Description
Brahms - Piano Concertos, Haydn Variations, Tragic Overture / YEFIM BRONFMAN PIANO / Live from Severance Hall, Cleveland, Ohio / BONUS: Franz Welser-Möst and Yefim Bronfman on Brahms' Piano Concertos / DVD
Format: NTSC
Run time: 153 Minutes
UPC: 4260415080080
- Label: Belvedere
- Barcode: 4260415080080
- Format: DVD
- Number of Discs: 1
- Genre: Orchestral
- Release Date: 1st December 2017
The Cleveland Orchestra is the "aristocrat of American orchestras" (The Telegraph) and its monarch, Franz Welser-Möst, rules his subjects with a velvet glove. Indeed, velvet and silk continue to crop up in descriptions of the Clevelanders' sound under their chief conductor. It is Welser-Möst's deft alternation between softness and a sound as "sharp as a skyscraper" (The Telegraph after Brahms' First at the orchestra's London Proms concert). This keeps the ensemble and the audience figuratively sharp. The Second Piano Concerto, completed in 1881, is the work of a composer who has become adept at manipulating large forms. Brahms treats the soloist as an equal partner of the orchestra. Yefim Bronfman has an uncanny ability to play big without shrillness, to handle the most delicate passages without sacrificing presence, and to play everything in between with a delightful sense of timbre. Welser-Möst and Bronfman brought pulsating energy to the concerto's second movement, a Scherzo, and created an oasis of calm for the third movement, which moved immediately into the genius finale, the last chords of which were all but obliterated by roars of approval from public. In his powerful performance of Piano Concerto No. There was a surprising element of anger in 1, as if the pianist had gone a little wild. And yet Bronfman was also fully present, taking his time in relaxed passages to savor every second. It is impossible to say which of the two Bronfman concertos was the best. Both scores grabbed the pianist by the throat and brought out all the majesty, raw power and exquisite beauty.
