Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus), ballet, Op. 43: Overture. Adagio - Allegro molto con brio
The Beethoven concerto performances by fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout have proven popular, and he has performed them widely and is now recording the cycle with the Freiburger Barockorchester for the Harmonia Mundi label. He has experimented with various instruments, and it shows: here he finds a really distinctive one, a 1989 American copy of an 1824 Graf instrument. It has a crisp but not sharp sound that can mellow easily into lyricism (try the lovely beginning of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58) ...
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The Beethoven concerto performances by fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout have proven popular, and he has performed them widely and is now recording the cycle with the Freiburger Barockorchester for the Harmonia Mundi label. He has experimented with various instruments, and it shows: here he finds a really distinctive one, a 1989 American copy of an 1824 Graf instrument. It has a crisp but not sharp sound that can mellow easily into lyricism (try the lovely beginning of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58), and Bezuidenhout achieves clear, distinctive balances at several points. In some ways, this is a typical historical performance, with quick tempos, especially in the concerto finale, and slight ornaments from Bezuidenhout. The most unusual section is the slow movement, with punched-out orchestral textures from conductor Pablo Heras-Casado setting off Bezuidenhout's rather brisk playing. As with other historically informed conductors, the musicians here are at pains to strip away...
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