MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Crotchet

 

Géza Anda
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756–1791)
Piano Concerto No.16 in D, K451 (1784) [22:19]
Piano Concerto No.17 in G, K453 (1784) [31:37]
Béla BARTÓK (1881–1945)
Piano Concerto No.2 in G (1932) [26:18]
Géza Anda (piano and director), English Chamber Orchestra (Mozart), Géza Anda (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra/Pierre Boulez (Bartók)
rec. 27 November 1968, BBC Studios, London (K451), 9 April 1975, Royal Festival Hall, London (K453), 5 December 1973, Royal Festival Hall, London (Bartók)
BBC LEGENDS BBCL42472 [80:59]
Experience Classicsonline


G
éza Anda died young – he was only 54 years old – but he left quite a recorded legacy behind – I couldn’t live without this recordings of the three Bartók Concertos (DG 4473992) and the complete Mozart Concertos, recorded between 1961 and 1969, which he directed from the keyboard with the Camerata Academica of the Salzburg Mozarteum (DG 4695102 - 8 CDs). Anda was the first pianist to record the complete Mozart Concertos. 

Born in Budapest, he studied with, amongst others, Ernst von Dohnányi and Zoltán Kodály. In 1941 he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Furtwängler, who called him “troubadour of the piano".  He was also a poet of the piano as his Mozart set shows. These performances make an interesting comparison with his Slazburg recordings. K451 starts in a very forthright manner – some may say hard driven – and the tempo is very fast. Despite this the articulation of the English Chamber Orchetsra is superb and as you settle into the performance you realize that the bold nature of the performance is because the recording is so close. Turn the volume down a bit and the sound perspective is much better. Anda enters already running, he holds the tempo and keeps it rock steady for the whole movement. It’s impressive as well as breath–taking; his articulation of the runs is mightily impressive. Perhaps this is just a trifle too fast and a bit breathless – the movement is marked allegro assai, just fast enough, but some interpret assai to mean very so if Anda sees it this way then in his interpretation this is right. But it still just doesn’t “feel” right. The slow movement is perfectly placed, the dialogue between soloist and orchestra is very well done, the music being allowed to speak clearly and delicately. The finale is bright and sparkling. Overall it’s a very fine performance and after a couple of hearings I find that I can live with the tempo for the opening movement, but I think that it’s only fair to warn you about it. 

We leave the studio and go into the concert hall with K453. This is very good indeed. I have no problems with Anda’s tempo for the opening movement here for it is just about perfect. The slow movement is epic in its simplicity, well thought out and superbly executed. The finale is equally well judged, the allegretto tempo being just right, and it allows the delightful chatter of the woodwind to speak clearly. This performance is sheer perfection from beginning to end. The sound is excellent, with a good balance between soloist and orchestra and there’s a real feel of the concert hall, not least because of the few seconds of audience noise between movements and the little bit of applause left at the conclusion of the work is welcome not least because it means that the final chord isn’t chopped off before the reverberation has ended. And it’s good to know that somebody, apart from yourself, has really enjoyed the performance. 

The opening movement of the Bartók doesn’t quite have the bite of Anda’s recording with Fricsay, it’s a bit light textured, although the playing is first rate. Things improve in the slow, second, movement, one of Bartók’s night pieces, with well controlled tension and lots of light and shade; the scherzo middle section is the stuff nightmares are made of! You might not think of Bartók as having a sense of humour but this finale does have quite a lot of fun about it, despite the complicated language and fearsome virtuosity required to play many, many, notes. It holds no terrors for Anda and he throws off the difficulties with aplomb. Another fine performance. 

Despite my few worries concerning tempi this is a magnificent memorial to a great musician and I wouldn’t want to be without it. Thank you BBC for reminding us of what we lost with Anda’s untimely death.

Bob Briggs

 


 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.