Can you hear Rubinstein in Barenboim?

Can you hear Rubinstein in Barenboim?

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norman lebrecht

May 08, 2020

Welcome to the 68th work in the Slipped Disc/Idagio Beethoven Edition

Piano concerto no 3 in C minor, opus 37 (1801)

The first of his concertos to display Beethoven’s modernity – as distinct from its predecessors that were Haydnesque and classical – the  C minor concerto gives us nonetheless and early nod in its opening theme to Mozart’s 24th concerto, in the selfsame key.

He premiered it in a concert in April 1803 together with his second symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, presumably as the lightest of three novelties, and we have a vivid account from his Kapellmesiter, Ignaz Seyfried, just how it went:

In playing the concerto movements he asked me to turn the pages for him; but – heaven help me — that was no easy thing. I saw almost nothing but empty sheet; at most on one page or other a few Egyptian hieroglyphs wholly incomprehensible to me scribbled down to serve as clues to himself; he played nearly all of the solo part from memory, since, as was often the case, he had not had time to put it all on paper. He gave me a secret glance whenever he reached the end of one of the invisible passages; my visible anxiety not to miss a vital moment amused him greatly and he laughed heartily over it at the jovial supper which we ate later.

He gave the second performance to his pupil Ferdinand Ries, telling him to write his own cadenza. Beethoven rejected his first effort and warned that the second one might be too difficult. When Ries attempted it anyhow, Beethoven leaped to his feet to lead the applause, only to tell Ries afterwards that if he had played a wrong note ‘I would never have given you another lesson.’ These freeze-frames of Beethoven in action are inordinately valuable, illustrating at once his perfectionism, his fundamental friendliness and his propulsive futurism. Every work he wrote from now on addresses a new century, a new generation, untold hopes and aspirations.

There are well over a hundred recordings to choose from, a field made all the more crowded by the same pianist reverting to this compelling concerto over and over again. There are eight recordings listed on Idagio by Claudio Arrau, five by Emil Gilels, six by Arthur Rubinstein. I am tempted to throw my hands in the air and continue with yesterday’s recommendation for Radu Lupu, who in Beethoven can do no wrong. But which Lupu? His tempi in the 1970 London Symphony Orchestra recording conducted by Lawrence Foster are more than usually distended, whether at his insistence or the conductor’s. In the 1981 version with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic the quality of silence for which Lupu is most famous transcends any monor reservations about the less-than-gleaming orchestral quality.

This concerto was one of Arthur Schnabel’s greatest accomplishments, demonstrating the full gamut of his thoughtfulness and his playfuless as well as the different colour he could derive from his keyboard. Although he re-recorded the concerto twice after the War with superior sound and Georg Szell and Issay Dobrowen as conductors, his original take from 1933 with Malcolm Sargent bears the mark of Schnabel at his most commanding, intriguing and entertaining.

Clara Haskil, a Rumanian-Jewish pianist with an unassailable feel for Mozart, gave a legendary account of Mozart’s C minor and is no less evocative in Beethoven’s. The last of her three recordings, made in 1959 with Igor Markevitch and the undistinguished Lamoureux Orchestra of Paris, exists in a time frame all its own, as if conductor and soloist agreed to ignore all tempo markings and let it take as long as it took. The performance is a marvel, a museum object in a custom-made case. Haskil, who lived almost all her life in ungenteel Swiss poverty, was just coming into her own when a fall on icy steps at Brussels rail station led to her death at the age of 65. Her friend Charles Chaplin said: ‘In my lifetime I have met three geniuses; Professor Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Clara Haskil.’

There are two schools of thought about Claudio Arrau. One holds that his 1957 recording with Otto Klemperer at London’s Royal Festival Hall is the definitive interpretation of this concerto. The other maintains that his performance with Bernard Haitink and the Concertgebouw is the greatest since sliced bread. The latter has much better sound. Haitink can certainly claim to be the most patient accompanist ever to mount a podium, so intense is Arrau’s introspection.

The Hungarian Annie Fischer is another who defies the march of time. Her 1957 Berlin recording with her compatriot Ferenc Fricsay is a joy from top to finish. Grim as the times were for East European artists, this pair transcended their circumstances in art of magisterial quality.

