Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos

Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos

Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos
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CD Details

Brand: UCHIDA,MITSUKO
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Conductor: Kurt Sanderling
Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Orchestra: Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Performer: Mitsuko Uchida
Edition: Music CD
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2005-10-11
Music Label: Philips
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. I. Allegro Con Brio
  2. II. Largo
  3. III. Rond: Allegro Scherzando
  4. I. Allegro Con Brio
  5. II. Adagio
  6. III. Rondo: Molto Allegro
Music CD 2
  1. I. Allegro Con Brio
  2. II. Largo
  3. III. Rondo: Allegro
  4. I. Allegro Moderato
  5. II. Andante Con Moto
  6. III. Rondo: Vivace
Music CD 3
  1. I. Allegro
  2. II. Adagio Un Poco Mosso
  3. III. Rondo: Allegro Ma Non Troppo
  4. 32 Variations On An Original Theme In C Minor, WoO 80

Music reviews of Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos

Music Review: Nothing is said in this music
Rating: 1 Stars

I approached this with great hopes. I'd just heard some of Uchida's Mozart sonatas and Debussy etudes, and enjoyed both, though neither, perhaps, to justify her reputation. But I've long respected Sanderling. I love the Concertegebouw and other orchestras he conducts. Philips is my favorite label for sound. Should be a dream set, right?

Oh, why do dream sets always go so wrong? I literally have not been able to get through one movement in this box. They all sound so detached to me. Uchida plays with perfect control, but in my view she does not understand Beethoven, with her fussy trills and dynamics that are outsized from those of the orchestra, especially in the delicate Fourth. She and Sanderling seem to be on separate planets as they perform these works. But even in the solo 32 Variations in C minor I get nothing from her. This is not "great" Beethoven, but it's always been a big favorite of mine because of the impromptu nature of the work--unlike almost all other Beethoven, it sounds as though it were written in a white-heat, sort of a 19th century jam session or cutting contest. Here I get none of that spontaneity; just thoughtless re-tar-dan-does at the end of big phrases and the big slowdown at the end just before the last chords. Sort of an autopilot performance. Surely Uchida must have thought about what this music (all of it) means, but I get no indication when I listen to this. Similarly in the 3rd concerto, her rather fantasia-esque cadenza in the first movement sounds at odds with her and Sanderling's straightforward, four-square interpretation of the rest of the movement. Emotionally it feels like they never connect.

According to Arrau, Sanderling is the only conductor he ever worked with who saw the first movement of the Fourth Concerto as sad. He says they never even talked about it; it was just instinctual. I don't get that feeling in this recording. I got to the second part of the development section and had to eject the disc in disappointment and disgust. This is probably my favorite piano concerto, and certainly my favorite Beethoven concerto, but here I get none of the rhapsodic flow of melodies, the soaring and falling dynamics, the delicate, the inevitable build to the recap, or long-range pacing and structural understanding that make Arrau/Galliera or Arrau/Haitink or Kempff/van Kempen so special. Admittedly this is a hard nut to crack, and admittedly I have some very personal views on how this music should go (more elegiac than anything else), but still, I'd settle for *any* personal view, and my main complaint here is not a disagreement of a strong-minded interpretation on Uchida's part but rather a lack of any interpretation on Uchida's part. The others are similarly sterile. All that is special about Beethoven has been removed. This set was about as necessary as another NBC "Must See TV" laughtrack-driven sitcom.

Maybe Uchida is just wrong for Beethoven. She's a colorist, and colorists do not do well in LvB's music. She also seems to specialize in lighter, more transparent works, and Beethoven calls for some pounding, some fist-shaking at the gods, as well as sudden, almost bipolar changes to sweetness and innocence. She doesn't deliver the goods. She's too refined and aristocratic and all glass surface. Some other reviewers have compared her favorably to Grimaud in the 4th--another incredible misfire in my opinion. Even more puzzling is Sanderling. Maybe he just didn't strike fire with her. Maybe he did, but I'm not hearing it. Maybe he's just getting old. But this is not among his better work.

The sound is a bit bright, especially with the piano, which is very upfront and seems to often get louder as Uchida plays high on the scale--or is she just involuntarily crescendoing? This sounds fine in my car but lousy on my better-quality home system. The cynic in me says they're now engineering CDs more for automobile listening and iPods than anything else. This one is going into my "sale" pile right away.
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Description of Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 11-OCT-2005

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