Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 (CD review)

Also, Klavierstucke, Op. 76. Nicholas Angelich, piano; Paavo Jarvi, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Virgin Classics 50999 266349 2.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) premiered his Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1881, a product of his more relatively mature years. Whereas his Piano Concerto No. 1 of several decades earlier had been all craggy and muscular, the Concerto No. 2 is more lyrical, more relaxed, yet still a work of prodigious power and scope, with a huge opening movement that goes on for some eighteen minutes and three more following it (an unusual, four-movement arrangement for a concerto).

American pianist Nicholas Angelich's playing of the Concerto is not a mere addition to the orchestral accompaniment but very much a part of it, without actually usurping or overwhelming it. In other words, Angelich's piano and Paavo Jarvi's Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra are of a piece, working to convey the music in both a monumental and gently poetic manner. However, after hearing the music in its entirety, one might say they tend to favor the former aspects of the score with quite a towering, weighty performance.

The second movement is a Scherzo of sorts, although it has its lengthy moments of calm. Angelich uses this segment to display his virtuosity for all its worth. There follows an attractive Andante, in which Angelich seems to find himself most at home, the interplay between cello and piano most affecting. It is here, too, that the music most resembles that of Chopin, leading one to hope Angelich will record some Chopin in the near future (as I'm sure he will).

A spirited, graceful, full-throated Allegretto grazioso brings the work to a close, with Angelich and Jarvi taking apparent joy in the rustic air of the music.

Brahms's Klavierstucke, Op. 76, eight solo piano pieces that the composer wrote about the same time that he wrote his Second Piano Concerto, makes an appropriate companion. These little works are rhythmic, dreamy, rhapsodic, and bouncy by turns, and all highly Romantic.

The recording, which Virgin made in 2009, is a trifle soft and thick, but in a way it suits the music by imparting an air of soothing mist to the proceedings. Still, I would have preferred more openness and clarity. The piano itself shows up well focused and well integrated within the orchestral picture, neither dominating the ensemble nor being enveloped by it. The overall impression is one of bigness above all, not transparency.

While Angelich's performance of the Brahms Second Piano Concerto does not necessarily challenge the classic recordings from Emil Gilels (DG), Stephen Kovacevich (Philips and EMI), Arthur Rubinstein (RCA), Van Cliburn (RCA), and others, it is surely one to consider.

JJP