Sometimes, maybe once in a decade, maybe once in a
lifetime, a confluence of great solo artists, a great conductor, and a great
orchestra produces a genuinely instant classic. Such was the case when
violinist David Oistrakh, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, and pianist Sviatoslav
Richter performed Beethoven’s Triple
Concerto in 1969 with Maestro Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin
Philharmonic. It’s hard to imagine this performance of the Triple Concerto ever being topped, given of the sheer magnitude of
the talent involved. What’s more, it continues to be one of the best-recorded
versions of the music you’ll find, and this Hi-Q XRCD release remastered and
manufactured by JVC makes it just that much better.
Although Beethoven’s
Triple Concerto in C major for piano, violin,
cello and orchestra, Op. 56 (1804), never impressed critics as much as his
violin and piano concertos did, concertgoers have long enjoyed it for its
delicious melodies and memorable tunes, especially its soaring first movement
and sweet Largo. In an impassioned
reading from three of the twentieth-century’s greatest musicians and one of its
most-celebrated conductors, the piece couldn’t fail. The music is, as you
probably know, actually a kind of orchestrated chamber trio, a sinfonia
concertante where the several instruments oppose the orchestra and each other,
a style that had passed out of vogue by Beethoven’s time but one into which
Beethoven injected new life.
The Berlin
Philharmonic sounds, as always, magnificent, and Karajan avoids glamorizing or
over-romanticizing the score. When the cello, the violin, and then the piano
make their entrance in the first movement, we can see immediately this going to
be a gentle, relaxed Triple Concerto,
with no want of beauty or expression. The performance is responsive and
spacious, yet we can still appreciate the full force of the great orchestra
making itself known, reminding us that no matter how easygoing the
interpretation may be, it’s still an interpretation on the grandest scale.
You’re not going to get this kind of sound from a chamber ensemble or a
period-instruments group.
As to the soloists,
remarkably, they play as though they had worked together for years. None of the
three men attempts to upstage the others, and their instruments complement one
another perfectly, almost producing three variations of the same instrument (or
four if you count the orchestra, which also blends in flawlessly). Naturally,
the cello most often takes the lead, yet Rostropovich never actually dominates;
it’s a genuinely shared experience.
The second-movement Largo is as meltingly beautiful as any
you’ll hear, big and bold yet brief, hushed, and to the point. The fluidity of
the playing seems almost magical. This movement flows seamlessly into the
finale, which is as lively, rhythmic, and graceful as you could want. It’s a
recording that at the end you want to stand up and applaud, even cheer, it’s
that good.
In terms of sound,
you would expect it to be good or JVC would not have remastered and
manufactured it, EMI would not have licensed it to Resonance Recordings, and
Hi-Q would not be distributing it. Although it still won’t satisfy the needs of
every audiophile, it does, indeed, sound good. It sounded good in its original
EMI form, and it sounds good newly remastered.
EMI producer Peter
Andry and audio engineer Allen Stagg made the recording at
Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, in 1969. They captured a wide dynamic range, so
wide, in fact, that the opening passage may tempt you to turn up the gain.
Don’t. The volume soon rises startlingly, along with some solid transient
impact. Instrument separation is excellent, transparency in the somewhat
robustly thick midrange is nevertheless quite good, and depth and air are more
than adequate.
Obviously, I
compared the new Hi-Q/JVC XRCD24/K2
24-bit super-analog remaster to EMI’s own remastering in their mid-priced
“Great Recordings of the Century” series. Switching out the two discs between
separate CD players (Sony and Yamaha), matching their volume, and playing them
simultaneously for instant comparisons, I found in each instance that the Hi-Q
disc sounded a touch warmer and smoother, while also being a bit more crisply
detailed, tauter, and better focused. While the differences were not, however,
as dramatic as I’ve heard on some other XRCD’s, on good playback equipment the
differences are at least a noticeable improvement. Then, too, Hi-Q/JVC package
the disc in a slick, attractive Digipak container with bound inner note pages.
The question, of
course, is whether the Hi-Q disc is worth its considerably higher asking price.
Is it really that much better than the regular EMI release? It is, after all,
the very same performance you can buy much cheaper on EMI, and no amount of
sonic improvement is going to change that. What’s more, the EMI disc adds the
Brahms Double Concerto for good
measure, making it an even greater value. No, anyone interested in spending
over a dollar per minute on the Hi-Q disc has to own playback equipment worthy
of doing it justice and, of course, really has to like the Beethoven piece to
begin with. Then, like everything in life, one has to weigh the merits of the
product. If you want the very best and are willing (and able) to pay for it,
you go for the best. If you are a person of more modest means or with a modest
playback system, you may want to stick with the regular EMI product, which is
still plenty good.
To hear a brief excerpt from this album, click here:
JJP
