The apparently insatiable Dutch pianist
Ronald Brautigam continues to gobble up standard and not-so-standard
Beethoven with this 2009 disc featuring the composer's Fourth Piano Concerto and the piano transcription of his Violin Concerto, a recording that should please fans of the pianist's previous
Beethoven recordings. Performing on a modern concert grand rather than the fortepianos he had favored in some earlier releases,
Brautigam delivers readings that sparkle in the outer movements, sing in the central movements, and never resort to technical or emotional grandstanding to make their points. As always with this pianist, one can take his virtuosity as a given and simply sit back and enjoy the interpretations. In
Brautigam's hands, the Fourth Concerto is full of light and energy in its outer movements, which the central Andante con moto's heavy shadows and lugubrious rhythms only make more brilliant. Even better is his take on the composer's arrangement of his Violin Concerto. Other pianists have taken up the unusual transcription, most notably
Daniel Barenboim, but no other has been able to make the work sound so natural in its transformed state. Accompanied with taste and understanding by the
Norrköping Symphony Orchestra under the direction of
Andrew Parrott,
Brautigam's performances are fully worthy to stand beside his previous
Beethoven's performances. BIS' super audio sound is clear, deep, and real.