Uli Schneider’s arrangements of Beethoven’s first two piano concertos for string quintet and piano serve little purpose other than to prove that Beethoven’s originals are superior. Out of necessity, the arranger incorporates the piano in the first movement ritornellos, a strategy that totally nullifies the dramatic and textural intent behind Beethoven’s piano/orchestra dialectic. On top of that, I find little to enjoy in the performances, which scarcely convey the music’s scampering joy and tender lyricism. The Bremen Soloists’ wiry sonority and occasional rhythmic instability (their slight accelerations at measure 23 and at similar places in the B-flat concerto’s Rondo, for instance) don’t help matters. As a piano playing machine, Fumiko Shiraga’s finger work is frighteningly polished and poised, note-pluperfect, gorgeously modulated in tone–and utterly, utterly faceless. If you’ve ever wondered what the Second Concerto’s wonderful cadenza might sound like depleted of its surging dynamism, heaven-shaking drama, and heart, here’s your chance to find out. If BIS plans a sequel, I recommend they record my own arrangement of the Brahms Second Concerto for piano, harmonium, French horn, clarinet, viola da gamba, Chapman stick, tam-tam, and the Swingle Singers. [Editor’s Note: I get to play the tam-tam, right Jed? –DH]
