The Classics: July 18

Brahms: Piano Concertos No.1 and No.2. Maurizio Pollini (piano), Staatskapelle Dresden Orchestra. Deutsche Grammophon 2CDs.

Italian-born Pollini began his career in 1959, winning an international piano competition and the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960 (Arthur Rubinstein, who led the jury, is said to have proclaimed "that boy can play the piano better than any of us''.)

He is noted for recordings of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Schoenberg, and Webern as well as modern composers such as Boulez, Stockhausen and Manzoni.

In 1985 (Bach's tricentenary) he performed the complete first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier, played Beethoven's complete piano concertos in 1987, and in 1993-4 played the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycles.

In 1987 he played the complete Beethoven piano concertos in New York with the Vienna Philharmonic under Abbado.

This coupling devotes a disc to each of Brahms' concertos recorded live in Dresden, in 2011 (No1 in D minor) and 2013 (No2 in B flat major).

Christian Thielemann wielded the baton, weaving soloist and orchestra impressively.

They were recorded with a rich sound.

The earlier work was composed in 1857 after Brahms had considered it as a sonata for two pianos or turning it into a symphony.

Pollini played this at his debut with the Staatskapelle in 1976 and it gets a compelling performance.

No2, written between 1878 and 1881, also gets a great performance, in which the pianist interacts so well with the ensemble as well as dazzles as a soloist.

The work itself has vast differences in sound from the earlier concerto.

Verdict: technical excellence and great expression.