# Brautigam & Beethoven



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

This month, most of my posts here and on my blog and podcast feature great pianists of today and yesterday performing works of a single composer. Most of these posts will feature _solo piano_, but not today - this Podcast Vault re-run features "piano concertos", kind of a last kick at the concerto can (if you've been following my posts over the last couple of months, you know what I mean )

Pianist Ronald Brautigam recorded his complete sonatas on the fortepiano however, his piano concerto cycle with Andrew Parrott and the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra sees him on a "modern" piano, though the overall conception of the performance follows a HIP slant.

The Dutch pianist, nearly 60, is not necessarily a household name, but as his recordings on the BIS label multiply, he very well should be. In addition to Beethoven, he has recorded *Haydn* and *Mozart*, *Mendelssohn*, *Shostakovich* and *Hindemith*... But it's not Brautigam's enviable technical polish that sets him apart from many of his colleagues, nor his lofty musical grasp. It is his individuality. He has a searching musical intelligence, a disarming self-effacement before the score, and an astonishing conscientiousness that, in combination, make him sound like no one else.

The concerti I chose come from two different CDs: the Second concerto (along with the discarded Rondo WoO 6 finale of the concerto) come from one recording which also features Brautigam's own recondtruction of the "concerto number 0" WoO 4, and the op. 61a concerto, which has the added legitimacy of having been adapted by Beethoven himself for his own use, assorted with a set of cadenzas.

In his DG recording of the concerto, Wolfgang Schneiderhan makes use of these cadenzas for the concerto on the violin - they sound pretty cool if you ask me:






It is still quite unsettling to hear this concerto played with a piano soloist - but the result is surpriosingly fresh, especially whenb Brautigam provides the solo parts.

To complete the montage, the Fidelio overture.

Happy listening!
*ITYWLTMT Podcast Montage # 56 - Brautigam & Beethoven
(Originally issued on Friday, May 25, 2012)​*
*Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827) *
Overture to Fidelio, op. 72b 
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks 
Sir Colin Davis, conducting

Piano Concerto no.2 in B Flat Major, Op. 19 
Rondo in B Flat Major, WoO 6 
Piano Concerto in D Major, Op. 61a 
(after Violin Concerto, Op. 61) 
Ronald Brautigam , piano 
Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra 
Andrew Parrott, conducting


Original Commentary: http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2012/05/montage-56-brautigam-beethoven.html

Detailed Playlist: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/120476373/pcast056 Playlist

Podcat Link (Internet Archive): http://archive.org/details/BrautigamBeethoven

Poscast Link (Pod-O-Matic): http://itywltmt.podomatic.com/entry/2015-05-05T00_00_00-07_00 (Link valid until May 31, 2015)


*May 8 2014, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will feature a new podcast "En recital: Kempff & Brahms" at its Pod-O-Matic Channel . Read more on our blogs in English  and in French.*


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