Lunchtime Concerts one stop shop

[oddoneout]

Good start to todays concert.

I wasn't able to listen to it all, but enjoyed what I heard. Unfamiliar composers and a welcome move to a different era.

[JasonPalmer]

Well today it started with bach, now we have some indian music. Well....i did not expect that, still, all good when you have an hour to kill,.

[oddoneout]

Well today it started with bach, now we have some indian music. Well....i did not expect that, still, all good when you have an hour to kill,.

Soul Strings apparently. Not a bad thing to acknowledge that it's not just Western Europe that has music...

[kernelbogey]

Just remembered, half way through, to tune in to Mariam Batashvili's lunchtime concert from last Monday (29 May) - Liszt, Chopin, Schubert - highly recommended by Martin Handley* who was on presenter duty there.

Edit: *He confessed to an ambivalence about Liszt's music (which I share) but added something about this being a convincing perormance....

[JasonPalmer]

Live from wigmore today, nice.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I have to get this off my chest but I really don’t like Pletnev’s Chopin playing in this live Edinburgh recital.
The slow tempi in the Bacarolle , the over the top agogics. The ludicrous right hand staccato in the main theme of the Polonaise Fantasie. It’s all very virtuosic and a massive piano sound but it sounds too much like Rachmaninov (piano music not his playing ) for me. Every so often there’s some wonderful phrasing but it’s all too pulled about and lacking in rhythmic drive.

[Pianorak]

. . . The ludicrous right hand staccato in the main theme of the Polonaise Fantasie. . .

Yes, what on earth was all that about??

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes, what on earth was all that about??

I just know. I lost count of the number of times his performance flew in the face of Chopin’s instructions - chiefly in the matter of tempo indication. I’m not sure he even played the Polonaise rhythm correctly. On the plus side his two nocturnes were fine.

[JasonPalmer]

I just know. I lost count of the number of times his performance flew in the face of Chopin’s instructions - chiefly in the matter of tempo indication. I’m not sure he even played the Polonaise rhythm correctly. On the plus side his two nocturnes were fine.

Reminds me of a recital of chopin music i went to in dublin many years ago, was very crash bang loud, totally at odds to how i expected it to be played.

[gradus]

Poorest Chopin playing I've heard was at a Snape recital given by Andnes some years ago. He seemed utterly unengaged and wanting to get the whole thing over as quickly as possible. I suppose all artists have off-days. Contrast a recital by Steven Osborne at the same venue around the same time that confirmed Steven as an extraordinary musician and one of my favourite pianists.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This Paul Lewis performance of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto scaled down for string quartet is very , very good indeed . Exceptionally refined playing and , in the confines of the Wigmore Hall , no need to hammer the keys - not that a player of his quality ever does.

[Bryn]

This Paul Lewis performance of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto scaled down for string quartet is very , very good indeed . Exceptionally refined playing and , in the confines of the Wigmore Hall , no need to hammer the keys - not that a player of his quality ever does.

There was/is a very fine recording of the chamber version, in a HIPP performance, by Robert Levin et al on DG. Oh, and Wigmore Hall's management would not approve of our use of the definite article in association with the hall's name.

I must catch up with this Paul Lewis performance.

[oddoneout]

This Paul Lewis performance of Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto scaled down for string quartet is very , very good indeed . Exceptionally refined playing and , in the confines of the Wigmore Hall , no need to hammer the keys - not that a player of his quality ever does.

I agree. It was so good that, having missed Hannah French's introduction, I didn't immediately realise it wasn't an orchestra and was just puzzled how we seemed to have jumped to Afternoon Concert!

[Bryn]

From the online listing, it would appear that, like Levin, Paul Lweis used not a version with string quartet but string quintet.

[Ein Heldenleben]

From the online listing, it would appear that, like Levin, Paul Lweis used not the version with string quartet but string quintet.

Yes indeed - added double bass.