Beethoven: Piano Concertos 3 & 4

“When I play, I am not presenting myself on the stage, but the music I am playing. It is the music that matters.”- Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elisabeth Leonskaja’s recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos 3 and 4, with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse under its former music director Tugan Sokhiev, have their origins in the 2017-18 concert season in Toulouse. At the time, Bachtrack designated Leonskaja as a ‘guiding spirit’ for music-making in the city. In Autumn 2022 the Observer described her as “a septuagenarian with the energy and agility of a player half her age and the wisdom of ages in her playing … Leonskaja has a radiance in her presence, yet the muscularity and vigour of her playing has the power to shock.” Just a few weeks earlier, her pre-eminence in Beethoven had been eagerly acknowledged by the Guardian, which praised her “ability to produce the most powerful sound and allow it to resonate fully … [deploying] a palette of tone-colours from gently muted to vibrant, and a similarly commanding dynamic range. Clarity of delineation and ease in every phrase allowed the structure to unfold organically … Here was innate pianism, with musical sensibilities and a daring honed by a lifetime of experience.”