Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Subtle and meaningful
Comment: There's no doubt that the reviewer Alexander Leach knows what he writes about, but contrary to Leach I think the present 4th is better than the 4th by Fleisher/Szell.
My humble opinion is that here we find the best performances of the concertos 3rd, 4th and 5th. (I am not especially interested in the 1st and 2nd.) Perahia/Haitink/Concertgebouw are supreme when it comes to meaning and subtility. Gramophone, I think, gave the 3rd and 4th the highest rating, three recordingsymbols, and in this case I agree fully.
Of course you can find more dominating piano voices, for example by Arrau (his 4th under Haitink, which I can fully enjoy, whereas I am not so happy with his later 4th under Davis). I love the well-structured, superior Richter-Haaser 3rd under Giulini more than any other, but that is unfortunatly not available on CD here (I got it from Japan). However non of these are able to put Perahia/Haitink out of business.
Perahia is a little low-key, I think. But the same can be said about Leon Fleisher under Szell. Anyway Concertgebouw under Haitink sounds much better than the Cleveland under Szell. And as I said, the present recordings are more meaningful as far as my ear can hear.
I've checked out the 4th by Gilels under Ludwig. Giles played wonderfully, but Ludwig is unfortunately not at par with him.
Customer Rating: Summary: Running an infinite gamut of emotions
Comment: Having discovered and listened to Beethoven's nine symphonies at least ten thousand times during my teen years, his five piano concertos came into my life during a very particular moment. Along with Mozart's and Haydn's piano works, Beethoven's concertos constitute, for personal reasons, a body of work very, very dear to me.
Beethoven inherited from Mozart's 27 piano concertos a form so finely developed that one can naturally feel Mozart's influence on Beethoven during his first two concertos, where (I believe) he struggles to find his own identity. These two concertos have the soft, jovial side of Mozart's concerto style: they certainly are sublime at patches, but maybe not Beethoven's very best work (he wrote them in his early twenties).
The third concerto created something entirely new, which would serve as a model to later generations of composers (Brahms certainly being one of them). This is Beethoven's best (to me) piano concerto, certainly the most gentle and poetic and perhaps his very first "original" one not to be mistaken for a Mozart or Haydn concerto. Most of the time the solo instrument is soft and lyrical, while the orchestra is severe and sometimes fierce, the piano eventually softening and subduing the orchestra, with the two melting together into an exuberant, magnificent finale.
The fourth concerto is perhaps the most unusual one. This one constitutes an example of the transcendence of form: for the very first time in the history of form the solo instrument opens a concerto alone. The second movement is simply a dialogue between piano and strings. And towards the concerto's finale, drums, trumpets and wind instruments, which had been silent during the entire second movement and most of the first one, burst out in a joyful explosion.
The fifth concerto, "The Emperor", is the most popular one nowadays and has always been. This one is almost completely different from his four siblings. My favorite Beethoven concerto, along with the third one.
Beethoven's five Piano Concertos are certainly up there with Mozart's piano works. I have caught myself many a time running the gamut of all possible kind of facial expressions, from melancholy to extasy, while listening to these sublime concertos. One thing I'd like to
stress though: the great Ludwig Van went on to live and write magnificent music for twenty years after having finished his fifth and last piano concerto, never to write a sixth one, thus leaving us with only five of them. What a shame!
