Some people are saying this and that pianist produced the best tone, I have been to many many live concerts and believe me live is the only way you can judge a pianist. The pianist who is number one for me was Claudio Arrau whose tone could be a soft whisper or an earth shattering roar but never once with a rough tone. He was like the old pianists like Rachmaninov or Hoffman who were quiet at the piano not for them the histrionics of hand waving and tragic faces , even Horowitz hardly betrayed his playing and not portraying todays penchant for playing with evermore hand and arm waving. I now hate watching the Leeds or other pianoforte competitions as each successive pianist is more flamboyant than the last. I managed in the late sixties to get down to London to hear Arrau play the last three piano sonatas by Beethoven. I have not to this day heard piano tone like it with a total economy at the keyboard producing such a regal tone that I was enchanted. When he got to the last sonata in C Minor he got to the bit where it is nothing but trills and I have to say that being a big gruff Scotsman I surprised myself to find floods of tears flowing down my cheeks and of people around me also. I never will forget that concert and that tone and it was in my head for weeks after . I find that most of Arrau’s records are just a poor imitation of the great man, and after all this is the man that Rachmaninov and Horowitz used to go backstage and congratulate him on his interpretations and tone. Horowitz also whispered to him once that he Horowitz was glad he didn’t play any Beethoven.
Classical Music for Aficionados
I will list some of my favorite recordings, CDs as well as LP’s. While good sound is not a prime requisite, it will be a consideration.
Classical music lovers please feel free to add to my lists.
Discussion of musical and recording issues will be welcome.
I’ll start with a list of CDs. Records to follow in a later post.
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.
Mahler: Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Vanguard Classics — Vienna Festival Orch. Prohaska, conductor.
Prokofiev: Scythian Suite et. al. DG — Chicago Symphony Abbado, conductor.
Brahms: Symphony #1. Chesky — London Symph. Orch. Horenstein, conductor.
Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat. HDTT — Ars Nova. Mandell, conductor.
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances. Analogue Productions. — Dallas Symph Orch. Johanos, cond.
Respighi: Roman Festivals et. al. Chesky — Royal Phil. Orch. Freccia, conductor.
All of the above happen to be great sounding recordings, but, as I said, sonics is not a prerequisite.
@jim5559 My dear friend I agree with you one hundred percent, his Schubert is as if God himself is at his back and willing him on to give nothing other than life itself on a palette of 88 keys, such was his genius. |
Jim204 , I Was going to say that Lupu was THE Schubert pianist . But every one knows I am a Schubert freak and perhaps It would not go over well at his death . BUT our Scottish Icon of all things pianist did it for me. I have every Lupu of Schubert that is (I think) and IMO no reason to play anything else ! |
This version rival any other great one i know of indeed...It is very delicate and poetical interpretation...the drama is interiorized... Save for only one version nobody exceed anyway and which is in a class of his own but a version "sound purist" dont always love because too volcanic and too powerful playing by "Liszt reincarnated" for Hungarian People...
Angelich is with Lupu a giant for me... This piece is the key to Liszt soul...Many versions are welcome...
And Liszt is one the greatest underestimated composers there is because of his Christus among other works, which is the only oratorio with the Messiah for me rivaling Bach Passion... Liszt deeply influenced Bruckner with Shubert through this oratorio who rival even the Greatest Mass of Bruckner himself... So astounding that the first time i listened to it i was out of my chair and never understood at the first listening the majestic simplicity of Liszt devotion and his mastering of symphonic orchestration chorus and soloists so great and purified and refined to a a truly celestial perfection that nobody ever exceed it for me among any composers.. He unite the most moving simplicity with the peak of glory which is an impossible task and union save in Paradise... I think Liszt conversion was really a spiritual one... .. i owned four version of this three hours work... 😁😊 It is the life of Christ told by angels in heaven after the resurrection for me ...Not a Passion at all... It is like the Art of the Fugue by Bach, the only work i know at the same heights of perfection on all counts form and content which put almost any other works under them save few truly inspired spiritual works... I am ashamed to say i discovered Listz only late in life...Too great for my small mind and heart it seems, i was not ready ...I dont joke here...This work humble us... It is useless to put a link to this 3 hours work and feel the right impression without immersing ourself in it...You cannot judge the Himalaya from below... The only work for me that rival Liszt Christus is not his marvellous choral works so great they are indeed, but his 5 th symphony...Incredible work underestimated to this day, because the beauty of his other symphonies are easier to catch at first listening... But no one ever write a symphony so perfect in content and form with a so intense spiritual experience hidden in it i put it beside the cHristus and the Art of the fugue... The Bruckner 9 th symphony for example so deep, beautiful it is and it is rival almost any symphonic piece ever written, lack the purified, refined spiritual perspective over the cosmos itself and over all life there is in the 5th... A great critic in the 10 century say it all : "this is to the symphony art what the art of the fugue is to the klavier "...
