combines fierce rhythmic energy
sound best, as if for once Haydn had is sensitive to the music’s fragile other, there is real originality in the with passages of ethereal beauty and
written a decent keyboard concerto. emotional ambiguity, its tendency expressive link between first and calm. It is fiendishly demanding for
These discs make clear how much (like so much Schumann) for the second movements, and placing the the soloist – harpist Sidsel Walstad
Beethoven had the sonorities of the mood to turn and turn back again in cadenza at the start of the work was describes its performance as akin
instruments he was writing for in seconds. So too is Andrew Manze, an audacious move that five years to ‘climbing a mountain’ – but she
mind, even if one can’t help thinking who makes the best case I’ve heard later Brahms adopted at the start of makes light work of the Concerto’s
that if he had heard a modern piano for the much-criticised orchestral his Double Concerto. technical rigours in this wonderfully
he would have forgotten about the writing. Above all, Weithaas and This is an excellent performance. spirited and sensitive interpretation,
ones available to him, at any rate for Manze convey a sense that this work At times the accompanying in the well-supported throughout by the
such miracles of beauty as the slow does follow a ‘path’, if an unusually first movement might seem a little Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
movements of the Third and Fifth circuitous, even maze-like one. indulgent, but it is well within Composed 12 years earlier,
Concertos. Michael Tanner And here’s a performance of acceptable limits. Rachel Barton the Variaciones concertantes is a
PERFORMANCE HHHH Brahms’s Double Concerto that Pine’s playing is superb with splendid showstopper for orchestra,
RECORDING HHHH has purged the music of much outstanding purity of tone and a showcasing each instrument of
of its accustomed heaviness and sense of passionate involvement the ensemble across ten colourful
Brahms • R Schumann astringency, offering instead that will certainly repay repeated variations. Ginastera sought to
Brahms: Double Concerto; something that at times feels more listening. Where the performance conjure an ‘Argentinian mood’ in
R Schumann: Violin Concerto like a chamber concerto – especially falls short is in the first half or so of the work, and the score’s pentatonic
Antje Weithaas (violin), in the lovely dialogue at the heart of the finale, which is a touch staid and harmonies, rhythmic dynamism
Maximilian Hornung (cello); NDR the slow movement. Stephen Johnson lacking in fun. and echoes of the open strings
Radiophilharmonie/Andrew Manze PERFORMANCE HHHHH Composed in 1940, of a ‘gaucho’ guitar all warmly
CPO 555 172-2 63.25 mins RECORDING HHHHH Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto evoke the music and landscape
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE 75
