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United StatesBeethoven Piano Concerto No 5 Emperor - Rubinstein,piano Leinsdorf Boston Symphony Orchestra
Each note is distinct, without being mechanical. Each is fully explored, and exquisite, even in the fastest passages. After listening to this recording, I played to a (2014) recording which had none of the technical artifacts of this recording and may have even had a nicer orchestration than the BSO, which has always been a favorite. The pianist in that recording was masterful, yet I found I much preferred Rubinstein’s effortless, and what I think, was a more lyrical performance. I was thinking of giving this 4 stars instead of 5, but I liked Rubinstein's performance so well, it outweighed nits of the orchestration and technical artifacts.
United StatesBeethoven Piano Concerto No 5 Emperor - Rubinstein,piano Leinsdorf Boston Symphony Orchestra
great masterpiece (all of the LvB PCs are gr8!) by one of the small handful of pianists who, imo, vie for the title of greatest ever. very nice sound.
ChinaBetter than expectation
This remastering well reflects the original recording's balance, not to say Rubinstein's classic playing.
United KingdomGreat transfer of a fine performance
Arthur Rubinstein made several complete recordings of the Beethoven Concerti, of which the finest is probably an earlier RCA stereo set with the Symphony of the Air (formerly the NBC SO) and Josef Krips, which is more urgent, but even in his late 70s when he made this Boston version his technique was still in magnificent condition. The romantic phrasing, rubato and tempo changes will probably horrify those into all of the historically informed performance practice nonsense, but for everyone else there is the fascinating prospect of one of the supremely great pianists completely recreating the score, although sometimes he does sound a little tired. With regard to the sound there have been a few RCA CDs and a JVC XRCD. The standard CDs are little more than audio junk when compared to first label American and British LPs (the only meaningful comparison). The - for want of a better term - remastering team having destroyed instrumental timbres, the acoustic and dried the sound out (although to be fair even if a R2R tape is remastered in say 24/96 the compression to CD quality 16/44.1 will inevitably further damage the sound). The XRCD isn't bad although even that is rather dead and thin. Turn to the HDTT DSD128 transfer and you enter a different world, where there is far more body, presence, projection and definition, instrumental timbres are more vibrant and the acoustic is better preserved. And one can only hope Bob Witrak will remaster the rest of the cycle and then turn to the Krips cycle.
Description:
Title: Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 In E-Flat, Op. 73 ("Emperor")
Artist(s): Conductor - Erich Leinsdorf
Orchestra - Boston Symphony Orchestra
Piano - Arthur Rubinstein
Recording Info: Recorded by RCA 1964
Producer – Max Wilcox
Engineer - Anthony Salvatore
1 Allegro 22:25
2 Adagio Un Poco Mosso 9:20
3 Rondo 10:57
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