Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 28, 2012

Could you ever imagine someone like Arturo Toscanini or Leonard Bernstein or Seiji Ozawa breaking into song? Of course it’s not out of the realm of possibility, and indeed there’s video footage of at least two of these men “singing” (if that’s the appropriate term) little snippets of score as they either rehearse their respective orchestras or talk about a given piece for an interview. But actually perform a song? It’s a brave new world for conductors, though, albeit one that may have been hinted at for years by other conductors who matriculated to the podium from other artistic pursuits. Many conductors from as far back as at least the 18th or 19th century have started as instrumental virtuosos and ended up leading orchestras, but for some reason singers have more rarely made the same trek. The Latvian sensation Andris Nelsons came from an especially musically proficient family, with both of his parents essaying different roles in Latvian musical life. His mother founded the first early music ensemble in the nation and his father was a choral conductor and instrumentalist of some note (no pun intended). But it was opera that first really spoke (and/or sung) to Nelsons, and despite an early facility with the trumpet, Andris envisioned a life of singing as a bass-baritone. Although online information about this nascent singing career is sparse, according to the liner notes included with this new release documenting Nelsons’ September 2011 performance at the Lucerne Festival, he was rather successful in his initial career before deciding that conducting was more interesting. This career change was facilitated by another Latvian conductor, the iconic Mariss Jansons, another man who grew up in a musically proficient family (perhaps even more so than Nelsons, since Jansons’ own father was a famous conductor). Nelsons has obviously learned his lessons well, and despite being still relatively young (he was born in 1978), he is already enjoying the kind of burnished reputation that used to take considerably more time and experience to achieve.

Andris Nelsons is a slightly diminutive, somewhat elfin looking character who resembles a long lost Latvian cousin of Watchmen and The A-Team’s Patrick Wilson. (The cover of this Blu-ray evidently has Nelsons squatting next to the piano, something that makes him look like a bona fide little person.) Nelsons has a rather interesting conducting technique. At times, he is manically supercharged, hunched and gesticulating until the figurative cows come home (perhaps a Mahler piece with cowbell might be appropriate for this aspect of Nelsons’ baton wielding). At other times, Nelsons seems to withdraw inside his own ruminations and literally stops moving altogether. He keeps his baton tucked beneath his arm, his eyes are closed, and he barely makes a motion. Obviously the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra knows this stuff inside and out and can manage for a few (or even several) bars without their ostensible leader.

Nelsons has built much of his conducting reputation on, as the liner notes detail, repertory pieces in the German and Slav compositional neck of the woods. He mostly hews to that tack here, offering a lesser known Beethoven overture, along with Beethoven’s towering “Emperor” Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s elegantly evocative suite Scheherazade. Beethoven’s The Ruins of Athens: Overture (Op. 113) is an interesting study in contrasts, starting off almost hesitantly with repeated string motives and then bursting forth into that full tutti glory that is so redolent of the composer. There’s nothing particularly “Greek” or “Athenian” to the sound here, other than a typically symmetrical structure and rapturously clear orchestration.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman takes the stage for the next two offerings. This big, hulking keyboard master almost dwarfs the concert grand he sits in front of, but despite his size, he’s a remarkably facile player, barely breaking a sweat as he tears through the protean difficulty of one of Beethoven’s most challenging pieces. (Contrast that with Nelsons’ perspiration soaked face well once the “Emperor” is underway.) Whether it’s the acoustics of the KKL Luzern Concerthall or perhaps Bronfman’s overindulgent use of the sustain pedal, but there’s just a slight bleed in the sound here as the pianist traverses the quicksilver territory of both the Beethoven concerto and an encore comprised of Chopin’s Etude in F Major (Op. 10/8).

There’s probably not a more colorful piece in the orchestral repertoire than Rimsky-Korsakov’s venerable evergreen, and Nelsons does a good job extracting every ounce of meaning from Rimsky-Korsakov’s rather opulent sonic palette. I found his tempos to be a bit odd at times (the opening seems too deliberate and not lyrical enough, something that leads to a couple of slightly off unison accents between sections), but overall this is a gorgeous reading of an all time favorite. What’s really unforgivable here is the lack of credit for the Royal Concertgebouw’s concertmaster, who of course plays all of the languid and ravishingly beautiful solo violin lines. A cursory online search came up with the name Vesko Eschkenazy, and I hope I am giving credit to the correct individual, for his playing is magnificent and certainly deserves to be recognized.

Nelsons closes out the concert with Antonin Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance in A flat major (Op. 46/3), a piece which lacks the rhythmic ebullience one might expect and instead indulges in a more folk tune like ambience which is almost redolent of Grieg at times. It’s a brief but colorful piece and brings this nicely varied concert to an enjoyable close.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Andris Nelsons/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Yefim Bronfman at Lucerne Festival is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of C Major and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a very sharp and detailed looking high definition presentation, especially when the multi-camera coverage gets up close and personal with Nelsons, Bronfman, and the various members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Fine detail is very good to excellent throughout, sometimes a bit disturbingly so (when you see how badly Nelsons is perspiring, you'll understand). While colors are very rich and natural looking, Nelsons' dark black shirt tends to dissolve into the background a lot of the time, meaning in midrange shots he comes to resemble a disembodied head and hands moving about spectrally in the shadows. Otherwise, though, this is a very appealing presentation which should please lovers of classical concert videos.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Andris Nelsons/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Yefim Bronfman at Lucerne Festival features two lossless audio options, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mix and an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Both of these tracks are lovely, with sterling fidelity and beautiful richness. Bronfman's piano has a just slightly muddy quality at times which (as noted above) could come from either hall ambience or a too aggressive foot on the sustain pedal, but otherwise the keyboard sounds brilliantly clear and precise. The orchestral colors are very natural sounding and are well splayed across the sound field. There's also some really wide and varied dynamic range on display throughout this concert.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Not only are there no supplements of any kind on this Blu-ray disc, there isn't even a main menu on startup. The concert simply commences after a non-skippable introductory set of logos, but then rather strangely instead of looping back to the beginning as most of these discs do, it turns out there is a main menu that arrives at concert end and which allows you to start everything over again. Weird. There is at least a good essay in the insert booklet giving some background on the performers and the pieces.

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 / Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A lot of the Lucerne Festival Blu-rays over the past couple of years have been devoted to Claudio Abbado and such performances as his stunning Mahler cycle. Therefore it's kind of nice just for variety's sake to see some other artists on tap at this acclaimed classical musical celebration. Nelsons proves himself to be a very able conductor (even if he doesn't seem to be conducting some of the time), and Bronfman is of course one of the protean keyboard talents of our time, bringing a commanding presence to his reading of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto. Still, it may be the two lesser known pieces and Rimsky-Korsakov's incredibly luscious Scheherazade which take home honors for the evening's most memorable performances. All in all, though, this is a really nicely varied concert program, and it shows that Nelsons can handle just about anything, especially when he's working with an orchestra of the Royal Concertgebouw's capabilities. This Blu-ray doesn't have any supplements to recommend it, but it does offer great video and (especially) audio. Recommended.