Maria João Pires / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / André Previn CHOPIN Piano Concerto No. 1

 

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1

 

London Symphony Orchestra / Bernard Haitink BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2 - Triple Concerto

LSO Live celebrates the 90th birthday of one of the conducting world’s greats, Bernard Haitink. 

Few artists have a deeper understanding of the music of Beethoven than the celebrated Dutch conductor, who is known for his mastery of the great symphonic repertoire. This album focuses on Haitink's interpretations of Beethoven's concerto writing, coupling a new recording of Piano Concerto No 2 by Maria João Pires with a virtuosic performance of the Triple Concerto by Lars Vogt, Gordan Nikolitch and Tim Hugh, which was originally made alongside Haitink's now iconic cycle of the composer's complete symphonies.

Maria João Pires / Sinfonia Varsovia / Christopher Warren-Green CHOPIN Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 21 - Nocturnes

This grande dame of the piano world, possessed of an extraordinarily modest, charming personality – focused on the music, devoted to deeply understanding it – has performed three times during the Chopin and His Europe Festival at the invitation of The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. The recordings on this album come from her concerts in 2010 (when she performed the Piano Concerto in F minor op. 21 with the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestra under the baton of Christopher Warren-Green) and 2014 (when she performed a recital including, among other items, the Nocturnes presented here).
A presentation of – by nature – completely different interpretations, which nonetheless form an extraordinarily coherent artistic whole. Superb creations displaying the most beautiful side of pianistic art. (Presto Classical)

Augustin Dumay / Maria João Pires GRIEG Violin Sonatas

It is good to see Grieg doing so well out of his anniversary year, with all manner of rarities coming to the fore. While the three violin sonatas are certainly not in the ‘rare works’ category, having them on one CD gives the listener an admirable opportunity to survey the development of Grieg’s style, from the Romantic profligacy and energetic invention of the first, through the more consciously national second sonata, to the surprising intensity of the last. Every one of these nine movements has something to offer, but for sheer exhilaration try the finale of the F major Sonata. Dumay and Pires make a splendid duo, rising magnificently to the virtuoso challenges of the fast movements and responding well to the abundant lyricism in the slower passages. Apart from a slightly faint-hearted start to the finale of the C minor Sonata, these performances are near-ideal for their idiomatic grasp. The instrumental balance is realistic and the piano tone well captured. The only problem is a tendency on the part, I assume, of Dumay, to sniff impressively before certain entries. (Arkiv Music)

Maria João Pires / Sir John Eliot Gardiner / London Symphony Orchestra MENDELSSOHN Symphony no. 3 - Overture: The Hebrides SCHUMANN Piano Concerto

My dislike for Gardiner runs so deep that a voice in my head says, “Give it a rest.” He has won every battle I wish he’d lost, from Bach devoid of spirituality to Beethoven without depth. But win the battles Gardiner did, and in England he’s a cultural eminence. This is the second release under his direction from LSO Live in a short period, the other one being of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Apollo (the latter in a very good performance). At 71, Gardiner has been on the musical scene for a remarkable 50 years, and one can only admire the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique founded by him—they raised period performance to an unprecedented level. But I never felt that Gardiner possessed the requirements of a good general conductor, a bias reinforced here by his rackety, amateurish Hebrides Overture . The London Symphony would play it better without Gardiner’s arbitrary tempo changes, bumpy accents, and mundane phrasing. It’s helpful for a conductor not to be an impediment.

Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony is harder to manage thanks to its tricky transitions, but what stands out here are the vibratoless strings—what else?—and occasionally scrawny sonority. The brass tend to be raw and punchy. This, at least, isn’t a battle Gardiner and the HIPsters have won, although they’ve had their influence, as witness mainstream conductors like Vladimir Jurowski and Simon Rattle adopting period gestures in Beethoven and elsewhere. To his credit, Gardiner leads a robust if unsophisticated account of the “Scottish.” The fast music is buoyant without running away with itself; the slow movement flows nicely, although I get little feeling from it. (Expressive vibrato and rubato exist for a reason.) A general air of rambunctiousness energizes the whole performance, if that’s what you want in place of musical finesse.

