# Beethoven piano concertos



## Andres

[Re-posted from orchestral forum]

Hi folks,

As I often do on weekends, I hit up some thrift stores today searching for bargains on CDs and records. Turns out one of the stores I visited was (quite inexplicably) bursting at the seams with CDs of Beethoven Piano concertos (and a few discs of Sonatas), as well as quite a few of Bach's Goldberg Variations. I picked up five separate three-disc sets of all five Beethoven concertos for just $2.42 apiece. The recordings are as follows:

-Rudolf Serkin (cond. Ozawa) 
-Albred Brendl (cond. Levine)
-Wilhelm Backhaus (cond. Isserstedt)
-Maurizio Pollini (cond. Abbado)
-Wilhelm Kempf (cond. Van Kempen)

Does anyone have any thoughts on these? Are they considered strong performances, and is there anything in particular I should be listening for in each one?

Thanks!

Andres


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## kv466

I can't say I love any of them...but, now that you got em,...listen to them, a lot...over and over...get to know and love them...and then, buy yourself the complete Beethoven Piano concertos by Glenn Gould...and you'll see the clear and obvious difference. Sure, the ones you mentioned are okay at best..listen to them well...but then do yourself the ultimate favor and listen to them performed with true bravura and precision and in a way that only one man was ever able to recreate.


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## tahnak

The pick is Wilhelm Kempf under Van Kempen. The playing is crisp on Deutche Grammophon. Beethoven concertos could be elaborated upon in the Instruments forum.


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## Itullian

kempf. i like the serkin too

try to find arrau/davis, awesome or 
rubinstein/leinsdorf beautiful


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## jfmurray

The Serkin/Ozawa set is superb.
It's one of the oldest, most listen to CD sets in my collection.


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## jalex

No-one mentions Kovacevich. His Beethoven concertos are excellent too. 

But yeah, Kempff is awesome.


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## tahnak

My personal favourite will be Rubinstein/Boston Symphony/ Erich Leinsdorf followed by Vladimir Ashkenazy/London/ Bernard Haitink and then Wilhelm Kempff/Berliner/ Ferdinad Leitner.


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## NightHawk

Gulp! What a bargain and what great artists! I can't imagine any one of them turning in a 'bad' performance, even on a 'bad day' in these works which are central to each of their respective repertoires! Good on you! 



Andres said:


> [Re-posted from orchestral forum]
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> As I often do on weekends, I hit up some thrift stores today searching for bargains on CDs and records. Turns out one of the stores I visited was (quite inexplicably) bursting at the seams with CDs of Beethoven Piano concertos (and a few discs of Sonatas), as well as quite a few of Bach's Goldberg Variations. I picked up five separate three-disc sets of all five Beethoven concertos for just $2.42 apiece. The recordings are as follows:
> 
> -Rudolf Serkin (cond. Ozawa)
> -Albred Brendl (cond. Levine)
> -Wilhelm Backhaus (cond. Isserstedt)
> -Maurizio Pollini (cond. Abbado)
> -Wilhelm Kempf (cond. Van Kempen)
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts on these? Are they considered strong performances, and is there anything in particular I should be listening for in each one?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Andres


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## NightHawk

I have seldom, if ever, read mention of Van Cliburn on TC, whose recordings of Tchaikovsky Bb minor and Rach 2nd and 3rd make my 'short list cut', anyway - but his performances of the 4th & 5th Beethoven Piano Concertos are also very fine. Especially the _adagio un poco mosso_ of #5.


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## Vaneyes

I think these two have passed the revered editions.


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## NightHawk

Vaneyes said:


> I think these two have passed the revered editions.
> 
> Never heard Kissen do any Beethoven, but will check him out on Youtube.
> 
> I almost bought Paul Lewis' cycle, but opted for the Claude Frank, and I 'm not sorry (that I went with Frank, it's a great set and cheap)...but I'm still interested in PL, he is very good - heard him via youtube do Concerto #1 brilliantly on The Proms (?) British music festival or something somebody help me out here.


