Great recordings of Beethoven's 4th and 5th Piano Concertos.
Alan Majeska | Bad Axe, MI, USA | 04/18/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Maurizio Pollini (born 1942) recorded Beethoven's 4th and 5th Piano Concertos with the aging Karl Bohm (1894-1981) and the Vienna Philharmonic in the late 1970s. The combination of youthful, Italianate, Classical Pollini and elderly, Austrian/Germanic, more Romantic Bohm was an ideal meeting of minds and talents which resulted in wonderful Beethoven recordings, here offered at budget price in a French DG issue.
I hope DG will also bring out the Pollini/Bohm/Vienna Beethoven Piano Concerto 3, recorded about the same time.
From my reading, the Bohm recordings of Beethoven concertos with Pollini are the ones to have. Sadly, Mr. Bohm passed away (August, 1981) before he and Pollini could record Beethoven Concertos 1 and 2, so Pollini recorded them with Eugen Jochum and the Vienna Philharmonic. Results were less than the Bohm led concertos, unfortuneately. And Pollini's mid 1990s Beethoven Concerto cycle with Abbado/Berlin Philharmonic (DG) recorded live in concert, is not on this high level.
Hold out for these recordings, and look for a copy of Pollini/Bohm Beethoven Piano Concerto 3, available on DG CD in 1992, but deleted for years now."
The only complaint is the combination.
Abel | Hong Kong | 05/14/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Great performances by Karl Boehm and Pollini in Beethoven's No. 4 and No. 5 concerti.
Richter's No. 3 with Kurt Sanderling with the VSO, in my view, is NOT on this level. Perhaps NOT on the level of Boehm and Pollini's No. 3, though not as great a difference.
Why? Mainly, it is the choice of tempo. Sanderling's first movement of the 3rd Concerto simply lacked momentum right from the start. Things improved from the 3rd movement onward, but all in all, the entire piece falls short of being top-notch when compared with the like of Kempff, Gulda or Pollini's.
Then Kempff's No. 4 with Leitner. Boehm and Pollini's No. 4 is every bit on par with that recording, though may not be for the Kempff-van Kampen version. The Gulda and Stein's No.4 does not surpass Boehm and Pollini's, either.
Again, I fail to undertand why there could be the comment of 'lack of originality'. Who is Pollini and Boehm 'copying' from? At whom had Beethoven been copying from?
As to the comment of inertia, it is even more puzzling for me, since there is not one bar in the performance that appears so to me.
As for the later recording with Pollini with Abbado, I would say that it is very very close to this earlier one, but again, not surpassing this.
The No. 5 has been coupled with another Boehm-Pollini work - Mozart NO. 23.
Perhaps, the best bargain for buyers is for a double CD of all the Bohem-Pollini Beethoven concerti instead. Note also, that you'd NOT get the Beethoven No. 4 on the double DVD set.
So that's the major complaint, which has nothing to do with the performances at all."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1