Yes, I have that Pletnev recording made on Rachmaninoff's Steinway. In addition to Rachmaninoff, it also includes Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Chopin. Matsuev played this piano in 2013, says it was a gift from Steinway in 1929. http://matsuev.com/en/press-tsentr/news/662Wikipedia says it is a Hamburg D.
"Sergei Rachmaninoff
bought three 'D's, all New York products, for his homes in the United
States, but he installed a Hamburg 'D' in his Swiss villa." Steinway tells of the Horowitz-Rachmaninoff friendship:
Then the two decided that if Horowitz was going to perform
Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, perhaps the composer should give
him some pointers. Off they went to Steinway Hall. Rachmaninoff played
the orchestra part on one Steinway piano, while Horowitz played the solo part on another.
Rachmaninoff was genuinely impressed. “He swallowed it whole,” stated
the composer. “He had the courage, the intensity, and daring that make
for greatness.” http://www.steinway-piano.com/steinway-news/a-meeting-of-titans-the-day-vladimir-horowitz-and-sergei... |
jim, five minutes after I made the last post
I bopped into my car, turned on the radio just as the presenter introduced , Sir Schiff playing "Blumenstuck" . Maybe God likes me too..
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How does a human create something like that ?
They give their heart, soul , body and mind to God .There is no other explanation .
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Pletnev is another great pianist. One of my favorites.
Also a conductor. |
RV I am so glad you are enjoying Gilbert playing the Goldbergs, I love his playing and the harpsicord is so well recorded also. Another thing he plays beautifully is Gaspard LeRoux's Suite in F Major.
Len - I do love Schumann also, my favourite of his is Etudes Symphoniques , a wonderful work and my favourite recording is Mikhail Pletnev playing Rachmaninovs own piano in a studio in Rachmaninovs villa on Lake Geneva. The recording is beautifully recorded and it reflects what Rachmaninov played on it himself and Pletnev is inspired. Oh and Masur is a wonderful conductor and none other that Arrau loved doing concerts with him.
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rvpiano One wonders. Did music really progress after this? Have you heard Chuck Berry?
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One wonders. Did music really progress after this? |
I jumped the gun, and listened to Gilbert’s “Goldberg” on IDAGIO rather than waiting for the CD to arrive.
First of all, he captures the overwhelming genius of the work.
How does a human create something like that?
The playing itself is gorgeous, as is the sound of the instrument.
Thank you both for your recommendation.
I am indebted to you. |
One thing I do NOT like , is artists saying well if Bach or LvB etc had this or that he would have wrote for this or that . I just want what they did write, but I understand why others think otherwise .
One thing I do like is every note that Schumann ever wrote.About a year ago I bought a 2 CD set of all his Symphony’s on a Warner that started life as a TELDEC in 1990 with Kurt Masur and the London SO.
I saw Masur live many times , his wheelhouse was the early romantics
and he ruled there . These 2 CD’s are still on Amazon when I looked last night at the same price I paid , 5 bucks .
His clarity and tempo and just plain what he knew of Schumann is ahead of Karajan,Bernstein etc . In particular the 2nd . In any event you can’t have too much Schumann !
Only better I have heard is Gardiner with period instruments on DG .If you want modern instruments Masur is as good as any and better than most .Though I haven’t heard any critics say it .
He is also very good with Brahms among others.
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RV I really do hope you enjoy Gilbert and on the E Mail side I am getting notifications fine.
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I’m not getting email notifications of this thread’s posts anymore.
Anyone else having that problem? |
Schubert and Jim,
I trust both your recommendations implicitly!
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I have Kenneth Gilbert's recordings of Rameau, very nice.
And I used to have Wanda Landowska's 1933 recording of the Goldbergs.
But these days I prefer piano to harpsichord.
Perhaps if it were LIVE I would appreciate harpsichord more.
The dean of U of Oregon Music School played a clavichord, and I liked that, especially fine when accompanied by recorder or guitar.
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Gosh RV you have now put me on the spot so I hope I don't disappoint you.
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As an amature ( very ) score reader Gilbert stays right on what Bach wrote .
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I’ve ordered the Gilbert recording on your recommendation.
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Oh and I forgot to mention Koroliov.
