Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 'Emperor' [Ax/Previn-Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]Well here's my favourite Piano Concerto again, this time with Emanuel Ax & Andre Previn, this was recorded in 1986.
It's hard to pin down Ax's nationality, supposedly he was born in Poland, now 61, he has recorded extensively with Yo-Yo Ma, and his Brahms recordings are very good indeed.
The whole Concerto is a beaut, the outer movements have that zest and undefeatableness, composed in Beethoven's heroic key of E Flat Major, and yet it's the slow movement i enjoyed the most, the very first thing i notice about this slow movement, is that it moves relatively fast, i checked out some other recordings that i love, and their timings for this movement,
Ax / Previn - 7:24
Pollini / Abbado - 7:48
Larrocha / Chailly - 7:53
Grimaud / Jurowski - 8:05
Schiff / Haitink - 8:15
Uchida / Sanderling - 8:21
Arrau / Davis - 8:27
Perahia / Haitink - 8:30
Brendel / Haitink - 8:30
Zimerman / Bernstein - 9:07
Well Ax & Previn really are quite fast, roughly one minute faster than the ideal, and it does show in their interpretation, the slow movement is so serene, it needs a gentle unhurriedness to truly digest into the soul, and yet i can still hear the genius of beethoven shining through, this is one of Beethoven's most glorious slow movements of all, it really puts you in another world.
Here's Krystian Zimerman playing the slow movement on YouTube, with Leonard Bernstein conducting.
