Search - Ludwig van Beethoven, Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra :: Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4; Triple Concerto

One of the greatest Beethoven concerto recordings, paired wi

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 07/14/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"EMI didn't do listeners any favors by joining on one CD their classic, perhaps unsurpassable, recording of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with a very poor Piano Concerto #4. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event when Karajan gathered Russia's three greatest instrumentalists, Richter, Oistrakh, and Rostropovich, and the results are stunning. Richter took an intense dislike to the conductor and never appeared with him again. But for this one magic recording we hear a problematic work of Beethoven's turned into a phenomenal collaboration full of pyrotechnics and warm vitality.



It's a good thing that most collectors own that performance, because Karajan's Beethoven concerto cycle with Alexis Weissenberg was a major miscalculation. The conductor had avoided recording Beethoven's concertos, for reasons of his own. What he saw in Weissenberg that changed his mind is a mystery. In this Fourth Concerto the pianist is by turns bland and effete. Aided by Karajan's almost simpering conducting of the finale, his dead rhythms in the slow movement, and a general lack of fire and passion, Weissenberg finds nothing to say--he isn't even virtuosic, despite his huge technique.



In sum, this CD is unlikely to find many buyers except for those who desire the Triple Concerto in its latest remastering, but that can be had in different pairings."