Robert Levin, John Eliot Gardiner - Beethoven: Piano concertos Nos. 3 & 4 (1998)

Robert Levin has some fascinating ideas about this music. He improvises cadenzas and lead-ins, embellishes the last movement of the Third Concerto, and generally plays with a kind of expressive freedom uncommon in period-instrument performances. That's all to the good, as is the energy and power of the orchestra's playing. But although the musicians obviously approved the balances of the recording (or it wouldn't have been issued), the fortepianos often sound as though they're being heard through the wrong end of an audio telescope, and you, too, often have to strain to hear what's going on. Maybe this is a realistic balance, but it's much more difficult listening than the fine set of Beethoven's piano concertos on period instruments with Steven Lubin and Christopher Hogwood (L'Oiseau-Lyre). -- Leslie Gerber