Audition: Brahms - Piano Concerto No 1. Schnabel/LPO/Szell

 

When this recording was made Artur Schnabel was 56 and well regarded as a master of the keyboard across Europe. George Szell was 41 and a modestly successful conductor working across Europe. Szell came under the wing of Richard Strauss at the Berlin Opera and conducted recordings, operas and concerts prior to the outbreak of World War 2. He and his family settled in New York at the outbreak of war. And thereafter he became one of the finest conductors of 20th Century.

It’s not entirely clear to me why the London Philharmonic Orchestra were chosen for the recording but of course HMV (later EMI) were based in London and that’s where it was recorded in the famous Abbey Road Studios. The recording took two studio days which were nearly a year apart - 9th January and 18th December.

As to the merits of the recording, the sound is reasonably good for the era.

Schnabel is clean, powerful but not bullish and assured in his technical proficiency. His playing is wonderfully fluid when required and his personal stamp is authoritative. He doesn’t make a meal of Brahms’ complex demands. His style is not flashy but he dispatches the solo passages as with ease and his tone is rich but would never I think be described as delicate as some of his contemporaries.

Sadly, the LPO are not well recorded and even if they were, I think they were not responding well to Szell’s instructions in this instance. The recording sometimes leaves the strings sounding weak but we can hear the solo lines, but quite often the sound is acidic and inconsistent.

This results in a reading that is both taut and dramatic and seldom glorious although it is very good in terms of discipline and musicality. Szell in the introduction to the first movement injects changes of colour. The bars running up to the entry of the piano are particularly exciting

Schnabel uses all the colours and tones at his disposal and it’s all beautifully controlled. His rush into the Poco piu moderato is exciting but not forced - one wishes he’d taken this concerto on again prior to his death in 1951. Schnabel is a bit splashy in the final bars of the first movement.

I think Szell makes most of the big moments but no so much the intimate ones. The Adagio is very slow but flowing at the beginning but woodwind are ragged in the first dozen bars which breaks the spell somewhat. Schnabel is hesistant initially but perks up as the movement goes on. He throws himself onto the finale occasionally having to grab at the notes to keep up with Szell’s tempi. The end of the movement is heroic and a tribute to the work of this two fantastic musicians.

Performance: 8 out of 10

Recording: 8 out of 10

Interpretation: 7 out of 10