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04/02/2026
“Beethoven/5 Volume 5”
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto nº 3 in C minor, opus 37
Caroline Shaw: Watermark
Jonathan Biss (piano), Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malin Broman (leader)
Live recording: Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, Sweden (February 9‑11, 2022) – 57’58
Orchid Classics ORC100433
One of the most thought-provoking albums to come across my desk this season is a recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto n° 3 in C minor, followed by a contemporary homage to this same concerto by Caroline Shaw, a leading American composer.
The Beethoven is handsomely realized by the prodigious mid‑career American pianist, Jonathan Biss, who can be counted on to bring his deep musical insight to the German composer’s works. A dozen years ago, as a student in Biss’s open‑access course on the Beethoven sonatas, I also got to know him as a dedicated educator and historian.
The homage aspect of this album comes from the indefatigable Shaw, the youngest person to win a Pulitzer Prize in Music (2013, age 30) and a permeative presence throughout the Internet whenever 21st century art music is discussed and heard. The artistry of Biss, and Shaw’s penetrating intelligence, are supported by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Malin Broman, leader. Holding the position that, in The States, we call the Concertmaster, Broman is also increasingly seen on the podium of various ensembles as music director, adding to the presence of women in musical leadership positions worldwide.
The booklet notes for this album suggest that. as Beethoven was influenced by Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C minor, K491, so Shaw was impacted by Beethoven’s stylistic innovations. This is truly an eye‑opening insight, one to lead to many pleasurable hours of comparing the influences of various masters on each other’s work.
Less pleasurable, however, was the sleepy pace at which the Beethoven concerto was performed, especially noted in the second movement. The transfusion of a little Sturm und Drang would definitely help goad this concerto to its zesty conclusion.
However, other, more positive aspects of this performance are worth noting, from Biss’s smooth mastery of the keyboard to Broman’s sensitivity to Beethoven’s dynamics. These qualities carry over to the astonishing second work on this album, Shaw’s Watermark.
Readers have, no doubt, heard other modern compositions designed to fill up a program occupied by, say, Beethoven’s Symphony n° 9. I heard a work of this ilk a decade ago in Vienna, played in the dozen minutes before Dudamel launched into the Ninth. No doubt, readers can recall their own mixed responses to such “program fillers,” some of which are interesting, but few are worth remembering.
Watermark is in a completely different category. Shaw’s work is not a filler, but a kind of cosmic replication of the ideas Beethoven processed as he worked on his Piano Concerto n° 3, largely in 1800. Rather than to serve simply as program padding, Watermark is a full‑length concerto displaying Shaw’s wide‑ranging technical and emotive palette. From its opening halo of the note, C, to its concluding whispers recalling exact or close‑to‑exact quotations from Beethoven’s work, this is a carefully constructed concerto which stands firmly on its own significant merits. Watermark is highly listenable, with just a whiff of provocation. Biss is the ideal partner to express Watermark‘s complexity, regard for Beethoven and striking originality.
I highly recommend this album for its ability to match the past to the present, with a generous nod to the future.
Linda Holt
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