Culled from RCA 4-track prerecorded tapes, these remasterings are quite stunning, the forward presence of the Chicago Symphony woodwinds and strings ripe with piercing sonority from the opening of the Beethoven Concerto. Hendl pushes the tutti hard, the fortissimos setting up Graffman’s entry beautifully. Gary Graffman (b. 1928) would eventually move away from RCA to CBS as a recording artist, but these two inscriptions do not disappoint acoustically. The Beethoven sessions were meant to complement those of the Beethoven Concertos 4 & 5 with Cliburn and Reiner and the CSO.
Some elegant fioritura from Graffman: light, lithe, pointed. The sonic aura, based on the opening motif, around his trills wends especially elastic, then a huge thrust from Hendl for the tutti prior to the development section, with its famous key change. Piano, oboes, and tympani savor their interplay, a long series of trills to the secondary theme. Nice horns in the recapitulation section that leads to the full solo cadenza. The graduated series of runs and tympani exchanges to the final climax manages a fierce peroration. A deep, resonant patina for the E Major Largo, as Graffman and Hendl strike elegant dynamic balances. Flute, piano, and pizzicato strings provide a tender case in point. Graffman lets a playful dance element pervade the Rondo: molto allegro, with Hendl’s relishing the agitation and pomp the orchestral part. Light clarity in the strings and woodwinds for the exercises in counterpoint. Another sweet, alchemical mix of colors to the cadenza, with its quicksilver runs, a la Gradus as Parnassum, then whirling butterflies, with that four-note motif the Fifth Symphony would immortalize, to the ravishing finish.
Munch and Graffman opt for the abbreviated opening tutti for the Chopin Concerto, a transfer of which has been available through Haydn House, made from the RCA LP, not the precorded tapes. Despite the orchestral cut at the opening of the concerto, the ambiance between Graffman’s solo part and the surrounding instrumental tissue shimmers, as only the BSO can when in full tilt. The intermediary tutttis are large, with flute and strings in delicate balance, even as they dissipate for the piano’s entry with the French horn. Graffman supplies plenty of digital panache, certainly; but his strong suit here is intimacy and vocal refinement. When the textures thin out, we find ourselves in a Parisian salon, privy to quiet poetry. The quick passages display a fine tension and nervous energy I find consistently exhilarating. Both Graffman and Munch bask in the Mediterranean harmonies of the Largo, where sylvan forms and zephyrs reside. The melody spins out in an inexhaustible array of tender coloration. The Chopin of the brilliant waltzes and sophisticated, musical parlor magic returns for the Rondo, which Graffman and Munch realize with alternate glitter and ceremonial splendor. Graffman’s attacks are crisp, the passing grace notes and ornaments articulate. The string ostinati and woodwind intrusions in the second theme keep our ears fixated on the deft interplay of the piano’s streamlined upper register and the mix of colors that undergird Chopin’s Polish national character.
— Gary Lemco