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Appear very interesting to me...To say the least...it is very delicate and clear voicing... My favorite version is Feltsman in Moscow...This one is so different that it will be complementary...Feltsman was propulsed like a meteoritic surge in some sky, Angelich is inward in his own explicit way ...I cannot put words for now...it is a discovery for me... it seems we just lost two giant pianists...
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...at great risk of preaching up the choir, here are some choice TIDAL categories. I suspect similar availability on Qobuz and other services: Deutsche Grammophon 120 ECM (label) Classical Living Stereo Top 50 Decca Sound Label Focus: Mercury - TIDAL Masters Jazz Rudy Van Gelder Edition Misc Computer Audiophile 100 More Peace Pin (laser ruler for sound room!) |
I have just been talking about Lupu playing Schubert and I am listening to another superlative player of the bard of the piano. Grigory Sokolov playing at the Esterhazy Palace and Schubert of such purity and crystalline beauty. He is another one who doesn't like the recording studio and prefers to have his recitals recorded instead. I remember it must have been 30 years ago a recital Sokolov did in Queen's Hall Edinburgh and he was just about ready to come on and the house lights went off and the piano was lit by one solitary spot. one person took exception to this and started mouthing off about it for quite a while when I suddenly jumped to my feet and shouted back to him "you wouldn't be shouting if it was Richter". He sat down meekly and didn't say another word and we enjoyed the recital after that. Sokolov may be a controversial pianist but there is no argument that he is one of the greats. |
I had one Lupu lp that I loved, all Brahms, the Second Rhapsody and some of the late Piano works. I saw him in recital 20 years ago. He seemed uncomfortable in the large Orchestra Hall venue, maybe just a bad afternoon. I purchased a box labeled “The Complete Decca Recordings “ and it’s only around 12 discs, a relatively small recorded legacy, and not much for the last 3 decades or so. R.I.P. |
Ah! This remind me i am almost 71 years old and this remind me that he is a giant for sure... Sad... I will listen to him tonight with a prayer ... It does not take more than few seconds to discover an interpretion by him which is supremum... He walked on embers with an internal pulse that is never outside of the music, the music played him more than he play it...
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Lately I’ve been cruising Idagio and have just randomly pressed the play button for composer Paul Wranitzky, a contemporary of both Beethoven and Mozart. His Symphony Opus 31, "La Paix", is currently streaming my way. It’s bright, happy, tuneful, and beautifully recorded, I don’t know about you guys, but streaming has gained me entrance into Aladdin’s cave. See you on the flip side, if streams do indeed have flip sides. |
My favorite piano concerto is his second... 😁😊 And his requiem is so great ... His vocal compostion mastery is equal to Schubert... I cannot contradict you about Brahms.. When i listen to him he appear like you say no doubt...
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Celibidache always made me see things with his tempos of his mighty Munich men, .This great Brahm’s made me jump out of my chair , as good as any music I ever heard ! All the greatness that Brahms alone used was there in all his glory .
The use of Harmony devlop, minor 3rd.7minor balance, dotted semi-quarter16, the melodic 3 note idea.And on and on to heaven . |
But because this universal internal beat and rythm precede TIME itself it can accomadate many manifestation at the same time... Compare the adagio version from Furtwangler to the Celibidache version...The Bohm version and the Giulini version also...Karajan,Wand and some others... it is impossible to choose really...There is many different roads that come from the same peak and go back to it....
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i cannot resist to post that...
«Furtwängler has always been Bruckner’s great protagonist. In 1942, the Telefunken firm persuaded Furtwängler to experiment with improvements in recording technique. Having consented, he opted for the famous Adagio from the 7th symphony, and later for Gluck’s Alceste Overture, in order to verify, as he said himself, whether the microphones were capable of restoring the breadth of his orchestra, and particularly the famous double basses of Berlin. The results were amazing. This interpretation of Bruckner by Furtwängler is the slowest and yet the most sustained with its striking tension. Once again the tragic element and the grandeur of the speech are unmatched. It is indeed a recording for a desert island, happily restored to the delight of music lovers everywhere, to be kept and cherished for a lifetime. Ironically, its tragic grandeur did not deter the Nazis from playing this recording on Radio Berlin to announce Hitler’s death, long after Furtwängler had fled Germany. Suffice it to say simply that no man, however great, or a fortiori vile, is worthy of the dimensions of this work.»
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