Three shimmering Beethoven incarnations (2-4 May 2005) by way of conductor David Zinman, whom I heard in New York some fifteen years ago in Beethoven works utilizing the composer’s controversially quick metronome marks, including a rather vibrant Violin Concerto with Sergiu Luca. With pianist Yefim Bronfman (b. 1958) the sparks and tympani beats fly, Bronfman in a gregariously extroverted mood. The Emperor Concerto projects magisterial breadth, to be sure, but no less a sense of play, a divertissement breaking out between piano, bassoon, and plucked strings in the first movement of a delicate charm. We can savor all kinds of pedal points, including the long-drawn then spitfire double bass notes that precede the shattering szorzati prior to and accompanying the piano’s quasi cadenza runs. The orchestral tissue seems entirely refreshed in this audiophile interpretation, as though the engineers wanted the brass, tympani, and winds to transform this colossal, bravura work into a sinfonia concertante. If Bronfman’s playing reminds me of any older artist, it is of Rudolf Firkusny, who brought to this concerto the same debonair, tensile finesse and transparency of texture.
The opening chords of the Adagio un poco mosso and the piano’s cantilena triplets still manage to melt us, to render “an iron tear down Pluto’s cheek.” Bronfman’s trill, supple and elastic, owes something to Serkin for its sustaining power. The dramatic half-tone descent takes us to an exuberant Rondo: Allegro that dances into the Seventh Symphony. Great bassoon and tympani response, then a grand series of arpeggios from Bronfman that might hint at what the last movement of his Waldstein Sonata could proffer. The proceeding variant of the Rondo enjoy all sorts of color nuance, incursions of a palette dipped in Dionysian energy. To call this music syncopated fury in 6/8 time is to underestimate the sheer brio in the conception, the electricity among the participants.
I have cherished that “curious work” (Darius Milhaud), the Choral Fantasy of 1808, ever since I heard the piece as a youngster on WNYC with Andor Foldes and Fritz Lehmann on an on old American Decca LP. Bronfman brings the requisite force and pearly play to his opening improvisation; then, Zinman and the orchestra begin their variations on a tune clearly a harbinger of the Ninth Symphony. Elegant flute solo followed by woodwind divertimento and piano ostinato. Pedal points rich enough to cut with a knife. String quartet with added riffs then a huge statement of the theme, the performance a rival to my preferred collaboration of Serkin and Bernstein. The six voices who join the festivities, along with the chorus, make for a resounding celebration of art. Beethoven set Goethe’s two poems in 1815, a depiction of a paralyzing doldrums in dire harmonies, then a life-saving appearance of rippling waves to carry anxious seafarers to their long-sought destination. That the melody became Mendelssohn’s almost note-for-note isn’t called plagiarism, just inspired research. A brilliant disc all around; I’ll add it to our Best of the Year List. [Plus it carries a bargain list price of only $7…Ed.]
— Gary Lemco
