Felix Delbruck writes:

>I very much admire Arrau's second version with Haitinck - nordic, darkly
>ruminative, certainly not easy listening, but a very powerful vision of the
>work. I also have Rubinstein, much more straight-forward, perhaps too much
>so, but R.'s playing is very beautiful in its own way.

This is the version that I have of my favourite piano concerto.

I agree with Felix's assessment.  The work has been described as Sturm Und
Drang (storm and stress) and the Arrau performance conveys this feeling.

If you are not absolutely desparate to has the very best performance
there an interesting disc on the Arte Nova label (74321 43303 2).  This
has Brahms' "Song Of Fate" for chorus and orchestra as a fillup.  As I am
now a Brahms completeist I'm keeping the disk for this latter work.

The song of fate is a very enjoyable lyrical piece and is well performed.
Wolfgang Manz gives an acceptable rather than scintilating performance of
the concerto.  But that is from my perspective as a liker of raw emotion.
If you like to see this toned down a bit you'll derive more pleasure from
the performance.

Bob Draper
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