Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 3 [CC]: Classical CD Reviews- March 2003 MusicWeb(UK)

Classical CD and DVD reviews. MusicWeb is not a subscription site and it is our advertisers that pay for it. Please visit their sites regularly to see if anything might interest you. Purchasing from them keeps MusicWeb free.

Classical Editor: Rob Barnett Founder Len Mullenger

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 (1802) [35’45]
Piano Sonatas – No. 21 in C, Op. 21, ‘Waldstein’ (1803/4) [25’57]; No. 24 in F sharp, Op. 78, ‘A Thérèse’ (1809) [10’39]
Till Fellner (piano)

Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Sir Neville Marriner (Op. 37)
Jean-Bernard Pommier (piano) (sonatas).
Rec. Air Studios, London in November 1994 (Op. 37) and Fontfroide Abbey, Narbonne, France, in November 1991 (Sonatas). DDD
WARNER APEX 0927 48944-2 [72’06]

BUY NOW

Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

Here is a sensible programme, eminently sensibly played. As one might expect with the Academy of St Martin’s and Marriner, the orchestral contribution to the Third Concerto is clean as a whistle, with very little to complain about but similarly with little to ignite the flow of Beethoven’s best C minor mode. Thus the orchestra in the Largo, whatever its merits regarding tuning, ensemble and balance, fails to enter Beethoven’s intimate world. The whole performance is set in an over-reverberant acoustic that hardly helps the impression of an orchestra going through its paces.

Till Fellner (too closely recorded) lacks subtlety, and not only in the Largo. Semiquaver passages in the first movement can be remarkably etude-like, and the cadenza threatens to nod off (it is hardly Beethoven’s greatest creation anyway, and it really needs a more attuned interpreter to ignite it – Pollini, with Böhm, succeeds where many others fail). Indeed, with Fellner there is little or no sense of the virtuoso – the coda to the work is careful rather than exciting, and this sums up the entire experience. True, there are some touching moments in the slow movement (rippling arpeggios and carefully articulated scales), but they are hardly redemptive.

The two sonatas, recorded at a high level, herald a change of pianist. Jean-Bernard Pommier is certainly more promising than Fellner in the first movement of the Waldstein, where he is tonally imaginative and shows a sure structural grasp. Unfortunately the link between the Adagio molto Introduzione and the Rondo finale is not the melting experience it can be. The Finale tends towards the unsubtle and the music’s inherent energy fails to flow freely.

The F sharp Sonata, Op. 78 is a gem of a piece. Alas, one would be hard-pressed to guess it with Pommier who, especially in the first movement, does not appear to show the piece any respect whatsoever. Although there is more evidence of energy in the finale, neither of these performances can be recommended with any confidence.

A disappointment.

Colin Clarke

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 21,000 Classical CD reviews on offer

Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

New Releases

MusicWeb sells the Polish
catalogue CDAccord
£10.50 post free W-W

MusicWeb sells the
Arcodiva catalogue
£12.00 post free W-W

Price Reduction: £11.00
post-free world-wide
Try it and see - Sale or Return

MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues:
Prices include postage

[Acte Préalable £13.50]
[Arcodiva £12.00]
[Ashgate Music Books]
[Avie from £6.25]
[British Music Society £13.49]
[CDACCORD from £10.50 ]
[ClassicO £12.50]
[Hortus £14.99 ]
[Lyrita ONLY £11.00 ]
LYRITA Sale or Return
[Onyx £12.00 ]
ONYX Sale or Return
[REDCLIFFE £11 ]
[Tactus £11.50 ]
[Talent from £12.00 ]
[Toccata Classics £12.50 ]

DISCS OF THE YEAR 2007


Return to Index

Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board. Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer..

You can purchase CDs and Save around 22% with these retailers: