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Two who come to mind for me are Murray Perahia and Simon Rattle. I just find their overall concepts foreign to my musical personality in different ways. Surprising with Simon because we were class-mates in the Royal Academy of Music so shared some degree of background. I find him all intensity and no grace and charm, and his dynamics lack range. Thinking about it, where do you find grace and charm these days……… Where is the modern day Beecham, Bruno Walter, Stoky, Ansermet……. He may be moving to the LSO and I find myself hoping he doesn't. I just don't get Perahia's phrasing at all.Are there artists who you steadfastly and continuously just fail to resonate with?
Edits: 02/15/15 02/15/15Follow Ups:
Composers more than musicians, per se. #1 is Alkan. Just baffling. Considering when it was written, his music is beyond weird. When I last listened to it, it even contaminated the rest of the evening, making even Beethoven sound off kilter. I suspect that in Alkan's case what was alleged during his lifetime is really true. He was an incompentant composer, 2nd or 3rd rate, and the weirdness is just lack of talent and skill in creating music.
As for musicians, it's mostly jazz players who baffle me. Classical musicians are either repressed and wimpy, or not. But, of jazz musicians, Jackie Mclean sounds so awkward and arthritic, with truly awful tone. Dexter Gordon's sound often sounds like he's swallowing his reed, with a kind of choked sound.
Alfred Brendel, Andras Schiff and Angela Hewitt. For me, there is no "there" there. I have tried, believe you me. I also find Isaac Stern's playing ugly, for the most part (except for early stuff) and don't much care for Elizabeth Schwartzkopf or Gundula Janiwitz, by and large. They usually sound like cats in a bag (albeit with a few exceptions). And this has been reinforced in all cases when hearing recordings "blind" via radio broadcasts etc...Not to mention the "great musicians" whose "insights" are somehow supposed to overshadow their technical shortcomings-- ie. Rudolph Serkin.
How about this for a flame starter? I'm sure to be accused of sacrilege:)
Harry Z
Edits: 02/20/15
I can understand this if we are talking about specific performances or specific compositions performed by artists. But an artist's entire body of work? Seems like that would have to be about the artist more than the music. Even the worst hitters in baseball get on base sometimes.
I think the thing about "not getting" how a certain musician thinks isn't that you find that musician good or bad, more a kind of disbelief that you don't understand how they play that way.
Examples - I can hear that the Juilliard Quartet is a great quartet but I don't quite share their approach to a number of works, too energetic for me. I like Michelangeli's sheer pianism, but I often don't really "hear" works the same way inside my head, preferring other pianists.
It's clearly a personality thing as well - I know by now I like wit, grace, charm, pathos coupled with a good grasp of the structure. I don't respond to over-emphasis, over-accenting for dramatic purposes, intensity without lyricism, or pushing the music to generate a sense of excitement. Clearly other listeners do from reading reviews.
I hope this makes some sense.
"I know by now I like wit, grace, charm, pathos coupled with a good grasp of the structure. I don't respond to over-emphasis, over-accenting for dramatic purposes, intensity without lyricism, or pushing the music to generate a sense of excitement."
Hard to argue with THAT. Pretty much how I see it myself, albeit from a much less sophisticated musical perceptive.
. . . and I still don't get the performer's total concept! ;-)
Edits: 02/16/15
I heard Rattle's one and only concert series with the Cleveland Orchestra. I believe there were two weeks he was here. I remember well his Mahler 10 (Cooke) and the Prokofiev third concerto with John Lill. These were extraordinary performances. Apparently the orchestra really hated him, and he's never been asked back. I don't like any of his recordings much...
As for Perahia--I really like his Bach Partitas, Concertos, English/French Suites, and the Goldbergs. Ditto his Chopin Etudes and the Emperor Concerto (Haitink, RCO). Other than that, I haven't felt compelled to listen to any of his recordings more than once, and I think I've heard most of them.
"At the end of this four-hour evening, some of the most ardent participants in the ovation for Mr. Rattle were the musicians in the orchestra pit, who stood and heartily applauded."
Ya never know. Would have liked to have have been there for this one.
Link to review below:
.
The entire Schumann Fantasie performed by Parahia, IMHO, is the finest on disc and the last movement is the most intense rendition, no one comes close.
Vahe
I own quite of bit of solo piano music, played by a wide variety of pianists....including a number of highly regarded recordings made by Perahia over the years.....I listen, and at the end of the recording it is like nothing has happened.
"Are there artists who you steadfastly and continuously just fail to resonate with?"Since the context you brought up was the classics, here is my list..... (Note that some might otherwise be top drawer.)
Franz Welser Most
Daniel Barenboim (both piano and conductor)
Mariss Jansons
Mikhail Pletnev (conductor, but not piano)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Carlos Kleiber
Seiji Ozawa
Dimitri Mitropoulos
Eugene Ormandy (except for Rachmaninoff)
Sviatoslav Richter
Mitsuko Uchida
Lang Lang
Evgeny Kissin
Alfred Brendel
Boris Berezovsky
Yefim Bronfman
Sergio Tiempo
Martha Argerich
Yuja Wang
Horacio Gutierrez
David Oistrakh (Although John Marks cited playback speed issues)
Yehudi Menuhin
Joshua Bell
Maxim Vengerov
Julia Fischer (violin, but not piano)
Maurice Andre
James Galway
(I probably missed a few.)
Edits: 02/15/15
Rampal is one of your favorites and you don't like Galway, although they come from the same French flute school tradition (Galway is Irish but was a student of Geoffrey Gilbert who was a student of Marcel Moyse).
