With another member listening to Etudes, I pulled this out. I am a hack at the piano but these sure sound difficult with all of the changes.
I have many versions of the Bartok Piano concertos but SK/CD is probably my favorite. He is one of my favorite pianists across the board.
Have you heard his newest recording of Diabelli Variations live? It's -> (I personally far prefer it to the Philips performance) For me I haven't been captivated by any newer recordings of Diabellis but wow that Kovacevich on Onyx reinvigorated my faith in new recordings being able to nail it. I've never heard anyone play Variation 17 like this:
They are insanely difficult. (Important note: I speak from reputation, NOT from ability to play the things! At the peak of my pianistic accomplishments, years ago when I was still trying as an adult beginner, after months of work, I could just about hack through one of the easier Scarlatti sonatas.) Chopin's etudes played "straight" are one of the great challenges of the keyboard--and Godowsky went and made them harder by doing things like arranging them for one hand only, flipping the melody and accompaniment hands, adding octaves and internal notes, etc., etc. I don't know this recording of the Godowsky arrangements, but I can vouch for one by the Australian pianist/conductor/composer David Stanhope, whose capacity for presto-digitation in some of the literature's great knucklebusters is simply mind-boggling. He offers the Godowsky studies on op. 10 and the Chopin originals together. His recordings are on a label called Tall Poppies, not easy to come by here in the United States, but I think all I've heard are well worth having. In some he plays a Steinway, in others a massive Stuart & Sons grand, bigger than a Steinway D, the sole piano to be designed and manufactured in Australia and, like Bosendorfer, a member of the "extra keys" club. Here's a review of the set: CHOPIN Etudes/GODOWSKY Studies - Tall Poppies TP230 [BR] Classical Music Reviews: March 2015 - MusicWeb-International [edit] Hey, George, am I correct in remembering these transcriptions aren't big faves of yours? Somewhere in Stanhope's program notes, I think it was, I read an idea that I found helpful in getting beyond the "how dare he mess with a pinnacle of the literature" thoughts: the Godowsky studies can be considered like one composer's variations on another's themes. Makes sense to me.
Hi David, While I enjoy the Chopin Etudes, I don't enjoy them because they are difficult. I like the poetic ones, the exciting ones, the ones I find emotionally moving. That's what I have always loved about Chopin's music. So, to me, it's ok for Godowsky to do what he has done. Now, if someone to unessarilty complicate my beloved Nocturnes, Mazurkas or Preludes, it would be war! Your post prompted me to pull out this old gem. I think he plays the Godowsky studies with great technique and beauty. Still, it often comes across to me as less like music and more like a study, something I don't get from the Chopin etudes.
Tashi Plays The Trout Quintet Peter Serkin, piano Ida Kavafian, viola Fred Sherry, cello Joseph Silverstein, violin Buell Neidlinger, double bass Released RCA, 1977
Telemann: 4 Concertos 1. Trumpet 2. Cello 3. Flute 4. Oboe d'amore Orchestre de chambre Jean-Francois Paillard, 1966 Disc 55, Paillard box
Here are both sides of UK Columbia 9651 by Evlyn Howard-Jones, a pianist who I hadn't heard before! I very much enjoyed this 1927 record. I did clickrepair and a roll-off, no other restoration. There is, unfortunately, some blasting on both sides. Liebesträum: Waldesrauschen: https://youtu.be/364CasDVLwc
Here are both sides of Columbia D1600 by cellist and composer Gaspar Cassadó. This record is unfortunately very swishy with all my stylie and there's a small needle dig on one side, never the less an at least uncommon disc. Arabian melody no. 5 (Glazunov): Le cygne (Saint-Saëns): https://youtu.be/BmfeRWMla2s
Here's a piece by my father. Not really classical, but maybe postmodern, I guess. Ignore the video; it's unrelated.
