Perhaps the most demanding piano concerto in the repertoire, Brahms's Piano Concerto No 2 was aptly described as "a symphony, with piano obbligato". Jeremy Siepmann discusses the problems for both soloist and conductor and draws on performances ranging over 75 years, from the 1929 Rubinstein/
Coates recording to that by Kovacevich and Wolfgang Sawallisch , to be released next month. He also looks at performances by Bachauer and Ousset, among the very few women pianists ever to have recorded the work.