Achúcarro - Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2

Introduction

The Spanish pianist Joaquín Achúcarro, to my shame, was not a familiar name to me when the DVD arrived for review,  yet investigations have revealed a fascinating career, with visits to this country for 50 years with some major performances to boot! I should pay more attention in future, but then again I also asked some pianist friends of mine....and they hadn't heard of him either. So, this was a good a time as any to educate myself.


Born in Bilbao, the young Achúcarro performed a Mozart Concerto at the age of 13 and a professional career in music was almost certain. In 1959 he won the first (and only) Liverpool International Piano Competition (it was a conductor's competition the year before, and was won by Zubin Mehta) which let to his first gig with the London Symphony Orchestra. He now spends much of his time teaching in the States.

Opus Arte have produced this DVD to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Achúcarro's first performance with the LSO, and so there was not much doubt about the choice of orchestra for the Brahms we see here.

Audio and Visual

The sound is up-front and personal, and perhaps a little too immediate, yet you can't complain about the clarity, with the detail in the sometimes thickly scored concerto being as clear as you would want.

The NTSC picture quality is perfect.

Extras

A 40 minute documentary entitled '50 years on'  contains some heartfelt tributes from Simon Rattle, Plácido Domingo, Zubin Mehta and Lucille Chung, who seems to have been a pupil of Achúcarro's in America. She is a well-spoken and articulate young lady who obviously has a great admiration for her teacher, and who takes the art of piano playing very seriously...as you can tell by her website homepage, where there is a picture of her draped over a keyboard, covered in petals.

This is completely irrelevant to the documentary though, which contains a great archive film of Achúcarro playing Ravel's horribly difficult Scarbo, and some fascinating insights into the mind of someone who is able to memorise countless musical works, yet perform each one as if it's a fresh piece of music, just off the press.


There are also some fantastic performances of 'smaller' pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Scriabin and Albéniz, played within the Prado museum in Madrid, directly underneath Goya's masterpiece, The Third of May, 1808.

Some slightly over-gushing tributes by John Manduell and David Blenkinsop are printed within the booklet, but you learn little apart from how important the two writers believe they are.

Conclusion

The second concerto is one of those works which seems to have been part of my musical life as far back as I can remember. It was certainly one of the pieces my mum played before I was born (together with piles of Sibelius, which explains a generally morose outlook on life), and so it's a piece of music which really has to be done well if I'm going to come back to a particular recording.

This performance, according to the booklet, was recorded over three days last May and this may have been the reason why I felt that there is something lacking which I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it's the sense of excitement which can only be caught in a one-off live performance which is missing. Certainly, there's a sense of relaxation throughout, even in the second movement which doesn't quite have the 'punch' I would have liked.

 
Having said this, the sheer quality of the playing from both Achúcarro and the orchestra (which seems to have different personnel every time I see them), directed with a smoothness by Colin Davis only years of experience can achieve, won me over.


Any editing between movements (or indeed, within movements) isn't noticeable and the sound of the traffic outside in Old Street is imperceptable.
If I were to moan about anything, it would be that the horn at the beginning could have been smoother, and the cello solo in the slow movement a little more introspective. Other than that, this disc contains a perfectly satisfying Brahms 2, an excellent documentary which reveals much about its subject and is a great tribute to a great artist.