This cycle of Beethoven's complete piano concertos was recorded in December of 2020, with social distancing regulations in effect; the players were seated six feet from each other at the London Symphony Orchestra's St. Luke's facility. The performances had no live audiences but were streamed, and the overall effect is an interesting hybrid of studio and live recording. To get the instrumental blend, Deutsche Grammophon's engineers moved into the players' space at many points, picking up a good deal of ambient noise. It's quite compelling, inasmuch as pianist Krystian Zimerman is a player who draws the audience into his world of control; one actually has the feeling of being at a live performance here. It's a strong group of Beethoven performances that reveal Zimerman's usual approach in Beethoven, not drastically different from his earlier cycle with Leonard Bernstein (mostly) at the helm of the Vienna Philharmonic. Zimerman is careful, detailed, even self-effacing in terms of how he carves out a personality for the pianist apart from the orchestra. Only where Beethoven makes a grand gesture, such as at the pianist's entrance in the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, does he turn on the power, and even there, it is restrained. His "Emperor" Concerto may seem dry to those who want a big Romantic approach, but his slow movements are, in every case, beautifully melodic and ultimately quite hypnotic. He captures the Mozartian wit of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19 (actually the first concerto chronologically), and this pianist who is also a piano builder even uses a piano with interchangeable keyboards matched to the sound of each concerto. The delicate sound of the one used in the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, is especially intriguing in this regard. This is a fine souvenir of the Beethoven 250th anniversary year and of pandemic music-making.
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