BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37; Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56 – Andres Diaz, cello/Chee-Yun violin/Camerata Ireland /Barry Douglas, piano and conductor – Satirino SR 073, 70:54 [www.satirino.fr] ****:
Barry Douglas, winner of the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, formed the Camerata Ireland in 1999 from “the wealth of Irish musical talent,” to quote Douglas. These Beethoven inscriptions derive from sessions at the Mahoney Hall, The Helix, Dublin 8-9 May 2007. Douglas concentrates on both beauty of tone and modesty of ensemble in these two Beethoven staples; rarely does he permit the Steinway to intrude onto the ensemble mix as to throw the dynamic weight entirely upon his own part. Balanced phrases mark the C Minor Concerto conception, a liquid articulation that dances delicately while offering Beethoven’s towering sense of lyrical drama. Douglas saves his natural vulcanism for the first movement cadenza, whose rounded periods will remind auditors of the pearls Edwin Fischer could proffer in this dazzling moment of bravura. If the Rondo dances too elegantly, it is not for Douglas’ catering to slow or precious tempos. The plaintive string and woodwind agogics, the sailing figures from the flute, all flow effortlessly into a seamless, legato entity that might prove too pretty to some tastes who relish rough edges in Beethoven, but for others the right measure between concert and salon proportions.
The Triple Concerto has exerted its weird charms on record collectors since the days of conductor Felix Weingartner’s shellac inscription. My own initiation was the EMI classic LP from the Oistrakh Trio and Sir Malcolm Sargent. Composed in 1808 for the Archduke Rudolph, the piece is a concerto for piano trio and orchestra in which the cello part dominates every major entry of thematic materials. Andres Diaz–whom I just heard in ensemble at the Menlo Festival here in California–applies his part with that same restrained éclat Douglas projects onto the C Minor Concerto. The C Minor tonality permeates this plastic work no less, especially in the keyboard part in the latter part and coda of the first movement. Violinist Chee-Yun’s work I know from several Denon recordings that include the virtuoso concertos of Lalo and Saint-Saens. She, too, relinquishes something of her high-flown style to accommodate a modest but consistently expressive view of this musical curio. The cumulative effect of poised roulades and flowery running passages–even in the spirited and episodic polonaise that forms the late movement–is a most “becoming” instantiation of Beethoven’s most idiosyncratic concerto, whose “antique” qualities discover an intricately jeweled setting in these gifted performers.
–Gary Lemco
