Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #16)

Oh, yes. Glenn fo sho.

 

I am very pleased to have bought the Glenn Gould's Original Jacket set a few years ago ...

 

His Bizet Variations is amazing.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7_pb4CpSLA

 

I have that as well. A real treasure.

 

I would NEVER have bought 80 LP's from the crappy Columbia pressing since they would produce more pops (and clicks) than the July 4th fireworks ...

 

That's actually Glenn making noise.

 

Of the 4000+ LP's I have in my classical music collection, at least 95% are European imports such as DG, London/Decca and Philips, etc. I got out of my way to avoid American pressed LP's.

 

Now listening.....

 

Now playing this CD from my Schubert collection ...

 

Very sweet Paganini...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yWmbI1z0i8

 

See also here: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=214322&highlight=

Remembering my wife's teacher's dictum that only mediocrity is always it its best, here are a few who could make magic at the piano in a wide range of music:

Benno Moiseiwitsch
Ignaz Friedman
Guiomar Novaes
Shura Cherkassky
Lili Kraus (particularly before WW II)

and, er, yes, taking into account the limitations of recording technology and A&R practices of his day, Ignace Jan Paderewski.

All of these performers could make the instrument sing, and most fall into the class of "if I see one of this artist's records that I don't have yet, it's an automatic buy." I heartily agree with the earlier observation that tone is critically important, which lets out a lot of more recent contenders; all of these were paragons in this respect.

I'd say that Alfred Brendel is a more recent pianist worthy of inclusion; we think of him as a Beethoven/Schubert pianist, but if you look at his discography, it ranges a lot more widely than that, and he gave good accounts of himself. As I've remarked before, his Philips records didn't really do justice to his tone as I heard it a couple of times in recital.

As to Cherkassky, he may have had the most wide-ranging repertoire of all, running from baroque through at least first-third-of-the-20th-c modern, if not later, and in all that I've heard he made the piano sing, even when he wasn't being "orthodox" in his interpretive approach. I was fortunate enough to hear him in recital once, not too long before he died, and he managed to find beauty in *Hindemith,* for crying out loud!

 

And where is Previn? He was featured in the Great Pianists series after all...

 

I had this one at some point dunno what I did with it!
It was also VERY well done.

 

On the spin this morning......
ONE of my favorite Mahler recording I own!
From the original 1963 recordings....a recent used LN purchase for $5!!

 

But this record is a freakin' miracle:

http://www.*******.com/uploads/posts/2010-07/1278353819_front.jpg

 

Huh, that jazzman Previn? Then I would add Thelonious Monk.

 

One of the best relatively recent Bach discs around.

 

Her Schoenberg/Sibelius disc is mind blowing.

 

I liked the Schoenberg (a work very dear to me: Krasner/Mitropoulos, Szeryng/Kubelik) but not the Sibelius that I found cold and not inspired; I should revisit. I played recently the Heifetz recording on RCA/SACD and once more I was left speechless from the sheer beauty, virtuosity and command.

 

Just received it in a box from JPC (18 euro for her 5 Sony CDs) together with the Horowitz Complete RCA/Columbia box!

 

For the Hahnophiles among us, note that the CD issued with this month's BBC Music Magazine includes a performance by Hahn of Mozart's 4th Vln. Cto.

My own take, based on what I've heard, is that Hahn and Fischer represent two different approaches to the instrument, each very beautiful in its own way; Hahn is the more dynamic player, Fischer the more lyrical--not, mind, that Hahn can't play a beautiful, singing line or that Fischer can't bestir herself to brilliance when wanted. I refuse to get sucked into yet another of those tedious "If you like A then you cannot like B" fan club games like the one that rages in some quarters about Furtwangler and Toscanini or Callas and Tebaldi.

 

He is welcomed!

 

Kronos Quartet didn't seem to have a problem with that:

 

I bought the same Hahn box from JPC about a month or two ago.

 

One problem. The performance does not swing, while their Bill Evans disc does.