Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1, Symphony No. 2, and Symphony No. 3 concert. Recorded 2020 at the Concert Hall of the KKL Luzern. Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Features pianist Martha Argerich. Directed for TV by Ute Feudel; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D
Here’s an official trailer for this title along with further discussion:
The clip above has about 15 segments designed to show you how wonderful the whole recording is. But each and every one of the segments is of the type which leads to the diagnosis of a fatal case of DVDitis. If this in indicative of what the full recording is like, then it would be perhaps the worst video of a symphony work ever offered on the HDVD market. In addition, do you really want to pay full price for such an odd selection of Beethoven works? And finally, why all the attention to geriatrics at the festival? Would you think Blomstedt at age 93 and Argerich at age 80 already have nice retirement accounts? Why not give work to some of the fantastic younger musicians who are struggling in this age of pandemic? My gut says I should give this an F. But that would be controversial based on just one short clip. If you have a special interest in the Lucerne Festival or any of the artists in the video, this might be fun to have. That gets a D on this website.
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