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BEETHOVEN
Piano Concerto No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 3
 Friedrich Gulda (piano)
Vienna PO/Horst Stein
rec 1971
ELOQUENCE 467 424 2
[63.54]
Crotchet
Commentary on the Eloquence series
Not a great deal to be said of these two concertos. Gulda (who died recently)
an artist bridging other people's divides (he was a composer and active as
a jazz musician) is a stylish pianist playing in the grand manner. His control
of dynamics and 'breathing' is remarkable. He lacks nothing in legato or
celerity with notes flowing like molten silver. The recording tends to a
hard edge which asserts itself most obviously in the violins and the piano
tone at forte and above. You can subdue some of this through the tone control
but it is still there. Grand manner performances ably aided by the beefy
ebb and flow of Vienna's premier orchestra. Stein is a fine conductor - witness
his Sibelius tone poem series on Decca with the Suisse Romande (an orchestra
he seems to have enchanted for those sessions). A pity about the hard leading
edge to the sound. Even so I would hope that Eloquence will trawl for the
rest of the Gulda/Stein cycle in the Decca vaults.
Rob Barnett
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