Beethoven PC 1 ctd: Argerich/Sinopoli

I used to like this CD recording, but now that I hear it in such a distinguished sequence, it fell a little flat. That has less to do with Argerich, who on the whole offers a persuasive performance of great polish and depth of feeling. Her playing is characteristically lush and luminous, albeit sometimes a little rushed. The orchestra is the same as the one which served Klemperer so well 17 years earlier. But here we are sorely missing this 'second simplicity' so characteristic for that performance under the ageing conductor and which Clifford Curzon described as that 'second naiveté you arrive at after having gone through all the difficulties, having come through all the tests, and out the other side." Sinopoli directs a rather pedestrian performance which has the additional disadvantage of a very resonant recording in Walthamstow Town Hall. Hence the balance between piano and orchestra sounds unnatural and the music is drowned in a cloying sfumato which particularly in the slow movement tilts into the sentimental. The rapport between soloist and conductor is not ideal either. Particularly in the fast movements, Argerich seems to be wanting to push on whilst Sinopoli doesn't budge and continues to cruise along.  As the performance moved on, I felt myself getting impatient and finally I was rather happy it was over.

Oh, yes, I also listened to another Gilels performance, this time with the State Symphony Orchestra of the USSR under Kurt Masur. A live performance of 1976. This was part of a Brilliant CD box with recordings from historic Russian archives. Something to quickly forget. A boomy and noisy recording, Gilels pounding the piano as if he was playing the Liszt sonata and Masur offering a shoddy and unidiomatic accompaniment. The finale sounds preposterously rushed (even it's only a minute faster than the Klemperer/Barenboim).

What I, up to this point, have retained from this traversal of First Pianoconcertos is Szell's tremendously accomplished accompaniment with the Cleveland Orchestra (the complete opposite of Sinopoli in fact), also Karajan's fiery and opulent but oh so vivacious Berliners, Kempff's Olympian command of the score and the touching synergy between a great, old musician and a young prodigy in the Klemperer/Barenboim performance.