The biggest difference between them imho is one of taste and choice of repertoire. Rampal had almost infallibly good taste and was somehow able to find the best of even the most obscure composers, especially in the endless catalog of baroque music, and make the most of it. (Violinist Nathan Milstein had the same good taste, and did the same thing, but on a much smaller scale.) In contrast, Galway has put some shlocky stuff on record. Just my 2 cents.
I would never confuse the sound of these two players. Galway consistently uses fast vibrato, where Rampal chose to use it for expressive effect, and chose when NOT to use it.
For me, Galway had too much and too fast vibrato..... (I like a "tight" vibrato more than a "big" vibrato.) Although I'd say Rampal's vibrato was also fast, it was not overdone, and only few wind musicians conveyed melodic line like Rampal. Rampal also had the purest tone I've ever heard from a flute.
Interesting comment -- yes, there are differences in their vibrato technique, though their general approach is similar in the "French school" style. Ironically, Rampal's superb tone was due in large part to his superior articulation and fingering technique. Even some (jealous?) pro players, who would insist his tone was nothing special, didn't understand that.
Does this mean he's no longer a felon whose recordings are fake/stolen?
You must be mellowing :-)
Dudamel isn't my favorite conductor, but his body of work was better than I expected. (The issues I had earlier turned out to be with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, not Dudamel himself.) Good enough to not be in this list.
n
That's almost exactly my list, except for Richter. Yes - I don't get what he does with Bach or Scriabin at all, absolutely zero affinity. But Debussy, Prokofiev and some of his Liszt get my vote. Plus odd things like Chopin Scherzo 4. I don't generally listen to his Chopin. Not exactly Mr. Charm, but his playing can be very luminous and he's good with motor rhythms - he certainly can keep a beat.
I'll forgive Ozawa for anything given his Rite of Spring. The last pages are so jazzy he makes the Chicago SO sound like the Basie band. No other recording does this.
;-)
Andris Nelsons, at least temporarily music director of the Boston Symphony, leading the WDR SO Köln in Puccini's Preludio Sinfonico, in TRULY HORRIBLE YT sound.
ATB,
JM
PS: I loved Rattle's Gerontius ages ago but have not really felt the pull of his BPO Mahler. Perahia I have great respect for, but, for me I think he is a bit too cerebral. My beau-ideal in pianism is Moravec... .
Wilhelm Furtwangler
Bruno Walter
Charles Dutoit
Vladimir Ashkenazy (conductor, not pianist)
George Szell
Serge Koussevitzky
Fritz Reiner
Frank Shipway (with the limited works I've heard)
Riccardo Muti
Leonard Slatkin
Klaus Tennstedt
Herbert Blomstedt
Myung-Whun Chung
Otto Klemperer
Karl Bohm
Pierre Boulez
Gunter Wand
Sergiu Celibidache
Claudio Abbado
Carlo Maria Giulini
Rafael Kubelik
Adrian Boult
Antal Dorati
Neville Marriner
Christopher Hogwood
Vladimir Horowitz
Van Cliburn
Georges Cziffra
Antonio Barbosa
Grigory Sokolov
Ayako Uehara (for the limited repertoire)
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Artur Rubinstein
Stephen Hough
Arturo Michelangeli
Radu Lupu
Earl Wild
Rudolph Serkin (piano concertos)
Itzhak Perlman
Joseph Lendvay
Fritz Kreisler
Sayaka Shoji
Zino Francescatti
Mstislav Rostropovich
Lynn Harrell
Pablo Casals
William Primrose
Bernard Adelstein
Heinz Holliger
John Mack
Marc Lifschey
Myron Bloom
Robert Marcellus
Benny Goodman (!)
John Pierre Rampal
Doriot Anthony Dwyer
Hiroaki Kanda
Boston Symphony, Koussevitzky/early Munch era
Philharmonia Orchestra (London), Karajan era
Cleveland Orchestra, 1965-1985
Montreal Symphony, Dutoit era
Philadelphia Orchestra, Muti era
NHK Symphony (Tokyo), 2000-present
These are musicians who really resonate with meRachmaninov (as pianist)
Horowitz
Sofronitsky
Feinberg
Alicia de Larrocha
Edwin Fischer
Gieseking
Paul Jacobs
Samson Francois
Glenn Gould
Wilhelm Kempff
Josef Hofmann
Wilhelm Backhaus
Raul Koczalski
J-Y Thibaudet
Alfred Cortot
Beecham
Ansermet
Bruno Walter
F.Fricsay
Mravinsky
Klemperer
Stokowski
Bruno Maderna
Charles Munch
Paul Paray
Hollywood Quartet
Hungarian Quartet
Tatrai Quartet
Tokyo Quartet
Pierre Fournier
Gregor Piatigorski
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Isabelle Faust
Edits: 02/16/15
I really enjoy the performances of about half the musicians on Todd's hate list and half on Andy's "enjoy" list. No point in listing them...
But then, I just might enjoy the OTHER half, who knows?
n
With Dame Janet Baker singing the angel, even late in her career, who cares who conducted?
That said, I prefer the Barbirolli version, albeit recorded 20 years earlier.
The WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne is another one of those "sleeper" orchestras that to me often outperforms the "name" orchestras.....
Great performance. (On my computer system, the sound isn't that bad.)
Now all Boston has to do is keep New York or Berlin from making him and offer he shouldn't refuse.
jm
Timely. I just played Moravec's Chopin Scherzi.
As for Nelson's, I have been impressed with his Shostakovich 8 and Sibelius 2.
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