£16 post free World-wide   555 sonatas 9Cds mp3 files Only £22   Benjamin: Written on Skin £16

BUY NOW  Crotchet   AmazonUK   AmazonUS Midprice

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897) Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat Op. 83 (1878-1881) Academic Festival Overture Op. 80 (1880) Alexis Weissenberg (piano) Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI, Turin/Peter Maag Recorded February 1960 live in Turin ARTS 43038-2 [58.15]

AVAILABILITY www.artsmusic.de e-mail info@artsmusic.de The meeting of Alexis Weissenberg and Peter Maag in Turin in 1960 is the pretext for this preserved radio broadcast performance of Brahms’ Second Concerto. Opening quite broadly – at a slightly quicker pace than Gilels and Jochum and Fischer-Furtwängler – one almost immediately encounters the kind of capricious italicisation that makes one fear the worst. Weissenberg’s concentration on immediately sculpting diminuendi and indulging rubati threatens to subvert the architecture of the concerto before we are even underway. I hesitate to say that even Horowitz and Toscanini are preferable to this (because they aren’t, or only if your blood is made of ice) but there’s no denying the subjectivist approach of the pianist. His attempt indeed here at magisterial pianism is horribly misconceived and the line fractures badly, Weissenberg alternating between would-be leonine playing and winsome daintiness. Luckily, but too late for me, things improve as the concerto develops. I can’t help rid myself though of the feeling that Weissenberg simply fails to gauge its emotive temperature but I liked the way he follows the cello solo in the Andante in his flowing but not unsympathetic way. Maag’s fine, lean Academic Festival Overture begins proceedings but I’m afraid that in a crowded market for historical performances, let alone current contenders, this is strictly for admirers of pianist and conductor. Jonathan Woolf     Gerard Hoffnung CDs Advertising on Musicweb Donate and get a free CD New Releases   Musicweb sells the following labels Acte Préalable Arcodiva British Music Soc. CDAccord Hallé Hortus Lyrita Nimbus Northern Flowers Redcliffe Sheva Talent Toccata Classics Follow us on Twitter Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter

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.