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Schubert: try looking for it under
Cuarteto Casals (with a C instead of a Q) |
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Fou Ts’ong Chinese pianist, 86 years old, has died of corona virus. He gained fame in europe beginning in 1955, and eventually sought refuge during Mao's time.I found 2 recordings by him: Chopin mazurkas and Scarlatti sonatas.Article about him in today's NYT.
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Jim His Chopin mazurkas are superb, unhurried, deeply melodic.
His Scarlatti sonatas bounce!
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I heard Nathan Milstein play Tchaikovsky concerto with Eugene Normandy and Philadelphia Orchestra, Thanksgiving 1960. His bow began shedding, concertmaster offered his, offered shaken off, music proceeded with NM pulling loose hair off the bow whenever he had a 2 second break. When it was all over, thunderous applause of course, and Milstein reached up to Ormandy on the podium, who lost his balance on his bad leg, and nearly tumbled, but Milstein saved his fall. Never forgotten. Meanwhile, now listening to Maria Tipo (born 23 December 1931) play Bach on her piano. So fine.
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Yes, she studied with Neuhaus. quote (Virsaladze) A bad pianist can either play a Steinway well or ruin it. It doesn't bother me to play any instrument, and not just because of that. But unfortunately the pianos provided at Moscow Conservatory are in the worst condition. If you came, you'd understand. The pedals squeaked, they were out of tune, and the left pedal of the instrument in the classroom where Prof. Neuhaus taught was always creaking and squeaking. Every piano they had was a real embarrassment. Even now [laughs]. (Kobayashi) That kind of instrument was even in Prof. Neuhaus' class? (Virsaladze) Even in Prof. Prof.Neuhaus' lesson room.
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Eliso Virsaladze This pianist is truly incredible. She is almost as old as I am. From Tbilisi and then Moscow. quote What are you conscious of when you approach, for example, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, etc.? (Virsaladze) Well, you can't express the music of any one of these composers without playing many of his works over many years. Beethoven has it all. If you can process Beethoven correctly, you will be able to understand the works of other composers in theory, that is. Take a look at Beethoven's sonatas and in them you can find Chopin nocturnes, various theme s and variations, Schumann, and Brahms, as well as even Prokofiev and jazz in them . For example, you can even hear his Op. 101 sonata (Sonata No. 28), Hammerklavier (Sonata No. 29, Op. 106), and the later string quartets in Webern and Schoenberg. . . . On the other hand, how difficult the technique for playing Mozart is! The fewer the number of notes in a sonata, the more difficult it is, because it's as if you are naked and exposing yourself in public. Still we have to make something out of nothing. In that sense, Mozart is more difficult than Beethoven. Beethoven is a dictator. He tells you what to do and it's all written on the score. Mozart does not do that for us. But there are a variety of reductions [meaning "various editions" of Mozart's work, and subsequent generations of people have been saying, “ play it like this” and “play it like that” and adding various things. People always want to put in something extra here, and add something new there. For example, today many people say that to play Chopin, you should use the Ekier editions. However, there were many wonderful performances of Chopin's music in the past. They say that Cortot was a Chopin player, but of course he wasn't using the Ekier editions. Anyway, regarding editions of Mozart's music, I think there is a great deal of nonsense out there.
www.tokyo-ondai.ac.jp › cms › uploads › 2019/11PDF https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Eliso+Virsaladze+ hint: if you are looking for her recordings, be aware that her name is spelled several ways: "Eliso" and "Elisso", "Virsaladze" and "Wirssaladze" |
Dreams of Love (1935) This movie cast Arrau as Liszt. Has anyone ever seen it? Do you have a link? |
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schubert Mozart was born 27 January 1756. So yesterday was his 265th birthday.
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Superb:
Ivan Moravec "Portrait" 11 cd collection
from Beethoven to Janacek
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Jim
please give a listen to Moravec and Sasa Vectomov (cello) playing Ravel's Habanera.
if you have ever heard anything prettier, please let me know
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Jim
I am with you Re Maria Joao Pires, especially love her Chopin Nocturnes.
Also appreciate Yuja Wang's piano, but so not much her clothes (or lack thereof).
