Five concertos, one piano, zero chill — Uchida makes Beethoven sweat.
One of the highlights of Simon Rattle’s 16-year tenure as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic was his final cycle of the Beethoven symphonies (BPHR160091), a set that rightly walked off with the 2016 Limelight Orchestral Recording of the Year. Now that he has moved to London, as a more than worthy pendant, the BPO has released a compelling set of the Beethoven piano concertos from 2010 with Mitsuko Uchida, a cycle that possesses all the advantages of live performance with, as far as I can hear, none of the drawbacks.
Direction
Rattle's final Berlin cycle — legacy stuff
Acting
Uchida's physical, almost violent precision
Sound
Live recording with zero compromises
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Uchida conducted from the keyboard for Nos. 1-4, a historically informed choice that collapses the soloist-conductor hierarchy.
The 2010 live recordings arrived when period-performance orthodoxy dominated; this modern-instrument cycle was quietly radical in its refusal to choose sides.
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