Beethoven - Piano Concertos in D & No. 4: Ronald Brautigam

Pianist Ronald Brautigam’s clever coupling challenges Beethoven preconceptions forcing you to listen with fresh ears to familiar music.

Composer: Beethoven
Repertoire: Piano Concertos in D & No. 4
Artists: Ronald Brautigam (piano), Norrköping Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Parrott
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Orchestral
Label: BIS BIS-SACD-1693

Playing a modern grand, the Dutch pianist opens with Beethoven’s revised (1808) version of the great Fourth Piano Concerto. There are over 30 amendments to the better-known original (1806), mainly in the first movement. The Concerto in D, Beethoven’s own adaptation of his Violin Concerto, has been much recorded but, as in the Fourth, few match the vigour and pianistic joie de vivre which Brautigam and the empathetic Parrot offer here with playing of penetrating intelligence and textual lucidity.