Wilhelm Kempff- Beethoven Piano Concertos .

[Barbirollians]

Which cycle do you prefer? I have had the Leitner conducted 4&5 for a while but am mightily impressed by a second hand set of his mono recordings with van Kempen.

Is endlessly interesting and robustly accompanied if rather romantic . Highly recommended .

[Barbirollians]

Evidently neither !

[mikealdren]

I only know the Leitner set, it's been a favourite since I bought an LP of the Emperor which I still find the best of the set. Amazing how your first recordings can imprint themselves on you, nothing has come close to my first recording of the 4th, Gilels and Ludwig, that I acquired as a coupling to Oistrakh's Mozart 3!

[cloughie]

I only know the Leitner set, it's been a favourite since I bought an LP of the Emperor which I still find the best of the set. Amazing how your first recordings can imprint themselves on you, nothing has come close to my first recording of the 4th, Gilels and Ludwig, that I acquired as a coupling to Oistrakh's Mozart 3!

A gem SXLP30086? My early favourite Beethoven PCs were the Katchen/Gamba on Ace of Diamonds and the Emperor I started with was the Istomin/Ormandy on Philips Classical Favourites GBL5516! Oh the joys of gathering a collection from my spending money as a teenager! The cost of. CD now seem infinitely less than even the cheapest second hand LP then, but then there werevno charity shops back then!

[Barbirollians]

The Emperor in the first Kempff set is really romantic in its approach. Likely to have the more hair shirted of Hippites foaming at the mouth.

[mikealdren]

Yes, I started with a mixture of bargain label and 2nd hand LPs (usually mail order) and only one performance of each work unless coupling dictated otherwise. Katchen's Beethoven 1/Choral Fantasia was one of these, haven't listened to it in years, must give it a spin.

The hair shirted approach as a creed is wasted on me, I only want to know whether the performance 'speaks to me'. As a result I can love the politically incorrect Sargent Messiah but many HIPP performances leave me cold. Having said that, my taste has been influenced by the HIPP movement (whose hasn't) and I'm sure it's for the better. Many of the earlier baroque/classical recordings now sound quite ridiculous - the bulk of the ECO recordings from the 1960s for example.

[Braunschlag]

If you fancy the most anti-HIPP Messiah ever made try the glorious RCA Beecham, it’s......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If you fancy the most anti-HIPP Messiah ever made try the glorious RCA Beecham, it’s......

I love the Beecham version, loosely based on Mozart's version, but with a Mahler-sized orchestra.

But the recent anti-HIPP recording by Sir Andrew Davis does nothing for me.

[Braunschlag]

Agreed, it’s rather dull and dreary.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

If you fancy the most anti-HIPP Messiah ever made try the glorious RCA Beecham, it’s......

... hilarious!

I love it - but I've never been able to listen to it all the way through in one sitting.

[Barbirollians]

I wonder how much was influenced by van Kempen as I would not have described Kempff's late 1930s sonata recordings on APR as particularly romantic.

[Barbirollians]

Nobody would describe Ferrier's legendary Bach and Handel arias record with Boult as HIPP but her singing of "He was despised" for example knocks all other versions I have heard into a cocked hat.

[richardfinegold]

Which cycle do you prefer? I have had the Leitner conducted 4&5 for a while but am mightily impressed by a second hand set of his mono recordings with van Kempen.

Is endlessly interesting and robustly accompanied if rather romantic . Highly recommended .

I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Kempff Beethoven PC reading. I have the Stereo Sonata set but the PCs aren’t included, unlike the complete Arrau and Schnabel sets that I also own.

[mikealdren]

Hi Richard,
try the Emperor with Leitner, the recording is still ok and it's a really fine performance.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hi Richard,
try the Emperor with Leitner, the recording is still ok and it's a really fine performance.

Indeed - and coupled with an even better (IMO) performance of the Fourth Concerto (my personal favourite of the Big Band recordings of this work - powerful drama and sensuous lyricism by turns, a marvellous reading from soloist and orchestra).