Classical Music for Aficionados

Thanks Jim
Have Lewis's Haydn, very fine, also Schubert sonatas, Mussorsky Pictures,
Beethoven Sonatas, Diabelli Variations, Weber & Schubert sonatas.
Will have a search for those Bagatels.

Jim
Love Barenboim's playing most anything, one of my favorites.
Have you listened to his "on my new piano"?
I don't know about his "dark side".
I do appreciate his collaborations with the late Edward Said to
form the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Yuja Wang, Fantasia
fantastic!  esp Rachmaninov Elegie

Now watching Yuja Wang, Verbier 2010, playing Schuber/Liszt, Gretchen am Spinrade, etc.
One of my favorite pieces, played as well as any ever.

Host David Dubal begins a new series on two keyboard masters born in 1685: Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti. These two composers were the titans of the late Baroque period, and their work has continued to inspire ever since. Tonight's program features some of the greatest players of Bach and Scarlatti, including Andras Schiff in Bach, and the renowned Scarlatti interpreter Vladimir Horowitz.

Program Playlist:

Scarlatti: Sonata in C, K. 502
—Sergei Babyan, piano

Scarlatti: Sonata in F, L. 384
—Solomon, piano

Bach: Three Part Invention No. 9 in E Minor
—Andras Schiff, piano

Bach: Sarabande from Partita No. 6 in E Minor
—Piotr Anderszewski, piano

Scarlatti: Sonata in A, K. 113
—Maria Grinberg, piano

Scarlatti: Sonata in B Minor, L. 33
—Vladimir Horowitz, piano

Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G - Gavotte, Courante, Gigue
—Andrei Gavrilov, piano

Scarlatti: Sonata in F Minor, K. 184
—Alexis Weissenberg, piano

Bach: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue - Fantasy
—Andras Schiff, piano

Bach: Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A Minor
—Andras Schiff, piano

Scarlatti: Sonata in B, L. 224
—Vladimir Horowitz, piano

listen to this program here:
https://www.wqxr.org/story/masters-baroque-bach-and-scarlatti-part-1/

Paul Lewis
just listened to his Beethoven sonatas, his Weber, and his Schubert recordings, still downloading his Haydn
i really like his Schubert
thanks for the tip!

Listening to Angela Hewitt' s Couperin.
It does not get any better!

Angela Hewitt’s unique F278 Fazioli was destroyed in an attempt to lift it on to a trolley

Hewitt said her F278 Fazioli, the only one in the world fitted with four pedals, and worth at least £150,000, was “kaputt”. She said: “I hope my piano will be happy in piano heaven.” 
“I adored this piano. It was my best friend, best companion. I loved how it felt when I was recording – giving me the possibility to do anything I wanted.” 
He said: “Every single piano is different and you grow with them and they change as they age and you develop together. For a pianist at that level a piano becomes an extension of your body and that’s why she dragged it around for her recordings.” 
. “Paolo [Fazioli] says he will never fit four pedals ever again to it [a F278] because it was such a pain in the arse.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/11/virtuoso-mourns-beloved-150000-piano-smashed-by-movers

Igor Zhukov ?

jim
always searching for what i have not heard
how about you?

now watching/listening to Angela Hewitt at BBC Proms 2011
playing Brahms and Schuman on her late lamented Fazioli 278 four pedal
exquisite, and of it is all from memory, no paperwork
it is difficult to see her pedaling, and I have no idea what a 4th pedal does

begging your pardon
now i see that the Fazioli she is playing has "only" 3 pedals
so it is not the one recently destroyed

I was asked to recommend a recording of Bach BWV 992, Capriccio on the Departure of the Most Beloved Brother

I replied that Angela Hewitt was my favorite, also Tatiana Nikolayeva, and Rudolph Serkin.
Who am I missing?

now listening to Shostakovich plays ShostakovichIt is a Czech cd of broadcast recordings from 1955-7.I like it very much, especially the piano quintet, the cello sonata,and the preludes (one of them arranged for violin & piano).It also includes concertos which are fine, but less to my taste.

