@schubert Hi Len, I've just this minute logged on and found your posts. I promise to check tomorrow and get back to you as it's nearly time for bed over here . I love the Haydn C Major concerto, one of the nicest ever written and for me definitely up there with the Dvorak so I'm going to look forward to that. At the moment I am winding down with Arrau playing Schumann's Etude Symphoniques and enjoying every minute of it ( always an under current and darkness in Schumann ).
Oidhche mhath Jim. |
A big plus 1 for Blomstedt and one of my favourite new pianists Piemontesi. I attended a live concert with him as a young BBC young musician and he played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 4 in G Major and it was wonderful for someone so young , I knew straightaway that I was listening to someone special. I am so glad he is now such an accomplished pianist. |
+2 for @schubert
Len knows his stuff !! |
I also have to say that I have listened recently to the Dorati recording but on Qobuz digital stream and it sounded great. |
Here is one for all you Brahmsians out there , A young Frenchman who has just won the Queen Elisabeth Prize in Belgium and other prestigious awards. His name is Johnathan Fournel and I predict he is going to be a big hit. He plays Brahms Piano Sonata No 3 in F Minor and his Handel Variations and What a delight it is.
The Sonata is a delight in virtuousity with Fortissimo chords at the start and watch your speakers as this recording takes no prisoners. The second movement which is an open secret of unrequited love to Clara Schumann which he does take rather literally but the playing is an utter delight. The other piece is a favourite of mine The Handel Variations which show just how good Brahms was as a young man if he could spawn these but unfortunately as he got older he was very lapse at keeping his technique in shape. Anyway Fournel is very adept at these with not too fast speeds taken to let the music breath. But he can take things at a fair lick when he feels like it. All in all a very good first recording and the first of many. It is streaming on Qobuz just now . |
It is with very great sadness that I have just found out about the death of Bernard Haitink aged 92. Mr Haitink was a conductor that I greatly admired but only heard live once at an Edinburgh Festival conducting Mahler's Third Symphony and like all Haitink performances totally devoid of showmanship but getting right to the heart of the music. I hope the celestial podium is ready and waiting for him. RIP. |
What a tribute to a great man, you could see the love shining out of his face. Well found Len. |
Thank you for the post Len the music was very nice. It is just a pity folk singers can't be a bit more imaginative with their guitar accompaniments though, it's always the same old DADGAD tuning that gets trotted out. I used to go to a folk club in Ayr at one time and heard some big names in the Scottish scene and that particular tuning was in it's infancy then and it was used for playing Pibroch's on the guitar then. Tony McManus and Martin Simpson were big then and it was quite refreshing as it was used to good measure in minor key music replicating the pipes because of the low A and D's on the bottom strings replicating the drones. Oh and the song Ca' the Yowes, I won the annual Burns prize at school once singing that particular song in my boy soprano days. I won a copy of Burn's Kilmarnock Edition of his works, oh how I wish I had a real Kilmarnock Edition first edition it would be worth a fortune now. Be safe Len. |
I like both Stirling and Perth Len with a little preference because of the historical side of things. The Scottish kings had their power base in Stirling castle till Mary Queen of Scots went to Edinburgh to try and get away from the Presbyterians and we all know that didn't work out. No I like Stirling because it is very near the central belt. |
I was greatly saddened to hear of his death, he truly was a great pianist. |
I'm sorry but I loathe Philip Glass et al. |
There is no need for you to take it personally , I am not slighting you I am only saying that I loath him and I don’t expect you to like all the music I like. You site Mozart , can you honestly say that Philip Glass’s music is as good as Mozart’s or to take it even farther Bach !
I will go on to say that no modern composer can equal or better the quality or consistently the amount of music both Mozart or Bach wrote. Oh by the way I do not have delicate tastes I have been playing diverse musical instruments for many years. When I was young I played Bagpipes in a pipe band until I was twenty and at the same time I played classical guitar for 40 years along with the Renaissance Lute until my 60s when diabetes robbed me of my feeling in my fingers thereby making me stop playing and causing massive depressions for a number of years because it had robbed me of my greatest pleasure . I think I have earned the right to loathe one or two modern composers. Oh and I have listened to them as I have an enquiring mind and Qobuz and I still don't like them. Do not get me started on Stockhausen.
|
here is another none line post you can write about it all you like. |
There is two people here who publicly say they loathe Wagner and Liszt.
I happen to love both those composers for the music they wrote but I hate Wagner as a human being so am I wrong to say that now? |
Congrats Len , give them a bit of time and you will love them.
Scotland the Brave forever, Slangevar, Jim. |
@schubert Len, I see your favourite Orchestra and Conductor ( Vanska ) won the Gramophone Orchestra and condutor of the year. Well done!!!
Take care friend , Jim.
|
@likat I am afraid I haven't heard your recommendation for Scarlatti but if you want outstanding pianism, wonderful dynamics and superb recording quality go to Mikhail Pletnev and I am sure you will love it.
|
@twoleftears Although Fliter is a lovely pianist she is certainly no Maurizio Pollini or Krystian Zimmerman, no those two are safe.
|
Yes but music can be hijacked for political phenomenon !!
|
Yes 5559 you stay out of politics because politics is how Russia invaded Ukraine and hardly anybody is interested now. I wonder if the pacifists would be interested if the Russians came up their street and kicked their door down !!!
Would they pick up a gun and start shooting at the invaders like the Afghans didn't do when the Taliban surrounded Kabul ?