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Hi Jeremy , Yes the interpreters for the Goldbergs is many and Varied. I tend to listen mostly to Dershavina, Levit, Perahia, Rana and Gould's 1981 version. My harpsicord version is Kenneth Gilbert. |
I too find the Gardiner book on JSB a difficult read. I have put it down for now, but will get back to it in due time. In the meantime, I'll listen to his fantastic recordings. |
I share your love for the Goldberg Variations. There are so many recordings, the one I listen to most is Gavrilov. I used to listen to a lot of Bach choral music, but these days one piano is enough.
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+ 1 for BIS , best Classical sound .
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@Phomchick That is a superb recording and may I make a few suggestions, go for anything on the BIs Label these are seriously good recordings and I especially like Yevgeny Sudbin these days. To ease you in I would Suggest his Scarlatti Sonatas they are staggeringly good from a technical point of view in fact I don't think I have heard them bettered. After the Scarlatti I would then recommend his duo of Mozart and Beethoven's C Minor Piano Concertos they are outstanding and then to top it all go for his Rachmaninov Piano Concertos they are definitely hard to beat.
Len, The reason I can't travel is the doc won't let me so I just sit and moan when my wife and daughter go on holiday together.If you believe that you'll believe anything, no I revel in having the house to myself for a time. I can then sit and listen to my headphones to any time in the AM that I choose. I even sometimes sit and listen to Jacobite war songs with the help of Some Cardhu Golden nectar. Happy Days.
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Well, seems great minds do think together(cough, cough) .My fave keyboard pieces of the Great One are the Well Tempered , French Suites and Goldberg’s .
May I ask why you can’t go to Berlin ? There are flights from Glasgow every day, 1 stop wonders on KLM are the best . Berlin is the cheapest major city in western Europe , 2nd biggest city after London and half the price . Metro is outstanding and you can find many hotels within a hundred meters from a station .I usually get one near the the main train station (Hauptbanhof) were one can also go any where on the continent including the bullet train to London on the most reliable national railway this side of Japan .
Of course if health is a problem things are what they are . I lost a few grand
in last 5 years because of not being up to it on the day.
To me the most difficult part of being old is one day you feel find and the next you think you won’t last the day.
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Len , Oh how I wish I could travel because Leipzig and Berlin would be top of my list of places to visit. Did you know that the people who were at one time garnering information on Liszt could never ever find the grave of Liszt's son Daniel until low and behold when they were knocking down the Berlin wall that they found Daniel's grave under the wall. Apparently the wall had gone right through the middle of the churchyard. Bloody Russians have no shame. I would love though to go to the Berlin Philharmonie Hall and listen to a full concert, I think then I would be a very happy man indeed. Funnily enough Len my day always starts with some Bach, I am at the moment listening to his keyboard partitas at the moment with Schiff and next week it will be the violin Partitas and Sonatas with one at the start of each morning. I am not ashamed to say that my favourite keyboard piece is the Goldberg Variations , required listening for cleansing the soul. Len I hope you have a wonderful time.
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Thanks, jim, for last 5 years my routine has been to listen to a cantata drinking my coffee right after breakfast , I think it is a factor in me still being alive .I plan, God willing , to spend a few weeks in October in my beloved Berlin for the last time . I will get a room near the main train station and spend a few days in Leipzig, two hours from Berlin, where I hope to just sit and meditate in Bach’s St. Thomas Church .
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Len after your eloquent speech on
my hero J S Bach all I can say is "Amen".
I too have the Gardiner book and although not always an easy read it is always an uplifting one. Bach is in good hands.
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Fantastic writing but from wrong guy .He has no idea, none, how deeply Bach was committed to God .
His Lutheran religion does not want you to be pious or submissive but to be humble .
Humility is having an accurate assessment of both the best of you and the worst of you, which Bach did . He knew what he was worth and asked for it.To an Orthodox Lutheran , which he was, that is standing in front of God
and accepting his Grace as his child , not his slave .
There were pious elements in the Leipzig city government that wanted him to write their way, he never did but came out against them clearly in the
cantata’s and passions . Back would no more revolt against God than, well you name it .
On every piece he wrote were the words "Ruhm gottgegeben" ."The Glory is to God"You can not understand Bach without understanding his religion .Said , clearly does not , indeed from his writing I doubt if he has any himself.
