Blown away by bits from Beethoven’s bottom drawer
Album Of The WeekFrom the Lebrecht Album of the Week
This weirdly unbalanced album opens with a live performance of Beethoven’s first piano concerto in and continues with solo pieces from the bottom drawer, some of which are little higher than kindergarten level in difficulty. No explanation is offered in the glossy booklet.
To work out what’s really going on….
Read on here.
En francais ici.
Don’t you really mean “bits from Beethoven’s bottom drawers”? The allusion would be even more apt!
“some of which are little higher than kindergarten level in difficulty.” So only difficult and, by implication, more complicated pieces are allowed to have musical merit?
I agree with this review, except for a few turns of phrase here and there.
Unlike some critics, I almost always can find something of interest in new commercial recordings, especially with conductors like Karina Canellakis, who have not recorded a particular concerto or orchestral work before.
Someone who hears it will like it, and someone will always dismiss it in some way. The constant refrain of some critics that certain orchestral works or concertos are over-recorded is only really true if one dislikes what is on display in the recording.
There’s an opportunity to hear Alice as the soloist in Liszt’s Totentanz with the LSO and Sir Antonio Pappano on Thursday and Friday at the Barbican
https://www.lso.co.uk/whats-on/questioning-everything-strauss-liszt-and-kendall-4-october/
I just listened to Bill McGlaughlin on radio gush with praise for Yannick’s Beethoven set of recordings with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He’s very knowledgeable. I listened to Yannick’s version of the 9th and found it impressive.
I listened to most of those very recent episodes of Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin. Bill is always interesting. I am not sure he “gush[ed] with praise for Yannick’s Beethoven set of recordings with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.” All nine Beethoven symphonies are of course included. McGlaughlin was certainly deferential to the performances.
However, with due allowance for improvements in recording quality, and different interpretive mindsets, I find the versions of Yannick to be well-drilled as expected, but rather anonymous. No one conductor can lead all of the Beethoven symphonies with equal interpretive insights, but in my view Yannick is still a bit outclassed by the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell, and Szell is not really one of my favorite conductors of the Beethoven symphonies. My two cents.
The Moonlight Sonata “the bottom drawer”?….