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The dark horse contender here is Edith Farnadi with Hermann Scherchen. While some of the pacing is a tad idiosyncratic, Farnadi overwhelms that with her intelligence and musicality.
I've not heard the CD set on the pointer below, but in its favor it also contains their wonderful performances of Liszt 1 & 2 and Bartok 2 & 4.
P.A.
PS And long live Byron Janis!
Follow Ups:
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And evidently you didn't either until now. ;-)
done with it.
Not that there's anything wrong with Rubinstein/Reiner. But Janis is anything but glib.
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from 1949, live in the Hollywood Bowl with the HBSO. Terrific playing, no sentimentality, and the orchestra sounds very much like Boston from which Mr. K had just retired. CD is from an AFN broadcast tape in good shape and sound quality is OK. Much less flab than the later version with Reiner.
This is a Carnegie Hall recording, from three years before the Hollywood Bowl performance with Koussevitzsky - tempos are said to be similar but the approach a bit less skittish and volatile with Golschmann.
The first movement is, as you said about the Koussevitzky performance, very impetuous - the kind of performance I'd imagine Martha Argerich giving in her prime. Despite that, there are portions that, for all the speed, are extremely clear and well articulated. And the 1946 sound quality is excellent for that time, despite the dynamic compression, which may result from the 78's, or from the lossy streaming on Spotify, or some combination of the two. I must say I was impressed.
The second movement also moves along, and I believe that this is the right approach. When the piano has the melody in single notes, the tones will just die unless the tempo moves along fast enough - so I agree with what Rubinstein and Golschmann are doing in this movement.
On to the third movement - here the tempos are more in line with other performances I've heard. But then when the main theme starts. . .
WHAT THE. . . ???
Rubinstein leaves out the left-hand figuration!!! And this is no mere one-time occurrence, because, when the theme repeats, Rubinstein leaves out the left-hand figuration AGAIN! And it's that left-hand figuration that makes this part of the movement so incredibly difficult to play. There are many, many recordings where the soloists are audibly constrained here, because the left-hand writing is so technically difficult here. But Rubinstein simply gives up at this place - shame on him! I think something similar happens in the coda, where Rubinstein plays single chords on the beat, rather than triplet-eighth chords as Rachmaninoff requested. I'm not entirely sure about this, since it's harder to hear, with the piano figuration covered by the orchestra. Nevertheless, this refusal on the part of Rubinstein to meet Rachmaninoff on the latter's own terms shoves this performance into the "specialist" category - I could never recommend it without a strong caveat, as much as I do like the first two movements.
Let me see now. . . who plays ALL the notes in the last movement of this concerto? Ah yes! Here's a very fine candidate:
Could you refer me to a miniature score bar number or measure number where this occurs?
Actually, I have only a Schirmer two-piano score (with the orchestra part reduced for the second piano), but it occurs right at cue number 28, and then again at cue number 29, and lasts for about four measures each time. The part near the end where I suspect he's not playing all the notes is six measures before the very end.
Oops! Just remembered: the full score is over at IMSLP (link below) - it's the old Soviet full score, but it has the same cue numbers.
Thanks, will check it out. The 1949 performance is live, but the writing is so fearlessly attacked throughout by the soloist it seems strange that Rubinstein would simplify here, or that Koussevitsky would go along with such.
h
. . . on that later recording, and that Rubinstein said he would never perform with Reiner again after those acrimonious sessions. Despite the hard time I was giving to jdaniel (it was all in fun!), I really didn't think the Rubinstein/Reiner recording was particularly slow. But I'll try to hear the recording with Koussevitsky - maybe it's on Spotify. I know that Rubinstein was a much more fiery player in the 40's than he was later on - for instance, his Beethoven Third with Toscanini was a much more exciting performance than his later recordings with various conductors.
perfect balance between yin and yang, nice "light and shade" on the part of Rubinstein and -- '54 recording I believe--a smallish soundstage but absolutely gorgeous, silky strings and sensible distance between mic's and orchestra.
The WIlliam Kapell with Reiner remains very special
Kapell's performance of the Rach PC 2 is accompanied by William Steinberg and a pickup orchestra.RCA's Vol 3 "Kapell Edition" CD featuring this Second concerto includes a Rach Paganini Rhapsody conducted by Reiner with the Philadelphia (credited there as the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra).
The death of 31 year old William Kapell ranks as perhaps the greatest tragedy in American music. His small discography is almost entirely treasurable and worth seeking out.
The other great Rach PC 2 I know is Richter/Sanderling (1955), now hard to find. I don't care for the stereo version under Rowicki.
Edits: 05/06/12
You are of course correct - I was thinking of the album but my lps are mainly in storage and I was going completely be memory. Nonetheless a fabulous performance now available on remastered CDs. I have a relatively original LP and regard it as one of the finest mono recordings I know.
. . . who claimed she had been William Kapell's girlfriend. I hadn't known that there were "groupies" in the late 40's / early 50's! ;-)
nt
t
Vladimir Ashkenazy; Kirill Kondrashin: Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. My best for a long time. I want to get it 24/96. If that happens I will be in high heaven.
Edith Farnadi - yes I remember seeing tons of her Westminster LP's in the shops growing up, and yet I never got to know her playing. (Partly a question of my budget at that time.) I just listened to a couple of her Liszt selections on Spotify (Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10 and the last half of the Triangle Concerto - they don't seem to have her Rachmaninoff 2) and was impressed. As with their "nicknames for the Bruckner symphonies", Spotify has some funny titling going on with Farnadi's Liszt Concertos too: they're both tagged with the "EXPLICIT" designation!
BTW - yes, I love that Janis/Dorati recording too!
Has your email changed or is the system here playing up? Sent you a couple of notes but no reply :-( Drop me a note sometime please.
John
Enjoying over 9000 mostly classical CDs via Sennheiser HD800 headphones & a NuForce DAC9 on a Meridian Sooloos system.
Main system enjoyed at night for A/V
...happened in high school. My buddy Stan played me his parents' discs of the Hungarian Rhapsodies (Liszt) and I was transfixed. The rest, as they say...
P.A.
This is a live and very lively performance from 1940, not to be missed. It's often coupled with a Rach3 from the same forces, which however I've not heard.
P.A.
I'd never heard of Edith Farnadi before, although I'm a great admirer of Scherchen. Thanks for pointing this out, since it's the kind of thing I, and probably others, would've otherwise just passed up.
Presently, I'm listening to Katchen/Solti on a Speaker's Corner LP. Very nice.
Agree re the intelligence and musicality of Edith Farnadi. I have her Bartok Contrasts and I think some other things too, all Westminster. All rather obscure today, probably because the Westminster catalog was pretty much forgotten after it was purchased and a few years thereafter shelved by ABC.
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