Wind the clock forward 30-years and we find Vadim Repin recording the Beethoven too, with Riccardo Muti and the Wiener Philharmoniker (DGG 477 6596). Play the two recordings back to back and the passage of years is clear. Muti gives us a more dramatic reading, full of light and shade, shifting density, dynamic contrast and sudden impact. Repin is beautifully articulate, with elegant phrasing and an almost effortless grace to his playing. But the real difference here is the clarity with which the D1.5 defines the changed balance of soloist and orchestra. This is a real conversation, if not exactly an exchange between equals then at least a mutually supportive endeavour. The fascination in the Accardo/Masur recording lies in its sheer energy and stunning virtuosity, documenting a performance by SOLOIST and orchestra. Repin and Muti deliver a far more holistic view of the piece, exploiting the contrasts within the score and between soloist and orchestra to deliver a wider expressive range. The beauty of the D1.5 is that it doesn’t just allow each recording its own space and nature, the distinctions between the two performances/readings are clearly laid out for the listener, without undermining their musical integrity.
You can take this comparison further. Move on a year and why not embrace the young Lisa Batiashvili directing the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen on Sony (886973 34002)? Smoother and less dramatically dynamic than the Muti, here’s a recording that vividly captures the shape and structure of the music as a whole, while Batiashvili is predictably brilliant in the solo part. What’s less predictable is the deft vitality and muscular grace she instils in the orchestral playing, an impressively mature performance for one so young. One more year and there’s also Decca’s famous recording with Janine Jansen, Paavo Järvi and once again, the Bremen (Decca 4781530). Lauded at the time of its release, listening now it’s hard not to wonder how critics warmed to Järvi’s forced and inflexible tempo and the stilted orchestral playing that resulted. Jansen is her normal, boldly fluid self, but that merely highlights the contrast between the smooth elegance of the solo playing and the hesitant rigidity of the accompaniment.
Not just setting out but getting there…
It’s exactly this sort of musical journey that the D1.5 encourages, exactly these sorts of musical distinctions that it highlights and makes sense of. And it does it without pulling performances and recordings apart. The Masur, Muti and Batiashvili discs are all excellent in their own way, each asking questions of the others. The Järvi reading might be beyond help – at least as far as I am concerned – but that’s because I don’t like his perspective and what I feel it does to the music. You may well disagree. The beauty of the D1.5 is that it will allow you to do so.
Do such subtle distinctions matter? If the appeal of music lies in its emotional and expressive range, its ability to engage the listener, then yes, they absolutely do. The reason to highlight them here is that the capability to reveal them, to enlighten the listener is far from a given. A few years ago, a highly regarded manufacturer of digital replay systems asked to borrow my listening room/system. They were finalising the filter choices they would offer on their latest DAC and wanted to do some listening in a different system and environment. I always try to help, so on arrival I set them up in the listening room and left them to it. After an hour or so, the MD appeared and asked if I’d mind taking a listen? Apparently, they’d started with around 30 different filters and narrowed it down to their four suggested options – in a little over an hour! Having sat and listened to the four different ‘contenders’, they asked for my reactions, to which I replied: “Filter 1 sounds like your old models; filter 2 sounds like your current models; filter 3 sounds more like your major competitor and filter 4? Filter 4 sounds disjointed and a-musical.” At which point the person who developed the filters got very upset indeed. Naturally, filter 4 was his new, super accurate, super linear baby. It simply HAD to be better. All the numbers, all the evidence proved it!
