Hardcore fans of Soviet pianist
Sviatoslav Richter or British conductor
John Barbirolli will find this disc interesting if not revelatory. Recorded in 1958 in Romania, the pair's account of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto with the Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra has many of their trademark virtues. Though he drops some notes here and misses some notes there,
Richter is at his dramatic best in the opening two movements and his poetic best in the closing two movements. Similarly,
Barbirolli follows
Richter with sympathy and strength through thick and thin and yet maintains his own identity by eliciting characteristically refined lyricism from the Romanian orchestra. However, there is not much to distinguish the performance from other available issues. Indeed,
Richter later went on to record the work with
Erich Leinsdorf and the
Chicago Symphony for RCA two years later and with Lorin Maazel and
Orchestre de Paris for EMI nine years later, and both performances are vastly superior to this one in terms of performance and sound. And, it must be added,
Barbirolli's highly romantic take on
Debussy's La Mer, which fills out the disc, is sabotaged by the Bucharest Philharmonic's scrappy playing and flawed ensemble. Archipel's un-remastered sound is small, gray, and boxy.