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The third and final volume in the complete recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concerti, by François-Frédéric Guy and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Philipe Jordan.
Following the critically-acclaimed first two volumes in this series the flourishing musical partnership between François-Frédéric Guy and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under Philipe Jordan continues with Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3. Beethoven’s Piano concerto No. 2 in B flat major Op. 19 took 15 years to write and was the earliest piano concerto that Beethoven himself deemed appropriate for presentation to the public. In comparison, the creative process that to Op. 37 was relatively short. In this stunning work, the scoring of Op.19 is expanded to include clarinets, trumpets and timpani in the orchestra.
François-Frédéric Guy is now firmly established as a pianist of immense interpretative authority and superlative technique, especially admired in music of the Austro-German tradition. His recording of this last work for Näive was recently declared the best available by BBC Radio 3’s Building a Library. Currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin Staatsoper and Musical Director of the Opera National de Paris starting in the 2009-10 season, Philippe Jordan has at 34 already established himself as one of the most gifted and exciting conductors of his generation.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio
III. Rondo: Molto allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
I. Allegro con brio
II. Largo
III. Rondo: Allegro
September 2009
*****
“These warm and meticulously detailed performances find François-Frédéric Guy and Philippe Jordan taking the opening movement of the C minor Third Concerto at a steady four-to-the-bar tempo that allows them to give full weight to the march-like main theme, and especially its repeated-rhythm tail-end (memorably transferred to the timpani in the closing moments). ...altogether impressive accounts, with Guy giving an imposing rendition of the grandiose cadenza that Beethoven supplied for No. 2 a full decade after he'd completed the work... Warmly recommended, even to those who already own several versions of these much-recorded works.”
Awards Issue 2009
“… what a joy his performances are. Brilliant and direct in the finest French tradition, they are also alive with passing felicities… In the Second Concerto Guy's exuberances and poetry go hand in hand. …in the Third Concerto… both he and Jordan take a qualified view of Beethoven's con brio, conveying an atmosphere of foreboding, of minor-key unease resolved in an inward-looking Largo where everything is experienced afresh.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
I. Allegro con brio
