Classical Music for Aficionados

@jcazador      Jeremy thanks for posting that film of Arrau it was an absolute hoot to watch. I have looked for it for years and was very pleased to see it . Of course as a biopic account what to film and what to leave must have been a major consideration in such a long and packed life. Poor Claudio hardly aged a bit , only his hair getting greyer. It is great to see your heroes when they are young and realise that they were just as impulsive as the young of today , but even there you could see an astonishing technique and what a stretch he had . Thanks for that I only wish I could speak Spanish.

Stephen Hough, Brahms, Op. 116-119.  Wonderful.

Are there any good stereo recordings on Vinyl by Sofronitsky ? looking on eBay there are quite a few but not sure if they're mono or stereo. Are there any specific LPs that you'd consider as must have? I see most of Sofronitisy is recorded on Melodiya, I'm guessing the soviets didnt let him out much. 

I dont own vinyl...

But i can say that whatever composer he plays he is good and more than good most of the times...

But when he play Scriabin he attain the status of a god....It is the reason why Richter and Gilels idolized him, and at his death declared him the greatest pianist that ever lived...They listened him play Scriabin....In Russia a pianist is truly great only after playing Scriabin....


It is Scriabin that teach me after Bach a new lesson about what music really is...

With Bach i learn how music can make me more than who i am....

With Scriabin i learn how music can transform the world or that the world is greater than what i ever perceive it to be....

Scriabin is a Christlike figure in music like Beethoven, without the negative there is in Wagner ...Beethoven speak to humanity in man, Bach speak to the spirit in man, Scriabin speak from the future cosmos spiritualized in man, it is the reason why his music is truly promethean but without the egoic glue nor the grandiosity there is in Wagner....

2 minute poems of Scriabin played by Sofronitsky made all Wagner sound like children pretense theater....Scriabin also between tonality and atonality make Schoenberg look like a talented brain without body and creator of sounds unable to bear a cosmos...A chord by Scriabin recreated the world...

Scriabin is way more than piano music... It is the reason why almost all pianist cannot make it alive and working... They plays it apparently perfectly, like benignly like first prize student.... But Scriabin must be played like Christ was walking and creating miracles around him.... Sofronitsky always deliver miracles....You will be transformed like taking a substance or like dying and ressuscitating...

Then anything even with a bad sound will be a revelation....

If you absolutely want a good sound you can try Igor Zukhov.... This is not Sofronitsky but what is among the best playing just under the master....I like it tremendously...But only Sofronitsky exceed the piano playing to reach divinity....

Neuhaus can also but there is not much by him....Neuhaus is the only one who was on par with Sofronitsky with "toward the flame" for example and in fact incredibly almost surpass him in his rendition of the abyss....Neuhaus was one of the giant of the Russian school...His playing is totally marmorean and totally fluid, with handling of colors hues rivalling Moravec and an intensity trespassing  anyone except Sofronitsky and the hungarian Nyiregyházi .If he has not been only a teacher under Soviet iron schackles but a concertist on the world scene, he would have been one of the most known pianist in the world.... Piano russian school is something.....


Ervin Nyiregyházi plays Liszt like Sofronitsky play Scriabin.... They are World events for me, not only mere music....

Thank you for that Mahgister