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## moody

NightHawk said:


> Vaneyes said:
> 
> 
> 
> I think these two have passed the revered editions.
> 
> Never heard Kissen do any Beethoven, but will check him out on Youtube.
> 
> I almost bought Paul Lewis' cycle, but opted for the Claude Frank, and I 'm not sorry (that I went with Frank, it's a great set and cheap)...but I'm still interested in PL, he is very good - heard him via youtube do Concerto #1 brilliantly on The Proms (?) British music festival or something somebody help me out here.
> 
> 
> 
> The British Broadcasting Corporation's Promenade Concerts. Runs for two months in the summer mostly in the Royal Albert Hall,London. Founded in 1895 it features artists and ensembles from all over the world. This year it featured all of the BBC orchestras plus the Bournemouth S.O.,Budapest Festival Orch.,Chamber Orch.of Europe.,Gustav Mahler Youth Orch.,Israel Phil.,LSO.,Netherlands Radio Phil.,Orch.of the Academy of St. Cecilia,Rome,.French Radio Phil.,the Philharmonia Orch.,Pittsburgh S.O,.RPO.,Royal Stockholm Phil.,Simon Bolivar S.O.,Zurich Tonhalle.,Philadelphia Orch.,plus many groups and soloists. Thi is the biggest music festival in the world.
Click to expand...


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## Captainnumber36

kv466 said:


> I can't say I love any of them...but, now that you got em,...listen to them, a lot...over and over...get to know and love them...and then, buy yourself the complete Beethoven Piano concertos by Glenn Gould...and you'll see the clear and obvious difference. Sure, the ones you mentioned are okay at best..listen to them well...but then do yourself the ultimate favor and listen to them performed with true bravura and precision and in a way that only one man was ever able to recreate.


This is really good.


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## jegreenwood

I have a number of cycles, many as parts of big boxes, but my favorite remains Fleisher/Szell. Perahia/Haitink is generally praised. I have that, but need to listen to it more. I also have three sets with Rubinstein, Serkin/Ozawa, Barenboim/Klemperer, Weissenberg/von Karajan. That’s from memory.


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## Kreisler jr

1 Gould/Golschmann, Serkin/Ormandy?, Roll, Shelley
2 Argerich (EMI), Gould/Bernstein
3 Rubinstein/Toscanini, Ashkenazy/Solti, Kovacevich/Davis
4 Kovacevich/Davis, probably Gilels/Ludwig(?)
5 Fleisher/Szell, Fischer/Furtwängler, Roll/Shelley

Cycles: Serkin/Ormandy+Bernstein, Kovacevich/Davis

I should some day listen systematically to all the later Rubinsteins (with Krips, Leinsdorf, Barenboim) in the huge box. The 1940s one with Toscanini was the one I had separately and liked a lot.


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## Triplets

I now get Classical Music reviews on my Google Feed, undoubtably triggered by some algorithms responding to my purchasing habits. Any, there is a review of a Serkin/Kubelik cycle from Salzburg, released on Oreo in 2005 and apparently re released now. I am leery of late Serkin recordings, as they miss most of vitality of his first seventy years or so. Anyway, this review from the Guardian was plugging it to the skies, so I gave a listen on Qobuz. Surprisingly, the highlight is the slow movement from Beethoven’s Ugly Duckling, the Second PC. Usually this music rolls out at a snails clip and requires a great sense of legato playing to maintain the line. Here it has a real intensity and is clearly the emotional heart of the work. The rest of the cycle is meh—if you know Serkin’s late cycle with Ozawa it’s more of the same, and the live recording from the 80s isn’t competitive with good studio recordings of the fifties or sixties. Serkin’s stereo set with Ormandy and Bernstein is far preferable, or any of his mono recordings


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## Rogerx

Lief Ove Andsnes / Perahia/ Brendel / Barenboim, to name few ,my top favorite is however Radu Lupu .


