Let's talk music, no genre boundaries

For Debussy i never pay any attention to him...

Till i listened him played by "the pianist of pianists" Ivan Moravec ...Then i understood...

Listen to "feux d’artifice" by Bavouzet and then Moravec and pick the one who moves you...

For me it is Moravec...

I could have use a concert version of Bavouzet but it does not compare to his recorded version :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iKkk_wIdn4&list=RD7iKkk_wIdn4&start_radio=1

 

 Now listen to the master of colors and fluidity Moravec , the first 4 minutes of this short Debussy album  for "feux d’artifices" hear how his interpretation tell a story  :

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgsI4nvtPB4&list=RDwgsI4nvtPB4&start_radio=1 

 

Now we can listen to a "formally" perfect  version by a out of this world  virtuoso, Hamelin,  but this version so perfect it is and it is, dont moves me the way the more poetical version of Moravec who sing more impress me as more than plastically perfect   ( Moravec is one of my pianist god, Hamelin impress me but is not) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ym1B9_vWwZ0

 

now we can take "Pagodes" of Debussy and compare Bavouzet with Moravec...

With which onbe do you see the pagode ? 

 

Bavouzet :

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaUlG8AFpJM&list=RDzaUlG8AFpJM&start_radio=1

 

Moravec : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqlKzqTmFI&list=RDNTqlKzqTmFI&start_radio=1

 

My favorite piece of Debussy was the first i heard by Moravec: "la cathédrale engloutie"...

I was stunned...

I was able to see the cathédrale emerging from the ocean deep sans :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDyXZ74kf0&list=RDPlDyXZ74kf0&start_radio=1

 

Now compare with Bavouzet :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwELlJyVEhc&list=RDfwELlJyVEhc&start_radio=1

 

@mahgister @stuartk 

Fascinating! Moravec wins in my opinion. But I will post Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli who is mentioned as the best Debussy interpreter on almost every forum I have looked at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsdIkUSjXv8

And now my previous favorite Phillipe Entremont:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=895XJSyyrEs

Overall, I would say Moravec for power, Michelangeli for precision, Entremont for lyricism, and Bavouzet for being laid back. That’s after one listening, though. I heard Bavouzet today, I know Entremont and Michelangeli well, I would like to hear more of Moravec. Perhaps tomorrow.

Feux d'Artifice Michelangeli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgSgVktjd4g

Entremont Feux d'artifice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiT7-IiBsZA

Overall, I would say Moravec for power, Michelangeli for precision, Entremont for lyricism,

What you call power , i call expression; and expressive power is the main thing in playing as "timbre perception" is the main thing in audio, not details perception promoted by sellers ignoring acoustics...I dont want to taste music i want to be possessed by it...

I like Scriabin because almost no pianist nevermind most virtuoso are unable to play him at all ...Scriabin is a God beside Bach, Mozart Beethoven Josquin Des Prez and some others as Liszt whom almost no pianist could play really too ...

 

MIchelangeli is "perfect" like Hamelin is...But i want to be moved not  just esthetically pleased...I want a pianist who tell me a story whose images i can see like in a movie...Moravec do so more than anyone here and he can makes "feux d’artifice" speaks and sings not only be seen ...try his Chopin nocturnes... Only Rubinstein rival him in fluid expression they are my Chopin choices...

Perfection is often only a flattening of the necessary  imperfection, a flat wall with no movie.A dripping  mountain eroded to be a dry plain.

 

 

"Imperfection is the peak" René Char

 

 

 

The same is true if we compare Michelangeli with Moravec in the "cathédrale engloutie", here note the "pulse" the internal rythm in Moravec 3-D playing as if it was a song and a movie:

Moravec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDyXZ74kf0&list=RDPlDyXZ74kf0&start_radio=1

Michelangeli 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsdIkUSjXv8

 

Musical time is not linear, it cannot be measured but only felt as a singing and spoken  quality or as a walking  abyss,  the perfect note one after the other dont make music...I learn this listening Furtwangler...Unparallel maestro ...Try Schumann fourth symphony, a radiography of Schumann soul , perhaps one greatest album ever recorded beside few others.

@audio-b-dog 

 

I could not make a list like @simonmoon of the musical attributes that appeal to me. 

Szymanowski’s Symphonie Concertante. It sounded "experimental" enough (although probably a hundred years old) to be on @simonmoon’s list. Do you know this composer?

 

Let me be clear, I did not consciously choose to only like music with the attributes I listed previously. I didn't create that list with intent to only only listen to music with those attributes. 

I just noticed over time, that music that did not have most or all of those attributes became less and less interesting to me, and my tastes and search for new music kept heading toward those attributes.

I have several recordings by Szymanowski that I like quite a bit.

Those criteria I previously mentioned:

Those criteria being (no particular order): very high level of musicianship, deep and broad levels of emotional and/or intellectual content conveyed, fairly high levels of complexity and sophistication, (usually) long form song structure that goes through changes in: mood, intensity, tempo, dynamics, time changes, etc., over its length.