The best book about Bach, by far, I have ever read is John Eliot Gardiner’s "Music In The Castle of Heaven ". Gardiner is one of the greatest musicians alive and a fine writer of this great book. Not an easy read but an uplifting one.
Gardiner ends the book ,pg 558 so:.
" Beethoven tells us what a terrible struggle it is to transcend human frailties.......Mozart shows us the kind of music we might hope to hear in heaven. But it is Bach, making music in the Castle of Heaven who gives us the the voice of God-in human form.He is the one who blazes a trail, showing us how to overcome our imperfections through the perfections of his music , to make divine things human and human things divine ".
To which I say , Amen and Amen .
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More Edward Said this article contains the description of Saint Saens playing Siegfried at Wagner's home
Cosmic Ambition Edward Said October 20, 2011 Edward Said
https://outline.com/fxpNNr
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Wagner, Barenboim, Said, Israel quote from Said article
In any event, Wagner’s works in Israel have
by common consent been left unperformed, until 7 July, 2001. Barenboim
is head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Berlin State
Opera, whose orchestra he was leading on tour in Israel for the three
consecutive concerts presented in Jerusalem. He had originally scheduled
a performance of Act One of Wagner’s opera Die Walkure for the 7 July
concert, but had been asked to change it by the director of the Israel
Festival, which had invited the German orchestra and Barenboim in the
first place. Barenboim substituted a programme of Schumann and
Stravinsky, and then, after playing those, turned to the audience and
proposed a short extract from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde as an encore.
He opened the floor to a discussion, which ensued with people for and
against. In the end, Barenboim said he would play the piece but
suggested that those who were offended could leave, which some in fact
did. By and large though, the Wagner was well received by a rapturous
audience of about 2800 Israelis and, I am sure, extremely well
performed.
Still, the attacks on Barenboim have not
stopped. It was reported in the press on 25 July that the Knesset
committee on culture and education “urged Israel’s cultural bodies to
boycott the conductor… for performing music by Hitler’s favourite
composer at Israel’s premier cultural event until he apologises.” The
attacks on Barenboim by the minister of culture and other luminaries
have been venomous, even though despite his birth and early childhood in
Argentina, he himself has always thought of himself as an Israeli. He
grew up there, he went to Hebrew schools, he carries an Israeli passport
along with his Argentinian one. Besides, he has always been thought of
as a major cultural asset to Israel, having been a central figure in the
country’s musical life for years and years, despite the fact that,
since he was in his teens, he has lived in Europe and the United States
most of the time, not in Israel. read whole article here https://www.mediamonitors.net/barenboim-and-the-wagner-taboo/ |
You may not have a university degree jim , but I GUARANTEE you both know more that 90% of them that do and that you are a born scholar .
I tip my McDonald of the Isles glengarry to a braw man.
Lang may yer lum reek !
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Len you are spot on about Cosima she was a nasty piece of work, she even left her father on his death bed to go to her beloved Beyreuth and lord it over another of her beloved Richard's diatribes. She even stopped any of his pupils from coming in to tend to him and make his passing a little easier. No out of the three children he had she was definitely the worst and sad thing is she outlived Wagner by nearly forty years.
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Jeremy, I see where you are coming from here and I know tales can get messed up in the telling. My source is Prof. Alan Walker the official biographer of Liszt who has written three huge volumes on Liszt and his circle .It is probably in volume 2 or 3 and they are huge and I have read them twice and also use them for reference. He writes about all the young pianists and profesional people who came to visit him.
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Cosima was the illegitimate daughter of Lizst and the wife of Bulow before Wagner .Hard to believe but she was even more anti-semetic than Wagner himself and much of the utter vile in Wagners endless anti Jewish articles came from her.She was an early supporter of Hitler and was thrilled to welcome the great man to Beyreuth on his many trips .As I am sure Wagner would have .
Not a few German Historians draw a straight line from the Wagner's to Adolf .
