Ihr Spiel ist kraftvoll und zugleich differenziert wie ekstatisch. [...] Alles ist mitreißend gestaltet. Mit ihrem hoch virtuosen und suggestivem Spiel [...] Jedes Detail dieser Sätze leuchtet das Klavierduo kompromisslos und mit durchhörbarer Klangschärfung aus. Die Vermittlung der Entschlossenheit des Gestaltens und die klangliche Ausgewogenheit im Duospiel machen diese Einspielung zu einem Muss für jede Phonothek.

Intensive Spannungen gehen einher mit exquisiter Homogenität. Nie die große Phrase aus den Augen verlierend, wird das Vorwärtsdrängen der Musik und die dynamisch feurige Dramatik in ihren Interpretationen besonders spürbar. [...] Die Wiederbelebung dieser alten Aufnahmen, die in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Deutschlandradio Kultur entstanden, sind ein absolutes Muss für jeden Musikliebhaber und jede Plattensammlung.

Last year, for our weekly feature ‘MusicWeb International Recommends’, reviewers were asked to nominate a version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. My recommendation was this live 1954 performance, set down on 22 August 1954, at the Lucerne Festival, by the Philharmonia under Wilhelm Furtwängler. It has had several incarnations on silver disc from labels such as Tahra, Music and Arts and also from Audite, who released their CD version last year. For vinyl enthusiasts, like myself, this 2LP set is enthusiastically welcomed.

According to Herbert Haffner, in his book about the conductor, Furtwängler performed the symphony 103 times, and there are about twelve extant taped performances. The conductor was averse to the sterile conditions afforded by the recording studio and, whilst he did make studio recordings of most of Beethoven’s symphonies, the ninth, together with the second are exceptions. With the former, he felt that it was a work that benefited from the spontaneity of the live event, and his recorded legacy of this particular symphony comprises live airings only. Berta Geissmar, his secretary and business manager, maintained that Furtwängler regarded a performance of the Ninth Symphony as 'a sacred occasion’. Another reason for his dislike of the studio stemmed from his animosity towards HMV’s producer Walter Legge who, in the conductor’s eyes, promoted his chief rival and bête noire, Karajan.

The significance of this 1954 performance is that it was Furtwängler’s last — he would be dead three months later. One can regard it as his valedictory pronouncement. I have been familiar with it for many years from the Tahra issue (FURT 1003), and it is the conductor’s finest realization of the Symphony. Aside from this, there are two other live airings which I’m particularly fond of: the 1942 Berlin Philharmonic, and the 1951 Bayreuth Festival. What gives this 1954 Lucerne Festival the edge is the improved sound, and the greater spiritual and transcendental qualities with which Furtwängler invests the score.

Despite the conductor’s failing health, the reading has vim and vigour, with no sense of fatigue. His stamina is evident in the muscularity, drive and pacing. Less visceral than in the 1942 Berlin performance, there is no terror or angst, and on the whole the effect is less frenetic. By 1954 there was an otherworldly and more profound spiritual dimension of nobility and humanity. Here, Furtwängler penetrates to the heart of the score, inspiring his players to a transcendental level. The Adagio is slower than we are used to today, but at no time does one detect a lack of pulse. The music just flows, unimpeded by bar lines until the trumpets enter at bar 120. Throughout the variations, transitions are negotiated superbly, with over-arching phrases. Any rubato that is applied is added tastefully and doesn’t stymie the fluidity of the line. The grandeur and drama of the finale is enhanced by a formidable vocal quartet and excellent choir. The Philharmonia are on top form, and Dennis Brain’s solo horn contribution in the Adagio is exemplary.

I’ve never heard the Audite CD version, but I did a head-to-head with my Tahra copy. The improvement in sound quality is remarkable on the LPs, which have a smoother, warmer and richer tone. The Tahra aural picture was coarse and rough-edged in comparison. The LPs also render enhanced spatial depth in the string tone, and the vocal contributions are more vivid and bright.

