Search - Johannes Brahms, Riccardo Chailly, Gewandhaus Orchestra :: Brahms: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Jeff R. (Pequod)
Reviewed on 2/26/2009...

Gramophone's 2007 Record of the Year, and well deserved too. Beautiful music, beautifully played. A keeper.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Brahms Piano Concertos: The Best

Hubert S. Mickel | 07/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I did not buy these recordings; they were given to me by Professor Andreas Schulz, Gewandhausdirektor. I had expressed to him my longstanding enthusiasm for the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra as well as my thoughts that the new conductor, Riccardo Chailly, along with Martha Argerich, had interpreted Schumann extremely well. The two CDs of these recordings, along with a few others, were sent by him to the Leipzig Marriott, where I was staying.



What a gift! I had not known Nelson Freire previously. I quickly became acquainted with him through a google search and acquiring CDs of performances of him playing Schumann and Chopin. He is an extremely sensitive and intuitive performer with as good a technique as any living pianist. Riccardo Chailly came to Leipzig after being the conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, an orchestra that he had honed into the clearly world-class orchestra that it is. (I consider the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to be the three best orchestras in the world.) The end result of this combination of the pianist and the conductor are these two superlative recordings by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.



The First Piano Concerto is played with all of the struggle, the masculine sinewy sound of conflict that you hear other pianists portray. However, Nelson Freire also finds the poetry that resides in this music. The first piano concerto was written by Brahms shortly after his enthusiastic reception by Robert Schumann. A short time later, in a fit of depression, Schumann jumped off the bridge spanning the Rhine near his home in Dusseldorf. After he was taken from the water by fishermen, he was sent to an asylum in Endenich bei Bonn, where he died two years later. Brahms had to wrestle with his lack of understanding of these events as well as his growing affection for Clara, Robert Schumann's wife. You can hear all of this in Nelson Friere's interpretation of the First Piano Concerto.



The Second Piano Concerto is the product of Brahms' more mature years. It is pure vintage Brahms, especially in the hands of Freire and Chailly. The transparency of Freire's performance along with Chailly evoking the response from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, especially with the dark, earthy sound of the strings, makes this performance so superlative that it seems that one is hearing it for the first time.



The overall assessment is that these are the best performances of both Brahms Piano Concertos available. Admittedly, there are other truly superlative performances. For example, Edwin Fischer performs in a most excellent manner in the Second Piano Concerto with Furtwangler. I have not heard a performance of him playing the First Piano Concerto.



Top performances deserve top rating. These performances are most highly recommended."

New benchmark recordings of the Brahms 1st and 2nd

M. Stample | Los Angeles, CA USA | 08/12/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you've ever heard - really heard - Nelson Freire play, then you'll need no further encouragement to acquire this 2-cd set. These performances are breathtaking in their intelligence, subtlety and emotional depth. Here is a towering artist, at the peak of his form. Don't miss out!"