Complete Beethoven Edition, Vol. 2: Concertos

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Music reviews of Complete Beethoven Edition, Vol. 2: Concertos

Music Review: The piano concertos are superb; the rest is mediocre
Rating: 4 Stars

The rest of the set is sadly below this (admittedly high) standard. Next time, Deutsche Grammophon should entrust their choice of performance to their musical experts instead of their PR department; the choice of the Karajan/Mutter Violin Concerto over the Schneiderhan/Jochum version is mind-boggling. While a pleasant, fully competent performance, there is no way the Karajan can match the glories of that recognized classic. My main reservations concern the first movement ("Allegro ma non troppo"), which Karajan takes at an extremely slow tempo. He and Mutter sustain it superbly, but it sounds contrived when set against the natural elegance of Schneiderhan and Jochum. The older team also captures the magical stillness of the slow movement to a much greater degree - and at a flowing, more spontaneously natural tempo. Spontaneity and lyricism are the hallmarks of the Schneiderhan/Jochum version - two virtues lacking in Karajan's hands (it is Karajan's musical personality which dominates the performance). Lyricism is present, but it's the wrong kind - static and narcissistic. The Triple Concerto, which features the same conductor and violinist in addition to Zeltser's piano and Ma's cello, suffers from the same problems: intimidated (though imaginative) soloists and a conspicuous lack of spontaneity. They are both beautifully played, though, and aren't incompetent. However, in my opinion they're not of the standard a set like this needs.

These seven concertos are the extent of the standard Beethoven concerto repertoire, but as this is a complete set, we are given all the fragments and trivialities, which date mostly from Beethoven's early years in Bonn. These make for intriguing listening and reference, but will probably not be listened to more than a few times.

As with every volume of the Complete Beethoven Edition, the presentation is handsome. The informative, beautiful booklet contains many intriguing essays on all of Beethoven's concertos, and features beautiful color reproductions of many appropriate paintings and visual resources.

In sum: if you want a compilation of all of Beethoven's concertos in performances that range from good to superlative, look no further. Even if you're looking for the best performances of each concerto, you should consider buying this, because it is only in this set that you can find Pollini's outstanding Piano Concertos - and the price of this set is only a few dollars more than, say, the Brendel-Rattle set of just the Piano Concertos. If you're looking for the best performance of the Violin Concerto, look to Schneiderhan and Jochum on DG Originals 447 403-2. There has never, to my knowledge, been a high-quality recording of the Triple Concerto; the catalogue is dominated by Karajan's two attempts, of which the earlier on EMI Great Recordings of the Century is probably preferable to this, though there's really not much in it. Overall, I doubt anyone will be disappointed with this set.

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