Gardiner’s contribution to the Schumann Piano Concerto exists on much the same level, which isn’t that of the acclaimed Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. Pires is especially good in Schumann, as her highly praised DG recordings attest. When she is able to, she ignores Gardiner to inject her own cultivated style. I don’t mean to imply a shotgun wedding; the orchestral part blends well with the soloist, and in the best parts of the performance, especially the Andantino grazioso , Pires successfully leads the way. The few rocky passages—her awkward first entry in both the opening movement and finale—pass quickly. Pires’s delightful touch in the piano’s beguiling passagework makes the reading.

There’s a Leipzig connection between Mendelssohn and Schumann, and this may also account for why Gardiner has the LSO violins and violas stand for the “Scottish” Symphony. That was common practice in the past, in particular with Mendelssohn’s Gewandhaus when he was the city’s Kapellmeister. The violins and violas weren’t allowed to sit in chairs until the first decade of the 20th century. Today it’s a charming anachronism in limited doses. This CD has been announced as the first in a projected Mendelssohn symphony cycle from Gardiner and the LSO. I don’t shudder at the prospect. The concert was enjoyable, and the voice in my head is right about my Gardiner phobia. I should give it a rest (when warranted). (Huntley Dent)

Maria João Pires / Gulbenkian Orchestra / Michel Corboz J.S. BACH Piano Concertos BWV 1052, 1055 & 1056

Maria João Pires recorded this recital some years ago; it is thankfully back in the catalog now, finally available again after so many years, thanks to Apex. There are many aspects of the recording which show their age considering the general approach to Bach on the piano in the year 2013—the slower tempos in the fast movements, the thicker orchestral textures, the expressive use of rubato, the numerous hairpin phrasings, especially in the strings. Yet the performances hold up well simply because Pires and Corboz are so in tune with the characters of each of these individual works. The great D-Minor Concerto is splendidly performed. The tempos here are perfectly chosen (how many performances of this work sound like perpetual-motion studies?), the passagework is crystal clear, the sound of the individual notes rounded and bouncy, the dialogue between soloist and orchestra is palpable, and the intensity of the whole is felt from beginning to end. There is reverence for the work, but never does that inhibit expressivity. Pires gives the wonderful bubbly A-Major Concerto a gentle lilt in the first movement—it feels a bit slow at first, yet she is careful to maintain a lovely sense of momentum throughout. After the intensely lyrical and impassioned second movement, the forces end on a sprightly and joyous note in the light-hearted finale. The F-Minor Concerto has a nervous energy in the opening movement, which is highlighted by the restrained dynamics chosen. This paves the way for one of the truly remarkable moments in this recital: the slow movement to the F-Minor Concerto, surely one of Bach’s most beautiful and inspired instrumental ariosos. Here the artists pull back the dynamics to not more than Piano for most of the movement, drawing the listener ever closer in; one’s attention never wavers here, so intent is one on not missing a single second of this tender masterpiece. The finale’s effect is heightened as a result, perhaps ever more so as one waits for the delayed resolution at the second movement’s conclusion.
Though one may prefer the sprightlier tempos of today, less vibrato, leaner orchestral textures, and the like (I don’t always), there is a quality in these performances, which makes them timeless. Pires captures the spirit of this music like no other performer I know. I would not give up my Gould, my Schiff, my Edwin Fischer, my Horszowski, or numerous others in my collection, but for those interested in yet another side of this composer, one which I will surely return to often, Pires makes for an easy recommendation. Grab it while it’s still available! (FANFARE: Scott Noriega)

Maria João Pires / Daniel Harding / Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos 3 & 4

The role of interpreter is a delicate one: he, or she, is faced with the score as the sole point of contact with the composer. It is the interpreter’s job to bring a work to life, across distancesin time and space, by making a connection between a personality – often an exceptional one – and ordinary mortals. To achieve this he has to put mind and body at the service of a considerable task: the transmission of art. In music, the word ‘interpretation’ is prone to a number of misconceptions, frequently with unfortunate consequences. Thus we often see two positions set against each other: either the performer must ‘project himself’ in order to give life to the score (to ‘show personality’), at the risk of betraying the spirit of the work; or, on the contrary, he must show the score the utmost respect, so trying to suppress his own personality to give a reading of the work which may well be perfect – but lifeless.

