Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4, Opus 58

Here is a performance of Beethoven's Op.58 Piano Concerto which hitherto was unknown and forgotten, a record on piano rolls made by the legendary pupil of Liszt Eugen D'Albert. In Germany at the turn of the 20th century D'Albert had a huge reputation both as composer and performer, and was particularly renowned for his interpretations of Beethoven's five piano Concerti. Such concerts featuring D'Albert seem to have been eagerly awaited and memorable events, of these we have several eye witness accounts. Arthur Rubinstein for example, heard D'Albert playing this very Concerto around 1900;- "I heard Eugen D'Albert play Beethoven's Fourth Concerto with a nobility and tenderness which has remained in my mind as the model performance of this work" Another performance of the 'Emperor' Concerto was described by Bruno Walter (seemingly without irony) at around the same time. "I shall never forget the titanic force in his rendering of Beethoven's E flat major Concerto. I am almost tempted to say he did not play it, he personified it. In his intimate contact with his instrument, he appeared to be a new centaur, half piano, half man". Fortunately an electric recording was made of this concerto in 1930 (1st movt only) shortly before D'Albert's death, and despite the dim sound indeed shows something of this grandeur. D'Albert's playing was remarkable for its masses of dropped notes and curious mistakes (one such occurs here at 11.07, a very odd trill), doubtless there were more which were ironed out by the roll editors. Hupfeld were generally loath to remove every mistake, certainly D'Alberts other rolls retain at least one or two egregious errors of some kind. Importantly however, one can also hear and even see his passage work and 'jeu perle', the latter being remarkably even. A notable feature of these rolls are the two cadenzas composed by him, both differing from the 'official' printed version. In addition to their forceful if not explosive qualities, they both have an heroic grandeur. D'Albert's artistry lay not in technical perfection (indeed, technical imperfection was expected by his audiences) but in his effective interpretation of works in both small and large forms. For obvious reasons, his phonograph discs give no hint of the latter but can be heard in the piano rolls he made. In the 1900's it was impossible to make a recording of the whole of any Concerto on phonograph discs, and piano rolls were the only medium able to give a maximum playback time of around 15 minutes per roll. D'Albert here plays both solo and orchestral parts, the latter evidently has some extra notes which were added by the roll editors These rolls can be regarded as the premier recording of Beethoven's fourth concerto. Somewhat surprisingly, this is the whole Concerto on three rolls with no cuts. The first movement was originally issued as two parts, but here it is on one huge roll which is even slightly bigger than the take up spool.

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