SOLOMON Beethoven Concertos (1952-56) - PABX028

These two recordings, made just four years apart, seemed on first hearing to belong to different eras. The stereo 1956 recording of the Concerto No. 1 was excellently made; this remastering serves only to enhance an already fine sound and breathe a little more life into it. By contrast the 1952 Concerto No. 2, made at Kingsway Hall rather than Abbey Road, has been greatly revived from its dim and dull origins, and cured of the majority of the flaws identified in its first review in 1953 as a result.

I've also been able to cure the wow and flutter issues referred to in the review, and despite the mono sound, this Ambient Stereo presentation, retaining the central mono image but allowing reverberant space around the performers, goes along way to bringing the older recording up toward the very high technical standards set by the first concerto.

Andrew Rose

Superlative Beethoven Piano Concerto recordings from Solomon

These new remasters unveil superb sound quality in both recordings

Both recordings sound considerably better following the application of XR remastering equalisation, with the greatest gains to be had in the older recording, the 1952 Concerto No. 4, which has revealed far more top end than was apparent on the original LP. Both were generally consistent in pitch, though I have had to smooth out some wow in each recording. Both have been pitched to A=440 as heard in the 4th, whereas the 3rd was sharp.

Andrew Rose

Solomon and the Philharmonia "are at one" in Beethoven's Emperor Concerto

Plus "Solomon's magnificent Waldstein — truly one of the great recordings of the century" - The Gramophone, 1967

Solomon was without doubt one of the foremost Beethoven specialists of his era, as this superb performance of the Emperor amply demonstrates - it was a request for this particular recording which prompted this short series of releases. Alas at this time EMI's adoption of stereo was somewhat patchy - a year later Solomon was still making some of his final sonata recordings in mono. I have chosen two of his 1952 sonata recordings from a similar period in Beethoven's output to join the Emperor here - both again brilliant played and recorded, and all three sounding simply wonderful in these new transfers after 32-bit XR processing. In the case of both sonatas and concerto I was also able to eliminate a hint of wow and flutter present in the originals, firming up the piano tone considerably as well as correcting very slightly wayward pitches (both up and down) to concert standard A=440Hz.

Andrew Rose