Classic

Brahms: Piano Concerto No 1 Curzon/ London Symphony Orchestra/ Szell (Decca)

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JOHANNES BRAHMS
Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
CÉSAR FRANCK
Symphonic Variations
HENRY LITOLFF
Scherzo from Concerto Symphonique No. 4

Clifford Curzon (piano)
London Symphony Orchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra
George Szell
Sir Adrian Boult

Artistin Quality 9
Sound Quality 9

George Szell owned the Brahms concerto. He recorded it three times in stereo, with Leon Fleischer, Rudolph Serkin, and in this version with Clifford Curzon. By general consensus the Fleischer recording is the finest, and it's available in a newly remastered release from Sony Masterworks Heritage. Despite Szell's best efforts, the London Symphony was no Cleveland Orchestra, though he does have them playing at the top of their early 1960s form. Curzon's performance of the solo part always has been admired for its naturalness, nobility of utterance, and discipline, and this remains not just one of his finest recordings, but certainly one of the outstanding versions of the concerto. Decca's remastered sound seems to focus on the piano at the expense of the orchestra, which sounds a might shrill in this transfer - but this is a minor defect at best. The two fillers are charming, and make a welcome bonus.
- David Hurwitz, www.classicstoday.com

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To this day, I know of no other recording of Brahms's D minor that so instantly takes fire and which burns thereafter with so pure and steady a flame. To all outward appearances, Curzon and Szell were an oddly contrasted couple; as the prophet Isaiah once expressed it: ""and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den"". Yet they worked wonderfully well together, in Mozart (I shall never forget a Salzburg Festival performance of his last Piano Concerto, K595 with Curzon, Szell and the Berlin Philharmonic), and here in Brahms.
The 1962 recording still comes up phenomenally well, despite some occasional muzzling of the orchestra's bass texturing. A merciful muzzling, you might think, given the frequency with which Szell detects and detonates the small arsenal of explosive devices Brahms has hidden in the undergrowth. We don't lack great recordings of this concerto, versions by Arrau, Gilels, Kovacevich and Serkin all quickly spring to mind. But this 1962 Decca version remains as collectable as any.
The fill-ups to the newly packaged CD are also welcome. The Franck is beginning to sound its age technically but the performance is charming. As for the Litolff, it is irresistible, a gem of a performance, well recorded."
From Gramophone

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