The 2 LPs are housed in a sturdy gatefold, and one movement of the Symphony is assigned to each side. Erich Singer’s informative annotations are in German, but translated into English. The sound quality is vivid, clear and spacious, with an expansive dynamic range, and I detected no congestion or overload in loud passages. Neither is there any hint of pre-echo. The LPs showcase the diaphanous woodwinds, burnished brass and rich velvet string tone, and all this adds to the potency and success of the mix. Audience noise in minimal. It is excellent in every way.

[Nelsovas] Spiel ist erdig gesättigt, melodiös lyrisch, von glühender Eindringlichkeit.

[...] hier wird auf allerhöchstem musikalischem Niveau gespielt.

Mit dem Trio Nr. 2 G-Dur op. 1,2 und dem späteren Trio Nr. 5 D-Dur, op. 70,1 wartet das ‘Swiss Piano Trio’ auf seiner zweiten Etappe durch Beethovens Klaviertrios auf. Die drei Musiker bleiben sich in ihrer Gegenüberstellung von Früh- und Spätwerken ebenso treu, wie in ihrer letztendlich formvollendeten, klassischen Betrachtung der Kompositionen.

Klassisch ist hier keinesfalls gleichzusetzen mit bieder, poliert, ohne Ecken und Kanten. Geschliffen ist allenfalls der Klang, der ebene Duktus der Tongebung. Darüber hinaus bietet uns das ‘Swiss Piano Trio’ im G-Dur-Trio ein äußerst lustvolles Musizieren, romantisch und stürmisch im Eingangs-Allegro und furios, mitreißend durch die Betonung unscheinbarer Motivstrukturen im Finale presto.

Im reiferen, ausdrucksstärkeren 5. Klaviertrio unterstreichen die Interpreten ihren intuitiven Sinn für Spannung und Rhetorik. Die klassische Leichtigkeit weicht hier einer wesentlich expressiveren Klangsprache – strenger, herber und kraftvoller im Ton – die dennoch in der klassischen Klangrede des ‘Swiss Piano Trio’ ein passendes Sprachrohr findet.

Winningly expansive and effective performances, marked by eloquence and vividness.

Jüngst hat sich nun Hans-Eberhard Roß [...] der Herausforderung einer Einspielung aller sechs Symphonien Louis Viernes gestellt, deren erste CD hier zu besprechen ist, und er kann dafür auch triftige Gründe vorweisen. Einer der wichtigsten ist das Instrument, das ihm zur Verfügung steht: eine prächtige Goll-Orgel in einem auch akustisch für die große Orgel-Symphonik französischer Provenienz geeigneten Kirchenraum. Ein hohes Maß an virtuosem Können, die zweite Grundvoraussetzung, steht ihm ohne Einschränkungen zu Gebote. Kommt dann noch die notwendige stilistische Sensibilität hinzu, steht einer hörenswerten Interpretation nichts mehr entgegen, natürlich unter der Voraussetzung, dass auch die Aufnahmequalität nichts zu wünschen übrig lässt. Letzteres ist anstandslos der Fall: Sie wirkt sehr plastisch, gleichwohl nicht übertransparent, und lässt noch genügend majestätisch-kathedraleske Atmosphäre zu.

In a letter to BjØrnstjerne BjØrnson, Grieg assigned each of these sonatas – the heart of his chamber music – to one of his three creative phases. He described the F major (1865, written when he was only 22) as 'naive, rich in models'; the 1867 G major as 'nationalistic' (his mentor Niels Gade was to chide him after the premiere not to 'make the next sonata so Norwegian'); and the much later C minor (1887), immediately the most popular, as 'the one with the broader horizon'.

Mainline European (ie from south of Scandinavia) recorded performances often weigh down Grieg's naturally lighter melodic invention by pushing all out for the grand and the serious, seemingly in a kind of fear (once expressed even by past writers in these columns) that the music lacks form. In contrast, the approach taken by Scandinavian violinists such as Henning Kraggerud and Terje TØnnesen takes fullest account of (rather than trying to make more sophisticated) the dance rhythms that figure so prominently in the Allegretto of No 1 and the outer movements of No 2. Try the very start of an impressive recent contender – the young Norwegian Vilde Frang's 2011 Warner recording of No 1 – and you hear the difference immediately with the light touch of her bow after the false-key start.

