Classical Music for Aficionados
I have been listening to
Anna Gourari, Russian pianist So far, two recordings:Visions Fugitive "Visions fugitives, Gourari’s second ECM release, showcases the intense beauty of her sound in Prokofiev’s title work, a set of 20 “fleeting visions” whose moods swing from lyrical to sardonic, grotesque to calm, melancholy to boisterous, nostalgic to insistent, and back again. The album also features Medtner’s “Fairy Tale in F minor”, from one of his sets of skazki – tales of musical figments, of melodies and harmonies, rhythmic profiles and altered chords, shapes and gestures and atmospheres. Then there is Chopin’s “Sonata No. 3 in B minor”, which encompasses not only a Beethoven-inspired opening movement but also a Largo that’s like a funeral song, with a melodic poignancy that justifies and even necessitates some extraordinary harmonic progressions." Desir" The album “Désir”, released on Decca, presents works by Alexander Skryabin and Sofia Gubaidulina." I like her very much, my preferred sort of music.Description on her website and in wiki: „She plays Beethoven’s third Piano Concerto with a rapt intensity. Right at the beginning she achieves a small miracle … a few chords, woven like a curtain about to go up on a quiet paradise in waiting. She performs the piece with a restrained voice, as if telling a story. She is reminiscent of the young Clara Haskil. This is how Anna Gourari won the Clara Schumann Competition.“ Thus Die Zeit reported the final concert of a competition in which Anna Gourari was awarded first prize by a distinguished jury including Martha Argerich, Joachim Kaiser, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nelson Freire and Alexis Weissenberg, whom she had won over by the power of her „almost mystical playing“. http://gourari.com/biography-en/ |
The Biggs Rheinberger Concertos reissue Those of us who were organists in the 1970s fell in love with this LP on its release in 1973; it was a revelation at the time for its energy and compositional mastery. Then, the LP was pulled by Columbia on copyright objections by the Rheinberger family who had not been paid. My copy was loaned to a friend and never returned; but the memory lingered. So, when it was just re-issued as a SACD I got a copy ASAP. Have 4 other performances and they are all dreadful by comparison. This is kick-a** Rheinberger that will make you fall in love with his style, energy and compositional fluency. No 19th-century composer understood the romantic ideology and the pipe organ better. His sonatas are just as incredible. The Columbia Symphony is superb, Biggs is Biggs, and the recording is immediate and crystal clear. Yes, you might grouse about Bigg’s organ choice (more classical than romantic) and the brilliantly-miked orchestra that shouts in your face, but face it -- no other recording of these masterpieces has ever had the energy and connection with the 19th-century gestalt that Biggs and the Columbia Symphony pulled off in 1973. You might want to give it a listen...Presto got it to me fairly quickly. Oh, and BTW, if you've got a really, really, high end system you will find that blasting this SACD at concert levels is a memorable experience; the organ bass pedals will test your room out thoroughly. |
