Lars Vogt’s phrasing in the Schumann Concerto flip-flops between militant (the brusque, in-tempo introductory measures and the machine-like 16th-note patterns in the flippantly-paced Finale) and mannered (his fanciful accentuation and languid lyrical passages). For his part Simon Rattle eggs his soloist on with like-minded dynamic swells in both directions, exaggerated brass balances, and little sense of the music’s surging impetus. The Intermezzo’s big C major tune, for instance, passes by without expressive incident from the strings in those long interval leaps. Turn to Serkin/Ormandy and Neumann/Moravec for the vibrant tenderness behind the notes.
Many of the same criticisms can be leveled at Vogt and Rattle’s hyper-phrased Grieg Concerto, where ear-catching local details and dynamic hairpins are underlined to the point of distraction, like pop-up captions in music videos. On the other hand, important rhythmic figures (the woodwind chords at the Finale’s outset, for instance) often lack sharpness and direction. There are too many excellent recordings of these concertos, both individually released and coupled, to consider Vogt/Rattle as anything but a fascinating but flawed supplement. My reference favorites remain Andsnes (Virgin), Rubinstein (RCA), and Michelangeli (BBC) in the Grieg, and for the Schumann, the aforementioned Serkin and Moravec recordings. If you desire the works coupled, Arrau/Dohnanyi (Eloquence), Fleisher/Szell (Sony), Perahia/Davis (Sony), and Lupu/Previn (Decca) top my list.
