Rubinstein Piano Concertos 2 & 4

[John Boyer]

This is a very beautiful recording of PC4. Does it lack elan? I did wonder about this, but the orchestral contribution is very fine...

I agree, Alan.  You called it.  The orchestral sound is indeed vivid and detailed, but as a whole the performance lacks spirit.  It's curiously emotionless.  We've heard better.

I also took exception to two points of interpretation.  First, in the coda of the finale they play a little fast and loose with rubato, which does little to liven up what to that point has felt like a note-perfect but perfunctory run-through.  Second, I don't like the way the pianist voices the second half of the first theme of the first movement.  (As a side light, Barlow and Morgenstern, in their indispensable Dictionary of Musical Themes, label this "1st Theme B", and I've always wondered if the opening theme, labeled "1st Theme A", should be considered entirely separate.)  In the development section of the work, the violins and the piano engage in a dialogue, the violins playing what at first glance is a new theme, the piano answering with "1st Theme B".  You can see and hear this just after the 5:30 mark in this YouTube post of the Lewenthal/Carvalho recording:

Lewenthal/Carvalho recording of the Rubinstein 4th

However, the violin part is not a new theme.  It's actually the counter-melody of 1st Theme B that plays in the bass when the theme was first introduced in the exposition.  Go to 1:49 of the above, and you'll see it in the bass and hear Lewenthal give it a good deal of prominence.  When 1st Theme B returns in the development, Rubinstein removes it from the bass.

In this latest CPO disc, the pianist treats that counter-melody strictly as a harmony part, reducing it to near inaudibility.  All attention is on the treble line.  The effect is that when we come to the violin/piano dialogue in the development, we lose the connection between the violin melody and the piano's response.  Rubinstein, in one of his cleverest passages, is breaking apart his material to show that the counter-melody, originally played simultaneously as counterpoint, can now stand independent of of its original purpose.  This emphasis, as I said, is missing in the new disc.

Alan's assessment is correct: beautifully recorded, but no elan.

[Alan Howe]

Just shows: we really do need first-class performances of unsung music. How often do we have to accept second-best?

[Ilja]

Of course, a first-class (in terms of the class of performers) performance can still be unsatisfying. For instance, I don't think anyone can complain about the stature of the performers in Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto series, but it still had its duds. This is a similar case because having heard it I can only agree that it lacks the necessary urgency. This isn't necessarily deep music, but it should be played with energy and conviction. In that respect, the difference between Nosrati and Hamelin (in PC4) is night and day.

[Alan Howe]

Agreed. We need first-class performances whoever the artists involved may be.

[eschiss1]

And the pieces, too!

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree entirely with the criticisms of Nosrati's performance of PC4. However, by contrast I rather like her in PC2 - the tempi are brisker and lighter (the orchestral contribution is excellent) and the whole concerto seems to take on a new life, at least compared with the rather stodgy performance by Banowetz.

[eschiss1]

That said, I still remember when we weren't spoiled for choice in complete recordings of these concertos, even if of course it would be good to have a really excellent complete set. Not an expert though myself. (I've heard the piano sonatas he wrote more often than his concertos- and a "definitive" complete set of those would be nice, too, though the Hyperion one is very good.)

[John Boyer]

...However, by contrast I rather like her in PC2...the whole concerto seems to take on a new life...

Agreed.  I will never like the 2nd Concerto, but this is the most convincing performance of it that I have heard.  Credit, then, where credit is due.

[Alan Howe]

I had a listen to Hamelin's recording of PC4 - great pianism, but I found the orchestral contribution somewhat lacking in glamour.