Classical Music for Aficionados

Between live performance concert in big hall and listening recorded concert there is a difference always a changing one with no absolute superiority of one over the other in all case, for me...

It is true that a lived performance will always own a potential superiority for sure in principle because the musician spirit and body is in the room... A very small room concert is then the ONLY ideal way...Or playing ourself with this musician for sure.... 😊

But for a big hall concert it depend on many factors at play, location of the listener, crowds noise, acoustic properties of the room...

Glenn Gould prefered studio recording... I dont say he was right , i say he was not wrong either...

But for sure we can judge to a relative high degree a great pianist playing even from a bad recording...

We cannot assess the level of an artist only if we were "there" so to speak...

Our taste each one of us differ so much that for example i put here few months ago one of the greateast pianist perhaps i ever listened to and some criticized my choice saying they even cannot pick a reason why i admire him... 😊

Another example: i own albums of a tanbur Iranian musician, very badly recorded , which are among the most powerful musical performance i ever listened to, Yehudi Menuhin wrote and tought the same about him and to be frank i listen to this musician after reading Menuhin impressions... But for most people it will be only an horrendous recording and a not tamed music at all (persian origin) ... I know i test it with many music lovers, and they cannot understand why i loved it so much...

Any music must be learned so to speak and must be approached like we tame a wild unknown beast....

And at the end music is not only sound and is not even any more related to the musician body and spirit , it is a personal spiritual event that transcend even the musician personality and precise moment of the event...

Then there is one mountain peak yes, but many roads to musical illumination like in religious matter i think.... 😁😊😊😊😊😊😊

By the way, what i appeciate the more here, is the diversities of experiences and opinions, this is these diversities which is the door to new discoveries for me...

Like said frogman one day here, to tamper my always  too great enthusiasm 😁 , there is no objective  best of the best...

I will not dare to contradict him, because he is right for sure, especially  if we take into account all opinions in the world...But for me there is, like for each one of you, the best of the best... It is normal and a testimony to our own different spirit journey...

Some  musical event is like a first love, we cannot renounce it for the rest of our life...

I wish that I had gotten to hear Arrau live.

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.

@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 "...

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...

It never listened to him...

It seems pretty great pianist too...

RIP.

...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.

Heard Lupu in Edinburgh many years ago, playing of infinite beauty and virtuosity beyond reproach but only for the music not the crowd. We are fortunate he left us a large recorded legacy. Never be another Schubert player like him.

Radu Lupu was a Giant , no one was like him .

This Requiem is for us, he needs none. .

He was a deeply kindly .modest ,and a wonderful friend.

Jenny Vongel . his manager said he died peacefully at his home in Switzerland on Suday eve, April 17 . No better than that .

His Chopin here is one of the best possible playing...

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...

Radu Lupu dead at 76

“Why should I make a big show of the whole thing?”

I cannot stop before letting you know this one of Pavel... Seems marvellous after 2 minutes...

I will stop here but it seems Antonin or Anton his brother is not far behind him...

The world contains more geniuses than we can count with a big crowd hands ...

They are not well known if known at all simply...

This Pavel so marvellous had a Brother Antonin...

Is his brother a genius too?

to be continued...............    😁😊

Pay attention:

There is 96 parts of this composer works  in this youtube list...

This is the first part...

I lack adjectives to describe my surprize...

many hours of listenings of very high caliber...

There is no end to his genius!

listen to this cello...

Excellent composer, preferred by Haydn and Beethoven for conducting his works. (Wikipedia)

viva Moravia!

This one is longer than this one part...Clik to the youtube link for other parts...

opus 52 is more mature creation and seems a marvel of orchestration and melody...

stupendous exploration...This one rival many opus of Haydn after few minutes...

I dont think that he is way behind Hadyn genius...

Flabbergasted by these gems...

All interpretations are at a high level...

Listen to that it takes few minutes to be under the spell:

Incredible!  All is beautifully written...

Seems more and more like a genius...

The one our friend edcyn was speaking about 

We must pay attention to the different spelling of the name......

A great composer for me...

It is not what means a minor composer for me....

This is opus 11...

Wow! i dont know for the opus 31 but opus 52 is a marvel...

 Thanks indeed....

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.

I have all Richter  too and like jim559 i am more a worshipper of Bach than a fan ...

Happy easter to all....

Yes , I have them all .

More a worshiper than a fan ,esp. on Easter .

Listening to BWW 82, 'Ich habe genug" as I write this !

Happy Easter to all .

R u a fan of Johann Sébastian Bach? U r now.

Karl Richter Complete recordings on Archiv including 24/192 recordings of Cantatas, Passions and Mass in B minor. Better than SACD.

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...

If they had the Top Ten composers of yore , Brahms would be in my top 5 .

If they still had the Top Ten composers of yore , Brahms would be in my top 5 .

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 .

Thanks! great choice...

There is a mystery Celibidache...

I will listen it...