A Lyrical Survey of 5 Concertos

Fresh from his wondrous traversal of most of the Mozart piano concertos, Andras Schiff turns his sensitive attention and admirable virtuosity to the Beethoven Five. Schiff’s Beethoven is no uncouth social upstart or unbuttoned, raving-mad genius, as the composer was sometimes portrayed in contemporary accounts. Rather, he is lyrical, forceful, poised, even sophisticated, and the music loses none of its vitality or impact for all that. Schiff plays a modern piano and has no truck with period-instrument arguments, correctly asserting that Beethoven always was unsatisfied with the (developing) instruments of his day.

Haitink is a superb collaborator. The recording is admirably clear and well-balanced. You can hear the pedaling effects in the quietest passages and often observe the subtlest details of the orchestration.

Recordings are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).