Felix wrote:

>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.

Here is one of the few times in which Arrau (despite his contradictory
intelectuallity:  sometimes deep,sometimes empty),make a very nice job in
these kind of works,despite some "qualities" common to him ,like his mega
"rallentandi" which i really don't like.  On the other hand, Rubinstein
is straight -forward (i don't think to much.A little bit more even could
be better).Well at least for me Rubinstein played almost everything
wonderful,only with a few exceptions.  Pianistically speaking,Rubinstein
was a 100% a pianistic being ,instead Arrau was not.if you see any video
of both two,you'll realize it.  For me the greatest recording of Brahms
first, is an old one in Melodiya label,where the pianist is Rudolf Kerer,a
great Russian pianist ,who was in jail for years after the end of 2nd World
war,and all those years,he was practicing in a dumb keybord made by himself
in jail.  This version of that concerto,is so INTENSE ,i don't reccomend
it to listen if you are not prepare for it(just a joke).  Well,Kerer is
a great(i think is still alive but very old) pianist who deserved to be
togheter with Richter,Gillels,etc.but in this live not everything is as
it should be.  Best:

Gerardo:.