Noel Mewton-Wood (1922-1953) recorded this extremely fine performance in 1952 with his regular collaborator on the podium, Walter Goehr (1903-1960), father of Alexander Goehr. Mewton-Wood, an Australian and something of a polymath, was, said John Amis “the only pianist I ever met who could (and did) whip out a broken piano string and put in a new one on the spot.” By his early twenties his repertoire included concertos by Busoni and Pfitzner in addition to those of Brahms and Beethoven; very unfortunately, this is his only recording of a Beethoven concerto. 1952 was a busy year for Mewton-Wood in the recording studio; in addition to the Beethoven here, he recorded amongst others Busoni’s second violin sonata with Max Rostal, Tchaikovsky’s second piano concerto, Bliss’ piano concerto and accompanied Peter Pears in various vocal works by Michael Tippett.
Mewton-Wood’s playing in the Beethoven is fresh, youthful and spontaneous, and, as in his other recordings, the orchestra can be heard to be encouraged by his virtuosity. The pianist and orchestra are at one with one another in this recording. His dynamic range is wide, the pianissimos magically quiet, the fortissimos big and bold without forcing the piano’s tone. The slow movement is especially magical; time gets stretched listening to playing of this quality. The quick passage-work in the outer movements shows off his solid technique, the articulation faultless, a five-star performance. The orchestral contribution is musical, though those hoping for an equivalent to that of Berlin or Vienna will be disappointed, and Goehr directs with efficiency and affection.
Andrew Rose’s remastering is first-class and the sound for this period is full-ranging and comfortable. The balance between piano and orchestra is much better than can sometimes be hoped for, too. Two versions were provided for audition, a fine mono remastering, and another with a new technique for processing the ambience to give more of a sense of space. The difference listening through a system which images tightly is subtle. However, listening through headphones to the version with ambient stereo really does give a sense of space to the mono recording making it far less tiring to listen to on, for example, an iPod. Pristine’s website offers a choice of either mastering to suit listening preferences. [Try these ambient stereos via ProLogic II decoding; if re-channeled stereo had been done this way back in the 60s pseudo-stereo wouldn’t have received its bad rap from collectors with golden ears…Ed.]
This is a very valuable addition to the selection of available recordings by Noel Mewton-Wood and is recommended very highly.
— Peter Joelson
