Benno Moiseiwitsch was one of the most eloquent and aristocratic of Romantic pianists, and his recordings have garnered recent attention from reissue firms like Arbiter, Pearl, APR, and Testament. By the 1950s, however, Moiseiwitsch’s imposing technique had lost some of its dash and scintillation, as borne out in this long-out-of-print 1953 Schumann Concerto. To be sure, the pianist makes beautiful sounds, and the music’s inherent lyricism spins out in unhurried paragraphs. But there’s a lack of vitality and thrust, exaggerated perhaps by poorly balanced engineering that shoves the piano in the background. The Grieg Concerto fares much better on the pianist’s part, and Otto Ackermann elicits more disciplined, alert playing from the Philharmonia Orchestra. While the overall pace is slower compared to Moiseiwitsch’s 1941 recording (reissued on APR), the soloist has more breathing room here. As Bryce Morrison points out in his booklet notes, Moiseiwitsch dolls up the first movement cadenza’s harmonies and textures near the end. Schumann’s F-sharp Romance and Vogel als Prophet date from Moiseiwitsch’s prime recording years in the early 1940s, and enjoy their quietest transfers to date. Likewise, a pair of delightful bon-bons by Selim Palmgren are served on an elegant musical featherbed. Let’s hope that APR or Testament will now bring us Moiseiwitsch’s post-war Chopin Preludes, never reissued complete.
