Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15

“This is a recording set-up with consequences. Out the window goes the romantic 19th-century notion of the concerto as a titanic conflict between soloist and orchestra. In come intimate performances, styled almost as chamber music. In an early, Mozartean concerto like the C major, Op 15 (the first to be published, but not the first written), this scale of delivery is ideal. Brautigam’s fingering is so agile and clear that he makes you tingle in arpeggio runs; he’s equally splendid capering about, lightweight and giggly, in the rondo finale...If you want the blunt power of the old mighty Russians, Brautigam is probably not your pianist. But there’s fierce clarity here, and musical refreshment of a high order.” The Times, 18th July 2008 ****

“…the playing is refreshingly alert throughout, with tempos noticeably on the fast side.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 ****

“These well-known works emerge as if freshly minted” International Record Review

“Anderszewski has already given us one of the most mercurial recent accounts of the Diabelli Variations, and here he brings the same quicksilver shifts of mood to the Bagatelles...The rollicking, buffo style of the concerto’s outer movements acknowledges debts to the comic spirits of Mozart and Haydn. Sheer bliss.” Sunday Times, 20th April 2008 ****

“Piotr Anderszewski, who has already given us a fine account of the Diabielli Variations, plays the Bagatelles with power and passion.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2008

“There is some delightful playing in both works. Lang Lang is at his best in the slow movements, where his range of colour and articulation illustrates his all-encompassing technical command and sense of both elegance and pathos.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2007 ****

“David Zinman´s Beethoven cycle with the Zurich Tonhalle continues to prosper.” The Guardian, 2006

“This Zurich performance of the First Concerto is beautifully articulated. True, there are moments of grandeur but the overall impression is of a poised, at times chamber-like traversal, with sculpted pianism and crisply pointed orchestral support. The sensation of shared listening, between Bronfman and the players and between the players themselves, is at its most acute in the First Concerto's Largo, which although kept on a fairly tight rein is extremely supple (the woodwinds in particular excel). In the finale, Bronfman and the Tonhalle provide a clear, shapely aural picture.
Bronfman's B flat Concerto (No 2) has the expected composure, the many running passages in the first movement polished if relatively understated.
Again the slow movement is full of unaffected poetry and the finale (with the odd added embellishment) is appropriately buoyant – has Bronfman ever played better?” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010