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## Art Rock

Moved from chamber music to the right forum.


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## wkasimer

Kreisler jr said:


> Cycles: Serkin/Ormandy+Bernstein, Kovacevich/Davis


Kovacevich/Davis is excellent, but even better are Kovacevich's recordings with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, on which he plays and conducts. They're OOP, but still findable.

Other complete sets that I prefer are by pianists I normally don't favor in Beethoven - Schiff/Haitink and Brendel/Levine. And an excellent recent traversal by Hannes Minaar and Jan Willem de Vriend. I'm one of the apparently few people who enjoys listening to Schoonderwoerd's cycle.


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## Kreisler jr

I never encountered Kovacevich with the Australians and was wary because of a chamber orchestra... 
I have almost no interest in HIP versions, having been abhorred by the soundbits of Schoonderwoerd (and most others) and not really convinced by the two (highly regarded) discs I own, namely Newman with 2+4 and Badura-Skoda with 4 + Triple.

It's actually music I already have too many recordings of. There are too few sufficiently bold interpretations, I think. Usually pianist and conductor "neutralize" each other to some extent. The first 3 are all earlyish works and too often lack the youthful swagger and fire they should have. And in the 5th the brash "military" character is too often tamed down for a massive festivity (that also has its place but should not dominate as much as it does).


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## Malx

wkasimer said:


> Kovacevich/Davis is excellent, but even better are Kovacevich's recordings with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, on which he plays and conducts. They're OOP, but still findable.
> 
> Other complete sets that I prefer are by pianists I normally don't favor in Beethoven - Schiff/Haitink and Brendel/Levine. And an excellent recent traversal by *Hannes Minaar and Jan Willem de Vriend*. I'm one of the apparently few people who enjoys listening to Schoonderwoerd's cycle.


Another vote for Minaar & de Vriend - very good performances in very good recorded sound, a lot to like.


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## jim prideaux

Lewis, Belohlavek and the BBC SO......

recent acquisition that is now in competition in my listening with.....

Arnaud, Harnoncourt and the COE
Perahia, Haitink and the RCOA
Uchida, Sanderling BRSO/RCOA ( if I remember rightly)......

and may well prove to be the cycle of choice in the future!


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## marlow

Andres said:


> [Re-posted from orchestral forum]
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> As I often do on weekends, I hit up some thrift stores today searching for bargains on CDs and records. Turns out one of the stores I visited was (quite inexplicably) bursting at the seams with CDs of Beethoven Piano concertos (and a few discs of Sonatas), as well as quite a few of Bach's Goldberg Variations. I picked up five separate three-disc sets of all five Beethoven concertos for just $2.42 apiece. The recordings are as follows:
> 
> -Rudolf Serkin (cond. Ozawa)
> -Albred Brendl (cond. Levine)
> -Wilhelm Backhaus (cond. Isserstedt)
> -Maurizio Pollini (cond. Abbado)
> -Wilhelm Kempf (cond. Van Kempen)


I think any of these will give you a lot of pleasure. There is absolutely no point in comparing performances or saying one is better than the other in such distinguished company. Kempff's with Van K is absolutely wonderful - full of fantasy.


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## Pat Fairlea

By a happy coincidence, I'm just listening to Beethoven's Piano Concerti 4 & 5 played by Gilels with Leningrad Phil under Sanderling. It's a CD remaster of an early 1950s mono original and the sound quality is not exactly wonderful. However it is Gilels in his prime, letting his virtuosity serve the music rather than the converse. And the CD was a charity shop purchase, which makes it even better!


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## Becca

Two of the concerti by Gina Bachauer worth checking out, both with the London Symphony - 4th with Dorati & 5th with Skrowaczewski


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## That Guy Mick

I listen to Alfred Brendel's performances. Brendel only. Brendel, is of course, the best that I have heard. I don't know about Alfred's jazz performances, but he sure knows his Beethoven, I suppose. His name is not Albred, btw.


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