The recording of Moravec/Vectomov is on cd #10 of that compilation entitled "Portrait".
more on Moravec (including his refusal to accept Szell's interpretation of Beethoven) here
https://www.naxos.com/person/Ivan_Moravec/8428.htm
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re Mompou, please do not forget
Aethur Rubinstein, Music of Spain also The Rubinstein Collection
Stephen Hough, Piano Music of Mompou
Jenny Lin, Silent Music
Andrew Tyson, Landscapes
Josep Colom, Momou - Piano Music
Mompou himself, Complete Piano Works (4 cds)
Volodos plays Mompou Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Michelangeli Performance also Great Pianists of the 20th Century Alicia de Larrocha, Great Pianists of the 20th Century Alexander Thaurand, Chopin Preludes, also Chopin Waltzes |
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Have you heard Sofiane Pamart?
SETLIST
00:00 Sofiane Pamart
33:09 Alexandre Kantorow
01:06:42 Etienne Jaumet & Fabrizio Rat
01:36:19 Macha Gharibian
01:59:44 Marc Melià & Francoiz Breut
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Johann Sebastian Bach, WTC, Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 852, No. 7 Franz Liszt, Douze Études d'exécution transcendante, S. 139 12. Chasse-Neige Frederic Chopin, 12 Études, Op.10 No. 8 in F major Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 2 in A Major, Op. 2/2 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 18 Pieces, Op. 72 No. 5: Méditation Sergei Rachmaninov, Etudes-tableaux No. 9 in D Major, Op. 39
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eric
on the contrary, i think classical music is more freely available than ever before in USA
i am old enough to recall when you had to live in a big city and
listen to stupid commercials/talk just to hear some classical music
true, it is supported by a small wealthy percentage in usa
they have their fancy concert halls and expensive programs
but that has no effect on me
there seem to be plenty of first rate musicians being formed today
i have no desire to be among any majority
to each his own
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Nicholas Angelich dead at 51
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/arts/music/nicholas-angelich-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=Obituaries
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"
Ross, by then adept at the organ, entered
the Nice Conservatory, where he delved into — and increasingly
concentrated on — the harpsichord. “A
friend and I used to let ourselves get locked in the conservatory at
night,” he told an interviewer in 1986, “and we’d play Bach’s ‘Art of
Fugue,’ four hands on a single instrument, until the janitor would kick
us out at dawn.”
"
He Was a ‘Bad Boy’ Harpsichordist, and the Best of His AgeScott Ross, who would have turned 70 this year, died young of AIDS — but not before recording all 555 Scarlatti sonatas.
"I am not much into harpsichord, but this man really had the touch. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/arts/music/scott-ross-harpsichord-classical-music.html?action=cli... |
Ross also recorded Couperin (12 cd), Soler, Rameau (3cd).
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Vladmir Feltsman Truly great pianist, love his Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Scriabin.
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ftm Feltsman's "Tribute to Tchaikovsky" is superb.
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Alexandre Kantorow outstanding young Russian pianist Brahms Bartok and Liszt (2020) and A la Russe (2017)
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Saša Večtomov
I heard his cello playing with Ivan Moravec's piano, Ravel's Habanera. Incredibly beautiful.
He was Czech, studied in Moscow, contemporary with Rostropovich.
Hard to find any actual recordings, but there is plenty on YouTube.
Perhaps the best is with his brother on guitar.
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Re James Levine So perhaps the Parthenon should be bulldozed?
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Been listening to Paul Badura-Skoda, some very old recordings. some modern piano, some historic pianos. "He is the only person to have recorded the complete piano sonatas of
Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert on both historic and modern instruments." The more I listen, the more I like.
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RADU LUPU
Includes COMPLETE DUETS
with PERAHIA, BARENBOIM,
CHUNG & HENDRICKS
Murray Perahia · Daniel Barenboim
Kyung Wha Chung · Barbara Hendricks
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eioI love Sofronitsky.I have several collections of his recordings, including Melodiya, Vista Verdi, Brilliant Classics, and Denon (which is Japanese I believe). I find all of his recordings wonderful. Technically, some are better than others, but the playing is uniformly superb. He also recorded with the Beethoven Quartet (Oistrakh, Gilels, Sofronitsky & Mershavov).