Logically speaking, one might think that the correct approach would be halfway between these two extremes, but such logic would be crude compared to the subtlety of the question. Indeed, these two approaches both fall prey to the same fallacy, through the disproportionate importance they attach to personality. Whether through excess or shortage of personality, this concept gets in the way of music’s essential power to bring out a primal simplicity, so often forgotten, which is present deep inside each one of us, waiting to respond when summoned. Music’s capacity to suggest a stretch of time and yet still exist in the moment amounts to the capacity to reshape every aspect of our sensibility anew. So the act of ‘interpreting’ ceases to be one of simple personal will, to become that civilized conversation where composer and performer lend each other their ears, so to speak, across centuries and borders, with the aim of achieving an eminently simple miracle: for the work to open up, yielding to the source of all music. (Maria João Pires)

Maria João Pires / Claudio Abbado / Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Wiener Philharmoniker MOZART Piano Concertos Nos. 14 - 17 - 21

The combination of Abbado and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe has to be my dream ticket for modern-instrument Mozart. The qualities are irresistible: cultured, characterful woodwind playing (so important in Mozart piano concertos), an expert string section which carries no passengers, and an alertness of response to a conductor who, with years of experience in this repertoire, nevertheless shows no sign of going stale. Maria João Pires is an excellent partner in all this: her stylistic approach is similar, in that she also favours a light touch, but there is no danger of over-preciousness. The expressive Andante in K453 – one of the first of Mozart’s slow movements to make a major feature of the woodwind section – is done especially well, as is the bustling Haydnesque finale; indeed, the orchestra’s articulation of the Presto coda is quite breathtaking. The C major Concerto, K467, is, of course, among Mozart’s best-known works in any form. Abbado and Pires take the work at face value: clipped and martial in the first movement, perfectly poised in the central Andante, and fast but clean in the good-natured finale. Both works were recorded in the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, though only K453 was recorded live. But there is no perceptible difference in sound; indeed the production values throughout are well up to DG’s high standards. (BBC Music Magazine)

Maria-João Pires J.S,BACH Partita No. 1 - English Suite No. 3 - French Suite No. 2

Acclaimed as one of the greatest interpreters of Mozart, Portuguese pianist Maria-João Pires is an artist who combines exquisite stylistic refinement with a serious effort to plumb the intellectual complexities and spiritual depths of music. Refusing to conform to the traditional image of a concert virtuoso, Pires emphasizes the spiritual dimensions of music, always searching for hidden meanings which may elude the analytical performer. This remarkable reverence towards works of music, clearly manifested in her performances of Mozart, was made explicit by her remark that, as a performer, she acts as a channel for the composer's ideas. Interestingly, Pires views both the composer and the performer as conduits for a transcendent force. However, while approaching the work of music with immense awe, Pires is acutely aware of its formal structure, finding a certain transparency in the most intricate formal constructions. In her performances of Romantic masters, particularly Chopin and Schumann, Pires masterfully reconciles her passionate experience of the music with an admirable appreciation for the inner logic of the work she is interpreting. Reflecting her vast emotional range, her tone, as critics have observed, encompasses a dizzying variety of intensities, from an almost imperceptible lightness to an imposing monumentality, with a rich scale of intervening nuances. Another hallmark of her style is her uncanny ability to capture, and convey, the precise variety of inner movement which constitutes the being of a particular musical creation. Pires started playing at the age of three, giving her first public performance two years later. Pires performed Mozart concertos when she was seven and received Portugal's major prize for musicians at nine. She studied with Campos Coelho and Francine Benoit at the Lisbon Conservatory, graduating at 16. Post-graduate studies took her to Germany, where she studied with Rösl Schmidt, in Munich, and with Karl Engel, in Hanover. In 1970, she won the Beethoven Bicentennial Competition in Brussels. Pires made her London debut in 1986, and she first played in New York three years later. She has performed with the major European and American orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Often praised for her extraordinary renditions of Mozart's works, Pires has shown a remarkable affinity with several of the greatest composers, including Bach, Chopin, and Schubert. An enormously successful recording artist, Pires, who since 1989 records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, released several critically acclaimed discs, including a Bach disc, recordings of Chopin's Nocturnes and Schubert's Impromptus, and a recording of two Mozart concertos with Claudio Abbado. Her recording of Mozart's complete sonatas received the 1990 Grand Prix du Disque. Since 1989, Pires has been an enthusiastic performer of chamber music, touring Europe and the Far East with violinist Augustin Dumay. Forming a trio with Dumay and cellist Jian Wang, Pires toured the Far East in 1998, playing Beethoven's Concerto for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra in several European centers in 1999. In 2000, Pires decided to take several months off in order to concentrate on a variety of educational projects in Portugal. Several collections of her performances, including Artist Portrait: Maria-João Pires, appeared in the early 2000s. (Zoran Minderovic)