Schubert
Yes indeed, I have read that Russians who had political power preferred Czech pharmaceuticals, in the 60's this included birth control pills.

now listening to

Louis Lorte and Helene Mercier, Rachmaninov Piano Duets
superb!

now listening to
Helene Mercier and Louis Lorte, Rachmaninov Piano Duets
superb!

thanks Jim, thanks Schubert
Somehow i had never heard of Demidenko, and have not yet found his Bach Capricio, but your recommendation led me to several other of his recordings.  I especially like his Live at Wigmore Hall which includes some works unknown to me, e.g. Vorisek, Kalbrenner, Gubaidulina.

now listening to Demidenko Bach Busoni Capricio
very nice indeed
many thanks

" Yes, Beethoven could be unpleasant, sometimes cruel, and his politics defied easy categorization. His deterioration over the years was heartbreaking: a museum in a house he stayed at in the spa town of Baden described how a disheveled Beethoven had once gone for a walk and been arrested for vagrancy."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/travel/vienna-bonn-beethoven-250th-anniversary.html

now watching
Immortal Beloved is a 1994 film about the life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_Beloved_(1994_film)

My favorite recordings of Rameau are by
Angela Hewitt, "Keyboard Suites"
and
Shura Cherkassky (BBC album)
and
Vera Dulova (harp, Russian Performing School)

I have only one cd by Zhukov, and it includes only one Bach piece, i.e., Passacaglia in C Minor.  And I like it very much.
The rest of the cd is Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev.
The CD is vol. 16 of a series "Russian Piano School".
What else should I look for?

Now I see Shukov has recorded Scriabin Preludes and Sonatas, also a concerto and a symphony by Janis Ivanovs. Will check those out.

Sviatoslav Richter plays Scriabin Sonatas No.2, 5, 6, 9

00:00 - No.2 (Moscow, '50s)

11:10 - No.5 (Prague, '70s)

22:03 - No.6 (Moscow, '50s) 33:32 - No.9 (Aldeburgh Parish Church, 1966)  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvtyobSDcw8

Jim
You are so lucky to have heard these giants in live recitals!
Arrau was 8 months older than Horowitz and died 20 months after Horowitz.

watching a video of Verbier Festival
so many fine performances
especially noteworthy is a Rachmaninoff suite for 2 pianos played by
Basayev and Trifonov, maybe it is from Symphonic Dances
Trifonov has his jacket sleeves rolled up, Basayev ditched the necktie
and they are both entranced!

Now listening to Sofronitsky
Concert Recordings CHOPIN / DEBUSSY / LISZT / MOZART 
It is enough to make me weep
https://www.amazon.com/Vladimir-Sofronitsky-Concert-Recordings-DVD/dp/B01B2W7U3O

Jim et al
Thanks for your response.  Yes I love the Schiff recording too.  Somehow it did not show up on my index, but there it is under "Bach Solo Keyboard Works".
I have not heard the Dershavina recording, now searching.

Just received this sad note from a piano dealership that is closing:
Dear Client,
This is very sad news. The flagship piano store in KC for over 100 years is closing. The store that brought Steinway and other great brands to our region is going out of business. You can still buy online, but where can you go to try out a new Steinway, Boston or Kawai grand? This is another major blow to the cultural life of our city.
There were many cultural influences in recent years: the general shift from making our own music to being entertained electronically, the lack of true music education in schools, parents forcing children to choose between sports and music, the general rise of crudity in all art forms, and people who think practicing is too much work.
There were also political influences. The political-economic decisions that brought on the recession of 2008-15 robbed many of our citiizens of their discretionary income. As a result, they stopped buying instruments and paying for private music lessons. This forced Schmitt to cut their store space in half. It forced the closing of the Toon Shop and other music stores.  
The 2020 economic shut-downs and pandemic hysteria have hammered the nails in the coffin. Music and its related businesses were labelled "unessential" for five months. As a result, major orchestras, ballets and opera companies have been irreparably endangered. Chamber music is "virtual." Piano lessons are attempted over the phone.  
Our beloved violin repair expert has closed her business and taken a government job. Luyben Music, the iconic source of classical music since 1947, has shut its riot-cracked and graffitied store. My business was cut by 80%. Indoor vocal worship singing is forbidden. Our leading presidential candidate promises to shut it all down again if scientists advise. No wonder people are afraid to make a major musical investment.
I'm sick of hearing phrases like "in these uncertain times" and "we're all in this together." We're not. The liquor stores, grocery stores, pet-food stores and gun stores are doing well. The music industry is dying. Is a virus really so selective?
Now that my rant is over, if you or someone you know is interested in purchasing a better piano, this is a rare opportunity. If you have been getting-by with a worn-out heirloom or donated piano, here is a chance to honor that legacy with a decent instrument, especially one that carries a warranty.
Ted Horowitz, RPT

 

 

 

 

Jim
I found the Dershavina recording, thanks for the reference.

