The chief distinguishing feature of this release is the recorded sound. Telarc has ideally captured a really natural balance between piano and orchestra. You really could enjoy these performances just for that, especially as John O’Conor’s warm, rich-toned playing fits the sonic environment like a glove. O’Conor clearly takes the more gentle Mozartean view of these works rather than the tempestuous Beethovenian one espoused by Fleisher and others. Everything is impeccably and artfully phrased, and O’Conor’s musicianship is beyond reproach. That said–and in marked contrast to his 1980s Beethoven sonata cycle for this same label–you’ll find precious little that’s distinctly individual or uniquely exciting.
The same goes for the orchestral accompaniment. Andreas Delfs is content to present the music with poise and polish, with nary an accent more jolting than necessary. Concerto No. 1 comes off best, as it’s the most volatile of the set (though I’d hesitate to describe the performance as “volatile”). The playing on the part of both O’Conor and the London Symphony is so ingratiating (the orchestra sounds fabulous in the outer movements) that you momentarily forget about the more spiky renditions available. No. 3 doesn’t dispel such memories (even though O’Conor’s poignant phrasing of the slow movement’s main theme is quite alluring), and unfortunately No. 4 pales beside the stimulating performances by Fleisher, Serkin, Arrau, and Kempff, among those that come immediately to mind. Slow tempos and rather inert phrasing mar O’Conor’s rendition (listen to the dull and generalized string playing at the start of the second movement, which precedes the pianist’s suprisingly tensionless cadenza). The finale suffers from similar stuffiness. But, as I said above, it all sounds wonderful.
