Weber Konzertstück & Overtures

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Carl Maria von Weber

Label: DG

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 73

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 453 486-2GH

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Konzertstück for piano and orchestra Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Piano
Russian National Orchestra
Abu Hassan, Movement: Overture Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Conductor
Russian National Orchestra
(Der) Beherrscher der Geister Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Conductor
Russian National Orchestra
(Der) Freischütz, Movement: Overture Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Piano
Russian National Orchestra
Euryanthe, Movement: Overture Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Conductor
Russian National Orchestra
Oberon, Movement: Overture Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Conductor
Russian National Orchestra
(Die) drei Pintos Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Conductor
Russian National Orchestra
Invitation to the Dance (Aufforderung zum Tanze) Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Carl Maria von Weber, Composer
Mikhail Pletnev, Conductor
Russian National Orchestra
Mikhail Pletnev is a forceful personality, and force is the ruling characteristic of this record. He directs the Konzertstuck from the piano, of which he is a sensational master, and there is no lack of the virtuosity that is a crucial part of Weber’s keyboard writing; but there is also more to the work than that. The Adagio contains more melancholy, the obverse of all the extrovert dazzle, than Pletnev seems willing to discover, and though the march has a fine, crisp cut to it, the famous double-octave glissando in the middle of it is preceded by a thump on the low Gs that must nearly have broken nine strings (and in LP days would have caused the needle to jump half-a-dozen grooves). He launches into the Presto at breathtaking speed: it is undeniably exciting, but only because of difficulties successfully overcome. He seems to have forgotten that the music represents a joyful return after absence, and is indeed marked giojoso.
It is a pity that this vehemence marks so much of the record. One of the best performances is of the Freischutz Overture, which opens with beautiful, deep string stirrings and horns that sound clear and true, slightly from a distance. This is excellently done. But the Abu Hassan Overture and the unjustly neglected Beherrscher der Geister Overture have a lightness of spirit that is lost in such hard-driven performances; and it is a disappointment to find the Invitation to the Dance so heftily played by artists from the country that has produced some of the most ravishingly elegant waltzes in musical history.'

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