Concerto

Beethoven

Piano Concertos Nos 4 & 6, arr. by the composer after the Violin Concerto, Op. 61a

Gianluca Cascioli (piano); Ensemble Resonanz/Riccardo Minasi

Harmonia Mundi HMM 902422 76:47 mins

As a pianist specialising in historically informed performance, Gianluca Cascioli has form. His Chopin recording for Decca was founded on his research into historical recordings, plus testimonies from pupils and teachers going back to the composer himself, and the results of that research made illuminating listening.

For this new recording, Cascioli and his conductor Riccardo Minasi have chosen to depart from contemporary performance convention, using historical precedent as justification: first, in Beethoven’s day performance practices varied widely, with the composer noting down many – ‘with the addition of many notes’. Cascioli and Minasi call on Czerny as witness that, in the second movement, piano and orchestra originally played at slightly different tempos with the piano always slower. And their aim throughout has been to calibrate the dynamics, so as to restore the balance of a period orchestra while using a modern piano.