Brahms’ second piano concerto is generally reckoned to be the Mr Big among 19th century piano concertos. All human life is here, its strengths, subtleties, richness, pathos and passions. There is undeniably something magisterial and autumnal about this great work that makes it is a wonderful companion to the earlier D minor concerto with its matchless ferocities and tragic depths. Here the hero seems to pause and look back, through difficulties mastered and fears quelled and see a life unfolded and almost fulfilled.
On this DVD, the opening quietly rumbles in like the beginnings of a rich dream that gradually builds through a series of crises. The scherzo gives us pause for breath and the opening of the slow movement is one of the most magical sequences in German romantic orchestral writing. There is a sort of prelude before the piano by stages gently enters. Hearing the music as shaped by Sir Colin Davis made me wish these opening bars were three times as long. It’s a consummate performance. This beautiful recording at the Jerwood Hall, St Luke’s in London, celebrates the 50th anniversary of Achucarro’s debut with the LSO after winning the Royal Liverpoole Philharmonic International Competition in 1959.
Louis Spohr was a prolific composer and virtuoso violinist, who practiced with Beethoven. An influential conductor, Spohr introduced marked orchestral parts for rehearsal and performance purposes. At one time, he had a considerable reputation that seems to have faded. His music has an immediate, if not a lasting, charm and is often strongly reminiscent of Weber and Mendelssohn. Yet it seems somewhat timidly and anaemically unable to stray beyond safe limitations – although frequently experimental in forms – he wrote one violin concerto in the form of an Italian aria.
These double concertos are deftly and affectionately dispatched. You constantly expect something interesting to happen, but it never quite does.
