Wilhelm Kempff’s concerto recordings from the 1950s (gathered here complete) all testify to the pianist’s intimate style of music making and ravishing tonal palette. His 1953 cycle of Beethoven concertos allows for more rhetorical wiggle room than his tighter-knit, better known stereo remakes. As with the later versions, Kempff supplies his own tasteful cadenzas. Similarly, the timbral differentiation characterizing the best fortepianos comes through in Kempff’s sensitively sculpted Mozart playing, abetted by reduced orchestral forces.
Strange that Kempff usually excelled in solo Brahms and Schumann, yet these same composers’ respective D minor and A minor concertos find the pianist below his best form. His fingers seem overtaxed by the Schumann first movement’s dotted chords, while Brahms’ tumultuous climaxes require more heft and heroic sweep than Kempff can muster (the turgid orchestra playing doesn’t help, either). Yet he provides these qualities in spades throughout both Liszt concertos. Here Kempff’s virtuosity not only rises to but transcends the composer’s demands, fusing poetry, panache, and a rainbow of colors to indelible effect. DG’s splendid transfers improve on previous CD and LP masterings. This is self-recommending for Kempff acolytes, especially in the Beethoven, Mozart, and, of course, the Liszt.
