Beethoven - Choral Fantasy and Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello & Piano / Barenboim, Ma, Perlman
It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to assemble a better group of musicians to perform Beethoven's Triple Concerto andChoral Fantasy. Daniel Barenboim has been so busy conducting the world's top  orchestras and opera companies that there is a danger of forgetting  what an excellent pianist he is. He conducts both of these works from the keyboard,  as Beethoven would have expected, engaging in chamber music-like dialogue in  the concerto and creating a sense of impromptu in theFantasy's long piano solo,  which Beethoven wrote for himself and partly improvised at the first performance.  Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma are sensitive, alert, and technically superb partners.The music is not Beethoven's most familiar, but it is absolutely charming. The  concerto is appealing in its melodic material and the intricate interactions  among the soloists and orchestra. TheChoral Fantasyfeatures a long piano solo  that Beethoven wrote for himself, plus a choral melody that sounds like a preliminary  sketch for the last movement of his Ninth Symphony. Both works pose unusual balance challenges, to which Barenboim and the  recording engineers rise impressively.--Joe McLellan