Pno Ctos 1/2/Vars On A Theme [Import]

This set of the Brahms Piano concerto's blew me away. Barenboim was on fire, he plays them big and chunky (just the way I like it!) and as if they were live performances! Barbirolli and the New Philharmonia Orchestra give such blazing support in both that my jaw dropped!

Here's the thing:

Otto Klemper never got a chance to record the Brahms piano concertos with Barenboim (like in the Beethoven concertos). But Danny-boy and Barber-oily's recordings are as close as we can get to an interpretation Klemperer would have had. Recorded in the late 60's, you can tell that there's that "Klemp" sound in the New Philharmonia, as if he was conducting!

All I have to say is this:

"Gilels/Jochum, you have competition now, watch out!"

Sir John Barbirolli is highly esteemed in many circles (I guess that's how he came to be 'Sir'), and he does do some fine things in these recordings with the young Daniel Barenboim. However, I think these versions would have been even better had Barenboim recorded Brahms with Otto Klemperer, as was the case with his first Beethoven concerto cycle. Certainly, one must be amazed at the technical prowess of Barenboim, and even more stunned by his mature insights into the difficult world of Brahms. In that sense, these versions compete with Gilels and Jochum in Berlin, Fleischer and Szell in Cleveland, and the great No. 2 of Richter and Leinsdorf in Chicago. Still, Barbirolli disappoints at times. Or perhaps it is the recording of the New Philharmonia Orchestra, which often sounds too bass-heavy and scratchy without a clean concert hall perspective like the Gilels/Jochum set. The Academic Festival Overture is wonderfully transparent, thanks in large part to the Vienna Philharmonic, but maybe too slow. The Tragic Overture has a "clink" sound a few bars into it. Overall, the feeling I have coming away from these versions is that they are performed with commitment, but are sort of noisy and clunky. Only Gilels plays the "swashbuckling" opening notes of the third movement of No. 1 in a way that isn't clanky. And the grim orchestral opening of its first movement is more graceful, and no less dramatic, under Jochum. So Gilels and Jochum with the Berlin Philharmonic are the ultimate choice for these works-- though I must praise Barenboim for his miraculous playing.

A fantastic 2-CD set of some of the finest piano music out there. I'm a big fan of Mozart's piano concertos, and this is going to proudly share the same shelf with those CDs. Highly recommended!