Audition: Brahms Piano Concerto No 1 - Fleisher/NYP/Monteux

 

In 1944 Pierre Monteux conducted a concert which included Brahms First Piano Concerto with a 16-year-old as the soloist called Leon Fleisher

This is a public performance caught on record and the recording conditions were pretty good although the side changes and surfaces are variable.

Monteux, as it is frequently referenced, played Brahms’ music in the presence of Brahms so his stature as a Brahms has special lineage. He was a formidable Brahms conductor, though made fewer recordings than I would have liked though I think that he only recorded works he did well and liked. Even before the soloist’s entry in this work I’ve noted several points where Monteux adds some telling nuances to the flow of the work and gives it a living pulse rather than an metronomic one throughout the work and this marks more conductorial intervention than perhaps a more seasoned pianist would brook.

It’s quite clear from the first pages with piano that the young Fleisher was a extraordinary talent, but also insight and sensibility. He is a strong voice against the orchestra and has a very clear and a precise touch. He has his own mind too regarding the approach at the Poco pit moderato he mellows his attack. They partnership reacts well - at the run up to the development Monteux is surprisingly dark and at the piano enters Fleisher matches the mood with a fierce salvo. We can forgive the pianist the slightly messy passages that follow. But Monteux is darker than ever in the commanding triplets further on.

Fleisher is secure for the majority of the interplay which follows though is a bit four square in the solo passages and Monteux enlivens the NYP in an emphatic and dramatic coda.

The soloist is less secure in the second movement, Monteux sets a brisker pace at first. But the orchestra are a bit shaky in this movement too - usually a sign of too little rehearsal.

Fleisher dives into the Rondo finale and Monteux matches him - it’s invigorating. All the pressing by Monteux is to Fleisher ’s benefit. Given his youth this is an extraordinary performance especially one in live circumstances. This is not studio sound though but that shouldn’t put you off. This is the debut on a major stage with a fantastic Brahms conductor which shouldn’t be missed. The measure of it is that it reveals a standard for a series of recordings by Fleisher and his colleagues which maintained a tradition of muscular Brahms at a time when too many conductors were producing cozy orchestral performances of the canon.