Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 [CD]

A brisk and dynamic Emperor, crisply articulated and strongly accented, with full due given to the brass and woodwinds. This is obviously a historically-informed performance and Zinman mixes modern instruments and natural trumpets and horns. From the typically dry sound of his timpani I suspect that they are period timps with natural skins, or at least that they are struck with wooden sticks. But for the "traditionalists" who'd be tempted to find the approach excessively rushed and perverted by the evil influence of period practice, Zinman's first movement clocks at 19:26, to be compared to Casadesus-Mitropoulos' 18:50 in 1955 (Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / De Falla), Horowitz-Reiner's 18:55 in 1952 (Horowitz Collection - Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1/Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 "The Emperor"), Schnabel-Galliera's 19:07 in 1947 (I have it in a very poor transfer on a bootleg label for which I won't provide a link, and I haven't heard Schnabel's two other recordings, with Sargent in 1932 and Stock ten years later), Katz-Barbirolli's 19:20 in 1959 (Barbirolli: Music of Beethoven) and Fleisher-Szell's same two years later (Beethoven: The 5 Piano Concertos/Mozart: Concerto No.25). The same comparisons could be made in the finale, but I'll stop pestering with statistics. But beyond the brisk tempo and dynamic approach, the instrumental felicities are too numerous to mention; suffice to say that Zinman shows an admirable attention to the details of Beethoven's scoring and articulation, and that the bassoon - not usually the most exposed instrument in the orchestra - has great character. Bronfman plays with an equally admirable palette of color and articulation, and knows how to relax without lingering in the more lyrical or dreamy moments. Again the tempo in the slow movement is flowing, more than any of the above-mentioned versions except Casadesus' (in both his recordings, with Mitropoulos and Rosbaud, Robert Casadesus - Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 " Emperor ", Piano Sonata Op. 101), but Bronfman is entirely up to the movement's restraint and dreamy atmosphere, and with a clarity of articulation that irresistibly brings to mind the slow movement of Ravel's Concerto in G (although, by Ravel's own admission, it was inspired by the slow movements of Mozart's Piano concertos - but hearing Bronfman and Zinman, it is obvious that Ravel was wrong, and that his unconscious model was really here).

The Choral Fantasy is equally outstanding. It starts with a very brisk and dramatic introductory cadenza, and continues with the same brisk tempos, playing up the contrast between the urgent and almost menacing orchestral phrases, and the lyrical and pensive responses from the piano (a process typical of the slow movement of the 4th piano concerto). Zinman conducts with great drive, muscle and snap. Especially noteworthy is the piquancy and zest of woodwinds, and the unique military atmosphere of the Marcia (12:52), highlighted again by the dry thunder of the period timps, evoking (quite appropriately I think) Berlioz' "Symphonie funèbre et triomphale". Again, the historically-informed nature of this performance is shown by the flourishes from flute, oboe, clarinet and violin at cadential points (respectively 5:24, 5:55, 6:20, 6:50), and likewise with the piano at 15:43. My only minor complaint then would be that the soloists from the chorus are in a strange perspective relative to the piano, separated from the chorus and very close to the listener. It makes their lines very clear, but the whole perspective sounds somewhat artifical. But the soloists are excellent, especially the two most exposed, first soprano and first tenor, and so is the chorus. The coda has irresistible drive.

I'm glad that this CD gave me the additional opportunity and pleasure to hear again Beethoven's choral work after two poems by Goethe, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. I hadn't heard it for years (the recording of Michael Tilson Thomas, Beethoven: Late Choral Music), and must not have listened very carefully back then (but then, you didn't have the internet to download the scores from in those days). It is a masterpiece, equal to any of Beethoven. It is Haydn's Schöpfung in miniature. Its first part, a musical depiction of silence upon the sea which may be the silence of death (the English title doesn't hint that it is the dead calm that becalms the ship), is breathtakingly daring. And when the dark skies break up and the land is in view, the explosion is like the jubilation of resurrection. Texts unfortunately not provided, I fished on the internet.

In the earlier days of the LP, things were clearly binary: you had the great performers and orchestras with the big labels at full price, and the lesser orchestras and performers on the cheap and sub-par labels. Not anymore. Zinman's Beethoven cycle is a major undertaking, worthy to be in anybody's collection, and I'd be happy to live with this disc if I had only one version of these works. And if anybody can hear the difference between the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and a major orchestra, please let me know. Or better: the difference is that the Zurichers play with a clarity and crispness rarely encountered with larger and majorer symphony orchestras. And all that for the price of - well, just look. I feel guilty to pay so little for such outstanding quality.