My preference, however, is Angela Hewitt.  She is calmer, the melody is prettier. 

Maybe it's just that I am an old man and have heard enough of the Rolling Stones.

jim
you say " if you go back in someone’s past that there may be a black gene floating about somewhere "
indeed, you might well find some neanderthals too!

Tracklist
Franz Liszt
Hexaméron, S392
01. Introduction Extremement lent (3:56)
02. Tema Allegro marziale (1:25)
03. Variation I Ben marcato (0:56)
04. Variation II Moderato (2:49)
05. Variation III di bravura - Ritornello (1:20)
06. Variation IV Legato e grazioso (1:23)
07. Variation V Vivo e brillante - Fuocoso molto energico Lento quasi recitativo (3:26)
08. Variation VI Largo - [coda] (2:31)
09. Finale Molto vivace quasi prestissimo (3:05)
Sigismond Thalberg
10. Grande fantaisie sur des motifs de Don Pasquale, Op 67 (14:15)
Franz Liszt
11. Ernani '[Deuxième] Paraphrase de Concert', S432 (7:37)
Sigismond Thalberg
12. Fantaisie sur des thèmes de Moïse, Op 33 (14:57)
Franz Liszt
13. Réminiscences de Norma de Bellini - Grande fantaisie, S394 (17:25)

agree with you Jim, powerful performance by Hamelin
I am not an opera lover, but I do love those melodies.
Interesting note: Hamelin is broke, had to borrow money, caused of course by the cancellation of live performances.  I am sure his standard of living is a lot more expensive than mine!

There is a new book out on Richard Wagner, Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music by Alex Ross.
 I came to Wagner while studying with Vincent Scully about Louis Sullivan, the Chicago architect, inventor of the steel framed skyscraper, always replete with ornamentation that has never been matched.
I realize that some here revile Wagner.  This book refutes some of the reasons often given for this revulsion, so perhaps it is worth quoting:
quote
Ross has much that’s interesting to say about the responses to Wagner’s controversial, wide-ranging, and widely circulated writings about art, nationalism, anti-Semitism, and any number of other topics; he’s attentive to Wagner’s early anarchist and leftist views; and, of course, he devotes many pages to the embrace of Wagner’s music and ideas by Hitler and the Third Reich. 
The strongest pages in Wagnerism—they come in the final third of the book, mostly in the chapter “Siegfried’s Death”—deal with the complex position of Wagner in Hitler’s imagination, Nazi Germany, and the Allied countries before, during, and immediately after World War II. Ross brings a feeling for historical paradox and ambiguity to this prototypical case study in the relationship among art, society, and politics. He explores the long-running scholarly debates about what he refers to as “the Wagner-Hitler problem.” Addressing scholarly discussions as to whether Hitler’s obsession with Wagner was dominated by a rapturous engagement with the operas themselves or an enthusiasm for Wagner’s writings on anti-Semitism and the German spirit, Ross concludes that “Hitler’s relationship with Wagner remained one of musical fandom rather than of ideological fanaticism.” 
Whatever attracted him most strongly to Wagner, Hitler was determined to make him central to the iconography and mythology of Nazism, though the composer and his work were not wholeheartedly embraced by the citizens of the Third Reich. Wagner “was too strange, too eccentric, to serve as a reliable ideological bulwark” in Nazi Germany, Ross writes. “Nor was his work popular enough, in the mass-market sense, to operate as a unifying force.” 
As for the claims that Wagner’s music was played in the concentration camps, Ross examines them carefully and concludes that if it happened, it was only rarely. “The vast majority of survivor testimonies,” he writes, “indicate that the music of the camps was popular in nature: marches, dance tunes, hits of the day, light classics.” 
Ross argues that “Wagner’s popularity in America actually surged” in the 1940s. Arturo Toscanini and other conductors performed the operas before enthusiastic audiences; apparently some concertgoers didn’t find it difficult to separate the nineteenth-century artist from the country that he had mythologized and that was now a sworn enemy. The New York Times critic Olin Downes wrote that Wagner’s operas were “the antithesis of Hitler, and crushing condemnation of all that Hitlerism implies.”

