Like Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim seems to play Chopin’s concertos as if they had been composed by Brahms. You get outsized dynamics, emphatic accents, overly rhetorical underpinnings, plus little surface charm or scintillating delicacy. But whereas Arrau observed Chopin’s expressive markings to a fault, Barenboim does not consistently characterize such directives as “stretto”, “risoluto”, “con forza”, and “con fuoco” with the specificity of his own expressive conceits.
Arrau’s upholstered sonority may be too heavy to propel the music’s lighter passages forward, but at least he never bangs, while by contrast Barenboim tends to pound out and overpedal climaxes. This is particularly so in the E minor concerto’s outer movements. Barenboim similarly overphrases the F minor Rondo’s main theme to the point where the basic tempo’s lilting gait doesn’t quite take wing, while the Larghetto’s central octave outburst is appropriately dramatic but lacks the suppleness and long-lined shape that Argerich brings to the same passage.
Still, Barenboim always responds to the music’s extraordinary harmonic felicities, and one must credit Andris Nelsons’ excellent accompaniment, not to mention the Staatskapelle Berlin’s robust, vividly detailed string section and the first-desk soloists’ consistently strong presence. No doubt that these live 2010 Ruhr Festival performances hold your attention, but for a Chopin concerto coupling on DG that features more judicious solo/orchestra balances, lightness, and grace, the Lang Lang/Zubin Mehta/Vienna Philharmonic release is your best bet.
