Hard on the heels of Audite’s Mozart Concerto disc (Audite 95453) with Clifford Curzon and Rafael Kubelik comes this pairing of Beethoven’s last two Concertos for Piano, both from February, 1977 broadcast concerts. Curzon’s studio recordings of these works for Decca/London with Hans Knappertbusch, despite their elegant pianism, seem pale beside these live performances. Kubelik–perhaps assisted by the “live” setting–brings out fires in Curzon’s playing that were banked in the studio. Curzon’s typically understated opening to the Fourth is followed by a lovingly molded orchestral introduction, Kubelik putting just enough iron into the velvet glove to remind us we’re listening to Beethoven. Curzon gathers strength as the performance proceeds; his finale is powerfully inflected. The slow movement is duly dramatic here, the orchestral bullying never overdone, the piano’s sweet gains in confidence and strength beautifully accomplished.
In the “Emperor” Curzon’s grandiloquent opening, strong and characterful, is followed by sparkling keyboard runs. He’s masterly, too, in the cadenza that begins the Rondo, combining grand rhetoric with emphatic, color-laden phrasing. Here, his imaginative pianism matches that of Wilhelm Kempff on his justly famous DG recording with Ferdinand Leitner, and he outstrips Leon Fleisher, who’s opening Rondo is a bit lumpy in his otherwise excellent recording with George Szell. The Bavarian orchestra plays well if not with the virtuosity of Szell’s Clevelanders; they might have come over better if the stereo recording, acceptable as it is, were more refined and detailed.
