Brahms piano concertos are, in my opinion, incredibly difficult to turn out right. You need a pianist and a director that can produce powerful, yet sensitive sound that can express the deepest feeling and the most Cartesian of ideas. That could sound like an almost impossible task. Except for this recording. Both musicians are capable of great insights into both ideas and feelings, can produce miraculous sounds from their instruments and have an impeccable sense of what is right in terms of music.
Arrau plays the piano score with majestic power, with a flawless logic both musical and ideatic and lights the darkest corners of a score that is anything but simple. Giulini comes along sharing the same virtues and helps building a musical partnership of the highest spirituality. Actually, this is where I think they surpass their best competition, i.e. Gilels/Jochum: spirituality. The other set also displays a tremendous sound both in piano and orchestra, a beautiful Brahmsian style, a lot of inner logic and sheer intelligence. Yet Arrau and Giulini are capable of understanding and expressing more from what lies beyond. Not to mention the incredible capability of Arrau to produce symphonic tonalities from his instrument.
All in all, even if not acknowledged as such, I think we stay in front of the greatest of achievements, at least as far as the first piano concerto recordings are concerned and I doubt that you can find better. I searched for 10 years and visited the most spoke about and respected "places", but none is quite like this.
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