Search - Ludwig von Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Fritz Reiner :: Schumann: Piano Concerto in A Minor / Beethoven: Emperor Concerto

Superb

C. Wynn | 08/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's getting difficult reviewing the Living Stereo SACD series, because I ran out of superlatives long ago.



You simply can't go wrong with any of them. They are all masterpiece recordings, cherry-picked and beautifully, lovingly restored. The sonics are simply the best that current technology can achieve.



Every time I listen to one of the Living Stereo SACD's, I feel like I have stepped into a time machine and been transported to a legendary concert 40 or 50 years ago.



Listening to this disc of Van Cliburn and Fritz Reiner performing Schumann's Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, I feel like the time machine has dropped me off at the concert venue (50 years ago) so remarkable is the sense of freshness and vitality in the recording.



The artistic interpretations are timeless (and have rarely been equalled), the sonics superb...I just can praise this recording and this SACD series highly enough."

An object of affection

Jurgen Lawrenz | Sydney, Australia | 05/04/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"About 30 years ago, a German music critic reviewed 54 recordings of the Schumann concerto (op. 54 -- get it?) and found none of them "perfect". Well, I could have saved him the trouble. There are no perfect recordings, period. More to the point, Cliburn's effort rated only a by-the-way mention. So much for prejudices.

I myself heard it first in 1964, in a record shop. I was immediately captivated, but as an impecunious teenager I could not afford to buy a second recording to the one I already owned Piano Concertos -- still fond of it! Twenty years later I bought a Schumann box from Reader's Digest and there it was! Ever since then, it has been a bitter-sweet love affair for me. Cliburn has always struck me as a "dry" player; but while Reiner conducted for him, he often caught fire, and so here. There is a yearning, longing feel to this music making, very much a young man's music; and when things turn "brilliant", he has the flashing fingers to ride off in a wild gallop. What I'm trying to say here is, that this does not seem premeditated to me; it seems rather as if the two men are engaged in profoundly romantic (and nostalgic) story telling and pass the word from one to another apparently without deliberate cueing. And so the flow of the music undulates; one thinks of vast corn fields and nights in the forest with the moonlight flashing through the branches -- and of a heart pounding with love that seeks its solace in nature. All this is ineffably caught in this interpretation; and because it is ineffable, it can't easily be put into words. It is a quality that I miss in too many other recordings; and much as I admire (e.g.) Pollini Schumann: Piano Concerto or Perahia Schumann: Piano Concerto Op. 54; Grieg: Piano Concerto Op. 16, they don't fill the bill for me in this indispensable aspect of Schumann's music.

The Beethoven concerto is very well done. Fairness demands that Reiner be given the credit he deserves. This is a mature interpretation precisely because of his input. But the competition is fierce. There is not as much room for thought spinning in Beethoven; you have to drive this in quasi-military fashion; and Cliburn is scarcely the heroic type who seems to make the biggest waves in this work. Still, if you have no other version than this, you are well served.

The sound is remarkably good for its age."