Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer: Olli Mustonen
Orchestra: Tapiola Sinfonietta
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Ondine
Catalogue: ODE1123-5
Release: 2008
Size: 286 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
01. I. Allegro con brio
02. II. Largo
03. III. Rondo. Allegro
Piano Concerto in D major, arranged by the composer after the Violin Concerto, Op. 61a
04. I. Allegro ma non troppo
05. II. Larghetto
06. III. Rondo. Allegro
Olli Mustonen continues his acclaimed cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos. In this second volume, the Finnish pianist and conductor turns his talent to the Third Piano Concerto and the Piano Concerto which Beethoven arranged himself from the Violin Concerto of 1806. While this is seldom played in concert, with only a handful of recordings available in the catalogue, Mustonen regularly puts it in his programmes and it has become one of his signature pieces.
As on the previous disc, Mustonen performs with the Tapiola Sinfonietta, whith whom he has maintained close artistic ties for years, accompanying this Beethoven project with acclaimed tour performances in various European countries.
Lithe but still muscular, Olli Mustonen and the Tapiola Sinfonietta’s performances of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s arrangement for piano of his Violin Concerto are thoroughly musical and wholly delightful. Mustonen has a strong technique but a subtle delivery that grants Beethoven’s C minor Concerto both power and nuance and his D major Concerto both vigor and vivacity. There is plenty of drama in his C minor Concerto’s outer Allegros, but also rapt inwardness in his central Largo. In its guise as a piano concerto, the D major Concerto does not quite have the same sustained legato line as the violin original, but the wit of the composer’s transcription and the wild virtuosity of his newly written codas are brilliantly portrayed in Mustonen’s performances. With supple strings, pungent woodwinds, brazen brass, and a timpani player who sounds like he is having the time of his life in the D major Concerto’s cadenzas, the Tapiola Sinfonietta shines under Mustonen’s direction. Ondine’s super audio digital sound is essentially transparent.