Johannes BRAHMS
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor Op. 15
Robert SCHUMANN
Introduction and Concert Allegro
Idil Biret, Polish Radio Symphony
Orchestra - Antoni Wit
recorded 29th to 31st August 1996 in Katowice,
Poland.
Naxos 8.554088 [66.15]
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Idil Biret has been making quite a name for herself with her series of recordings
for Naxos. Having recorded much of the solo works for piano of Brahms she
now tackles the two piano concerti with these Polish forces. This is in addition
to her other recordings of Chopin, Rachmaninov, and Boulez.
The Polish National Radio Orchestra under Antoni Wit is a major recording
orchestral partnership for Naxos with a number of highly acclaimed recordings
to their name. So how do these artists combine? Technically, there are absolutely
no problems at all, with the accuracy of the playing and the recording quality
being of very high quality.
What I find totally missing is the massiveness and thrill of the power of
the Brahms D Minor. We can hear this quite clearly on competitive versions
such as Gilels / BPO / Jochum, Katchen / LSO / Monteux, to name two budget
discs currently on offer at only slightly higher prices. Admittedly, both
of these are older recordings and suffer accordingly, but both are of such
a high quality that the difference is only marginal. The gains in performance
however, are enormous.
There is a very gentle atmosphere present throughout the current disc, which
finds its proper place in the second movement (the adagio), although even
this comes over as somewhat sleepy in character. Antoni Wit tries very hard
to work up a good head of steam but is demoralised somewhat by the delicate
playing of his soloist. This is lovely piano playing but it is not the Brahms
D Minor.
After a somewhat tame rendition of the initial Maestoso, where all the notes
are in the right order and position, but not truly maestoso, the orchestra
must have been somewhat demoralised as they almost come to a halt in the
second movement. Even the dramatic outbursts in the central section of the
adagio are muted to such an extent that the contrast between this and what
went before is lost. When the last movement is reached, the situation improves
a little, but not enough to redeem the performance.
Schumann's Introduction and Allegro is not the more usual work (the
Op. 92) but the later Op. 134, confusingly also called Introduction and (Concert)
Allegro, Op. 134, where the term "Concert" is often dropped. This suits Idil
Biret's style of playing somewhat better than the Brahms. The orchestra also
seems a little perkier so if it is this work you want, the disc is well worth
buying, especially at its very reasonable cost. Some of the interplay between
pianist and orchestra is sometimes a little inaccurate, but this is of relatively
minor importance.
John Phillips
See also review by Adrian Smith
