Beethoven: Emperor Concerto

 (5 customer reviews)

Both Glenn Gould and Leopold Stokowski were often iconoclasts, with musical interpretations that some considered eccentric or even heretical. That's certainly the case with this piece, which some critics have labeled as "perverse". So fair warning, purists often despise this recording.

Not me. Of all all the other versions I have heard, this is the one I keep returning to. The 2nd movement as played by Gould is one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of music I've ever experienced. Stokowski's orchestra is lush and sonorous, Gould's playing is fluid and singing, and even the humming somehow works.

It's true that Stokowski and Gould sometimes seem to have different ideas about the music (particularly in the first movement). Listening closely, one can detect inconsistencies between the approach of the conductor and pianist. But somehow that doesn't matter, and the end result is a glorious musical triumph. Other recordings may be truer and more accurate,...Read more

Well, what did you expect? It is Glenn Gould, not, say, Wilhelm Kempff or Murray Perahia. So you get probably the most eccentric reading of the Emperor ever (I haven't heard them all, but...). You get, of course, the (in)famous Gould humming. You get the opening cadenza played so slow you'd think Gould was practicing his scales to warm up. You get broad, even slow tempos in all three movements that will not surprise those who know Gould's famous 1962 live concert of Brahms' First with Bernstein, opening with an introductory and apologetic speech from the conductor explaining that he did NOT agree with the tempo asked by his soloist (Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1); in fact, other than the first movement by Klemperer, these are the slowest readings I've ever heard. You get trills that are played not like trills but like the previous...Read more

This recording was criticized when it first came out, for Gould's eccentricities of interpretation and an accompaniment by Stokowski that was less stellar than some thought it could be. The intervening years, and the passing of both Gould and Stokowski has softened the criticism--they were both highly individual artists with something to say, and this collaboration, while imperfect, is well worth hearing.

The sound quality of this CD issue is very good. Producer Andrew Kazdin went for a close, detailed sound pickup which the CD reproduces considerably better than the original LP issue did. My only complaint is the packaging--the original liner notes for the album are reproduced in miniscule type that most will need to read with a magnifying glass, and only the bare minimum of additional information is supplied. Fortunately, that has no effect on the musical performance.