Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 [Brendel/ Haitink-London Philharmonic Orchestra]
Alfred Brendel is now retired from performimg, nearly eighty years old, he has been a giant of the Piano, a great Beethoven and Schubert authoritarian, he has recorded a number of Beethoven Piano Concerto cycles, this performance was recorded in the mid seventies.
This Concerto really is the Emperor of Concertos, the slow movement is heaven on earth, it starts off with such a serene opening, and when Brendel enters with the first piano notes [1:43], his playing is delicate and thoughtful, and it takes a lovely turn at [2:09-2:25], creating a wonderfully enchanting passage of such majesty, the piano has a gorgeous ring to it, toward the end of the movement, there's this passage where the piano plays the tune broken up into very simple notes, while the woodwind and especially the flutes play the melody [6:07-7:53], winding the piece down towards its inevitable end, Beethoven was the genius of the slow movement, and this is one of his very very best.
Here's Brendel playing the slow movement on YouTube.