.
bey
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Jim Yes I have read your story about Saint Saens and Wagner. Edward Said wrote a slightly different version of this story. Said says Saint Saens was visiting Wagner at Beyreuth, and that Liszt was also there. (Wagner's wife Cosima was Liszt's daughter.) Wagner and Liszt were chatting, Saint Saens sat down at the keyboard where Wagner had left his unfinished score of Siegfried. And S.S. played a perfect rendition of the score, sight reading it and transposing the orchestral score to piano. Edw. Said (in case you don't know) was professor at Columbia, most famous for "Orientalism", and before that for revising literary criticism. He was also a classical pianist, and wrote reviews for NYT and other publications. Said and Barenboim founded the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, bringing together young Israeli and Arab musicians. https://books.google.com/books?id=IVp4jNhkffIC&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=Saint-Sa%C3%ABns+vi... |
Len Going back and reading previous posts I had a good laugh about Saint-Saens maybe writing the Liszt Sonata , that was a scream. Did you know that the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony was dedicated as follows" To the memory of a great man Franz Liszt ". When asked who he thought was the greatest sight reader he had ever came across Liszt thought for a moment and said " well if you discount me it would have to be Hans von Bulow and then Camile Saint-Saens ". Very humble man wasn't he ?Another thing about Saint Saens was he was in company with von Bulow and Wagner and he had gotten tired of the other two speaking in German all night so he went over to the piano and looked at what was sitting on it. He opened a score and it happened to be Wagner's latest opera possibly Parsifal and he started playing it through from full score and at this time no one had heard Wagners latest work. The room went quiet and Saint-Saens carried on playing and at the end of the first act there was a howl of surprise and Liszt who had heard it from the adjoining room thought it was Bulow who was every bit as precocious and Liszt was flabbergasted to see it was Saint-Saens. Liszt worked tirelessly for young pianists and composers.
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Thats just UK, Russia helps us !
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Yes Len we are now ruled by two buffoons , heaven help us.
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Cheer up jim, all is well . The UK now has a savior just like us,blond wig, affairs and all .!MUKGA !!
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I am not into "crash and bang", and I include some of Liszt in that category.
My favorite Liszt recordings are
Nelson Freire, Liszt: Harmonies Du Soir
Barenboim, Nocturni - Consolations - Sonetti del Petrarca
Annees, played by Arrau, Cicollini, Lazar Berman, Brendel, and too many others to recall
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Which brings us neatly back to De gustibus…….
Ireland's piano concerto. These Chandos recordings from the 1980s are really excellent. Often I feel I prefer them to more recent efforts. The layering of the soundstage and non-spotlighting of the piano are to be commended.
Do anybody listen to this swathe of "other" British composers who were near contemporaries, between Elgar and Vaughan Williams?
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It’s all a question of what you like.
I don’t like beets. My wife loves them! |
If Brendel said it , it IS so .I just don't like him . My bad as they say .
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RV and Len, I am so sorry you don't like Liszt but I bow to your judgement on that. I on the other hand do like him very much, not so much his barn stormng works but his more introspective works. As Alfred Brendel once said if you don't like Liszt then blame the pianist who is trying to play him, words I totally agree with. Some pianists just don't attempt him and I say there are a lot who just shouldn't. Even the great Richter would only play a few of his transcendental etudes. Enough said I think.
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If it works for you that's all that matters . Thanks .
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May I make a suggestion. I have increased my classical listening. I have a good sound-bar. I listen to a lot of classical on YouTube. I have amazing good sound on sound-bar. Utube seems to have endless recording. I find one I like and download from iTunes. My collection is what I would call ( classical music for people who don’t like classical music. Listen to The Nutcracker. Hauser on Cello. Etc. Starschovdky has many excellent recording. 2nd waltz. Waltz of flowers. I have downloaded prob 100 with this system.
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Re: Janacek, Mackerras
Now listening: Janacek, Capriccio - Conertino (piano & chamber orchestra)- Sonate - Conte - Presto
Features Mikhail Rudy, Pierre Amoyal, Gary Hoffman, and soloists of Orchestra of the National Opera of Paris conducted by Mackerras
EMI 7243 5 55585 2 7(1996)
very fine
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I don’t doubt that Schiff is a better player but doubt he could best an excellent Slav on Janacek.. He is an ICON in Slovakia for not only his great talent but his lifelong defense of their language. He could have had any number of jobs that paid more than his teaching career in his home of Brno, but there he stayed. A true Moravian Patriot. All I know is Czechs and Slovaks seem to swear on Firkuskny for his piano pieces . https://youtu.be/WHEk9Iemd5s |