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Vlad now listening to Vladimir Feltsman, "A Tribute to Tchaikovsky" so wonderful melody, yes, melody
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re Bach Goldberg VariationsThis must be one of the most recorded piano compositions.I have recordings by:
gregory sokolov
angela hewitt
helmut walcha
andre gavrilov
keith jarrett
glenn gould
murrary perahia
beatrice rana
tatiana nicolayeva
nicholas angelich
vladmir feltsman
gustav leonhardt
rosalyn tureck
zhu xiao-mei
peter serkin
igor levit
stephen hough
andrei gavrilov
maria yudina
maria tipo
jeremy denk
ekaterina dershavina I freely admit that if you played one of these recordings, I could not tell you which pianist was playing. I cannot name a "favorite".
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Before a concert Liszt mingled with the audience, charming them with his
witty remarks. He had a semicircle of chairs placed around the piano on
stage so that illustrious guests could sit near him and converse with
him between pieces. He added extra bits of his own invention to the
pieces he was playing, improvising cadenzas, tremolos, double octaves,
and trills even to iconic pieces like Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata. He
brought his silk gloves on stage and threw them down to be fought over
by audience members. Women were said to carry his discarded cigar butts
in their cleavages. When he broke piano strings, as he often did in his
performances, people collected the broken strings and had them made into
bracelets. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/nothing-sheer-racket |
What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
Laurence Dreyfus (in his wonderful “Wagner and the Erotic Impulse”) made me aware that Richard Wagner had a fetish for composing in silk lingerie, and he sent Nietzsche out shopping to get him new undergarments. The vision of Nietzsche browsing in the underwear store!
Why a ‘Peanuts’ Collection Has Stuck With Jeremy Denk, Concert Pianist
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my favoite
Nelson Freire, Piano Virtuoso of Warmth and Finesse, Dies at 77Hailing
from Brazil as one of the great pianists of the last half of the 20th
century, he recalled masters of the first half in his virtuosity. But he
shunned the limelight.
Nelson
Freire, one of the greatest pianists of his time, at Alice Tully Hall
at Lincoln Center in 2013. His playing harked back to that of the first
half of the 20th century.Credit...Ruby Washington/The New York TimesBy David Allen
Nelson
Freire, a reclusive pianist whose fabled technique and sensitive,
subtle musicianship made him a legend among pianophiles, died on Monday
at his home in Rio de Janeiro. He was 77. His
manager, Jacques Thelen, confirmed the death. He said Mr. Freire had
been suffering from trauma after a fall in 2019, which led to surgery on
his upper right arm and left him unable to play. Mr.
Freire was one of the greatest pianists of the past half century,
possessing a gift that, in its grace of touch and its ease of
virtuosity, recalled playing from the great masters of the half-century
before that. “You will be hard pressed to find a recital of comparable warmth, affection and finesse,” the critic Bryce Morrison wrote
of a Debussy album from Mr. Freire in 2009, in words that might also
have spoken for his artistry as a whole. “Here, there is no need for
spurious gestures and inflections; everything is given with a supreme
naturalness and a perfectly accommodated virtuosity that declare Freire a
master pianist throughout.” That
Mr. Freire was indeed a master pianist had never been in doubt. A child
prodigy, he gave his first performance at 4 and was attracting
attention at international competitions before his teens. His playing
had a wisdom that critics rarely failed to describe as innate. “There
was hardly a single forced or teasing effect, not a sigh of
sentimentality, not a line of hectoring rhetoric,” Richard Dyer of The
Boston Globe wrote of a recital of Franck, Ravel, Chopin, Villa-Lobos
and Liszt in 1977. Mr. Freire, the critic continued, possessed “one of
the biggest natural talents for the keyboard that I have ever heard.” Even
so, his profile remained relatively limited. Comparisons to Arthur
Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz abounded, but Mr. Freire was an
uncommonly reticent artist, giving fewer concerts than many of his
peers, recording only rarely early in his career and remaining
indifferent to publicity. “There is a big difference between music and the music business,” he was quoted as saying in a 1992 profile in
The Baltimore Sun. “It’s a completely different language, and when I
get too involved in talking it, I get a little bit sick. As for talking
about myself, it actually bores me.” For
much of his career, such reticence reduced aficionados, as The Sun put
it, to treat “pirate Freire tapes with the veneration an art historian
might accord to a recently rediscovered Rembrandt.” But that began to change in Mr. Freire’s last two decades, when a series of recordings brought him wider attention. “Whether Mr. Freire is shy or merely introspective, it is impossible to say,” Allen Hughes of The New York Times wrote
of the pianist’s New York recital debut in 1971. He noted that Mr.
