MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor Appassionata, Op. 57 (1804-05) [23:34]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Intermezzo No.2 in B flat minor Op.117 [4:50]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Carnaval Op.9 (1835) [26:45]
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23 (1836) [9:25]
Etude in E minor Op.25 No.5 (1837) [3:15]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Hungarian Rhapsody in C sharp minor S244 No.12 [9:59]
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959)
A Prole do Bebê – Book 1 – O polichinelo (1918) [2:06]
Arthur Rubinstein (piano)
rec. live, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 20 April 1963
MEDICI ARTS MM029-2 [80:45]
Experience Classicsonline

Rubinstein live in recital invariably brought an extra frisson to performances. Late in his performing life, the frisson was not unconnected with digital accidents, though the fire still burned brightly well into his eighties. But this Nijmegen concert was taped in 1963 and it finds the pianist in incendiary form. Speculation as to why his playing was so tensile that day includes his acknowledged nervousness at performing in a town so near the German border – he refused to play in Germany after the War - or maybe, as so often, it was a combination of events or circumstances, or indeed none at all.
 
The fact remains that this is Rubinstein in scintillating form. The Appassionata receives a performance of powerful commitment and intense drama. Expressive in the slow movement, vital and passionate in the finale it hitches a ride of palpable near-combustion without transgressing musical bounds. The result is a traversal of fulsome communicative force, perfectly controlled and canalised.
 
After this comes the Brahms Intermezzo which Rubinstein plays with the wisest of heads, fusing surety of direction with intimacy of expression – and adding a delicacy and refinement that gives the tonal shores of the music great warmth. Schumann’s Carnaval is the centrepiece of the programme. This is dispatched with great personality – though there are some textual quirks and Rubinstein can personalise to a degree what others tend to enfold into the flux of the writing. Dynamics and rhythmic matters are the main bones of contention – but set against this we have playing brimful of generosity and affection, positively galvanic in places in the Préambule where Rubinstein’s rubati are pronounced but never gauche. Chopin is predictably ravishing; indeed the whole performance is a vindication of the recital.

It’s apt that two pieces by Chopin should follow. The G minor Ballade is magnificently structured and dynamic. Rubinstein’s tonal palette is broad and vivid, the playing full of unostentatious panache. So too in the Etude. To finish we have a sizzler – Liszt’s C sharp minor Hungarian Rhapsody, a really coruscating and brilliant performance revealing a technique seemingly unruffled by its many demands. The encore is a piece he often performed: Villa-Lobos’s O polichinelo.
 
With first class stereo sound this makes a serious claim on even the most ardent, albeit penurious Rubinstein adherent.  I can’t recall a live performance by the pianist to equal it.
 
Jonathan Woolf 
 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


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.