BaL 2.11.13 - Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1 in D minor

[cloughie]

The Gilels / Jochum I have on vinyl - and is a superb performance . I think Gilels reputation has faded a bit - quite unjustly . He’s rarely played on R3 . I wonder whether it’s the Richter effect - he’s played all the time . I also have the Kovachevich / Sawallisch which is excellent also.

I agree about Gilels - there are some superb recordings - not least of Brahms - PC2 in the earlier Reiner or the companion Jochum to above and his Mozart PC27 c/w the K365 where he is joined by his daughter.

[Bryn]

I agree about Gilels - there are some superb recordings - not least of Brahms - PC2 in the earlier Reiner or the companion Jochum to above and his Mozart PC27 c/w the K365 where he is joined by his daughter.

I think the Gilels/Reiner Brahms 2 might just make my desert island list.

[jayne lee wilson]

Looking at the 2013 comments here, interesting how many of the complaints are...... very similar to those about BaL today......

Adore the work but I guess I never had a favourite really...Fleisher/Szell at one time, Hough/Wigglesworth more recently, fast forward to the last few years and its Vogt/Northern Sinfonia (Vogt piano & direct, a truly original, searching account), with Rittner/l'arte del mondo/Ehrhardt (MDG 2011, but I only discovered it in 2018) for instruments d'epoque - which I think maybe the only period instrument release, as the Schiff/OAE never yet appeared, did it?

The adagio sometimes comes through on Smooth Classics when I'm in the kitchen after 2200 feeding myself and the Cats, and the News gets all a bit too much....
And it never, ever fails ....

[Bryn]

. . . the Schiff/OAE never yet appeared, did it? . . .

No, the report that they planned to record at the end of last year does not appear to have come to anything fruitful. A great pity.

[Barbirollians]

I got to know the Brahms concertos on a gatefold double album with Gilels/Jochum. I Still love those performances.

[Goon525]

Like JLW, I enjoyed the two Lars Vogt performances, which don't suffer greatly (at all?) from the modest size of the orchestra. And like everyone else, grew up on Gilels/Jochum.

[richardfinegold]

Like JLW, I enjoyed the two Lars Vogt performances, which don't suffer greatly (at all?) from the modest size of the orchestra. And like everyone else, grew up on Gilels/Jochum.

On these shores it was mainly Szell with either Serkin or Fleisher. I don’t think that I knew of Gilels/Jochum until a few years ago. I worked as a salesman in a few record stores in the mid/late seventies and have no recollection of them. There have been a fair number of European records that first appeared here after the beginning of the CD era, although one of the stores I worked did a lively “special order” business

[Barbirollians]

Found the Ashkenazy/Haitink recording in a charity shop - most impressive performance as is that of the Second .

[pastoralguy]

Found the Ashkenazy/Haitink recording in a charity shop - most impressive performance as is that of the Second .

[pastoralguy]

I regret that the Roger Woodward/Kurt Masur/Philharmonia recording has never been released on cd. My first recording of this marvellous piece.

I might buy the Lp and have it transferred to cd. Expensive but worth it.

[smittims]

I admired Roger Woodward and felt he never had his due from critics. His Beethoven sonata series was dropped after only two discs were issued (I'd be interested to know if others were recorded). I well remember his Brahms D minor. I thought the slow movement fast, but afterwards I found the perfromance going through my mind; his interpretation had impressed me.

I was glad to see him play all the Beethoven sonatas at the Queen Elizabeth Hall around 1980/81. At the last recital he had a rousing reception from the audience, many of whom had presumably followed him through the series.

My favourites have always been Curzon/Szell (Decca) and Rubinstein/Davis on BBC Legends. I heard this live in 1968 and felt it was a sign of approaching age when it was issued on disc as a 'historic' recording!

[Alison]

I admired Roger Woodward and felt he never had his due from critics. His Beethoven sonata series was dropped after only two discs were issued (I'd be interested to know if others were recorded). I well remember his Brahms D minor. I thought the slow movement fast, but afterwards I found the perfromance going through my mind; his interpretation had impressed me.

I was glad to see him play all the Beethoven sonatas at the Queen Elizabeth Hall around 1980/81. At the last recital he had a rousing reception from the audience, many of whom had presumably followed him through the series.

My favourites have always been Curzon/Szell (Decca) and Rubinstein/Davis on BBC Legends. I heard this live in 1968 and felt it was a sign of approaching age when it was issued on disc as a 'historic' recording!

Rogers excellent recording of the Eroica trans Liszt was one my first purchases. Can remember my dad taking me to 363 Oxford Street for that. Such glee on finding the record in stock.

[Bryn]

Rogers excellent recording of the Eroica trans Liszt was one my first purchases. Can remember my dad taking me to 363 Oxford Street for that. Such glee on finding the record in stock.

Back in the early 1970's I had a sub-tenant in my then flat in Holand Park, a then young Australian woman flautist who was infatuated with Roger Woodward, as in she had the 'hots' for him. I had never heard of him before that. Since then, however, he has always been associated with the likes of Feldman (who dedicated three major works to him) and Xenakis, rather than Beethoven. I will have to seek out the Beethoven.

[Barbirollians]

I admired Roger Woodward and felt he never had his due from critics. His Beethoven sonata series was dropped after only two discs were issued (I'd be interested to know if others were recorded). I well remember his Brahms D minor. I thought the slow movement fast, but afterwards I found the perfromance going through my mind; his interpretation had impressed me.

I was glad to see him play all the Beethoven sonatas at the Queen Elizabeth Hall around 1980/81. At the last recital he had a rousing reception from the audience, many of whom had presumably followed him through the series.

My favourites have always been Curzon/Szell (Decca) and Rubinstein/Davis on BBC Legends. I heard this live in 1968 and felt it was a sign of approaching age when it was issued on disc as a 'historic' recording!

Curzon and Gilels are in the epic school of Brahms concerto players and I love their recordings. Refreshing though to hear Ashkenazy and Haitink especially in the finale of the Second which can sound somewhat lightweight in performances of the epic school - their Second is very light on its feet throughout.

[smittims]

Yes, I have Ashkenazy/Haitink and can endorse your view. It's coupled intriguingly with Ashkenazy conducting Edmund Rubbra's orchestration of the Handel Variations.

Bryn I wondered if your Australian lady was the one I saw at every one of the Beethoven recitals, visibly rapt in adoration throughout.