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I saw a post over on the Google Groups rec.music.classical.recordings forum which contained a link to some unbelievable Schumann playing (Kreisleriana) from an unknown Russian babe pianist from the 70's, Tatiana Ryumina, a pupil of Yakov Flier. She's even more impetuous than Martha, but there are two caveats: the comment about the pitch of the Schumann being half a step too high (both in the Google Groups link and in my alternative links below) is correct, so the performance wasn't QUITE as fast as it sounds on YT, and both recordings are full of typical LP distortions which harden the tone quality. Definitely worth listening to through the muck though, and pretty electifying IMHO amidst some very incidental mistakes of the live performance. There's also a similarly exciting Liszt Tarantella performance from her available on YT. I can't believe there's not more available from a pianist of this quality.
Too bad - if she had arrived on the scene in this century, I think she would have been very well known and promoted. ;-)
The actual YouTube videos (the Schumann links are to different, cleaner-sounding uploads than the single link in the Google Groups post):
Kreisleriana (in concert performance), Part 1:
Kreisleriana (in concert performance), Part 2:
Kreisleriana (in concert performance), Part 3:
Follow Ups:
Even speed-corrected to proper-ish pitch, it is still darn fast!
Witness a recent Schiff traversal:
JM
John - thanks for going to the trouble! Your results are what I would expect.
I just spot-checked the Schiff recording you posted, and although it's not bad, it's much less to my taste - sounding a bit too "comfortable" in places. I always think of Schumann as a "thrilled to the sky, ready to die" ("himmelhoch jauchzend zu Tode betrübt") kind of guy.
I can listen to ANYTHING by Schubert any time, day or night.
However, Schumann's big-gun solo piano pieces (K'scenen, Kreisler, Carnaval (especially)) I really have to be in the exact right mood for.
I love Schumann's piano concerto, but his symphonies I have to work at.
Whereas Schubert's "mucilage-and-sealing-wax" symphonies I can listen to any time.
I am not defending this foible; just admitting to it.
It does seem that the most passionate Schumann fans are pianists, amateur or professional.
ATB,
John
Part of the reason for that (speaking from the amateur side) is that a good amount of Schumann is easily playable by ordinary people. Not so for most of the other major romantics, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, etc.
I'd say that overall, the average technical difficulty of Schumann's piano music is quite a bit higher than Schubert's. Of course, there are exceptions, such as "Album for the Young" and a few other items on Schumann's side. And of course there are more difficult works by Schubert too (such as the outer movements of the C-minor Sonata). But, on average, I'd say Schumann is much harder.
A prime victim of "amateurs playing Schubert" is the final piano Sonata (B-flat major), which is musically profound, but technically not that difficult. I OD'd with amateur performances of this sonata, with the pianist playing while looking up to heaven for guidance as he/she unravels the otherworldly mysteries of Schubert's suffering (in the second movement) or the childlike joy of the last movement. Not only is the music itself profound, but the amateurs think their performances add an even deeper layer of insight and illumination. Blecch!
No, I wasn't counting Schubert. And for me the ultimate in easy to play but hard to play well for any instrument is always Mozart. I pity you if you spend your days listening to even advanced students playing Mozart.
"Too easy for amateurs, too hard for professionals."
# # #
I will be shocked--SHOCKED! if it turns out not to be original to him.
Maestro Goldovsky was as far as I know the only Schnabel student who would every now and then play the piano using a grapefruit held in his left hand.
It can be done, as long as what you want is boogie-woogie.
ATB,
jm
"Too easy for children, too difficult for adults" is the way I remember that line, though your version works just as well. Funny, a quick google search, which is definitive scholarly research (not), shows an attribution to Schnabel himself.
It's just too easy to put great lines and famous people together. Even Yogi Berra had to concede (and he actually did say this, I saw him interviewed), "I never really said most of the things I said."
Boris Goldovsky had dreams of piano stardom but when he knocked on the door of the Curtis Institute as a refugee from Hitler, he was told that the only opening was for an opera coach, and so he assured them that opera was his first love, and promptly went back to his new digs and asked his mother to tell him all he needed to know about opera.
He went on to put on the US premieres of Peter Grimes and of Idomeneo.
ATB,
jm
This is better than anything I've heard from Argerich.... There's almost an "Antonio Barbosa" quality to the playing..... The articulation and dynamic layering that very few pianists can capture.
I'm confused. I thought I wasn't supposed to listen to historical pianists on scratchy old LPs. Especially commie Melodiya with its trademark muddy sound. And a half step sharp? Is this some Glenn Gouldian experiment?
All kidding aside, thanks for that interesting post. Though sometimes I think that google group is just a contest of who can prove he knows the most about the most obscure pianist or conductor.
I guess I'm better off with Lise De La Salle on Spotify. Don't tell Analog Scott.
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