It was not for the `Emperor' concerto that I bought this disc, because I already owned 24 versions of that. It was for the mini-cantata Calm Sea & Prosperous Voyage, which I may never have come across before, and as that came bundled with a cut-price Emperor I went for it. In the event I have got one of the best Emperors I have ever heard, ditto regarding the Choral Fantasia, and I guess as good a Calm Sea & P V, what little there is of it, as I am ever likely to encounter again.

Just a word of caution in case anyone starts by finding the recorded sound a little dull. I did at first, but by the time of the Choral Fantasia I was forgetting to notice that, and at the end of the disc I replayed the first movement of the concerto to check what I thought of the sound. It seemed fine to me this time, I should know by now that such impressions can vary with short-term acoustic conditions, but I keep forgetting that. Really, I have not a word of criticism to offer of this Emperor. It joins two dozen rivals with no outright winner in my collection, but it belongs right up there with Serkin and Michelangeli, the leaders of the pack so far. Those are outsize personalities, and Yefim Bronfman is not quite that, but he doesn't have to be. He is a major artist in his own right, and this is an account of one of Beethoven's greatest compositions that is full of life, power, conviction and insight. In a sense, I suppose, the Emperor concerto comes as near to playing itself as any major classic does. It doesn't pose any major questions of interpretation, but to say the least not just every major virtuoso can play it as well as Bronfman does. My admiration of this account is not a matter of box-ticking but of the player's conception of the work, but let me tick a few boxes just the same, because there are some major hurdles that he surmounts especially well.

Start with the rondo theme. The first record of this concerto that I owned, guided by the review in The Gramophone, was the Solomon/Menges version, and Solomon's delivery of the rondo theme is to this day the worst I ever heard. It was not long afterwards that I heard the best delivery of same, by one Rudolf Serkin then unknown to me, and the way he does it in his 1958 live performance with the RAI orchestra in Naples is still the best, even allowing for a wrong note after he has got the hardest part over. I see that Bronfman is a pupil of Serkin. He is no mere imitator, but he must have learned a lot, one thing being how to play that ultra-tricky passage at all, another being that the `ff' marking does not finish with the right-hand part but carries on for two more notes in the left. These days we should not tolerate any playing of the difficult passage in contrary motion, occurring twice in the first movement, that gives the LH part with less than full volume and a staccato touch; and again Bronfman comes up trumps. Particularly impressive too is his majestic delivery of the faux-bourdon effects in the coda of the first movement. The slow movement is outstandingly beautiful, rivalling Michelangeli and Gould even in the `nodding' effect near the end that so enraptured Berlioz in his Treatise on Instrumentation. The long trill towards the close of the whole work is superb, but so are Bronfman's trills all the way through, and indeed his entire technique is utterly assured.

The Choral Fantasia was the piece they used in Serkin's day to conclude the annual Marlboro festival, and it is one account from there that has been my `marker' performance for decades. Whether Bronfman ever attended Marlboro I don't know but I should be surprised if not. Once again I sense the influence of Serkin, once again this is no exercise in cloning but an original realisation, and in particular let me compliment the vocalists, who for some reason are ignored in the liner note. There is less for the vocalists to do in the little cantata with the long title simply because there is not much of that in the first place, but so far as I can tell they do it very well, and now I know a work by Beethoven that I didn't know yesterday. This disc seems to have been reissued with a different cover, but I don't suppose there has been any remastering as none would have been needed. In which case, hopefully, I can apply to that what I have said in the foregoing few paragraphs. It seems to be part of a series dedicated to Switzerland's oldest orchestra the Zurich Tonhalle, and in particular to the conductor David Zinman. They all acquit themselves well, but I hardly need say by now which performer it is that excites me. The note is in German and English. Its content is of no great consequence, saying how good the music is and how it does this then that then the other, as we can all hear for ourselves. More significant is the material on conductor soloist and orchestra, but as the singers are undeservedly ignored, let me repeat my short acknowledgement of their fine work, part of an issue that is in many ways quite exceptional. Perhaps the relabelling will help give Bronfman the higher public profile that I feel he may have been unjustly denied.