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

Mario Galeani and Grzegorz Nowak partner once more in a brand new recording of Beethoven’s piano concertos.

This is a companion disc to RPOSP013 Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5 featuring the same artists.

As with all of the RPO’s recent own-label CDs, this was recorded in the wonderful acoustics of London’s Cadogan Hall, the RPO’s London home.

Munch met and heard Richter in 1958 when the Boston Symphony Orchestra toured Russia. He was so impressed that he invited him to appear with the BSO.

Richter’s Boston debut two years later, is presented here from the original stereo tapes for the first time. “The result took your breath away” Boston Globe

The recording of Beethoven’s first Piano Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra was recorded in London in 1948. The recording of the fifth Concerto was made in Berlin in 1945 and is the only complete recording of a classical work in stereo surviving from World War II. This edition was originally released in 2004. “…a subtle and sensitive reading, pianistically impressive and in extraordinary good sound.” Gramophone

Pianist, Felicja Blumental, is joined by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Robert Wagner to perform Beethoven's first and second piano concerti. This is the first release in a series of three discs featuring all SIX of Beethoven’s piano concerti.

"The core of my interpretation derives from the 'German'masters I have come to know: Fleisher the pupil of Schnabel; Perahia and Schenker; Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg Quartet – all rooted in the great tradition of and respect for this noble 'Goethean' culture. This extends even to my choice of piano: a Bechstein, in homage to the profound and luminous sound of the mythic recordings by Fischer and Kempff (I play the latter's rarely heard cadenzas)." Shani Diluka

These 1945-1955 broadcasts of live collaborations between Claudio Arrau and George Szell are being released for the first time and stem from well preserved and carefully restored broadcast transcription discs. The works include Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1, Chopin Piano Concerto No.2 and Liszt Piano Concerto No.2. All are performed with dynamism, daring and volatility.

Less emotional in his choice of works, but more virtuosic and full of spirit was the young Lorin Maazel, who four years later jumped in to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. Maazel proved his touch with the sentimental and grotesque contrasts of the High and Late Romantics by presenting an unusual programme that featured Berlioz and Strauss as its cornerstones. The Beethoven concerto formed a moment of repose in the centre of the programme, a work that Maazel, the orchestra and the soloist Géza Anda savoured in the loveliest spirit of unanimity. As an outstanding concert partner for the great orchestras and in his own solo recitals, Anda demonstrated a flexibility that was already a tradition in Salzburg, one founded anew by the instrumentalists of the early post-War years.