Antonio Meneses / Maria João Pires THE WIGMORE HALL RECITAL

Over four decades since securing worldwide recognition as one of the finest musicians of her generation, Maria Joao Pires continues to transfix audiences with the spotless integrity, eloquence and vitality of her art. This recital, recorded live in the splendid Wigmore Hall acoustics, is clearly a red-letter event for chamber music connoisseurs. Pires is partnered by Antonio Meneses, cellist with the Beaux Arts Trio and artist of great wisdom and imagination. Maria Joao Pires is one of the reigning pianists of our times, with numerous recordings spanning more than two decades on Deutsche Grammophon. One of the label’s flagship artists, she carefully handpicks her concert appearances and recordings projects, making this release a document ofRead more extraordinary value. The album features a collection of some of the most intimately beautiful pieces, including the Songs without Words by Mendelssohn, the Intermezzi op. 117 and Cello Sonata op. 38 by Brahms, and the eternal “Arpeggione” Sonata by Schubert. Pires’s abiding concern for poetic shading draws the listener towards the spiritual essence of the works she performs. An exceptional live encounter between two legendary musicians at the height of their powers, here documented for the first time on disc. A must-have for any classical music lover!

Maria João Pires SCHUBERT

The gentle, conversational way in which Maria João Pires launches the A minor Sonata D845 immediately identifies a pianist with a deep understanding of Schubert's music and its spectrum of expression. There is an impromptu-like innocence about Pires's playing of those opening bars, as if a whim of an idea has just lighted on her. But then, as Schubert develops his material and invests it with sinew, Pires takes her cue to give a beautifully proportioned account of the first movement -- lucid, poised and intuitively describing its emotional contours. The delicate, courtly gait of the theme of the Andante is deftly caught, the ensuing variations echoing Schubert's inventiveness in pianism that is opalescent and strongly defined. The cross-currents of pulse in the scherzo are unexaggerated but lightly pointed up in such a way that their teasing emphases are subtly telling. And the happy bustle at the start of the finale unleashes a rondo that in Pires's hands strikes a miraculous balance between refreshing spontaneity and a thoroughly thought-through interpretative plan. If this all adds up to a performance that can be listened to again and again, with its colours and nuances never losing their capacity to conjure up the very essence of Schubert, the same is true of the B flat Sonata D960. The grandeur of the opening is the stimulus for a performance that embraces Schubert's expansive dramatic trajectory and holds its elements of contemplation and outburst in shrewd equipoise. Pires's stillness and dignity in the slow movement are things of wonder; the scherzo and finale are magical studies of limpid finger work and refined tonal shadings. Truth to the music and Pires's personality come together on this disc to sublime effect. (Geoffrey Norris)

Maria João Pires - Abbado MOZART Piano Concertos Nos. 27 and 20

 It's a recording that just a few years ago would have been mainstream: a "name" pianist (albeit one much less well known in the U.S. than elsehwere), who has been playing Mozart's piano concertos since childhood, joins forces with a name conductor with whom she has frequently collaborated, leading a modern-instrument orchestra of some 70 players, with the results released on a major international-conglomerate label. Now it's distinctly unusual. But lo, there's value in the old ways. Portuguese-Brazilian pianist Maria João Pires is a lifelong Mozart specialist, but she still has new things to say in two of Mozart's most popular piano concertos. You can chalk it up to her Buddhist outlook if you like: her readings of the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595, and Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, might be described as detached without being lifeless. Her approach is most startling in the Piano Concerto No. 20, where her no-drama shaping of the material runs sharply counter to type. Sample the piano's entrance in the first movement, where it offers a twisting, tense elaboration of the main theme that is far removed from its source material. Generally pianists use this to raise the tension level, but Pires lets the unusually shaped, chromatic line speak for itself with fine effect. In the Piano Concerto No. 27, Mozart's last, Pires emphasizes the music's evanescent quality in a really lovely, gentle performance. As for Abbado, he apparently failed to get the memo about how proper balance in Mozart's concertos is impossible with a large modern orchestra, for the interplay between Pires and his Orchestra Mozart Bologna is subtle and detailed. The only problem comes with Deutsche Grammophon's engineers, who give Pires' left hand too much prominence, perhaps more so in one of the recording's two locales (we don't learn which concerto was recorded in Bologna and which in Bolzano) than in the other. In general, an absolutely distinctive release of the old school. (James Manheim)