Freire had “projected little of his own personality to the audience.” “He was there, he played splendidly and that was it.”
ImageMr.
Freire at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009. Critics often noted
his self-effacing quality. “He was there, he played splendidly and that
was it,” one wrote of a 1971 recital.Credit...Rachel Papo for The New York TimesNelson
José Pinto Freire was born in Boa Esperança, in southeastern Brazil, on
Oct. 18, 1944. His father was a pharmacist, and his mother was a
teacher who bought a piano for Nelson’s sister, Nelma, one of four older
siblings. Nelson began to play from memory what he had heard Nelma
practice. After 12 lessons of his own, each of which involved a
four-hour bus ride down dirt tracks, his first teacher said that he had
nothing left to teach the boy. The
family moved to Rio de Janeiro to find a new mentor; his father gave up
his career to work in a bank there. But Nelson, then 6, was an unruly
child, unwilling to be taught. With his parents about to give up, they
found Lucia Branco, who had trained under Arthur de Greef, a pupil of
Franz Liszt’s. Branco placed the boy with her student Nise Obino. “My
relationship with her was very strong,” Mr. Freire said of Ms. Obino in 1995, “the strongest in my life.” His break came in 1957,
when he entered Rio’s first international piano competition and emerged
a finalist. Brazil’s president, Juscelino Kubitschek, offered him a
scholarship to study wherever he wanted to. He chose Vienna, and moved
there at 14 to work with Bruno Seidlhofer, joining a class that included
Rudolf Buchbinder and Martha Argerich, both of whom would go on to major international careers. Ms. Argerich and Mr. Freire became frequent duo partners (and lifelong friends), both in concert and on record, her impulsive, electrifying style blending well with his tonal palette and impeccable timing. “I
didn’t do much work,” Mr. Freire nonetheless recalled of his two years
in Vienna. He initially spoke no German and remained, after all, a
teenager far from home. Little
success followed his return to Brazil, until he won first prize at the
Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in Lisbon and the Dinu
Lipatti Medal, presented in London, in 1964, accelerating his career in
Europe. Mr. Freire began recording for
Columbia in the late 1960s, taping solo works by Schumann, Brahms and
Chopin, as well as a double album of concertos by Tchaikovsky, Liszt,
Grieg and Schumann, with Rudolf Kempe conducting the Munich Philharmonic. That album, Time magazine reported in 1970, “caught the critics by surprise and sent them scurrying for superlatives.” Mr.
Freire would scarcely return to the recording studio until 2001, after
which he embarked on a golden period with Decca that produced nuanced,
masterly releases of everything from Bach to Villa-Lobos, one of several Brazilian composers whom he played with pride. Perhaps most valuable were standard-setting discs of the Chopin études, sonatas and nocturnes, as well as Brahms concertos with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. “This is the Brahms piano concerto set we’ve been waiting for,” the critic Jed Distler wrote
in Gramophone in 2006, praising it for fusing “immediacy and insight,
power and lyricism, and incandescent virtuosity that leaves few details
unturned, yet always with the big picture in clear sight.” Mr.
Freire is survived by a brother, Nirval. His parents were killed in
1967 when a bus they were using to travel to hear Mr. Freire perform in
Belo Horizonte, in their home state of Minas Gerais, plunged into a
ravine. Whatever repertoire Mr. Freire
turned to, he had a depth of tonal variety, a poetry of phrasing and a
natural, almost joyous refinement. In “Nelson Freire,” a 2003 documentary film, he is shown watching a video of a joyous Errol Garner playing jazz piano. “I’ve never seen anyone play with such pleasure,” he said. “That’s
how I found the piano,” Mr. Freire continued. “The piano was the
moment, when I was little, when I felt pleasure. I’m not happy after a
concert if I haven’t felt that kind of pleasure for at least a moment.
Classical pianists used to have this joy. Rubinstein had it. Horowitz
had it, too. Guiomar Novaes had it, and Martha Argerich has it.” What about you, the interviewer asked? Mr. Freire lit a cigarette, looked up shyly, and smiled.
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