Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 83 & 4 Piano Pieces, Op. 119

Album review

Back in the '60s and '70s, Rudolf Serkin's 1966 recording of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra was the Second to have if you were having only one. Serkin's Second had tough competition in Richter's staggering Second and Gilels' swaggering Second. But, stupendous as Gilels and Richter's were, they were wholly individualistic interpretations while Serkin's seemed somehow to be less an individual's interpretation then a representation of the Central European Tradition of interpretation. Compared with Gilels and Richter's, Serkin's Second is less massive but more monumental, as dramatic but more epic, and as gloriously lyrical but with an inwardness that is less intimate than all-embracing. Of course, everyone realized that either Gilels or Richter could play Serkin under the table when it came to bare-knuckles virtuosity. But the heart and soul of Serkin's Second was nevertheless so compelling that his performances were still wholly persuasive.
In his 1979 recording of Brahms' Klavierstucke, Op. 119, Serkin was more than a bit past his prime as a pianist. But he was at his ripest as an interpreter and these are among the juiciest of his late recordings. The sweetness, the tenderness, the melancholy, and the tragedy of Brahms' last works for his own instrument is expressed with consummate artistry and immense soul. The final Rhapsody in E flat major is one of the very greatest Brahms' performances, right up there with the best of Kempff, Backhaus, Schnabel, and Gieseking. Sony's remastering of Columbia's original stereo recordings is clearer, warmer, and more immediate than most of their digital recordings.

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