end quote

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/10/08/the-cults-of-wagner/
if you encounter a paywall, you can read it here
https://outline.com/z94bDB

Wagner died in 1883
Hitler was born in 1889, 6 years later

Four days before his death, speaking to Gen. Benjamin Butler, Lincoln still pressed on with deportation as the only peaceable solution to America’s race problem. “I can hardly believe that the South and North can live in peace, unless we can get rid of the negroes … I believe that it would be better to export them all to some fertile country…”

there is a lot more - and worse - here:

https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2010/12/01/lincoln-to-slaves-go-somewhere-else/

On a warm September afternoon, a startling sound could be heard in a rehearsal room here: a full-size orchestra, playing the second act of Wagner’s “Die Walküre.”

“I’m not saying we planned this,” Donald Runnicles, who was conducting the rehearsal, said in an interview. “But if you knew you were going to have a six-month hiatus where you didn’t hear any live music, what would you wish to hear after that six months? In my top 10, it would be ‘Die Walküre.’”

When Wagner began work on the text of the “Ring,” he was a young radical fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848. “We are all in a situation like Wagner,” Mr. Herheim said. “All somehow refugees, confronted with the concept of not having a harbor, not feeling safe, and at the same time having to face the destinies of so many people trying to get to us, and face the fact that many of us are not ready to feel empathy.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/arts/music/wagner-walkure-opera-berlin.html

Fearing the fate of Louis-Philippe, some monarchs in Germany accepted some of the demands of the revolutionaries, at least temporarily. In the south and west, large popular assemblies and mass demonstrations took place. They demanded freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, written constitutions, arming of the people, and a parliament.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_revolutions_of_1848%E2%80%931849

"While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. While I had not proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I thought I would occupy perhaps five minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races -- that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making VOTERS or jurors of negroes, NOR OF QUALIFYING THEM HOLD OFFICE, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any of her man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

Abraham Lincoln, Sept. 18, 1858

On Saturday night, he and the Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra completed the programme as promised at Jerusalem's international convention centre. But when Barenboim returned for a second encore, he surprised the audience by asking if they wanted to hear Wagner.

An emotional 30-minute debate among the audience followed, with some shouting "fascist" and "concentration camp music", and dozens walked out, banging doors as the music began.

But most stayed and Barenboim, 58, played a piece from Tristan and Isolde. He was reported to have been close to tears after receiving a standing ovation.

"I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner?"

He said he did not want to offend anyone and that those who would find the music objectionable could leave.

The debate, carried out in Hebrew, was lost on almost all of the orchestra. Holocaust survivors were in both camps. Michael Avraham, 67, an engineer, said: "Wagner was a giant anti-semite but also a great musician. I'm against his views, but not his music."

Ephraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli branch of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Centre, said: "We will urge all Israeli orchestras to boycott Daniel Barenboim."

In 1981, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra tried to play a piece from Tristan and Isolde, but a Holocaust survivor jumped on to the stage, opened his shirt and showed scars from a concentration camp. The performance was abandoned.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jul/09/ewenmacaskill

Here is an article that is 28 years old, about pianos, about music, about Glenn Gould, and about Alfred Brendel.
Anything I could say would only diminish it, so I simply recommend it to you.
The original is behind a paywall here:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n06/nicholas-spice/how-to-play-the-piano
A copy (almost complete) is here:
https://outline.com/36fmR7

NYT reviews Lang Lang's new recording of Bach Goldbergs.
"Lang Lang: The Pianist Who Plays Too Muchly

On a new recording of Bach’s “Goldberg” Variations, the superstar artist stretches the music beyond taste."

Very critical, preference for Jeremy Denk and Beatric Rana recordings.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/04/arts/music/lang-lang-bach-goldberg-variations.html?action=click&a...

Mr. Jarrett, 75, broke the silence, plainly stating what happened to him: a stroke in late February 2018, followed by another one that May. It is unlikely he will ever perform in public again.