The present recording certainly drives the works hard, with Pietsch's violin enjoying what moments of virtuosity there are, for example in the first movement of No 3. This German duo are not the last word in natural Grieg style but their tendencies towards over-weighty Brahmsian concert elevation of the scores are absorbed by exciting playing which feels very live, with a natural platform balance between instruments. Enjoyable – but I'd still choose Kraggerud for all three sonatas, supplementing with Vilde Frang for the First and the famous old Kreisler / Rachmaninov pairing in the Third.

Until now, the Georgian pianist Elisso Bolkvadze has recorded primarily for the Sony Classical Infinity Digital and Cascavelle labels. On her latest release, for Audite, she makes a number of highly original interpretative choices.

Her approach to the opening of Prokofiev's 1912 Second Sonata is redolent of Scriabin – plush, full-sounding and rife with detail. The rhythmic vitality of the Scherzo becomes waylaid by explorations of colouristic ornament and the misty haze enveloping the slow movement feels more French than Russian. The moto perpetuo of the finale rattles along at a splendid clip until it too is bogged down in an expressively overgrown contrasting section. In place of Prokofiev's brightly unambiguous colours and rhythmic elan vital, we encounter over-stuffed decor and aching expressivity.

The Schubert Impromptus are prevailingly lyrical, though the rhetorical eloquence and emotional urgency of each is diminished by indecisive rhythmic underpinning. For all its admirably vivid contrasts, the C minor Impromptu seems to wander, uncertain of its ultimate goal. The E flat Impromptu comes off as more notey than•fleet, while the abandon of its contrasting section is impeded by undue focus on inner voices. The golden melody of the beloved G flat major threatens to come untethered and float into the ether for lack of an adequately anchoring bass.

Throughout the disc, Bolkvadze's undeniably sensitive playing moves note to note. We are invited to admire each tree, if not each individual leaf, heedless of the magnificent forest surrounding us. Combined with a certain stylistic ambiguity with regard to both composers, the result lacks a strong personal stamp, prompting the question of just how fully Bolkvadze inhabits the music she plays.

As for alternatives in this music, both Frederic Chiu (Harmonia Mundi - nla) and Anne-Marie McDermott's complete Prokofiev cycles are of sustaining interest and Pletnev has a great deal to say in the Second Sonata. In the more personal realm of Schubert preferences, the performances of D899 by Maria-Joao Pires, Imogen Cooper and Vassily Primakov are more compelling.

The two concertos were recorded for DG a few years before these Lucerne Festival appearances. The Saint-Saens was recorded around 1960 for DG; this recording is from 1962. The Dvorak on DG was from 1962; this one is from 1967. The Saint-Saens is exactly half the length of the Dvorak, which lasts 37 minutes here.

You would expect a concert recording like this to be less than ideal in sound but perhaps more spontaneous. But there’s no predicting. The Saint-Saens sounds simply wonderful, and Martinon’s conducting is simply great. But the Dvorak is clearly inferior in sound to the DG—both cello and orchestra. And Istvan Kertesz was a fine conductor, but I’m afraid he is completely outshone by George Szell on DG, who has incredible fire and precision, who makes every moment and every instrument shine. If you have the DG Dvorak you certainly don’t need this. You might think a performance before an audience would be more exciting, but I assure you that Szell conducting this puts everyone else in the shade—and it’s the Berlin Philharmonic, too! The sheer quality of the orchestra is unbeatable. After all, this recording is simply the festival orchestra—unlike the Saint-Saens, which has the superb French Radio Orchestra under a great French conductor.
A four-minute encore is added (introduced by Fournier, whose French is as elegant and refined as his playing): the Pablo Casals ‘Song of the Birds’.