Deutsche Grammophon: Beethoven Triple Concerto / Brahms Double Concerto — Fricsay (Audio CD)

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Product Details:

• UPC: 028947753414
• Catalog Number: 00289 477 5341
• Product Type: Audio CD
• Brand / Label: Deutsche Grammophon (The Originals series)
• Soloists: Géza Anda (piano), Wolfgang Schneiderhan (violin), Pierre Fournier (cello), János Starker (cello)
• Orchestra: Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
• Conductor: Ferenc Fricsay
• Composers: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
• Genre: Classical
• Style: Concerto, Romantic / Classical

Product Features

• Format: CD
• Discs: 1
• Total runtime: 71:24
• Recording: Stereo, ADD; Original-Image Bit-Processing (OIBP)
• Original recordings: ℗ 1961 (Beethoven), 1962 (Brahms)
• Made in: EU
• Condition: Brand new, factory sealed

Overview

Two of the great multi-soloist concertos on one disc, in classic Deutsche Grammophon accounts conducted by Ferenc Fricsay with the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. This is a reissue in DG's prestige "The Originals" line, remastered with Original-Image Bit-Processing.

Beethoven's Triple Concerto pairs piano, violin, and cello as a soloist trio against the orchestra — here Géza Anda, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, and Pierre Fournier, three major mid-century artists working as equals. It's a generous, conversational reading, and the cello is given particular prominence, as Beethoven wrote it.

Brahms's Double Concerto, his last orchestral work, sets violin against cello in a denser, more autumnal argument. Schneiderhan returns on violin, joined by the great Hungarian cellist János Starker. Fricsay holds the orchestral weight in balance without ever covering the soloists.

The OIBP remastering brings added presence and spatial clarity to recordings now more than sixty years old. For collectors, this couples two cornerstone concertos with a roster of soloists rarely assembled again.

Interesting Facts

• Ferenc Fricsay (1914–1963) was a Hungarian conductor closely associated with Deutsche Grammophon in the 1950s and early 1960s; his career was cut short by illness.
• Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Op. 56, is his only concerto for more than one solo instrument.
• Brahms's Double Concerto, Op. 102, was his final orchestral composition, written in 1887 partly to reconcile with the violinist Joseph Joachim.
• János Starker (1924–2013) was a Hungarian-American cellist renowned for his flawless technique and extensive discography.
• Pierre Fournier (1906–1986) was known as "the aristocrat of cellists" for his elegant, refined tone.
• "The Originals" is Deutsche Grammophon's series dedicated to reissuing legendary recordings from its back catalogue, remastered with OIBP.

Track Listing

Beethoven — Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra in C major, Op. 56, "Triple Concerto" — 36:57 1–3. (Géza Anda, piano; Wolfgang Schneiderhan, violin; Pierre Fournier, cello)

Brahms — Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 102, "Double Concerto" — 34:22 4–6. (Wolfgang Schneiderhan, violin; János Starker, cello)

Publishers

Original recordings ℗ 1961 (Beethoven) and 1962 (Brahms), Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg — a Universal Music Company. Reissued in The Originals series, catalog 00289 477 5341. Made in the EU.

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