In the light of the recent unrecorded Schiff/OAE performances, it seems apt to highlight this one....
But please open the discussion freely about HIPPs-Brahms recordings generally, or the D Minor Concerto itself (modern, CO or SO accompanied...)...
Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor. Hardy Rittner/L'arte del Mondo/Werner Ehrhardt MDG SACD/CD. rec. live 2011.
Genuinely radical sound in this one, the historical instruments tilting the balance from strings to winds, creating very distinct voices, timbres and colours - reedy, woody, many-voiced yet pleasingy mellow too. Perhaps even more strikingly HIPPs-radical than the OAE/O.18thC, if a little less polished.
The Erard piano is always much more audible than usual, but it is definitely a piano; but sounding lighter, more articulate than the modern grand with less resonance or sustain; the colours more varied. Easier to “speak” on it, harder to sing, perhaps. Yet this doesn’t completely preclude some flowing lines in an exceptionally eloquent adagio.
In the 1st movement I occasionally felt the dramatic flow hung fire; I would have liked more follow-through over some passages; but the big moments are splendid, with both the drama and the discord of the recap having terrific impact, making this passage the true focal point of the movement. A slight intonational rawness sometimes made me wonder if the players were close to their technical limits, but this only added to the essential sense of struggle and conflict in the music, a vividly present, in-the-moment feel to this live performance.
One or two slightly imperfect chords in winds/brass here and there, some not fully sung through; slight indistinctness when the horns play very softly; few and far..all part of the live pressures of course.
But mostly I revelled in the colours clarity and rhythmic articulation of it all. The brasses come through brilliantly at climaxes, and are again very distinctively of the period type. The finale gathers itself impressively, with exciting bite, speed and articulation, the lighter more agile string band very telling here, but the sforzandos still punch really hard, physically exciting.
As with many of the best period-instrument recordings there is that sense of the emotions and drama arising directly from the music itself, from the very sound of the instruments, rather than any subjective interpretational imposition. The “reading” is very direct, quite (though never excessively) quick, un-mannered.
MDG’s recording is typically spacious, detailed, dynamic and with a vivid sense of the acoustic. Uncompromising audiophile sonic excellence.
(Second time through, and the positives are only accentuated;
I’m hearing more and more
of things I never heard before;
my carping reservations seem
- exactly that.)
The coda of the 1st movement has just stormed through, crashed home once again; extraordinary. Drama all there but in its very sound, every strand timbrally clear.
Rare and precious. If only more Brahms recordings sounded like this….
(lovely Böcklin cover art too).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
But please open the discussion freely about HIPPs-Brahms recordings generally, or the D Minor Concerto itself (modern, CO or SO accompanied...)...
Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 in D Minor. Hardy Rittner/L'arte del Mondo/Werner Ehrhardt MDG SACD/CD. rec. live 2011.
Genuinely radical sound in this one, the historical instruments tilting the balance from strings to winds, creating very distinct voices, timbres and colours - reedy, woody, many-voiced yet pleasingy mellow too. Perhaps even more strikingly HIPPs-radical than the OAE/O.18thC, if a little less polished.
The Erard piano is always much more audible than usual, but it is definitely a piano; but sounding lighter, more articulate than the modern grand with less resonance or sustain; the colours more varied. Easier to “speak” on it, harder to sing, perhaps. Yet this doesn’t completely preclude some flowing lines in an exceptionally eloquent adagio.
In the 1st movement I occasionally felt the dramatic flow hung fire; I would have liked more follow-through over some passages; but the big moments are splendid, with both the drama and the discord of the recap having terrific impact, making this passage the true focal point of the movement. A slight intonational rawness sometimes made me wonder if the players were close to their technical limits, but this only added to the essential sense of struggle and conflict in the music, a vividly present, in-the-moment feel to this live performance.
One or two slightly imperfect chords in winds/brass here and there, some not fully sung through; slight indistinctness when the horns play very softly; few and far..all part of the live pressures of course.
But mostly I revelled in the colours clarity and rhythmic articulation of it all. The brasses come through brilliantly at climaxes, and are again very distinctively of the period type. The finale gathers itself impressively, with exciting bite, speed and articulation, the lighter more agile string band very telling here, but the sforzandos still punch really hard, physically exciting.
As with many of the best period-instrument recordings there is that sense of the emotions and drama arising directly from the music itself, from the very sound of the instruments, rather than any subjective interpretational imposition. The “reading” is very direct, quite (though never excessively) quick, un-mannered.
MDG’s recording is typically spacious, detailed, dynamic and with a vivid sense of the acoustic. Uncompromising audiophile sonic excellence.
(Second time through, and the positives are only accentuated;
I’m hearing more and more
of things I never heard before;
my carping reservations seem
- exactly that.)
The coda of the 1st movement has just stormed through, crashed home once again; extraordinary. Drama all there but in its very sound, every strand timbrally clear.
Rare and precious. If only more Brahms recordings sounded like this….
(lovely Böcklin cover art too).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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