Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Movie Review

Back to the sources.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 18, 2012

Not even the iconic masterpieces of Ludwig van Beethoven are above being “edited” by Johnny-come-latelies who decide that they know better and that things can always be “improved.” Now it’s no secret that through the years and with the less than exact printing methods of the nineteenth century, errors were introduced in the earliest editions (and beyond) many composers’ pieces, and it’s also well known that the composers themselves were not above the occasional (and sometimes more than occasional) error as they dashed out their manuscript scores. Czech-born pianist and conductor Rudolf Buchbinder has made it something of his life’s mission to “get back to the sources”, with regard to Beethoven’s pieces especially. Buchbinder personally owns more than two dozen different complete editions of Beethoven’s thirty two piano sonatas, to give just one example, and Buchbinder is almost obsessive-compulsive about comparing the errors that can crop up between any two (or more) given editions. Buchbinder’s approach is one of meticulous thoroughness. What he prefers to do is to collate all available editions of any given work he’s interested in, and then cross-referencing and comparing all of those editions with the composer’s original manuscript, in order to divine what exactly the composer may have originally intended. As the liner notes to this new release of the Five Piano Concertos of Beethoven quotes Buchbinder as stating, “The stricter and the more exacting I am in my approach, the more I learn about the freedom of making music. This merely seems to be a paradox. Anyone who reads what composers really wrote acquires something akin toa pointer to a freer kind of playing. Composers demand this freedom from their interpreters by including far more differentiated instructions than the regular printed notation can ever hope to reproduce.”

It’s rather interesting that over the past year-plus or so we’ve had two remarkable Beethoven Piano Concerto cycles released on Blu-ray, both with iconic pianists conducting from the keyboard. Late 2009 saw the release of an elegant release featuring Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin, which I reviewed here. Now we have the legendary Vienna Philharmonic, an orchestra arguably best poised of all Continental symphony orchestras to interpret Beethoven’s work, being led by a man who has devoted much of his life to clearing away the cobwebs of manifold editors who have attempted to put their own stamp on Beethoven’s work. While the results may not exactly be revelatory, they are often quite subtly amazing, lending an almost chamber music ethos to pieces that are often thought of as being in a grander milieu. Unlike Barenboim, who had his piano turned so that he faced the orchestra (with his back to the audience), Buchbinder leaves his piano in the traditional sideways position and he seems more comfortable with letting the Vienna Philharmonic go about their business without a lot of conductorial interference. This frees Buchbinder up to really delve into the piano sections of the score, and not only the soli passages. In a somewhat humorous looking approach, Buchbinder often seems content to semi-conduct with just a flourish of an eyebrow, but it’s enough to command a disciplined yet nuanced performance from the orchestra.

As I mentioned in my review of the Barenboim performances, it’s really fascinating to traverse the compositional evolution of Beethoven through these five iconic pieces. The first two concerti especially seem to be working within a positively Mozartian or Haydnesque framework, albeit one already filled with the typical Beethoven eruptions of passion. But there’s an undeniable ebullience to these first two outings (scholars will point out that Beethoven’s alleged First Concerto is in fact his Second, and his now labeled Second was actually written first). Starting with the Third Concerto, however, there’s a new feeling of drama and even foreboding as Beethoven seems more primed to explore an almost Id-like territory of introspection and roiling, almost unbridled, emotions. Buchbinder manages to bring all of these disparate emotions readily to the surface, with elegance and clarity.

The Fourth and Fifth Concertos are different beasts entirely, as Beethoven finally seemed secure in writing “equally” for the piano and the orchestra. The Fourth seems oddly prescient at times, almost presaging Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, with its rapid fire chromatic passages. And the Fifth, the legendary “Emperor”, opens up a whoe new monolithic vocabulary for the piano, one with which both performers and composers still wrestle today. Buchbinder is rather nimble in both of these performances, with a glistening yet profound touch that offers clarity and poise. The orchestra at times is perhaps a bit too stalwart for its own good, but that actually works to the Emperor Concerto’s favor, with its broad themes and stately, if somewhat manic, demeanor.

