“Ohlsson treated this early Beethoven work expressively, with sinuous rubato, keeping his rhythms precise, his touch light, and his rhetoric clear. Nothing, not even Beethoven’s many technical snares, seemed to faze him.

And the pianist rarely pulled rank: every phrase seemed agreed upon rather than dictated to the Orchestra. Ohlsson’s many dialogues with individual players — woodwinds, for example — were deft, sometimes voluntarily retreating into the background. His ability to change his articulation from assertive to dreamy furthered both his and Beethoven’s cause.

[…]

If you thought the Second could not be topped, the expansive Fourth Concerto in G after intermission rewarded those who believed otherwise… Eschewing flamboyance, Ohlsson focused on nuanced shaping of each phrase, sometimes leaning into powerful, muscular chords which gave way to pearly trills and elegant arpeggios.

The drama of the middle movement was so arresting it was hard not to hear it as “Orpheus taming the Furies” — a scene suggested by some to have been borrowed from Gluck’s opera Orfeo. (That’s a scene Beethoven would have known well, even if he didn’t explicitly reference it in the score). With Ohlsson’s delicate wisps of chords against the Orchestra’s ominous interjections, seldom have we heard this music sound so vivid or theatrical.”

Cleveland