CDs/DVDs
igor.toronyilalic
Early on in Phil Grabsky's documentary In Search of Beethoven (out today on DVD), handy fortepiano player and Ludwig van-lookalike Ronald Brautigam starts screwing up a section of Beethoven's very first, unpublished piano concerto. "If I concentrate on playing it," he laughs nervously, his hands covering his reddening face, "I might be able to do it." Brautigam is not just screwing up for our amusement. He's making a valuable point.The point is this: right up into his twenties, Beethoven wasn't first and foremost the great European composer; he was the great European pianist, a Lisztian Read more ...