Classical Music for Aficionados

Jim, you never stop me from being amazed with your encyclopedic
knowledge of all things classical pianistic


One man in a hundred thousand !I send you a clip of a man among the very best singers and human beings every born in the USA, who was also beloved in Scotia and Wales.

Wouldn’t surprise me if you have seen it or him , but just in case.......
P.S . Joe hill was the greatest US Unionist of American miners , was charged with murder of someone in Utah , our most conservative state, and was hung in a matter of days .
https://youtu.be/B0bezsMVU7c?t=4


How beloved he was in Wales .

https://youtu.be/H1hLPRnmAjw?t=6   { press the left bottom v starter not the big red one on top)

Goodness me Len , Paul Robeson now there's a name from the past. As a kid in the fifties we had an old box of 78s in a cupboard and there were 2 or 3 Robesons there. I loved Ol Man River of course but the one that I was always playing was Trees which I really loved at the time . Of course father didn't like me playing the 78s too much as it played havoc with the stylus that was more suited to 45s and 33 1/3 but I didn't care it was better than his pipe band records so there was an uneasy truce that if I played my stuff when he was out it was OK. You know That film of him in Wales , I remember seeing it in a local cinema in it must have been about 1960 and I enjoyed it so much I hid in the toilets so as to see it again.
I have to say though that McCarthyism really crippled Robeson and they hit him where it hurt by making it impossible for him to get roles in films and in theatres. We all as counties have heinous things that we would rather forget, the Brits have a terrible past with imperialism look at what we did to India, appalling.

Now you talk about me knowing things, you are quite an erudite gent yourself. You have a nice week my friend and keep your "lugs" tuned.

Jim , If I knew 1/10 of what you know in keyboard , I ’d know twice what
I do know .

In Early Music ........................


Hear is a "Tree "https://youtu.be/vOHekLZD5i4?t=2

Off hand Jim , I’d say the English-Speaking land with the least blood on her hands is Canada .Gave the natives some bad times but no mass genocide and has tried hard to make amends . Nobody else has . I respect Canada .


I would call England  worse, or was the worse . I believe Scotland was just cannon fodder, but was proud of it because it had little else . What else is Scotland The Brave ? But as they say, We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns

Perahia in Mozart concertos is my favorite Perahia....
To be direct i must say that Pollini nerver touch my heart anywhere....

@mahgister     I entirely agree regarding Perahia , I find his brand of pianism far superior than Pollini's. Also I was on Idagio earlier and I saw Pollini's earlier Beethoven Piano sonatas and found them glacial but of course that is only my opinion as I am sure many people will be seduced by a wonderful technique , not me though. I also had a listen to Prahias new recording of the Hammerklavier Sonata and I was mighty impressed