Rattle, Bernstein and a Brahms Classic

In 1962, when Glenn Gould performed the Brahms D-minor with Leonard Bernstein at a famously controversial concert in Carnegie Hall, the pianist was 30, the conductor, 44; and each was the most talented and original musician of his generation. Those are close to the ages today of Leif Ove Andsnes and Simon Rattle. And the comparisons of these two recordings, a quarter-century apart, are fascinating.

The New York Philharmonic performance was the one in which Bernstein told the audience that he was bowing to Gould’s insistence upon unusually broad pacing and limited dynamic differentiation between piano and orchestra--a provocative but, he thought, not entirely persuasive approach. Gould was after something Baroque, and he got it in what turned out to be a remarkably fresh and insightful, if a little screwy, look at a familiar work. Bernstein does a gallant job with the slow tempi but is not quite the sensualist he would become when he recorded the concerto even slower, years later, with Krystian Zimerman. Gould’s playing is superbly controlled, full of arresting detail, with one surpass after another. The recording, taken from a broadcast tape, is a bit rough.

The new Andsnes-Rattle pulls off a different trick; it, too, is arresting, but also conventional and very beautiful-sounding. Andsnes has all the vibrancy and technical precision of a Gould, minus the eccentricities. Rattle offers exquisitely textured accompaniment.

There is not as much quirky personality with this new CD, but it is probably a lot easier to live with.