Buchbinder may not be the “household name” that Barenboim is on this side of the pond, but he has an immense recording legacy already to his name, including a lavishly praised eighteen disc set of Haydn’s works which won the Grand Prix du Disque. He’s previously recorded the Beethoven concertos, and his oeuvre includes everything from Mozart to Brahms, so he’s well placed to bring his innate understanding of these pieces to this project. What’s so bracing about these interpretations is often in small details, things like unexpected changes in dynamics or unfamiliar ornamentations that prove that Buchbinder has indeed gone back to the sources to figure out what Beethoven, not some Johnny-come-lately editor, really wanted his piano concertos to sound like.

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rudolf Buchbinder Wiener Philharmoniker The Beethoven Piano Concertos is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of C Major and Unitel Classica with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is not a "through shot" piece, and is instead five shorter pieces, one for each concerto, with its own opening and closing credits sequences. This is yet another nice looking Blu-ray from the auspicious Goldener Saal der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna's opulent Musikverein. As with the recently reviewed New Year's Concert Blu-ray released by Sony Classical, this set of concertos is directed for television by Karina Fibich, and she does an exemplary job with excellent camera placement which zerioes in on Buchbinder's facile finger work. Fibich's approach here isn't quite as "showy" as in the New Year's Concert, with fewer of the tracking shots or crane shots that made that release so visually interesting, but the overall look of this presentation is sharp and appealing. There are a couple of very strange video anomalies that I personally can't adequately explain, including a really weird horizontal purple "flash" (for want of a better word) at approximately 37:24 (when Buchbinder is taking his bows after the First Concerto). I played and replayed this moment repeatedly and can't decide if it's a high definition camera malfunctioning for a second or perhaps a lighting cue gone awry which casts a quick glow on the inside of the piano, but it's very odd, to say the least. For the most part, though, this is a sharp and well detailed offering that should please discriminating videophiles.

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Luckily there are no similar anomalies with either of the two audio options contained on Rudolf Buchbinder Wiener Philharmoniker The Beethoven Piano Concertos. Both the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0 surround mix and the uncompressed LPCM 2.0 stereo mix sound beautiful, with brilliant, enticing clarity from the piano and that iconic burnished sound that the Vienna Philharmonic is so rightly known for. Balance between the piano and the orchestra is exceptional, even in full orchestral tutti, where Buchbinder's keyboard still cuts through and becomes a fully equal partner to the massed forces behind it. Fidelity is exceptional throughout the five concertos and dynamic range is extraordinary, capturing everything from Beethoven's most bombastic leanings in the Emperor Concerto to his quieter, more ruminative solo passages for the piano in all five of these concerti.

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Buchbinder's Beethoven: A musical conversation between Rudolf Buchbinder and Joachim Kaiser (1080i; 28:15) is very much akin to the fascinating documentaries that accompanied Christian Thielemann's Beethoven Symphony Cycle last year, which also featured Kaiser as interviewer. Kaiser delves into Buchbinder's long history with Beethoven, how the pianist approaches the scores, and how from unlikely beginnings Buchbinder became first a child virtuoso and now a renowned concert pianist and teacher.

Beethoven: The Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Buchbinder's obsessive-compulsive approach to getting "back to basics" with regard to Beethoven's original intentions pays off beautifully in this set of live performances with the Vienna Philharmonic. These are perhaps more intimate performances than the Barenboim cycle of a little over a year ago, more introspective and probably less "flashy," but no less enjoyable. What's going to be the revelation (albeit minor) here are little things like changes in dynamics and tempo, which suddenly recast long familiar passages in an entirely new light. With the exception of some weirdly inexplicable anomalies, this Blu- ray offers nice video and sterling audio, and it features yet another really great "chat" with Joachim Kaiser, always an erudite conversationalist. Recommended.