“I was paralyzed,” he told The New York Times, speaking by phone from his home in northwest New Jersey. “My left side is still partially paralyzed. I’m able to try to walk with a cane, but it took a long time for that, took a year or more. And I’m not getting around this house at all, really.”

When he tried to play some familiar bebop tunes in his home studio recently, he discovered he had forgotten them.

“I don’t know what my future is supposed to be,” he added. “I don’t feel right now like I’m a pianist. That’s all I can say about that.”

“But when I hear two-handed piano music, it’s very frustrating, in a physical way. If I even hear Schubert, or something played softly, that’s enough for me. Because I know that I couldn’t do that. And I’m not expected to recover that. The most I’m expected to recover in my left hand is possibly the ability to hold a cup in it. So it’s not a ‘shoot the piano player’ thing. It’s: I already got shot. Ah-ha-ha-ha.”

“I can only play with my right hand, and it’s not convincing me anymore,” Mr. Jarrett said. “I even have dreams where I am as messed up as I really am — so I’ve found myself trying to play in my dreams, but it’s just like real life.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html

AshkenazyI have heard his 1966 Diabelli Variations, but not the new recording.Now listening to his "Rare First Recordings 1955" which is a bonus
part of "The Solo Recordings on DG & Westminister 40CD"He must have been 13 years old, looks so young in the cover picture.I love his music, and I appreciate what he did with Edward Said in Israel.

Jim
big surprise that you do not prefer Arrau!so many have recorded this piece, I listen
but could never choose

Pogorelich dissected here:
https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2019/08/22/749395568/a-confrontation-with-music-ivo-po...

The recording I have of Pogorelich playing Schuman's Symphonic Etudes is from 1981, when P must have been about 21 years old. He has always had serious health issues, and on the cover he looks like a high school student.  I certainly do love his music, and also his name!

lucky you to hear Elizabeth Leonskaja
she was born in Tbilisi Georgia, studied in Moscow, lives in Vienna
she is married to Oleg Kagan
" Elisabeth Leonskaja’s musical development was shaped or influenced to a decisive degree by her collaboration with Sviatoslav Richter. The master recognized her exceptional talent and fostered her development not only through teaching and musical advice, but also by inviting her to play numerous duets with him. A memorable musical event! The musical partnership and personal friendship between Sviatoslav Richter and Elisabeth Leonskaja endured until Richter’s death in the year 1997. In 1978 Elisabeth Leonskaja left the Soviet Union and made her new home in Vienna. Her sensational performance at the Salzburg Festival in 1979 marked the beginning of her steadily blossoming career as a concert pianist in the west.

In addition to her many solo engagements, chamber music remains an important part of her work. She has performed many times with string quartets, such as the Belcea, Borodin Artemis and Jerusalem quartets. She also had a longstanding musical friendship with the Alban Berg Quartet, and their piano quintet recordings are legendary.

" Numerous recordings bear testimony to the outstanding artistic achievements of this pianist and she has been awarded prizes such as the Caecilia Prize for her Brahms piano sonatas, or the Diapason d´Or for her recordings of works by Liszt. Other significant recordings include the Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Kurt Masur, the Chopin Piano Concertos with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy, and the Shostakovich Piano Concertos with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Leonskaja’s most recent CD recordings appeared on the Berlin based Label eaSonus (www.easonus.com). “Paris”, with works by Ravel, Enescu and Debussy, was named the Solo Recording of the Year 2014 by the ICMA Jury. “Saudade”, an homage to Russian culture with works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff, was released in November 2017. A complete recording of Franz Schubert’s piano sonatas in two volumes of four CDs each has been available since April 2016 and May 2019 respectively. A double-CD with variations and sonatas by Robert Schumann followed in January 2020."

http://www.leonskaja.com/

now listening, Igor Levit, Encounter
superb, especially  "Palais de Mari" by Morton Feldman
Levit says:
"The most touching, open-hearted comments I got were about one of the least well-known pieces – Palais de Mari by Morton Feldman, which is very important to me.“

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08D3GK4TJ/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

" he remained an engaged and worldly businessman, who managed to sell the score of the Missa Solemnis to three different publishers at once (the triple-dating only came to light when two of the publishers met at a trade fair in Leipzig). "
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n01/james-wood/a-great-deaf-bear