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

[gurnemanz]

I've just crept into my garage to check LP versions. I found Emil Gilels/Szell/Cleveland which I had quite forgotten about. It was a farewell present from a class of German university students I had been teaching English to in the early 70s, signed by all on the back of the sleeve. As far as I can vaguely remember, it is very good.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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...).

And shares quite a lot of her discography with the late maestro Tschupp. I'm intrigued by the Franck disc - Fabbri edition were the publishers of the "Great Composers" magazine in the very early '70s: the accompanying 7inch LPs were often taken from the VOX & TURNABOUT back catalogues (the first Brendel Beethoven Sonata and Mozart Piano Concerto cycles, for example) - but there were also a few "specially recorded"s, too - Charles Groves & the RPO in Beethoven's First and Sixth Symphonies (both splendid performances), and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto beautifully played by Ralph Holmes. The magazines were remarkably well-written, too - Robert Simpson, no less, writing the content for the (?nine?) Beethoven issues, Martin Cooper (Imogen's father) the Tchaikovskys, Ian Kemp the Berliozes, H C Robbins Landon on Mozart and Haydn, etc etc etc

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Any other fans of Barenboim/Klemperer?

... along with Kempf/Leitner; Bishop/Kovacevich/Bishop-Kovacevich/Prince & Davis; Perahia/Haitink; Fleischer/Szell and Brendel/Haitink.

[cloughie]

And shares quite a lot of her discography with the late maestro Tschupp. I'm intrigued by the Franck disc - Fabbri edition were the publishers of the "Great Composers" magazine in the very early '70s: the accompanying 7inch LPs were often taken from the VOX & TURNABOUT back catalogues (the first Brendel Beethoven Sonata and Mozart Piano Concerto cycles, for example) - but there were also a few "specially recorded"s, too - Charles Groves & the RPO in Beethoven's First and Sixth Symphonies (both splendid performances), and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto beautifully played by Ralph Holmes. The magazines were remarkably well-written, too - Robert Simpson, no less, writing the content for the (?nine?) Beethoven issues, Martin Cooper (Imogen's father) the Tchaikovskys, Ian Kemp the Berliozes, H C Robbins Landon on Mozart and Haydn, etc etc etc

Ferney, somewhere on my shelves I have the Nakajima/Schupp Emperor on CD. I'll seek it out. Another favourite of mine is Katchen/Gamba. I agree with previous favourable comments on Katz and Firkusny - the latter is now available in the Steinberg ICON box.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And shares quite a lot of her discography with the late maestro Tschupp. I'm intrigued by the Franck disc - Fabbri edition were the publishers of the "Great Composers" magazine in the very early '70s: the accompanying 7inch LPs were often taken from the VOX & TURNABOUT back catalogue...

I believe the LPs were a little larger than this: 10" as I recall.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I believe the LPs were a little larger than this: 10" as I recall.

[verismissimo]

Is that an early post or a late one, ferney?

I've still got a handful of those fabbri issues, my favourite being a recording of the Franck sonata by Franco Gulli and Enrica Cavallo.

[Bryn]

And shares quite a lot of her discography with the late maestro Tschupp. I'm intrigued by the Franck disc - Fabbri edition were the publishers of the "Great Composers" magazine in the very early '70s: the accompanying 7inch LPs were often taken from the VOX & TURNABOUT back catalogues (the first Brendel Beethoven Sonata and Mozart Piano Concerto cycles, for example) - but there were also a few "specially recorded"s, too - Charles Groves & the RPO in Beethoven's First and Sixth Symphonies (both splendid performances), and Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto beautifully played by Ralph Holmes. The magazines were remarkably well-written, too - Robert Simpson, no less, writing the content for the (?nine?) Beethoven issues, Martin Cooper (Imogen's father) the Tchaikovskys, Ian Kemp the Berliozes, H C Robbins Landon on Mozart and Haydn, etc etc etc

Hanae Nakajima's Ravel survey on Colosseum was rather good too, as I recall, Miroirs especially so.

[antongould]

Any other fans of Barenboim/Klemperer?

Yes me Barbs .......

[BBMmk2]

I like Barenboim/Klemperer too. also Uchida's PC 5 is strongly recommended!

[Barbirollians]

Gilels/Szell is very good but I do prefer his earlier recording with Ludwig- the Gilels/Szell recording of the C Minor Concerto is fantastic IMO up in the stratosphere with Annie Fischer and Perahia .

Returning to the Fifth Concerto I was not overly impressed with the Andsnes this morning on CD Review- lovely playing but tepid stuff - sounded like a good beethoven conductor was seriously called for .

Returning to Barenboim/Klemperer this evening - it always comes up as fresh as paint and what dramatic tension throughout .

[A Robyn]

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.

Look what YouTube has "auto-generated" for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2D...LNq3HmXjHfCMW6
(I think it's just a - not unprecedented - budget label carelessness that's misattributed the conducting credit. Here, for example, is a release of the same performance that manages to get both the conductor and the orchestra wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JfcDZwlgyY)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Look what YouTube has "auto-generated" for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2D...LNq3HmXjHfCMW6

Gosh! Many thanks - and welcome to the Forum, A Robyn.

It's a smashing performance, isn't it - the pianist is wonderful (no wonder Joseph Cooper took to her); less so the orchestra - a couple of extra tuning sessions (for the woodwinds - especially the bassoons - in particular) wouldn't have been wasted before the First Movement. But excellent tempi and balance ensured by the conductor - this would have been terrific to hear in a concert (without the rather restricted recorded sound), and I feel very fortunate to have learnt the work from this work - and very grateful to have heard it again.

[makropulos]

A few worthwhile versions that may not have been mentioned already:

Youri Egorov/Sawallisch, Philharmonia (on EMI)
This is a particularly eloquent performance, I think, by a very under-rated pianist who died far too young. Sawallisch on very fine form too.
And two more:
Kovacevich (solo and cond), Australian CO (on CFP)
Pizarro/Mackerras, SCO (Linn)

Among those that certainly have been mentioned, I too have (and very much like) Fischer/Furtwängler (EMI), Fleisher/Szell (Sony), Bronfman/Zinman (Arte Nova/RCA), Immerseel/Weil (Sony) and Levin/Gardiner (DG), as well as the brilliant if somewhat capricious Schoonederwoerd (Alpha)

[StephenO]

Any other fans of Barenboim/Klemperer?

It was the first classical CD I ever bought. Although I also have Perahia/Haitink and Kempff/Leitner on CD, Barenboim/Klemperer is the recording of the Emperor I return most often. Nostalgic reasons, perhaps, or maybe just because it's such a wonderful performance.