Bishop-Kovacevich is up against two Leeds prize-winners and a late-lamented artist whose Brahms has held its place in the catalogue for 21 years. All four are deeply affectionate and mellow. But my first choice is Bishop-Kovacevich, who finds the intimacy of the Intermezzos without self-conscious search and who in stormier Capriccios and Rhapsodies combines enormous verve with rock-like stability and strength.
I was only puzzled by ony one thing—his tempo for the E minor Intermezzo, Op. 116 No. 5. It's surely too fast for an Andante qualified by words including intimissimo sentimento. It's certainly too fast for the chromaticism and detached phrases to tell. No one quite satisfies here, for though Katchen finds a perfect compromise between Bishop-Kovacevich and the slow Alexeev, he disappoints by pedalling through the rests. The excitable G minor Capriccio, Op. 116 No. 3, brings a few seconds of coarsened sound, though Bishop-Kovacevich and his Philips engineers are not so culpable in this respect as Aelxeev and HMV (it is by no means their only acoustical miscalculation). Katchen here is of course helped by his very old, soft-grained Decca recording. My third passing raising-of-an-eyebrow was in the C sharp minor Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 3, where I thought a more gleaming treble at the move into A major would have helped to heighten contrast after earlier shadowy stealthiness.
But how insiginificant these quibbles in comparison with all in the recital that goes right to the composer's innermost, secretive heart. Bishop-Kovacevich seems wiser than Lupu (Decca) in not always putting so much emphasis on melody (as in th B flat minor Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 2), sometimes wiser than both Lupu and Alexeev in choice of tempo and wiser, even, than the loving Katchen in avoiding occasional caprice in rubato. Of the more intimate pieces, I think the B minor Intermezzo Op. 119 No. 1, brings clearest proof of his maturer poise. At the opposite extreme no one quite matches his brio and bite—and the richness of his contrasts—in the E flat Rhapsody, Op. 119 No. 4. As for the recording, this, too, is the most pleasing to the ear—better, even than what Decca does for Lupu and so long ago did for Katchen.'