Johannes Brahms
Piano Concerto No. 1 op. 15
Piano Pieces op. 118
Peter Donohoe piano
The Philharmonia
Yevgeny Svetlanov
EMI 1990
flac, cue, log, scans
It depends on whether you are interested in this disc for the concerto principally or for the op 118 pieces. Let me say at once that it would be an excellent choice in either case. However if you want the concerto played in the manner of Rudolf Serkin I guess you might as well get Serkin himself, and the version I like best among those I am currently aware of as available is on a bargain Sony label along with superb accounts of one-movement concertante pieces by Schumann and Mendelssohn. There is no such issue over op 118, and here I am very pleased to have a modern companion to the alternatives I have enjoyed for many years from Katchen and Gould.
I am not necessarily suggesting that Donohoe is consciously mimicking Serkin in the concerto. It was once remarked to me by a friend whom I had introduced to my Serkin records that Serkin seems to say 'You do this piece like THIS.' There is a finality, I find and I'm not alone, to the way Serkin goes about many classical masterpieces. If he seems to leave little room for alternatives, then that is possibly because there really is little room for alternatives: in which case Donohoe is perfectly capable of having worked out his interpretation for himself. It's an interpretation that stands up very well in its own right. The outer movements are fast, the central adagio is slow, all that is how I usually like it best, and that is how Serkin also goes about it. This is a review of Donohoe so I am not going to turn it into some panegyric to Serkin. There is one very interesting and very significant difference that is worth highlighting, and it is the start of the development section in the first movement. Forgive some appearance of dogmatism, but the way Arrau handles this is all wrong. He makes the maximum thunderous noise, which is exactly not what the composer asks for. The initial marking on the double octaves is a single 'f' only, followed by a crescendo that the orchestra presumably has to supply in the main, as the rising pitch of the piano part makes full tone all but impossible. Donohoe uses more volume and more pedal at the outset than Serkin, who relies for effect on a martellato touch, but between Donohoe and the orchestra the impression is very powerful and convincing. I have seen the orchestral contribution praised highly, and I concur. Right at the start Svetlanov has more sense than to attempt some big noise, and indeed all the way through the work the Philharmonia cover themselves in glory, even though the recorded sound is a little shy and reticent. A boost to the volume does wonders for that, I found.
The op 118 set of 6 pieces is admirable throughout. One thing that I suppose might be questioned is the amount of sustaining pedal that Donohoe uses. Well, a virtuoso of Donohoe's stature is not going to be pedalling to cover for dodgy finger-work, is he? This way of doing it makes these pieces basically into chamber compositions rather than concert-platform fodder, and I like them this way. Be clear that these are not 'bijou' renderings. Donohoe's touch is big, but this is Brahms after all. One of the works, the Ballade, is a bit of a platform-stormer or can be done as one, but if I were listening to Brahms himself play it in a small room I am sure he would have used plenty of volume, and maybe he might have taken advantage of the chamber context to try something along the lines of the remote faerie effect that Donohoe gives us in the middle section. That is, if he could play as well as Donohoe, which I very much doubt.
Indeed, I have not a single criticism to offer of any of these six solo renderings. The E flat minor intermezzo that ends the book and the disc is in my own opinion one of the greatest things in the whole literature of the piano, and it is completely awe-inspiring as played here. There is even one important thing done (at last) as I want to hear it - the left-hand part in the central section is played almost without pedal. Gould does not do it like this, nor Katchen, although surely, I continued to believe, some more reputable interpreters than myself must have wanted to play it in this way. So thank you, Mr P. Donohoe. The great, lovely and familiar A major is done to something like perfection, with the short repeat observed in the central section and the voices in double counterpoint given prominence alternately as I like them to be. I hesitate to remind anyone of the remark in the Master Musicians book on Brahms that the F minor intermezzo is 'rich in canons but somewhat dour.' Hear this performance to purge your mind of this ghastly blasphemy against one of Brahms's deepest compositions.
Back to the concerto. This performance is certainly well worth having, whether you already own a version or two by Serkin or not. These days my own collection has not entirely focused on Serkin, but I am undoubtedly of the fast-tempo school in the first movement. A very interesting alternative that I can recommend, still fastish, is from Curzon, largely because his conductor is none other than Serkin's own great buddy Szell, who adapts himself superbly to this very different soloist. Many years ago there was also the performance that more than any other convinced me that a slow reading of the first movement was feasible, it was by Barenboim and Barbirolli, but I don't know whether you can still find it. And there are many more, but they are another story. (Amazon review)