Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Review
Back to the sources.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, February 18, 2012
Not even the iconic masterpieces of Ludwig van Beethoven are above being "edited" by Johnny-come-latelies who
decide that they know better and that things can always be "improved." Now it's no secret that through the years and
with the less than exact printing methods of the nineteenth century, errors were introduced in the earliest editions (and
beyond) many composers' pieces, and it's also well known that the composers themselves were not above the
occasional (and sometimes more than occasional) error as they dashed out their manuscript scores. Czech-born pianist
and conductor Rudolf Buchbinder has made it something of his life's mission to "get back to the sources", with regard to
Beethoven's pieces especially. Buchbinder personally owns more than two dozen different complete editions of
Beethoven's thirty two piano sonatas, to give just one example, and Buchbinder is almost obsessive-compulsive about
comparing the errors that can crop up between any two (or more) given editions. Buchbinder's approach is one of
meticulous thoroughness. What he prefers to do is to collate all available editions of any given work he's interested in,
and then cross-referencing and comparing all of those editions with the composer's original manuscript, in order to
divine what exactly the composer may have originally intended. As the liner notes to this new release of the Five Piano
Concertos of Beethoven quotes Buchbinder as stating, "The stricter and the more exacting I am in my approach, the
more I learn about the freedom of making music. This merely seems to be a paradox. Anyone who reads what
composers really wrote acquires something akin toa pointer to a freer kind of playing. Composers demand this freedom
from their interpreters by including far more differentiated instructions than the regular printed notation can ever hope
to reproduce."
It's rather interesting that over the past year-plus or so we've had two remarkable Beethoven Piano Concerto cycles
released on Blu-ray, both with iconic pianists conducting from the keyboard. Late 2009 saw the release of an elegant
release featuring Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, which I reviewed
here. Now we have the legendary
Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra arguably best poised of all Continental symphony orchestras to interpret Beethoven's
work, being led by a man who has devoted much of his life to clearing away the cobwebs of manifold editors who have
attempted to put their own stamp on Beethoven's work. While the results may not exactly be revelatory, they are
often
quite subtly amazing, lending an almost chamber music
ethos to pieces that are often thought of as being in a
grander
milieu. Unlike Barenboim, who had his piano turned so that he faced the orchestra (with his back to the
audience), Buchbinder leaves his piano in the traditional sideways position and he seems more comfortable with letting
the Vienna Philharmonic go about their business without a lot of conductorial interference. This frees Buchbinder up to
really delve into the piano sections of the score, and not only the
soli passages. In a somewhat humorous
looking
approach, Buchbinder often seems content to semi-conduct with just a flourish of an eyebrow, but it's enough to
command
a disciplined yet nuanced performance from the orchestra.
As I mentioned in my review of the Barenboim performances, it's really fascinating to traverse the compositional
evolution of Beethoven through these five iconic pieces. The first two concerti especially seem to be working within a
positively Mozartian or Haydnesque framework, albeit one already filled with the typical Beethoven eruptions of
passion. But there's an undeniable ebullience to these first two outings (scholars will point out that Beethoven's
alleged First Concerto is in fact his Second, and his now labeled Second was actually written first). Starting with the
Third Concerto, however, there's a new feeling of drama and even foreboding as Beethoven seems more primed to
explore an almost Id-like territory of introspection and roiling, almost unbridled, emotions. Buchbinder manages to bring
all of these disparate emotions readily to the surface, with elegance and clarity.
The Fourth and Fifth Concertos are different beasts entirely, as Beethoven finally seemed secure in writing "equally" for
the piano and the orchestra. The Fourth seems oddly prescient at times, almost presaging Rimsky-Korsakov's
Flight
of the Bumblebee, with its rapid fire chromatic passages. And the Fifth, the legendary "Emperor", opens up a whoe
new monolithic vocabulary for the piano, one with which both performers and composers still wrestle today. Buchbinder
is rather nimble in both of these performances, with a glistening yet profound touch that offers clarity and poise. The
orchestra at times is perhaps a bit too stalwart for its own good, but that actually works to the Emperor Concerto's
favor, with its broad themes and stately, if somewhat manic, demeanor.
Buchbinder may not be the "household name" that Barenboim is on this side of the pond, but he has an immense
recording legacy already to his name, including a lavishly praised eighteen disc set of Haydn's works which won the
Grand Prix du Disque. He's previously recorded the Beethoven concertos, and his
oeuvre includes everything
from Mozart to Brahms, so he's well placed to bring his innate understanding of these pieces to this project. What's so
bracing about these interpretations is often in small details, things like unexpected changes in dynamics or unfamiliar
ornamentations that prove that Buchbinder has indeed gone back to the sources to figure out what Beethoven, not
some Johnny-come-lately editor, really wanted his piano concertos to sound like.
Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray, Video Quality
Rudolf Buchbinder Wiener Philharmoniker The Beethoven Piano Concertos is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of C
Major and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is not a "through shot" piece, and is instead
five shorter pieces, one for each concerto, with its own opening and closing credits sequences. This is yet another nice
looking Blu-ray from the auspicious Goldener Saal der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna's opulent Musikverein. As
with the recently reviewed
New
Year's Concert Blu-ray released by Sony Classical, this set of concertos is directed for television by Karina Fibich, and
she does an exemplary job with excellent camera placement which zerioes in on Buchbinder's facile finger work. Fibich's
approach here isn't quite as "showy" as in the
New Year's Concert, with fewer of the tracking shots or crane shots
that made that release so visually interesting, but the overall look of this presentation is sharp and appealing. There are a
couple of very strange video anomalies that I personally can't adequately explain, including a really weird horizontal purple
"flash" (for want of a better word) at approximately 37:24 (when Buchbinder is taking his bows after the First Concerto). I
played and replayed this moment repeatedly and can't decide if it's a high definition camera malfunctioning for a second or
perhaps a lighting cue gone awry which casts a quick glow on the inside of the piano, but it's very odd, to say the least.
For the most part, though, this is a sharp and well detailed offering that should please discriminating videophiles.
Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray, Audio Quality
Luckily there are no similar anomalies with either of the two audio options contained on
Rudolf Buchbinder Wiener
Philharmoniker The Beethoven Piano Concertos. Both the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 surround mix and the
uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo mix sound beautiful, with brilliant, enticing clarity from the piano and that iconic burnished
sound that the Vienna Philharmonic is so rightly known for. Balance between the piano and the orchestra is exceptional,
even in full orchestral
tutti, where Buchbinder's keyboard still cuts through and becomes a fully equal partner to the
massed forces behind it. Fidelity is exceptional throughout the five concertos and dynamic range is extraordinary, capturing
everything from Beethoven's most bombastic leanings in the Emperor Concerto to his quieter, more ruminative solo
passages for the piano in all five of these concerti.
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