Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #69)

Didn't Schnabel also have an issue with recording?...in terms of it unsettling him, and he was uncomfortable with it? Seems to me I heard or read that somewhere.

 

There is a great quote about him recording: "When asked to retake a side by a recording director, Schnabel once responded, "I might play it better, but it won't be as good.""

 

Incidentally, tomorrow is Schnabel's Birthday!

 

Oh, nice--enjoy!

 

This box has been in my collection for over ten years and I have yet to have the time give it a second listen ...

 

If you do give it a second listen, let me know how it sounds to you cause I am listening to Symphony No 8 right now and I cannot get myself to like the recording. It sounds too thin and lifeless to me.

 

I have been to Anne-Sophie Mutter's concert in NYC for a number of times ...

 

Now playing the following LP from my Beethoven collection ...

 

No problems. I like the Kertesz's box, which I bought last year ...

 

Now playing the following CD from my Nielsen collection ...

 

As promised, now enjoying Op. 2 from the above set.

 

It took me a while to get used to her playing, but this is a great and unfortunately often underrated set.

 

At least the 5th listen?

 

Now playing CD24 - Symphonies Nos 57 & 60 from the following box for a first listen ...

 

So how is this box treating you so far? I liked what I heard on my first listen ...

 

Now playing CD42 - Haydn The Creation by Tolzer Knabenchor/Tafelmusik and Bruno Weil from the following box with a first listen ...

 

Oh, I keep coming back to this one. I really love the cellist and how he is recorded. I love the passion in the playing. A great set!

 

I have the big Perahia box, and I continue to explore.

 

What do you think of his Bach?

 

They got a very nice review in the NY Times.

 

Annie Fischer is fully Schnabel's equal in these works, the only other performer who delivers the raw electricity of these early sonatas.

 

Very polished but emotionally reticent. I'd much rather hear Richter or Leonhardt or Gould. I really like Ashkenazy's '48', akin to Edwin Fischer but without the clams.

 

Schnabel had multiple issues with recordings, one major one being a lack of respect for music if music was so ubiquitous that one would be listening to it on the loo. And who hasn't wandered in 'the facilities' connected to functioning earbuds? He was also a composer of extremely 'difficult' aleatory music, akin in affect to a Cecil Taylor marathon. On Schnabel's list of special things to do—compose, perform, teach and record—recording was dead last. Pity, as a "clean', properly rehearsed recording of the 28th piano sonata of Beethoven by Schnabel would really have made my day. I'll have to settle for about ten other, really good, performances of my favorite piano sonata.

 

At this point most of this cycle is available on Spotify. I listened to several discs (via streaming) a while back and I was not entranced. Part of it was the recording, but there was something else that bothered me.

When I was in school and even briefly after that, I used to direct stage plays. On several occasions, an actor in my cast would experience a catharsis during a performance, and would display his experience on stage. These were real emotions, but the actor was doing all the work, leaving nothing for the audience to do. I don't think this is theatre at its best. To paraphrase Dustin Hoffman in "Tootsie," "Have the passion, but don't show it." I may have carried a bit of that preference over to music. The composer and performer have got to do enough to allow me accesss to the beauty, passion, drama of the music, but the final step has to be my commitment to, and participation in, it.

I've only listened to a handful of the Fischer sonatas, but my sense was that she was doing too much of the heavy lifting for me.

 

The sound has two problems—the microphones are simply too close to the keyboard. And a lot of the editing is obvious.

I think there's some Theater that requires finesse, some thunder, Shakespeare both. So does Beethoven. Schnabel also does a lot of 'heavy lifting'. But that's required in Beethoven. Annie Fischer's set is a bit of a curate's egg in that there's no evidence of 'playing through' any of these works. If you listen for edits, you'll hear them. But the performances are beautifully conceived, the tone and drama appropriate for Beethoven.