It would surely have been kinder to have let Peter Katin's Grieg and Tchaikovsky rest in peace. In neither concerto is he technically at his best, the recording quality in both instances is distressingly primitive, and the LSO turn in a distinctly off-colour Tchaikovsky accompaniment. The Litolff is efficiently done, but you don't have to look far to find more characterful performances on record.
Solomon's Grieg and Schumann disc, on the other hand, has always been highly regarded and now remastered at mid price its reappearance is most welcome. The limpid delivery of both first movement main themes, beautifully exploiting the mellow, 'covered' tone of the 1950s Steinway, soon shows why his playing is held in such affection. His reposeful, yet strictly disciplined slow movements, his heart-warming response to the flute theme in Grieg's finale, his care for the musical flow throughout, are all things to cherish- and there are moments of the highest distinction from the Philharmonia—the ripe horn sound in the Grieg slow movement, distinguished wind solos throughout.
The remastering has been unable to do much with the tubbiness which affects the piano sound in loud passages—I would imagine the instrument was regulated with solo cantabile rather than tutti con forza in mind. If anything this is emphasized because the orchestral sound is comparatively strident, and I have to say that I found this a greater obstacle to pleasurable listening than I had expected. I had also forgotten how many little fluffs there were in Solomon's playing.
There are a few little finger-slips from Bishop-Kovacevich too, and in the Schumann he does not feel the polarity of melody and bass so acutely as Solomon. Also, the Philips recording catches a distracting amount of pedal-bump. Still, his interpretations are every bit as distinguished—he allows more ardour into the Grieg and more creative shaping into the Schumann, without unbalancing the artistic equation in either case. On a passing musicological point he alone expunges Percy Grainger's contributions to the first movement cadenza.
Anyone who lets the little shortcomings spoil their enjoyment of any of these performances must have a fairly low threshold of annoyance. The same goes for Perahia, although, like JOC, I find his Schumann (CBS) a touch over-contrived in places; it is, on the other hand, beautifully clear (exceptionally so in the first movement triplet figurations) and excellently recorded, and the Grieg, with the exception of some ill judged pedal-resonance in the slow movement, is wholly successful—naturally paced and winningly characterized. Sir Colin Davis's accompaniments have lost none of their acute insights and have gained the extra refinement of the Bavarian wind section (a wonderfully plangent clarinet sound in the Schumann, for instance).'