I find myself very much in a self-conscious state listening to this 1957 recording on a brand-new 180-gram LP from Brana Records. There are a number of different feelings to unravel, all of them positive. There's nostalgia, of course: I loved opening the album and pulling out the disc in its paper sleeve, noting that my LP-handling skills came back instantly. No finger-prints on my records! As I dropped the needle everything snapped into place. I was unprepared for the warmth and immediacy of the sound. After all, this recording is coming up to sixty years old this year. Though I shouldn't have been, I was as surprised by the delicacy of Blumental's playing as I was reassured by her well-remembered control and power. Though I'm not familiar with the Vienna Musikgesellschaft Orchestra, who have only a few recording credits, they play exceptionally well under the direction of Michael Gielen. This is not an ordinary under-rehearsed group of pick-up musicians. There's a pleasing give-and-take to the conversation between piano and orchestra that keeps things interesting. It's nothing like the famous Bernstein-Gould contretemps over a Brahms concerto but neither is it a comfortable group-think where everyone's on the same boring page. I can recommend this particular release very highly, but I endorse the entire move back towards music on vinyl even more so.
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