Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 [Perahia/ Haitink-Concertgebouw Orchestra]Beethoven fifth Concerto is the greatest Piano Concerto in the catalogue, it has majesty and grandeur, and its tag of Emperor is well justified, it's also such a happy Concerto, i can imagine Beethoven transcribing laughing to music in the finale, who else could be so revolutionary as to let the piano make the opening exclamations instead of the Orchestra?.
Perahia is sound and gets to the heart of what Beethoven is trying to say, unlike some other wayward Pianists [Pletnev?], he pushes aside his own individuality for the genius of the Master.
This is my favourite Piano Concerto, and so many of Beethoven's other works seem to have this same universalist ideology feel to them, i find it easy to get lost in this work, and bask in the sheer genius of this Composer, the slow movement is heavenly, it's the final movement which has a sheer exuberance about it, for roughly ten minutes we're treated to a tumultuous wave upon wave of ecstasy.
You can hear him play this Concerto on YouTube, this time with Marriner conducting the final movement.
