Search - Beethoven, Serkin, Bernstein :: Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 5 "Emperor" (Bernstein: The

A match made in heaven

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 06/18/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One might suppose that the demonstrative Lenny and the severe Serkin - recently described, tongue-in-cheek, on BBC Radio 3 as being like "a bank clerk of genius" - might gel like oil and water - but you'd be wrong. Both were great musicians and they clearly share a common conception of this music; there is no evidence whatsoever of one pulling against the other. In fact they bring out the best in each other, making music of majesty and tenderness. Their approach to the Third is much more Romantic than received wisdom would have it; rather than emphasising its kinship to Haydn, they play it on a large scale and confirm its consanguinity with the piece with which it is paired: the "Emperor". The Largo is daringly leisurely and wholly magnetic; one has time to savour both Serkin's technical brilliance and his poetic soul. Bernstein secures warm string tone and great rythmic flexibility without sacrificing any unity or synergy between the orchestra and the soloist. The Fifth is a grand affair: opulent and massive in its sonority. Serkin is surprisingly fluid in his use of rubato; none of the supposed severity here. The violas of the New York Phil in the opening of the Adagio are a dream and Serkin tiptoes in so tenderly as to disarm the listener. The Rondo is a real Bacchanalian stomp of the kind you expect from Bernstein and Serkin accordingly invests his tone with a suitable rumbustiousness, to contrast with the ethereal preceding movement, only to produce fingerwork of astounding delicacy, evenness and expressivity in the runs.



The sound in this Royal Edition 1992 remastering marks a great improvement on the tinniness of the original early 60's issue, but it is now so clear that we can now just hear either the pianist or the conductor - I fancy it's the former - tunelessly humming along a lot of the time, but I can live with that and the balance between orchestra and piano is exemplary. There is a hint of overload at forte and while it provides very satisfactory listening, you would not mistake it for a modern recording.



Although it is perhaps foolish to say so in so crowded a field, this for me remains perhaps the most desirable performance from two 20C musical giants playing the finest music of a 19C Olympian."