BaL 16.03.19 - Brahms: Piano Concerto no. 2 in B flat

[silvestrione]

I've completed the list now, so if I've missed anything, I've missed it.

My favourite Pollini is the Abbado one with the Berliners, on DG, live from 1997.

[jayne lee wilson]

My journey probably started with Backhaus/VPO/Bohm, on through Pollini/BPO/Abbado (DG 1997, rec. 1995) and Fleisher/Szell, then an adored Chesky of Bachauer/Dorati….

But once I’d heard the 23/10/48 Horowitz/Toscanini/NBC live one (Pristine lossless download, 44'23), my disaffection toward stately, middle-paced, middle-aged Brahmsian interpretation (e.g. the recent Sunwook Kim/Elder, at 50'54...) was even more keenly confirmed.

How I long for Brahms to be played as the Schubert Completed D.759 B minor Symphony is on the recent CMW release. Just imagine the Piano Concertos played like that, with a solo instrument of the Streicher & Sons design that Brahms himself knew and wrote for…
Or imagine Mackerras doing them with the SCO, in the recording sound and style of those 2 Serenades....alas...

We’ve reached a point in the history of recorded music where you can hear or obtain pretty much everything you want, or at least any style of performance you care for. But there are still very few chamber-orchestral or reduced-symphony-orchestral Brahms recordings, done with fire and energy; and scarcely any period-instrument ones.
Can the Brahmsian performing tradition be refreshed and renewed, or are we doomed to preservation in La Musée Imaginaire...?

The Hough/Salzburg/Wigglesworth set gets me some of the way but I need more passion still.…
As a dark horse which won’t win, but plays the B flat with my subjectively-requisite speed and attack, I’d offer the Arte Nova release of
Wolfgang Manz, with the George Enescu Bucharest PO/Mandeal. Yes it’s well off-piste, but part of a fascinating 7-album Brahms cycle full of individual interpretative choices, a winning orchestral blend of the Slavonic/Austro-Germanic, and - at 43’21, comes marvellously close in pace, fire and virtuosity to that near-unsurpassable Horowitz/Toscanini performance.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Although he's in Alpie's list, I can't find a Kempff recording of PC2.

If he did not do one, I wonder why not, given his very extensive Brahms discography?

There’s a hint of it on the Presto website, but no evidence of orchestra or conductor, so it could be an error.

[Pulcinella]

Gilels/BPO/Jochum, Tirimo/LPO/Levi, and Serkin/Cleveland O/Szell here.
Though it's a piece I like and listen to a lot, I don't see the need for another recording.
Maybe the BaL (if I can endure Tom Service!) will persuade me otherwise.

Alpie: The Serkin/Szell is surely in one or other (Serkin or Szell) big Columbia CD box (if not both!) so not download only.
And there's a tiny typo: Weissenberg with an n not an m!
All credit to you for compiling the list, as others have said.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Although he's in Alpie's list, I can't find a Kempff recording of PC2.

If he did not do one, I wonder why not, given his very extensive Brahms discography?

There’s a hint of it on the Presto website, but no evidence of orchestra or conductor, so it could be an error.

[Nick Armstrong]

(if I can endure Tom Service!)

... I hadn't picked up that he was doing it.

[Bryn]

There is also a Youtube item which claims to be of Kempff playing the E flat but the image relares to Beethoven. The music is Brahms 2 though. I have no idea of its provenance.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Although he's in Alpie's list, I can't find a Kempff recording of PC2.

If he did not do one, I wonder why not, given his very extensive Brahms discography?

There’s a hint of it on the Presto website, but no evidence of orchestra or conductor, so it could be an error.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Re Tom Service doing this BaL, he did a reasonably good one not long ago (until he started singing). As I said in post 2, there’s no chance of this being a twofer. AMcG would never get a word in.

[HighlandDougie]

There is/was a Tahra issue ("Inédits Paul van Kempen") of a performance from the 1955 Besançon Festival (1 September) of Kempff with the Orchestre National de France conducted by Paul van Kempen - not, I think, easily available.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... I hadn't picked up that he was doing it.

Re Tom Service doing this BaL, he did a reasonably good one not long ago (until he started singing). As I said in post 2, there’s no chance of this being a twofer. AMcG would never get a word in.

Every cloud ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

There is/was a Tahra issue ("Inédits Paul van Kempen") of a performance from the 1955 Besançon Festival (1 September) of Kempff with the Orchestre National de France conducted by Paul van Kempen - not, I think, easily available.

Well spotted, HighDoug - many thanks

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2014/Aug14/Brahms_Mahler_Kempen_TAH714.htm

Some copies available from the usual sus ... source:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brahms-Paul-Van-Kempen-Previously/dp/B00424NWHI

[jayne lee wilson]

Re Tom Service doing this BaL, he did a reasonably good one not long ago (until he started singing). As I said in post 2, there’s no chance of this being a twofer. AMcG would never get a word in.

He did two excellent surveys, of the Bruckner 3rd Symphony (21/12/16...covering the various editions remarkably well given time-limit) and Mozart's 38th (30/12/17....excellent close listening there..)... as I recall they were generally well-received around here.
So Cal - don't despair - his presentation manner/delivery does seem more measured away from interview/live present etc. And he usually seems to have The Knowledge...

[Nick Armstrong]

So Cal - don't despair - his presentation manner/delivery does seem more measured away from interview/live present etc. And he usually seems to have The Knowledge...

Yes, I recall he was ok in this role, where the format limits the incontinent burbling and focuses his undoubted knowledge. I shall lift the embargo for an hour on Saturday morning!

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes, I recall he was ok in this role, where the format limits the incontinent burbling and focuses his undoubted knowledge. I shall lift the embargo for an hour on Saturday morning!

Those two BaLs led to two of the longest threads/discussions we ever had here...