Yefim Bronfman’s discography has been short of Brahms’s Piano Concertos, even though both have been part of his concert repertoire for years. Zubin Mehta however has recorded them with Barenboim (New York, CBS/Sony), No.1 with Rubinstein (Israel) and the Second with Ashkenazy (LSO), both Decca. Now Bronfman seizes his opportunity to document these substantial masterpieces and brings unimpeachable musicianship and transcendental technique to the task, wonderfully partnered by Mehta and the Munich Philharmonic in a beautifully balanced, airy recording, appositely reporting Bronfman as ‘first among equals’, the orchestra’s (left-positioned) bass line perfectly weighty without obfuscation.
The D-minor Concerto receives a Classical reading, integrated across the whole, and at forty-five minutes (a good five shorter than the norm) there’s a conciseness that may not entertain sprawling yet also allows no charges of short-changing the music, with the possible exception of the slow movement, here fluidly flowing, and which might anyway be taken as an antidote to indulgence, if with no lack of sensitivity from the performers, and the Finale reaches a real sense of arrival, and in the coda attention is given to the timpani writing that is often overlooked to this degree of clarity. The B-flat work I wrote about at the time of the concert (below). Similarly without obesity if plenty of emotional fire and lyrical shape (and a few minutes also knocked off the average timing) this is a commanding and compelling view of the music, including lovely cello solos in the third movement, the player adjacent to the pianist thanks to Mehta’s use of antiphonal violins, the norm in Brahms’s day. MPHIL0033 (2 CDs) is recommended to friends and foes alike of these timeless scores.
SXL 6309. First movement.