Solomon in the Brahms Concertos

The great pianist Solomon has appeared here a number of times recently. This latest apparition brings two of my favorites - the Brahms piano concertos, both done with the Philharmonia Orchestra - the second in 1947 and the first in 1952, both for HMV.

Let's discuss them in the order of their recording.

Piano Concerto No. 2

Brahms' Concerto No. 2 is an extraordinary work, quite long due to its encompassing four movements rather than the usual three, and demanding for the soloist.

As was his pattern, Solomon surmounts all the challenges seemingly without difficulty, and without ever drawing attention to his own virtuosity. He is of one mind with the conductor, the Russian-born Issay Dobrowen (1891-1953). The interplay in the fourth movement is something to hear.

Issay Dobrowen

As the critic Richard Freed wrote, "Pianistically, Solomon is dazzling; musically, he and Dobrowen make sublime good sense, balancing the lyrical and the heroic, the grand and the intimate elements of the work in a clean, classical reading that has plenty of thrust but no heaving and churning in the name of Romantic expressiveness, no gestures toward monumentalism."

I enjoyed Dobrowen's work here and will be transferring some of his recordings of Russian music for a future post.

This recording comes from Abbey Road, April 29-May 1, 1947.

Piano Concerto No. 1

For the first piano concerto, HMV, the orchestra, conductor Rafael Kubelík and Solomon moved to the more resonant acoustic of Kingsway Hall, with sessions on September 3-5, 1952. For whatever reason, HMV didn't get around to releasing the recording in the UK until 1955, although it seems to have come out in the US somewhat earlier.

As was often the case with Solomon's concerto recordings, the critics were split in their verdicts. The Gramophone: "It seems to me that the combination of Solomon and Kubelík could have produced a superlative recording, but there must have been a lack of watchfulness in the making of the disc, for there are many flaws in balance and interpretation." Stereo Review: "The performance is certainly among the most outstanding on disc and will be the very first choice of many listeners. Solomon virtually owned this music: it held no problems for him technically. and he was obviously completely at one with its musical message."

Rafael Kubelík

The performance is not showy, to be sure, and the pianist was the opposite of flashy. As with Solomon's other recordings, there are times when more fire might be warranted, but that was not his way.

At the time of the recording, Kubelík (1914-96) was about to embark on his final season as the music director of the Chicago Symphony, an unhappy tenure that lasted just three years. As for this recording, Harris Goldsmith wrote in High Fidelity, "Rafael Kubelík conducts sympathetically, although I don't sense the extraordinary meeting of minds evident in the B flat concerto with Dobrowen." I think that's a fair comment.

I believe I have presented most of Solomon's concerto discs here in the relatively recent past. He also recorded the Tchaikovsky first concerto (twice), Mozart concertos and the Scriabin concerto. I have have the Tchaikovsky and Mozart recordings and plan to transfer them. The Scriabin work is not in my collection.

As was the case with a few of my recent posts, I've presented the Brahms concertos in ambient stereo, which adds some air around the mono signal and brings it forward. These transfers came from a very clean HMV reissue from the 1970s, as found in my collection (literally - I forgot I had it). The sound is remarkably good.

The download includes several reviews and a 1949 article on Solomon from The Gramophone.

Ad in The Gramophone, September 1955 (click to enlarge)