Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #21)

Another Russian great whose piano virtuosity I have enjoyed much over the years is Lazar Berman. So I uncovered a little dirty secret as to why he never recorded Chopin. The answer is because he just could not stand the fact that he did not win the first prize in the International Chopin Competition (held annually in Warsaw?). Speaking of big ego. Berman was supposed to be an expert on Liszt. I have found the following set quite enjoyable ...

 

Have you heard Zimerman with the Polish orchestra on DG? Until I heard those recordings, I didn't really love the concertos.

 

Seriously though, the idea of ripping all my CDs does not appeal to me at all. I still carry a Walkman.

I imagine few people could. I heard Yudina's rendition (who adopted the slow tempo in D 960 before Richter did, IIRC) and didn't much like it. I love her "truck driver" Beethoven, though.

Might be interesting to see who we think is in the same league as those two. In Dubal's book, The Art of the Piano, he gives a list of pianists by whom he would recommend getting any recordings available. Curiously, he omits Richter, so what does he know, right? He does list Gilels though, along with; Cortot, Gieseking, Casadesus, Rachmaninoff, Rosenthal, Backhaus, Lhevinne, Godowsky, Hess, Barere, Friedman, Moiseiwitsch, Edwin Fischer, Hofmann, Kapell, Lipatti, Rubinstein, Rudolf Serkin, Schnabel, Arrau, Gould, Michelangeli, de Larrocha and Horowitz. The omission of Richter and the addition of "his boy" Horowitz make me immediately leery of the list, but many of them (I underlined them) I absolutely agree with. I would definitely add Richter, Moravec, Natan Brand and maybe the very underrated Maria Tipo to those that I underlined.

 

George, For Renaissance men like you and me, we simply cannot put up with listening to MP3 music ...

 

Right you are, Stuart.

Here's the list from amazon. Symphonies 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, straddling different labels and orchestras.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref...74&h=b662390f35294f9907bf9872eedf88c95a1807d9

 

Is this the HvK 8th you're talking about? http://www.amazon.com/Bruckner-Symp...=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1296358121&sr=1-1 It's the one I'm getting.

 

Do you have most of these Harnoncourt's Bruckners? I only have Symphony No. 5. A number of the recordings appear to be OOP as well ...

 

Bingo! I wish I could remember the exact quote, but after it was released there was some comment about the fact that only now, so late in life, did he understand.

 

No, I don't have it. I have the 8th by Chailly and Bernstein's CBS 9. I wish Bernstein had done the whole thing the way he did with Mahler, because his 9 was what made me take notice.

 

Most likely. HvK also performed this Bruckner 8th at his LAST Carnegie Hall performance in 2/89, just a few months before he passed away in July of that year. I bought this DVD instead, which I believe is the same performance as the CD set plus the video ...

 

I just came across this very interesting article on Karajan and Bernstein and would like to share with everyone ...

A Music Rivalry, Conducted from the Grave ...

 

IIRC, I thought Karajan mentioned in his biography (Karajan: A life in Music by Richard Osborne) that it took advancing age to fully appreciate Bruckner music.

 

i picked up this Fiedler Living Stereo cd today for $7.95-used,but in perfect shape.

 

Post of the day

Indeed, I learn much more from reasoned explanations of others' dislikes than I do from simple effusive praise.

 

EXCELLENT performance!
I see what ya mean about background noise here and there.
Actually with my surround sound it makes it more realistic to being there IMHO.
While I won't put it on my top 5 list....I still consider it a important rung in the ladder of Classical Music History!
I still recommend it worthy of addition to anyone's collection....find it like new used cheap....I wouldn't give full price for it!
I gave $8.94 shipped used like new for mine (NEW they start around $40 shipped)
**For those that don't know this is a 2CD Set**

 

Noted, but he did record the Polonaises for DG.

 

I understand that you guys would prefer that I be more descriptive about my dislikes, but personally I find it more productive to focus on things that I enjoy than to spend my time and energy on figuring out why I don't like a particular recording and then forming a reasoned explanation. This may come from years of studying music and being forced to listen to and write about things I don't like or it might come from endless debates that arise when I express strong opinions about a particular recording online. At any rate, my experience with music is intended to be, above all, fun. And writing about stuff I don't like or even focusing on it isn't fun to me.

I should add that I often return to recordings that I don't like to see if my opinion has changed. Believe it or not, there was a time that I didn't get all the accolades about Richter. I spent some time away from his recordings and then returned. I heard something very different this time and he has since become my favorite pianist. So I think timing is very important when it comes to music and I try to keep an open mind.

 

I guess you lack the requisite schadenfreude.

Very good point. Until quite recently "Outside" Jazz was inaccessible, simply couldn't get past the torrential sheets of atonal squawking. But attempting to absorb atonal and serial music probably had a bigger payoff in jazz than in "Classical" music. Some stuff just takes longer to take hold of your imagination than others.

Have to say I "got" Richter the first time I heard him, playing the "Appassionata" on a Victrola LP. But I didn't "get" Ornette Coleman until very recently.

 

Stewart, when you finish CD8 of this set, your big toe will be awash in the Twentieth Century. Be careful.

 

Speaking of Bang...er, Lang Lang...he came through town Thursday night and played with our local band. I didn't go, but some friends enjoyed him. They told me at one point he looked like he went into convulsions and his eyes were popping out of his head.

Our reviewer (who doesn't like everything the symphony does) liked Lang Lang:

After the concert my friends tracked him down to sign a CD they bought there. This is the cover:

 

I always ignore Amazon reviews for any recording when there are few than 10reviews.

 

But this may be the only Chopin recording he ever made with DG and is probably OOP anyway. I have seen many of his live recordings on the internet but none feature any Chopin works.

 

I have one more Mahler set to go after this - the set by Sinopoli. Then I will be done with Mahler. There will not be purchase for another Mahler set.

 

Do you ever have a "second listen"?