Classical Music for Aficionados
@jcazador Hi Jeremy that was a very informative piece that you wrote about Godowsky . Have you got Constantin Scherbakov playing Godowsky's Baroque transcriptions on the Marco Polo label I love it, notably the Musette and Rondeau in E Major I find it hypnotic and I usually play it at least three times in a row when I am in the mood. |
The famous (notorious) Etudes
Godowsky's most famous work in this genre is the 53 Studies on Chopin's Études (1894–1914), in which he varies the (already challenging) original études using various methods: introducing countermelodies,
transferring the technically difficult passages from the right hand to
the left, transcribing an entire piece for left hand solo, or even
interweaving two études, with the left hand playing one and the right
hand the other. The pieces are among the most difficult piano works ever written, and only a few pianists have ventured to perform any of them. Among such pianists are Marc-André Hamelin, who recorded the entire set and garnered a number of prestigious awards. Other pianists who frequently perform Godowsky are Boris Berezovsky and Konstantin Scherbakov. |
Leopold Godowsky
It is during these early years of the 1930s that Bolet had some sessions with the legendary pianist Leopold Godowsky, going up to New York City for lessons. JB’s teacher at Curtis, David Saperton was Godowsky’s son-in-law and had arranged the connection. (Godowsky resided in the luxurious Ansonia Hotel on the Upper West Side, at 2109 Broadway, between West 73rd and 74th Streets, but moved into an apartment with his daughter Dagmar on Riverside Drive overlooking the Hudson River after his wife Frieda’s death in December 1933.) Bolet would practise some of Godowsky’s fiendishly difficult music (few other of his contemporaries were up to the task) and then play it to the composer.
‘Jorge’s scores of these pieces bore Godowsky’s markings in red crayon—the daunting “Passacaglia,” based on themes from Schubert’s “Unfinished” symphony; the “Fledermaus” and “Kunstlerleben” symphonic metamorphoses; the “Java Suite”; the Sonata in E minor; pieces from the “Triakontameron.” ’ [Albert McGrigor]
Bolet listed these lessons for 1932-3 in a submission to Grove's Dictionary; but they do not seem to have been systematic lessons. Gregor Benko has said, 'I remember a party at Sidney Foster’s house when he, Bolet and Abbey Simon reminisced about Leopold Godowsky, who apparently used sarcasm and insults with students..., and it left an indelible impression on these great artists, who had all played for him and suffered abuse.' Godowsky's biographer, Jeremy Nicholas, states: ‘Occasionally, Saperton and Bolet would go to New York and visit Godowsky, and Bolet would play Godowsky to Godowsky, as it were, and get advice from him. He said that in that sense, yes, he had studied with Godowsky. Of course he also, in the same way, had advice from (and played for) Hofmann as he was head of piano at Curtis. But his main teacher was Saperton, though Bolet told me the greatest purely musical influence was the French musician Marcel Tabuteau, first oboe with the Philadelphia Orchestra – the greatest musical mind I have ever known.’ Who was Godowsky?more here, including pictures https://jorge-bolet.webs.com/1930s |
@rvpiano I have just read your discourse on Bolet and I also love that you enjoyed the Carnegie Hall performance. When you consider who his teachers were it's a who's who of giants from the late 19th century. We have Moritz Rosentahl probably the best of List's students because he didn't die young and he didn't forget the piano to write operas. His other teachers were no less exaulted was Josef Hoffman who's teacher was the great Anton Rubinstein , also Leopold Godowsky who tutored Bolet on Godowsky's finger twisting creations . Unfortunately Bolet did not get on well with the big recording companies because none of them at the time wanted the Liszt Piano Sonata and his Transcedental Etudes so he did not get any big recording contracts until that stupendous Carnegie Hall recital. Thankfully Decca grabbed him up and they gave him a blank canvas to record what he felt like so we got a lot of Liszt and other virtuoso fare. He was actually primed to do some of Godowsky's Studies on the Chopin Etudes and I was there in Glasgow one day when he was giving a lecture on Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto and he had three students who were also taking a masterclass and being recorded by the BBC. When he was finished giving the masterclass both audience and orchestra gave him a standing ovation and quite buoyed by it he came back on and gave us an encore and it was one of the Godowsky Chopin etudes and it was two separate etudes at the one time and I still don't know how he did it. I was trying how to work out how it was possible because there skips and playing through the hands I just could not believe it and when he finished he gave a delighted bow and that was the last time I saw him. Yes Mr Bolet was a very special link to another age. |
Stephen Hough, first Liszt recital (not the Italian one), starts with Mephisto Waltz and continues with Tarantella. One wonders how anyone can move their fingers this fast, and yet also in a clean, precise, controlled and highly expressive fashion. If this is how Liszt himself played, no wonder he left his audiences slack-jawed. |
schubert One of the greatest horn players of our time has passed at age 88 .I am so sorry to hear this. Barry Tuckwell was a fantastic horn player, and one of my two favorites! |
One of the greatest horn players of our time has passed at age 88 . https://youtu.be/A0zCDa_T1g4?list=RDEMAqymqupoiSMGKg3TJGFgTg https://youtu.be/QWZaHMTwlbI?t=5 |
