A superb performance of Mendessohn’s incredible (read: all-round awesome, stupidly earwormish) first piano concerto. Mendelssohn has a (not incorrect) reputation as a classicist among the romantics, but this work demonstrates why that really should count as high praise. This piano concerto pulses with heady vigour and energy, and has that very rare Mozartean trait of having complete expressive ease. The first movement throbs with tension, with a beautifully lyrical second theme; the second movement, if it were written by Beethoven, would probably be called profound, moving, even spiritual; and the third movement is a breathlessly high-spirited, completely unpretentious expression of virtuoso exuberance that picks you up and never lets you off till the very end. And despite Mendelssohn not really having a reputation as a great innovator, this concerto’s engagement with form is surprisingly sophisticated: the exposition, development, and recapitulation in the first movement are modified for utmost conciseness (even people who find sonata form repetitive will find nothing repetitive in this movement); the second movement’s middle section is cunningly disguised as an ending-cadence of the first; and the ABABA rondo of the finale not only incorporates material from earlier movements with total naturalness (there is no sense of Mendelssohn doing structure for its own sake) or but develops both main themes cleverly at each return.
Thibaudet’s hyper-intense playing is a welcome change from the many (admittedly very good) recordings where this concerto is played brilliantly, but also treated as a bit of light entertainment: the con fuoco of the first movement has a white-hot intensity yet remains crystal clear, with real bite and drama; the second movement is melting; and the third is wonderfully fleet-footed and vivacious, with impressively delicate pianissimos (I find it hard to listen to it once without wanting to listen to it again). Neither is there anything timid about the accompaniment from the Gwendhausorchester Leipzig: their sound is uncompromising, full-bodied, and very detailed: listen to the opening of the rondo, for instance.
00:00 – Mvt 1, Molto allegro con fuoco
06:50 – Mvt 2, Andante
13:33 – Mvt 3, Presto*
MVT 1
EXPOSITION
00:00 – After a surprisingly short tutti, Theme (Group) 1 enters
01:45 – Theme 2, which is surprisingly free-ranging in key. At 2:46 Theme 1 interrupts, before Theme 2 returns at 2:57 with flowing semiquaver accompaniment
03:22 – Transition
DEVELOPMENT
03:47 – T.1 by orchestra, with piano accompaniment
04:05 – T.2
04:11 – T.2 diverted and compressed, with T.1 passingly in orchestra
RECAPITULATION
04:20 – Tutti, (T.1) now extended
04:44 – T.2
04:56 – T.2, in minor, with semiquaver accompaniment
05:02 – This sounds like it should lead to the ending, but…
05:27 – Extended pianistic pyrotechnics (based on T.1’s rhythm) lead into a statement of T.1 in LH, and then to the
CODA
05:40 – T.1 and then T.2 (minor, at 5:52) stated forcefully by the orchestra
06:03 – What appears to be the closing cadence is suddenly interrupted by a G maj chord, which wanders (with B as pivot note) into E min
06:20 – A brief cadenza leads directly into
MVT II
06:50 – Brief introduction
07:03 – A Section, with long cadential theme at 9:30 which slips almost imperceptibly into the
09:46 – B Section. Note its harmonically exploratory nature. The passage beginning at 10:00 is one of the most beautiful in the concerto repertoire
11:29 – A Section. The melody returns, now with more elaborate pianistic accompaniment. At the melody’s repeat the piano states it simply.
12:49 – Cadential theme and close
MVT III
13:33 – Introduction. Note how this recalls the false closing cadence of the opening movement, as well as the opening tutti
14:23 – Theme
15:00 – Episode 1 (very ear-wormish, this material!)
16:12 – Theme
16:36 – Episode 2
16:49 – Theme (with some development at 17:00)
17:13 – Episode 3, in sparkling dialogue between piano and orchestra (with developmental elements, such as minor section at 17:31)
17:40 – Theme. At 17:49, interruption from orchestra with T.1 from first movement
18:03 – Quotation of T.2 from first movement
18:16 – CODA. At 18:42 quotation from Episodic Theme, at 19:09 from T.1 of first movement, and at 19:23 from the head of the rondo’s theme.