For many years, I've been looking for my "ideal" recording of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks. This past week I finally found it, or at least something extremely close: Charles Mackerras leading just about every wind and brass player in London, originally on EMI (or, I guess, at the time HMV; the copy I bought is a reissue on Testament). It played on Sirius XM within the last couple of weeks, and I came in shortly after the beginning as I drove to work. All the way out there wherever you are, you may well have heard the "YES!!!" that I shouted when it became clear what I was hearing. The not-common-but-not-rare feature is that it has winds and percussion only, no strings; Handel wanted them, but the King didn't, so the premiere was without. Then Handel added them in, as he had always intended, for later performances, and many, many recorded performances follow suit. Handel's being a distinguished musician and the King's being just the King notwithstanding, I've always preferred it without the strings. This recording omits them. The true rarity point of preference, however, is the percussion. It includes side (aka snare) drums! Handel specified them ad lib, but the only other recording I've heard that includes them is the one that happened also to be my first exposure to the work: the Telemann Society Wind and Percussion Ensemble on Vox. That one was maybe the first shot at a record with period brasses, featuring modern orchestra players (some or most quite distinguished) basically handed valveless instruments and told "Here, play this thing," and while a sense of excitement and discovery is prominently on display, it has some, shall we say, noticeable intonation issues. Lots of them. One of the great party records of all time. But it also has those side drums, and they are very, very good. Ever since, I've felt a Fireworks recording without them is like a stew without seasoning--lacking in flavor. Well, the Mackerras record has them, and exciting they are. Indeed, his record comes across as a superior grade of Telemann Society but playing in tune. Mind you, it's on modern brasses, but still--the sensibility is right, the drums are there, and there's something exhilarating about hearing massed trumpets and horns at the top of their lungs over a sea of double reeds madly running passagework anchored by prominent low reed winds. I'm generally not the sort to blast music at lease-breaking levels, but if I were, the Mackerras recording would be a prime candidate--it makes a glorious noise. This one is a winner. And it was done in 1959. We're close to exact contemporaries. Why didn't I find it earlier? Well, better late than never!
"And it was done in 1959. We're close to exact contemporaries. Why didn't I find it earlier? Well, better late than never!" I am thinking that the original recording on LP didn't have a wide distribution in the US. I don't know if it is accurate, but I have read that the Handel Fireworks was recorded for Pye. My exposure was to a reissue years later. Charles Mackerras is one of my favorite conductors. One of his early recordings helped get me back into classical music around ----. There will probably never be a definitive big box of Mackerras since he recorded with at least 10 different labels over the years. Collecting him could be expensive.
This is unfortunately not the best copy, definitely things deteriorate toward the end of side 1 and that's after a good clean and a few plays! but it's probably not a very common record. This is all he recorded of the sonata, I checked.
Interesting--the recording is in neither WERM nor the Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia. At what speed did it turn out to run? Edison Bell had a nasty habit of running at odd ones; Marie Novello's sole multi-sided set, the Mendelssohn 1st Cto., is on (acoustic) Edison Bell, and it turns at 84 RPM. A friend bought one of the Mozart horn cti. with Aubrey Brain, if I remember correctly, on Edison Bell and likewise found it to run at some very "off" speed. Speaking of Marie Novello, your record wasn't the company's first instance of issuing a "bleeding chunk" of Beethoven; her record of the "Moonlight" sta. omits the middle movement! I never heard of this pianist, but his performance is lovely, and for all the wear fuzzies Edison Bell recorded it well. I especially liked the way he brought out the little nods to Haydn, with whom Beethoven had (unenthusiastically) studied not long before.
My assessment of Shostakovich has changed over the years. I realize now that there are a number of his compositions that I no longer care for. In my mind his stature as a composer has been overrated. I discovered this when he was not on my first list of composers to rip to hard drives. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 Bernard Haitink London Philharmonic Decca, 1993 recorded 1979 I believe
I had this running about 80 maybe 81, it actually sounded just about rite at 78 but wrong somehow. I haven't seen many 12" Edison Bell records so those must be quite rare! I've had Novello on 10" discs though.
Hi Dale, Not sure if you have heard other (especially Russian) conductors in Shostakovich works, but for me that made all the difference. I had Haitink's Shostkovich 5th and 9th symphonies and they didn't do much for me. Then I heard Kondrashin and Mravinsky in the same works and really enjoyed them. Not saying your experience will necessarily be the same, but figured I'd share my experience.