Beethoven: Piano Concertos 2 & 5 "Emperor" (CD review)

John O'Conor, piano; Andreas Delfs, London Symphony Orchestra. Telarc CD-80675.

The booklet insert notes that Irish pianist John O'Conor "...has taken on the mantle of his revered professor Wilhelm Kempff and gives the annual Beethoven Interpretation Course in Kempff's own villa in Positano, Italy, where Kempff gave the course from 1957."

Naturally, after listening to O'Conor's performance of the "Emperor" Concerto, I turned immediately to Kempff's classic recording on DG Originals, and I found the two men's approach to the music quite similar. They both grant the work its grand scale, but, more important, they provide it with the poetry it needs in the second movement Adagio and in bits and pieces of the first and third movements to make this work the forerunner of all other big Romantic piano concertos of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After all, without the "Emperor" of 1809, could we really have expected the concertos of Schumann or Grieg or Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov and so on?

So, O'Conor's reading is expressive yet eloquent, sweeping yet lyrical. You couldn't ask for much more than that. Moreover, the coupling of the Second Concerto is equally well played, and even if I don't personally care much for its first two movements, O'Conor brings out all the delightful playfulness of the concluding Rondo.

Supporting O'Conor's fine performances, maestro Delfs, and the LSO is Telarc's audio quality. I must admit that over the years the company hasn't always produced discs that sounded as good to my ears as I'd like, but this one is excellent. The tonal balance is quite neutral, the transparency is everything it should be, the dynamics are first-class, and the orchestral depth and spread are exemplary. My only quibble is that I would have preferred the piano to be more in the middle of things than it is here, which is slightly to the left of center. Nevertheless, the piano is well integrated into the orchestral picture, making the recording an all-around good contender in this field.

In other words, O'Conor's rendering can compete against the best--Kempff, Kovacevich, Arrau, Ashkenazy, you name them.

JJP