Backhaus’s pre-War
B flat major has been well served of
late. I first encountered it on a German
EMI LP box set devoted to Böhm
but adherents will have encountered
it in a number of CD incarnations, most
recently on a two CD EMI set of the
pianist’s Brahms (both concerti, the
First with Boult, now also on Naxos,
and many Intermezzi and Capriccios).
Hänssler Classic has also issued
the Second in a recommendable release.
At budget price Naxos’s own edition
makes an attractive proposition, not
least to those who have also picked
up that bracing, driving First with
Boult and will wonder about the later
work.
Backhaus, needless
to say, bears little similarity with
the sometimes effortful concerto soloist
of his latter days, though those interested
in pursuing these issues should certainly
seek out the Schuricht (early 1950s)
recording of the B flat major which
may well be the best traversal of it
that Backhaus has left us. Part of the
reason lies with Böhm’s conducting
which can be rather – unusually – prosaic.
And the strings of the Saxon State (in
fact the Dresden State and Opera Orchestra)
can be distinctly thin – which you’ll
notice almost immediately and in the
absence of mass of tone in the tuttis.
But Backhaus is leonine – fast, fluent,
the odd smudged note in chordal passages
mattering not a bit. His second movement
is fresh and lied-like, taken at a forward
moving tempo; gruffly manly. Some may
find him too eruptive in the slow movement
but he certainly conveys the turbulence
and universality of the concerto in
a performance of this kind and, often
missed by others, the near brazen wit
of the finale.
Of the smaller works
the D minor Ballade (Edward)
is richly voiced and the Waltzes are
ebullient and tactile- the C sharp major
is particularly vivacious, the G sharp
minor rivettingly exciting, and the
most famous, the A flat major, moves
like the clappers.
For a wider conspectus
of Backhaus’ pre-War Brahms the EMI
double covers the ground but Naxos are
now covering it themselves in single
editions, very well and unproblematically
transferred. And, as ever, the price
is enticing.
Jonathan Woolf
Wilhelm Backhaus (piano) 