I am missing on Idagio a rare recording of the British wartime lioness Myra Hess with Arturo Toscanini. It’s out there, somewhere.

If I had to choose just one of the Glenn Gould recordings it would be the Herbert von Karajan Berlin Philharmonic production of 1957 in which soloist and conductor are on different planets in the middle movement and barely commuicating in the finale. The sound is fairly rough. His New York retake two years later with Leonard Bernstein is more serious, albeit less sulphurous.

Here are some more you should not miss. The otherworldly Arturo Benedetti Michaelangeli with Carlo-Maria Giulini and a Vienna orchestra in 1987, like a pair of tourists in a casino, always ready for one last fling. The shortlived Dino Ciani on a shocking Italian piano. The feather-fingered Rudolf Firkusny with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by George Szell at the 1963 Salzburg Festival. The mature Martha Argerich in 2004 with Claudio Abbado, a lifelong ally. The fastidious Pierre-Laurent Aimard with Nikolaus Harnoncourt in a memorable cycle that balanced historical practice with modern sensibilities. And the ursine Yefim Bronfman in David Zinman’s Zurich set that outdid the period experts at their own game. All epic and amazing.

Yet if you woke me up in the middle of the night and demanded a Beethoven C minor the first name to blurt from my lips would be Arthur Rubinstein. An entertainer to his core, Rubinstein never undersold the essential idealism of Beethoven and Brahms but showed that one did not have to frown in order to achieve seriousness of purposeness. He recorded the C minor concerto variously with Toscanini, Krips, Leinsdorf, Ormandy and more but the one that brings out the best in him is the fatherly performance that he gave in 1976 with the young Daniel Barenboim and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, a transmission of great tradition from one master-pianist to the next. And still fabulously entertaining. Listen to it now, and you’d think it’s Barenboim who’s playing.

 

Comments

  • DML says:

    Solomon?

  • fflambeau says:

    Very nice.

  • MezzoLover says:

    Clara Haskil’s recording of the C minor concerto with Igor Markevitch has always been the gold standard for me. It also held a very special place in the life of her dear friend Charlie Chaplin.

    Haskil moved to Vevey, Switzerland on Lake Geneva to escape the Nazi’s in 1942. Chaplin, on the other hand, purchased an estate in Vevey in 1953 after learning, during his stay in London for the premiere of “Limelight”, that his re-entry into the United States had been revoked due to his political views. In his autobiography, he describes his meeting Haskil via a new friend, a local businessman and music enthusiast Emile Rossier. Chaplin writes:

    “…and whenever in town, Clara and both the Rossier families would come to dinner and afterwards Clara would play for us. Although past 60, she was at the apogee of her career and having her greatest triumphs both in Europe and America. But in 1960 she slipped off the step of a train in Belgium and was taken to the hospital, where she died. Often I play her records, the last she made before her death. Before I started the task of rewriting this manuscript for the sixth time, I put on Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Clara at the piano and Markevitch conducting – which to me is as near an approximation of truth as any great work of art could be and which has been a source of encouragement for me to finish this book.”

    Four months after Haskil’s death, on Swiss radio, Chaplin said, “In my lifetime I have met three geniuses; Professor Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Clara Haskil. I am not a trained musician but I can only say that her touch was exquisite, her expression wonderful, and her technique extraordinary.”

    Today, the street where Haskil’s home is located in Vevey is named rue Clara Haskil. It was a mandatory stop for me on every trip I’ve taken to Vevey. She is closer to being a saint for me than anyone in my pantheon of musical greats.

  • STEPHEN BIRKIN says:

    You’ll find a couple of copies of this partnership and concerto on eBay (CD transfer) – both cheap with free postage.

  • STEPHEN BIRKIN says:

    Further to my earlier submission, I meant the Hess/Toscanini recording. Hope this helps.

  • Novagerio says:

    Great text. I would add the mercurial Richter on DGG with Sanderling, and the younger and more spontaneous Brendel with Heinz Wallberg on Vox, both with the Vienna Symphony in the early 1960’s.

  • Jan Kaznowski says:

    Hess / Toscanini is publically available :
    https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/beethovenwagner-orchestral-works

  • F. P. Walter says:

    I agree: Rubinstein’s final No 3 is genuinely magical — it’s not only the pinnacle of his Beethoven five with Barenboim, it’s his most riveting performance of the piece overall. The presto finish is both cheeky and note-perfect, the soft playing in the Allegro’s development astonishingly spooky and suspenseful – and when this material reemerges after the cadenza, it’s floated and sustained with such mastery, you literally hold your breath.

