This is an unbelievably poorly played performance of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto. The orchestra is as often as not out of tune and out of sync: listen to the strings wobble, the brass bobble, and the winds blow where they will. The conducting is more often than not inept and unpredictable: listen to the frayed ensemble, the scrappy balances, and the opaque textures. That the
Vienna Philharmonic could play so badly is incredible -- it was then and remains now one of the two or three greatest orchestras in Europe -- but when conducted by Hans "we all know how it goes, why bother to rehearsal"
Knapperstbusch, it becomes all too creditable. But beyond the conductor and orchestra's shoddy performance, what makes this recording abominable is the playing of English pianist
Clifford Curzon. In his time,
Curzon recorded many fine performances -- his 1962 Brahms First with
Szell and the
London Symphony is generally admired for its scrupulous control and measured power -- but
Curzon's playing here is staggeringly awful. Not a bar, not a phrase, not a chord goes by that he doesn't drop notes, hit wrong notes, or not hit any notes at all. It's hard to say which movement gets the worst of it: the opening Allegro non troppo's heroic virtuosity is in ruins, the following Allegro appassionato's striving intensity is in shambles, the following Andante's yearning lyricism is wrecked, and the closing Allegretto grazioso's charming effervescence is shattered. The Tragic Overture that opens the disc is nearly as terrible as the concerto -- listening to the Vienna's braying brass, one recalls that the word tragedy originally meant goat song -- but without
Curzon's ham-fisted piano playing, it is at least listenable, something that cannot be said of the concerto. Archipel's 1955 air check sound is cold, clammy, and claustrophobic.