I must, sadly, warn listeners to avoid purchasing this disc despite the temptations of the relative rarities of the Concert-Allegro with Introduction Op.134 and the Introduction and Allegro appassionato Op.92 - there is a photo in the booklet of Christian Zacharias conducting in which he looks decidedly uncomfortable and this is reflected in the playing.

In all pieces there are serious flaws to the interpretation but these are probably most clearly identifiable in Op.92; after a well played introduction there is a burst of allegro which could be claimed to be appassionato but the tempo quickly starts to flag rather than relaxing to provide contrast. This is very tired playing and becomes very frustrating to listen to when one knows that there are discs like Perahia's most recent recording under Abbado with the BPO (sadly RBCD only). Perahia's performance manages to remove nearly 2 minutes of playing time (from a piece that lasts about quarter of an hour); Another aspect that renders this disc uncompetitive is the playing and acoustic of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne; even though the Philharmonie is not without its critics and the Berliners using a far bigger orchestra, there is far more detail coming through under Abbado's baton. Zacharias clearly does not have the measure of this music and surely someone at MDG should have actually listened to this before sanctioning this release.

Op.134 does not fare much better; again the introduction is well played but things do not maintain any sense of forward momentum in the allegro. The concerto, which opens the disc, shows promising signs at first; a nice brisk and light touch with none of the ponderousness or overbearing power that some pianists like Kissin have bought to the work. However, after only 1'30'', Zacharias has already let his guard down and the work almost stutters to a halt. Zacharias is very good in the "accompanying" parts but given his own space abuses the privilege with very mannered playing indeed. Even a masterpiece like this shows signs of strain when stretched to this degree. In common with the other works, the Intermezzo is played in a seemingly tender, simple and unaffected way and emerges as by far the best playing from both orchestra and pianist on the disc. The finale starts reasonably but it does not take long for Zacharias' mannerisms to ruin any enjoyment that might have been possible and the tempo gradually winds down - if the closing pages of this concerto sound laboured (as they do) instead of dancing away with joy, something is seriously wrong. I had been looking forward to this because of the use of a chamber orchestra rather than a full symphony orchestra - I am still waiting for a successful version on SACD.

After all this, the sound quality, I hope is not important to anybody. I don't want to rate it because it will make the summary rating look better than it deserves to be. In any case, it is not that special in either the SACD or DVD-A incarnation.

Copyright © 2006 John Broggio and HRAudio.net

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