Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 Kl

I don't know whether these performances of the two Brahms piano concertos were ever released commercially. I certainly never heard them if they were and I don't find evidence that they are now widely available otherwise. However, these 1975 recordings with Colin Davis conducting the London Symphony Orchestra during one of that orchestra's finest eras, the Previn years, are certainly worth preserving. Aside from some sonic congestion in the first movement of the First Concerto, these two discs, which also contain Brahms solo piano works played by Kovacevich, are beautifully recorded and engineered.

The second movement of the First Concerto, conceived by Brahms as a tribute to his later mentor Robert Schumann, is played elegiacally; I got goosebumps. The string and wind playing in this recording is a real tribute to the talents of the LSO in the 1970s.

There are recordings of the two Brahms concerti with Kovacevich backed by Wolfgang Sawallisch and The Philharmonia; the present recordings are actually, to my taste, more expansive and dramatic than those. The Second Concerto, which benefits from Davis' and Kovacevich's management of the work's architecture, is one of the better readings I've ever heard. In some ways it reminded me of the old recording by Dame Myra Hess and then I remembered that indeed Kovacevich (then known as Stephen Bishop) was a pupil of Hess's.

As for the solo works included, I hadn't heard the Op. 4 Scherzo in years and was pleased to hear Kovacevich's brilliant account. Of course, he is known as a fine Brahms player and both the Op. 10 Ballades and the Op. 76 Klavierstücke bear that out.

This set is budget-priced and worth every penny. A winner.

Scott Morrison

The quality of this CD is so poor I will never listen to it again. Piano sounds tinny, orchestra sharp and lacking any warmth or depth; put me on edge to listen to it. I already have a CD of Stephen Kovacevich with the London Symphony playing the 2nd concerto (Philips Classics, Award series, 1992, Grand Prix du disque), and wanted to have a copy of him playing the 1st, as well as more of the piano solo pieces. The contrast between my older recording of the 2nd with this copy is stark. The actual performance is wonderful. Newton Classics might be generally fine, but no luck this time.

Sometimes we find fortune conspiring to produce an ideal confluence of performers in certain works. When it happens once, we feel lucky. When it happens over and over again, as it did with pianist Stephen Kovacevich, conductor Colin Davis, and the London Symphony Orchestra, it's probably more like fate than luck. Think about it: During a period of about ten years several decades ago, Kovacevich, Davis, and the LSO gave us some of the best Beethoven Piano Concertos ever, some of the best Mozart Piano Concertos, probably THE best Bartok, Grieg, and Schumann Piano Concertos, and these two Brahms Piano Concertos. It's gratifying to have the Philips recordings of the Brahms Piano Concertos now reissued in this Newton Classics set.

Philips recorded the two Piano Concertos in 1979, with the Second Concerto initially sounding better than the First. Remastered on this 2010 Newton Classics set, however, I hear little of the bass overhang in the First that I noticed years ago fogging over the midrange. The only thing is that in both works, the piano is a little more forward than I like, the instrument seeming a tad bigger than the accompanying orchestra.

John J. Puccio
Classical Candor