BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTOS NOS. 3 and 4....

BEETHOVEN: PIANO CONCERTOS NOS. 3 and 4. Murray Perahia, piano; Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, conducted by Bernard Haitink. CBS Masterworks IM-39814 (digital). Entering a field crowded with competition, Perahia plays his way right to the front of the herd. In the G-major Concerto, he steers a supple course between Olympian repose and fiery extroversion. In his hands, the C-minor achieves a mood of gentle melancholy, emerging more than usual a transitional work from the 18th Century to the 19th. While subtly colored and dynamically sophisticated, Perahia’s work draws the attention to Beethoven rather than to the mechanics of the keyboard. In the stark exchange of the slow movement of the Fourth Concerto and elsewhere, Haitink proves a sterling collaborator.