Valentin Silvestrov I first heard his composition on a Jenny Lin recording ("Nostalgia") where she plays "The Messenger". I liked it so much that I downloaded some more, includingВалентин Сильвестров - Диалоги и посвящения, which is translated "Dialogues and Initiations". And another "Valentin Silvestrov - Hieroglyphen der Nacht - Anja Lechner, Agnès Vesterman (2017) [96-24]" Silvestrov is Ukrainian, still alive, has composed in many styles and for many orchestrations, from symphony to solo piano. I appreciate most his post Soviet compositions for piano, when he no longer had to worry about what the government thought of him. |
@jim204 No, I'm afraid not, no Piemontesi, and looking on Amazon the 2 CDs seem to command pretty high prices on the used market. So far listened to Sudbin, Batsashvili (excellent), Hamelin, Browning (lyrical), Osborne, Kun Woo Paik, Howard, Hough (Italian, very nice), Volodos (excellent), and now Barenboim (again a lyrical recital, with the 6 Consolations, 3 Liebestraume/Notturni, 3 Petrarch Sonnets). In the queue are Bolet, more Hough, more Howard, Ovchinikov, Tozer, and more Bolet. By then I think I'll be thoroughly Liszted. |
I listen now Bach organ opus.... I own already the excellent Hurford interpretation...But the most extraordinary one for me, outpassing any I know of and probably even those I dont know yet :) , is the out of this world hypnotic rendition by the blind master Walcha...Incredibly moving and a portal to the astral world...The density of his playing is balanced by a perfect rhythmic-pulsating integration of all parts that sound like all melodies are fluid letters of a superior hologram.... If miracles exist this is one... Other organists plays well, sound in some case may be better (the Walcha sound is good tough) but Walcha plays Bach like Bach wanted to plays himself for himself, it is no more organ, it is pure music....I dont like organ music particularly and generally, I now know why, after that all is trials and errors... :) The beauty exhaled most of the times is so powerfully radiant that heaven is on earth and the Bach music is this sensible proof played by Bach or Walcha...No more needs of the distribution of primes to remind me of the universal spirit encompassing all... That says something, if you are not deaf indeed, and even if you are, listen, and wait for the miracle, it will happen .... I apologize for my rant, but it is difficult to be mere" rational" in the ecstasy of reason.... My best... last remark: the marvellous choices of his organs does not explain or replace the perfection of his rendition and of his playing...The sound of these organs indeed only participate in the miracles for sure...In a word these instruments sounded like metal in fusion stasis, more liquid than crystallised, like most other organs... |
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@twoleftears Have you got Francesco Piemontesi playing the Liszt Years of Pilgrimage First year Switzerland and Second Year Italy. I love them as he has a beautiful touch at the keyboard and the recitals are beautifully recorded. A couple of years ago I attended a recital in my local town hall and he played Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto , one of the best concerto recitals I have been to. |
Inspired by Batsashvili I embarked on a fairly long play-through of all my Liszt piano recital disks. Over half way, and so far the most lyrical and likeable has been I think John Browning in the Petrarch sonnets. Volodos's recital has amazing piano sound, full, rich, very present; his playing is, when required, quite, err, forceful, and of course there's incredible dexterity. |
I have seen significant young classical fans in an audience in only two places , Tokyo and Budapest . In Hungary were at least half the audience . We have two world-class symphonies here in Twin Cities , average age at concerts is well over 70 .Seats are full but that is drawing from a population of 4 million . |
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Glad Ragland that you enjoyed the Concert, RVW. I share your lack of enthusiasm for the Liszt Concerto but fail to have more than a middling interest in the Rachmaninoff Second Symphony. Nice clarinet solo in the slow movement, rocket theme in the start of the scherzo, otherwise not my cup of borscht. Ymmv |
I attended a very interesting concert last night in a local venue with a not very sophisticated audience. Royal Philharmonic, Wigglesworth conducting. Soloist was Khatia Buniatishvili, one of my favorite pianists playing Liszt’s 2nd Piano Concerto, my least favorite concerto in the literature. {That’s the nicest thing I can say about it.) She was brilliant, as was expected. Audience barely applauded enough for her to squeeze out one encore (a ravishingly played Schubert impromptu.) Second half of the program was Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Symphony, in my opinion (possibly aside from Mahler’s,) undoubtably the greatest 20th Century symphony. Performance of the great work was so-so, but to my great surprise, the audience who inappropriately clapped after each movement, was wild with enthusiasm at the end, eliciting several returns to the stage by the conductor.The spontaneous reaction of this audience to Rachmaninoff brought tears to my eyes. |
I'm chiming in with a few of my favourite recordings: Mahler Orchesterlieder, Montreal/Nagano/Gerhaher Mahler 5, Berlin/Rattle Mahler 9, Berlin/Abbado Shostakovich 5, Berlin/Bychkov Beethoven Piano Trios--du Pré/Barenboim/Zukerman Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin, Wunderlich/Giesen It's too late for me to go vinyl. I have these and many others on CD. I get them used for 2-6$ a pop at a wonderful place in Montreal. |
She is usually stuck in as a jazz player . IMO she is beyond genre and is just a very creative musician of the highest order. She writes much of her stuff and doesn’t have a phony bone in her body . Check her on this ! https://youtu.be/rCp3qGzkxig?t=3 |
