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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Recordings of Kk. or L. nos., anyone? posted by Pat D on September 2, 2000 at 18:47:30:
I only realised in retrospect that harpsichord quote might have been provocative. I was only trying to show that I had omitted harpsichord versions of BWV 1056 from my recommendations because I hadn't heard any, not because there aren't any good ones. Actually, I also rather overstated my aversion to the harpsichord - I've got Kenneth Gilbert's French Suites on LP (very well recorded by Harmonia Mundi) and quite like them, and of course who doesn't relish the harpsichord riff in the fifth Brandenburg?But to get to the Pestelli/Longo/Kirkpatrick business - what a mess the catalogue is, depite the Herculean labour (trans: labor) of Kirkpatrick. There's little chance we're going to be sure we're talking about the same sonatas, but anyway ... Whatever instrument they were written for, the sonatas are a great test of pianism. I think that they're more inherently 'pianistic' and that there's fewer ground rules when playing them compared with the keyboard works of the other two from the class of '85. That's a freedom on one hand, but a challenge on the other. The performer has carte blanche, so his/her interpretive ability is really on show.
You mention Horowitz, naturally, and his performances show how much more than just a virtuoso he was (although plenty of the sonatas are viruosic of course.) His pianism really could be exquisite. I say could be, because, to take an example, his studio K.380/L.23/P.? (the lovely E major one) is not a patch on his live Carnegie Hall performance. Besides the fact that RCA also gave him much better sound in the latter, the way he just glides with the most liquid legato up those semiquaver steps in the concert performance (the only comparison is with the finest singing) is inimitable - even he himself couldn't always pull it off. There's something to be said for only playing a few concerts instead of 100+ a year if you can rise to those sorts of heights.
Lipatti is also very fine in K.380, but as with so many of his interpretations, it's just a little on the brisk side. At the risk of sounding heretical, I often feel for all his finesse and magisterial delivery he didn't always let the music breathe (Solomon too).
Igo Pogorelich gives a nice recital, coupled with BWV 807 and 808 (fabulously recorded by DG). The interpretations are remarkably straight-down-the-middle - you'd hardly guess you were listening to one of the most idiosyncratic pianists around. The same applies to the two English Suites, which IMHO outshine Perahia's much-lauded recent recordings.
And one more, surely one of the most unfairly forgotten pianists of the 20th C ... Walter Klien. More commonly remembered (if at all) for his interpretations of the first Viennese lot, his Scarlatti recital (I've got it reissued on a cheesy budget label called Award - well recorded though) is very, very good. While it lacks the omigod moments of someone like Horowitz at his most inspired, each sonata is thoughtfully characterised and crisply executed (some of it is technically stunning).
I recently heard some sonatas played in a recital by the fine Russian pianist Oleg Marshev. Can't remember the Kk nos (didn't fork out for a programme, I'm a poor student, sob), but they were rarely heard ones (by me, at least). He played a set of four, almost en-suite, slow-fast-slow-fast. The slow ones were really slow (impossibly so on an authentic instrument) and he showed just how harmonically daring they were, so at times they sounded strangely modern, as if to say "don't write off this guy as someone who's just clever with keyboard figuration". After those four he gave the famous D minor repeated note one. It was an anticlimax after the intensity of the rarer ones - he was so keen to show off his machine gun that the left hand got lost. This sonata is of course an Argerich special, and her rendition in the Concertgebouw recital recently put out by EMI is apparently sensational. Although I've resolved only to buy LPs until digital sorts itself out, I might just have to make an exception of that disc (it was discussed here recently, I think).
One other thing, as for your BWV 1056 recommendations, I didn't realise Angela Hewitt had done the concertos. She's from your neck of the woods (broadly speaking) isn't she? I love her playing (I've never warmed to Schiff but can't put my finger on why). I've got her early DG recital made soon after she won the Leipzig comp. Probably the best slow movement of the Italian Concerto I've heard (or could imagine); also a fantastic C minor Toccata and Fugue. I heard her live a couple of years back and was a bit disappointed. She did K453 and it was almost as if she was trying to be too delicate until the third movement when she came alive - it was like she needed rhythm to get going. Her encore, the Gigue from the G major French Suite, only confirmed this and made one yearn for a solo recital. She also gave the Clara S. Concerto (or Wieck as she was when she wrote it). A pretty slight work, though amazing for a 15 year old and full of party tricks like double octave runs and big skips (seems hubby picked up a few tips from her in the latter case).
P.S. At the risk of sounding stupid ... is there some rule about not naming composers ???
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Follow Ups
- Re: Recordings of Kk. or L. nos., anyone? - yok 23:42:40 09/02/00 (1)
- Re: Recordings of Kk. or L. nos., anyone? - Pat D 09:39:12 09/03/00 (0)
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