Stephen Kovacevich - Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 (1992)

One of the charges most often made against recordings of Brahms's 1st piano concerto is that they miss the point that it is a young man's music. This overlooks the fact that the whole young/old thing is rather more complicated in the case of Brahms than is usually the case, Brahms having grown up - and having had to grow up - pretty quickly. So a 'monumental' approach to this concerto is perfectly ok, as long as it has life. Kovacevich/Sawallisch has plenty of weight, is rather fiercer in attack than the great Gilels/Jochum, full of drama, and it avoids any kind of glib speeding up - so often the superficial answer to the challenge of older recordings. It is abundantly alive, poetic where it needs to be, grand where to needs to be, well recorded (stabbing brass notes etc, audible where often lost). And it comes home with terrific force, like a live recording. The coupling is an imaginative one and very fine. Brahms' concertos can take, and should take, many different readings, and this one is surely amongst the best.