Rubinstein - Brahms, Piano Concerto No.1 - III Rondo (2/2)

Director : Bernard Haitink.
Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam.

Rondo: Allegro non troppo (D minor → D major)

Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor (Op. 15) is one of Brahms' most famous and frequently performed pieces. A concerto on nearly every major pianist's repertoire, it presents considerable technical challenges to the performer.

Brahms worked on the composition for some years, as was the case with many of his works. After a prolonged gestation period, it was first performed on January 22, 1859, in Hanover, Germany, when Brahms was just 25 years old. Five days later, at Leipzig, an unenthusiastic audience hissed at the concerto, while critics savaged it, labelling it "perfectly unorthodox, banal and horrid". In a letter to his close personal friend, the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, Brahms stated, "I am only experimenting and feeling my way", adding sadly, "all the same, the hissing was rather too much!"

Brahms originally conceived the work as a sonata for two pianos. Seeking a grander and fuller sound, Brahms later orchestrated the work in an attempt to transform it into a four-movement symphony. However, he also found that unsatisfactory. Brahms ultimately decided that he had not sufficiently mastered the nuances of orchestral color to sustain a symphony, and instead relied on his skills as a pianist and composer for the piano to complete the work as a concerto. Brahms only retained the original material from the work's first movement; the remaining movements were discarded and two new ones were composed, yielding a work in the more usual three-movement concerto structure.

Brahms' biographers often note that the first sketches for the dramatic opening movement followed quickly on the heels of the 1854 suicide attempt of the composer's dear friend and mentor, Robert Schumann, an event which caused great anguish for Brahms. He finally completed the concerto two years after Schumann's death in 1856, by which time his love for Schumann's widow, Clara Schumann, had fully blossomed.

The degree to which Brahms' personal experience is embedded in the concerto is hard to gauge since several other factors also influenced the musical expression of the piece. The epic mood links the work explicitly to the tradition of the Beethoven symphony that Brahms sought to emulate. The finale of the concerto, for example, is clearly modeled on the last movement of Beethoven's third piano concerto, while the concerto's key of D minor is the same as both Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Mozart's dramatic Piano Concerto No. 20.

The work reflects Brahms' effort to combine the piano with the orchestra as equal partners, unlike earlier classical concertos, where the orchestra effectively accompanied the pianist. Even for the young Brahms, the concerto-as-showpiece had little appeal. Instead, he enlisted both orchestra and soloist in the service of the musical ideas; technically difficult passages in the concerto are never gratuitous, but extend and develop the thematic material. Such an approach is thoroughly in keeping with Brahms' artistic temperament, but also reflects the concerto's symphonic origins and ambitions. His effort drew on both chamber music techniques and the pre-classical Baroque concerto grosso, an approach that later was fully realized in Brahms' Second Piano Concerto. This first concerto also demonstrates Brahms' particular interest in scoring for the timpani and the French horn, both of whose parts are notoriously difficult.

Although a work of Brahms' youth, this concerto is a mature work that points forward to his later concertos and his First Symphony. Most notable are its scale and grandeur, as well as the thrilling technical difficulties it presents. As time passed, the work grew in popularity until it was recognized as a masterpiece.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• artur
• johanness
• live
• Bernard
• Haitink
• orchestra
• amsterdam
• op
• 15
• opus
• re
• minor
• minore

[sll10]

man this performance is astonishing; it's not just great for an old man; it's a great performance PERIOD!

[3cplantin]

I thought the tempos of the whole movement were very appropriate and dynamic -- including that of the coda.  The arpeggios, by the way, are accompaniment and shouldn't dominate. This is one concerto that is more like a partnership or chamber music because the piano often supports and doesn't always have the most prominent part.

[UlfenDaddy]

@EdgarBoffin Yes, Rubinstein was always completely self-possessed despite tremendous technical ability. It's a great partnership with Haitink, whose own approach is similar; always utmost dignity and class no matter how wild the music might be! R also made this Concerto a kind of signature-piece late in his career; He was in a great way responsible for bringing it back into the repertoire. Brahms' 1st had long been overshadowed by 2nd; not unlike the Tchaikovsky concerti.

[UlfenDaddy]

@3cplantin That's a lot more common in concerto literature than many (pianists included!) realize; the subtle moments where the "solo" becomes part of the ensemble and not SOLO are often overlooked and blurred. That really has its roots even in Mozart, where the pianist-conductor often plays a figured bass; but it's certainly clear in moments in the B'ven concerti, too.

[EdgarBoffin]

He plays in such a self-assured manner as though he were reliving past passion in his mind but outwardly maintaining dignity knowing he doesn't have to prove himself to anyone by being outlandish.

[paulybarr]

@Sylvain894 I think you mean that Mr Rubinstein saw the NINETEENTH century ( the 1800s) unless he was at least 170 years old when he recorded this.

[Nijmegen1955]

I think it's on DVD:

Studio: DGG Unitel Classics DVD 00440 073 4445 (Universal release).

Rubinstein was 86 at that moment...

AMAZING....

[OrangeSodaKing]

90 years old? A frail old man comes out and busts this monster of a piece out like that... Dang!!!!

[PUCCINIMUSICK]

Rubinstein in this movie is not anylonger in possession of his tremendously virtuosistic capacity. There are several mistakes BUT the spirit of Music, the real sense of Music, is simply wonderful. The orchestra is superlative, the performance in its complex is great. I still strongly advise the vision of the Zimerman/Bernstein/WPO version to find better than this!

[Susanita4916]

Muy bien! No puedo creer que en ninguna época hayan podido abuchear este concierto. Gracias por los detalles históricos.

[asliuf]

Bravo!