Sod it Len Don't let them get you down mate. Best Jim.
|
@mahgister I certainly do not insinuate I tell it as it is and if that is in one sentence then that is the way I am so please do not chide me for that. I do not partake in your musical contributions because I do not like You Tube clips because the quality is awful and also because some of the people the people you choose to highlight are not the type of people I care to listen to and if I did respond you would then be saying that I am getting at you for listing it. So be aware I list the truth as I see it and if you do not like it then as they say over here in Scotland "That's tough"
|
I have just been talking about Lupu playing Schubert and I am listening to another superlative player of the bard of the piano. Grigory Sokolov playing at the Esterhazy Palace and Schubert of such purity and crystalline beauty. He is another one who doesn't like the recording studio and prefers to have his recitals recorded instead. I remember it must have been 30 years ago a recital Sokolov did in Queen's Hall Edinburgh and he was just about ready to come on and the house lights went off and the piano was lit by one solitary spot. one person took exception to this and started mouthing off about it for quite a while when I suddenly jumped to my feet and shouted back to him "you wouldn't be shouting if it was Richter". He sat down meekly and didn't say another word and we enjoyed the recital after that. Sokolov may be a controversial pianist but there is no argument that he is one of the greats.
|
@jim5559 My dear friend I agree with you one hundred percent, his Schubert is as if God himself is at his back and willing him on to give nothing other than life itself on a palette of 88 keys, such was his genius.
|
Some people are saying this and that pianist produced the best tone, I have been to many many live concerts and believe me live is the only way you can judge a pianist. The pianist who is number one for me was Claudio Arrau whose tone could be a soft whisper or an earth shattering roar but never once with a rough tone. He was like the old pianists like Rachmaninov or Hoffman who were quiet at the piano not for them the histrionics of hand waving and tragic faces , even Horowitz hardly betrayed his playing and not portraying todays penchant for playing with evermore hand and arm waving. I now hate watching the Leeds or other pianoforte competitions as each successive pianist is more flamboyant than the last. I managed in the late sixties to get down to London to hear Arrau play the last three piano sonatas by Beethoven. I have not to this day heard piano tone like it with a total economy at the keyboard producing such a regal tone that I was enchanted. When he got to the last sonata in C Minor he got to the bit where it is nothing but trills and I have to say that being a big gruff Scotsman I surprised myself to find floods of tears flowing down my cheeks and of people around me also. I never will forget that concert and that tone and it was in my head for weeks after . I find that most of Arrau’s records are just a poor imitation of the great man, and after all this is the man that Rachmaninov and Horowitz used to go backstage and congratulate him on his interpretations and tone. Horowitz also whispered to him once that he Horowitz was glad he didn’t play any Beethoven.
|
Aye that wee lass has come on famously in the last few years. Alba forever !!
|
@newbee I agree 100% with you about the new Sibelius cycle, the playing and conducting are inspirational. Anyone looking for the complete set could not do any better, I am always dipping into it now.
|
Hi Len, If and when I get the odd CD it is usually from Presto but I understand it can take a bit of time to get them from the UK. Have you ever thought of downloading them from Presto as I often have as you can download flac or wav and put them on a hard drive and play them with something like J River which is rather affordable and not like Roon which is a rip off. Stay well my friend, Jim.
|
|
I think Miss Fischer is so talented and yes is in my top 3. A superb musician.
|
Hi Len , not at all they are Maxim Vengerov and Leonidas Kavakos and all three in no particular order.
|
Hi Len , have you tried Kavakos in the Sibelius Violin Concerto in the two versions, the first version which most violinists of the time couldn’t get their fingers around so Sibelius revised it. In the revisions he simplified some of the dificulties without harming the thing as a whole and it shortened the concerto a little. With Kavakos playing the original version you can’t hear the imense difficulties of the piece because he is such a good player but when you listen to the revised version I think it just gels better. The concertos are on the BIS label so there is no worry about quality. If you haven’t got this release then I would say it would be well worth having even for the novelty of it because no other violinist will ever be able to release an alternative version as the Sibelius family only gave permission for Kavakos only to release it and then it was sealed back up again.
I hope you are keeping well my friend and getting your dailly dose of Bach.
From your friend in Alba, Kind regards Jim.
|
Aye Len, I used to like a wee bottle o ginger masel, Cream soda and Irn Bru.
Gaun yersel.!!
|
I remember once seeing a BBC television program about Nichola Benedetti and the Orkney fiddler Alli Bain playing music together and it was fascinating. The two of them were virtuosos of entirely different styles of music and yet they both adapted to each others sryles and created beautiful music together. Thats real musicians for you.!!
|
Have any of you heard of the 18 year old sensation Yoav Levanon who hails from Israel. He has a technique that is absolutely astonishing and also produces a beautiful tone from the piano. There is a recording from Warner from him entitled A Monument for Beethoven where he plays music from the pianists who helped to raise the money for the monument to him in Bonn. The piano playing is stunning and the interpretations of the pieces are so accomplished.
Sorry Len you won't like it as he plays the Liszt Sonata in the best recording and interpretation I think I have ever heard..
|
I sure like Perahia too , I saw him play the Goldberg Variations in the Glasgow Concert Hall some years ago and he was very very good. One of the best Goldbergs I have ever witnessed.
|
William Wallace, Now there's a very patriotic name.
|
|
Why on earth would someone want a gun that can fire 11 rounds a second !!!
Pure madness. The usual "man thing" mines is bigger than yours.
|
