Because so much influenced by Schumann's A minor Concerto, Grieg's in the same key is so often coupled with it. As for Mendelssohn's no. 1 in G minor, it usually appears in company with its successor in D minor. So hats off to Ousset and HMV for a different mix. Both works emerge with exuberant musical spirit. Moreover, both challenge all existing issues in immediacy and truthfulness of excellently balanced sound.
Though second to none in admiration of Zimerman (DG)—the last 'big' runner in the Grieg stakes—I was slightly disappointed in his glorious technicolour approach to this concerto with Karajan. While Lipatti's old mono HMV performance is of course a gem to be cherished for all time, the recording itself understandably begins to betray its age—and so to a lesser extent does another one enormously enjoyed for its closely interwoven ensemble and freshness of spirit from Bishop-Kovacevich and Sir Colin Davis (Philips). So for the first-time buyer, Ousset's real rival here is Lupu, with the LSO at its most persuasvie under Previn. As this, too, enjoys first-rate engineering, choice is difficult. Perhaps you could say that while Ousset reminds you of the arrestingly excitable Florestan in the work's make-up, Lupu (Decca) in the guise of Eusebius searches out more of the music's inner secrets.
In mendelssohn's G minor Concerto, Ousset is much stabler in rhythm and touch than the mercurial Andras Schiff (Decca), whose piano (as SP remarked in his original review) emerges curiously forward in the middle and bass registers. Balance and sound quality on Ousset's record are also far superior to anything encountered from CBS in their recording of Perahia—again with that highly sympathetic Mendelssohn devotee, Neville Marriner—though nothing will ever lessen my delight in Perahia's delicately glistening fingerwork in the brilliant flanking movements, or the deep tranquillity, coupled with translucent tone, that he brings to the slow movement. Ousset's response to the fire and drive is robuster, but like the composer himself after the premiere she could equally well say ''the orchestra accompanied me well, and the whole thing went like mad''.'