Brahms [Concerto] Concertos for Piano and Orchestra a – No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15; No. 2 in B flat, Op. 83. Seven Piano [Piece] Pieces, Op. 116 b. Emil Gilels (pf); a Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Eugen Jochum.

DG The Originals (Mid  price) (CD) 447 446-2GOR2 (two discs: 125 minutes: ADD). Items marked a from 2707 064 (12/72), b 2530 655 (7/76).

Concerto No. 1 – selected comparisons:

Brendel, BPO, Abbado (11/87) (PHIL) 420 071-2PH

Kovacevich, LPO, Sawallisch (10/92) (EMI) CDC7 54578-2

Rubinstein, Chicago SO, Reiner (2/93) (RCA) 09026 61263-2

Concerto No. 2 – selected comparisons:

Gilels, Chicago SO, Reiner (3/66) (R) (RCA) VD60536

Brendel, BPO, Abbado (6/92) (PHIL) 423 975-2PH

Serkin, Cleveland Orch, Szell (3/94) (SONY) SBK53262

Aeschbacher, BPO, Furtwangler (3/95) (TAHR) FURT10047

This is a set that comes so showered with critical acclaim that comment from me hardly seems necessary. RO’s apposite booklet-notes make reference to Jerrold Northrop Moore’s original Gramophone review, in which Gilels and Jochum were praised for “a rapt songfulness that in no way detracts from Brahms’s heroism, and so comes closer to that unique and complex combination of attitudes that for me is Brahms more than any other performances of these concertos I have ever heard, on records or otherwise”. One might add that Jochum and the Berlin Philharmonic make plain sailing where others struggle with choppy cross-currents (sometimes to Brahms’s advantage, admittedly) and that the recordings don’t sound their age. And what of the situation since 1972? Abbado and Brendel have perhaps probed a little deeper here and there, Kovacevich and Sawallisch won a Gramophone Award for their recording of No. 1 and sundry reissues have reminded us of such contrasted partnerships as Rubinstein with Reiner in the First Concerto and, in the Second, Adrian Aeschbacher raging wild with Furtwangler and, also in the Second, Serkin with Szell.

Neither concerto rests content with a single interpretation, the Second especially – and there one can additionally turn to Gilels’s fiery first recording under Fritz Reiner, so much swifter than this Berlin remake (15'54", 8'03", 11'57" and 8'44" as compared with 18'22", 9'31", 14'04" and 9'47"). Some will prefer it, although RCA’s 1958 recording is nowhere near as refined as on this DG set. As for the Seven Piano Pieces, I can only echo RO who, again in the context of the booklet, concludes that Gilels viewed the opus as “a single piece, a musical novella in several chapters”. For me it is the highlight of the set.
RC