  • Fred Wanger says:

    A very odd Fleisher/Szell omission??

  • Eyal Braun says:

    There are ,of course, many others: If I had to choose only one recording of the C minor concerto- it would probably be the Murray Perahia RCOHaitink.

    I would add to the list of great recordings of the concerto: both Uchida’s recordings ( with Sandrling and Rattle ), the two Kempff recordings, Zimerman Bernstein and finally, Pires’ beautiful recording with Daniel Harding.

  • Edgar Self says:

    It’s the last Classical piano concerto in the form Mozart developed. From Schnabel and Rubinstein-Toscanini on, four recordings are unusually interesting for those who love this work:

    Michelangeli-Giulini, Benno Moiseiwitsch/Malcolm Sargent with Carl Reinecke’s marvelous cadenza that Backhaus also uses, and Edwin Fischer leading the Philharmonia and playing his own marvelous caddenza, with a surprise borrowed from orchestral material the piano hasn’t had before.

    The fourth is Marc-Andre Hamelin’s live Wigmore Hall recording on of a transcription by Charles Valentin Alkan of the first movement only, with a stupendous 10-minute cadenza by Alkan that eventually brings in the riumphant theme from the finale of the fifth symphony, no less. Hearing is believing. Alkan, recital partner of Chopin and Liszt, was the only pianist Liszt admitted feeling nervous playing fo.r

    The key, and the resemblance of the opening theme to that of Mozart’s 24th concerto in C minor, together with Beethoven’s remark on returning from a performance of the Mozart that “we’ll never get an idea as good as that” seal the kinship.

    Among modern recordings, I’ve heard I like Francois-Frederic Guy and Paul Lewis, but it’s the concerto itself I love and am glad to hsear anyone play. .

  • geoff says:

    I was at this concert in 1957. Claudio Arrau was bouncing up and down on his piano stool as he played the cadenza, and Otto turned around and raised his considerable eyebrows as if to say “what is this tiny little man doing”. I was very close, was the front row cheaper on the night? Klemp was my man to see in those days

  • Alexander Tarak says:

    From one overrated pianist to the next IMO.
    (Rubenstein couldn’t hold a candle to the likes of Gilels, Richter,
    Arrau, Michelangeli, his nemesis Horowitz etc…..)
    As for Barenboim……

  • Brendel says:

    Alfred Brendel really owned this piece ..

    • Alexander Tarak says:

      Another very overrated pianist.

      • Fs says:

        How is he overrated if he’s conspicuously not mentioned in an article on great performances of this particular p.c. which he did indeed own. Just tune in to his spellbinding performance
        of this work with Abbado on YT.

  • Piano Fan says:

    I agree in recommending Rubinstein’s recording of the C minor with Barenboim. Sadly, it is Rubinstein’s only successful performance in that final cycle, which is otherwise cautiously bogged down.

    I’d also recommend Backhaus, Kempff, and Fleisher.

  • David K. Nelson says:

    If you know Rubenstein/Toscanini from the original 78s, it is very disheartening and disappointing – the sound is dead and dull and the side endings are like arbitrary karate chops. The interpretation makes no sense, and I write that as someone very comfortable with listening to lengthy works on 78 rpm discs.

    Hearing RCA Victor’s CD reissue as part of their Toscanini collection, coupled with Heifetz/Toscanini in the Violin Concerto, was quite a revelation to me. They clearly did not look to the shellacs or 78rpm masters but rather a broadcast tape or acetate, and the greater air and life to the sound make all the difference. It is still not perhaps all it could be as a unified interpretation, but it is a vivid reminder about how much the recorded sound influences how we absorb the performance.

    The recording I liked most growing up was also on RCA Victor: Gary Graffman’s recording with Walter Hendl and the Chicago Symphony.

  • Edgar Self says:

    Professional reviewers complain the piano is out of tune on Rubinstein/Toscanini, although I hardly notice it. My sister, who had absolute pitch, would have gone mad. Some thought she did, to be a pianist rather than a violinist., I mean. Oh.

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