Our Summer BAL 41 : Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5 in E Flat Major

[gurnemanz]

I've just listened to and greatly enjoyed Brendel/Haitink/LPO on Philips from 1977. I haven't played it for a while and it really is excellent, brimming with detail and in exemplary spacious ADD sound.

[rauschwerk]

I've had Kovacevich/Davis for some years but rarely listened to it. Refreshing my memory last night, I was struck by the unsatisfactory balance - woodwind and horns almost obscured when they should not be. I admire Kovacevich's playing in general, but he seems to me too self-effacing in this grand piece.

[MickyD]

What about NEWMAN ( fortepiano)/ Hanover Band / Simon ?

I seem to recall that the early Nimbus/Hanover Band recordings also included some of the Beethoven Piano Concertos with Mary Verney playing an old Broadwood, but I don't think they ever got round to the 5th.

[aeolium]

I remember buying the Rudolf Firkusny,Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg LP during my early record collecting days (early 70s) and playing it to destruction.
I wonder if any forumites remember it or still have it.

Not that, ER, but perhaps an even older recording by Eric Silver and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Otto Post: an LP with a picture of a gold bust of Beethoven on the front with an appropriately silver background. I too played that a lot. Now I have the Edwin Fischer/Phil/Furtwängler recording and Gulda/VPO/Stein.

[verismissimo]

I remember buying the Rudolf Firkusny,Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, William Steinberg LP during my early record collecting days (early 70s) and playing it to destruction.
I wonder if any forumites remember it or still have it...

I had that one, ER, and loved it. Where/when did it depart, and why?

[EdgeleyRob]

I had that one, ER, and loved it. Where/when did it depart, and why?

Many years ago,sold with all the rest of the vinyl.
Seemed like a good idea at the time

[Barbirollians]

Really I did not know they had already recorded No 5 - Zucchini ?

As for that Firkusny/Steinberg classic I think it was on MfP and sold loads of records . I found it on a very cheap US Seraphim CD not that long ago .

[Zucchini]

Ugh! They probably haven't - for some reason (senility) I read the 1st line of #1 & thought this was about PC 3!. Sorry, I'll scrub my post...

[Bryn]

... aha ! -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00000E016

Not my first choice. That would be Schoonderwoerd/Ensemble Cristofori for historic instruments, or Brautigam/Norrköping SO/Parrott for modern instruments.

[Barbirollians]

There is another I forgot to mention - Mindru Katz / Halle Barbirolli originally on Pye . He was a pianist I had never heard of but it is rather good and very musical playing .

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Hanae Nakajima with the Nuremberg SO conducted by Rato Tschupp, anyone?

A genuine BaL recommendation - from Joseph Cooper (who was never invited back, I believe) - available from Woolworths and Tesco for 50p in the early - mid '70s. I bought it and learnt the work from it, and for five or six years it was the only version I owned. Subsequent recordings and concert performances suggest that it wasn't at all a bad recording, and I only stopped playing the LP when my audio equipment became a little too expensive to risk what had become a very scratched LP surface. Haven't heard it in about thirty years, now - I would be really interested to be able to do so.


These days, it's the recording by the wonderful Mr Van Immerseel with Tafelmusik conducted by (the equally wonderful IMO) Bruno Weil that has most frequently given me the most pleasure in this also rather wonderful work.

[Roehre]

Hanae Nakajima with the Nuremberg SO conducted by Rato Tschupp, anyone?...k.

Originally on Colosseum Schallplatten methinks, FHG ?

[vinteuil]

These days, it's the recording by the wonderful Mr Van Immerseel with Tafelmusik conducted by (the equally wonderful IMO) Bruno Weil that has most frequently given me the most pleasure in this also rather wonderful work.

... all right, ferney : you've pushed me over the edge. The Immerseels have been sitting in my amazon pending basket for quite a while, me saying that I ca'n't really justify another set. A small Premium Bond win, and your strong recommendation - I'm taking the plunge...

.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Hanae Nakajima with the Nuremberg SO conducted by Rato Tschupp, anyone?

Nakajima still seems to have a considerable following even though her discography remains very small.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/1859936-Hanae-Nakajima

Apparently she continues to play and teach (in the vicinity of Nuremberg, oddly enough...).

[Barbirollians]

Any other fans of Barenboim/Klemperer?