Too much piano?

[verismissimo]

Green pianos? White pianos? Yuk.

[salymap]

This is most unkind - my fridge/freezer conked out on Tuesday and I have no food but bread, biscuits and tomatoes in the house. Plus potatoes and cheese.
Iceberg lettuce earlier, now asparagus - I'm on one ghastly ready-meal a day until it's all sorted out.

[french frank]

Plus potatoes and cheese.

Now, potatoes: after the spirited debate as between white and green asparagus (on taste I am a dissenter: the green tastes stronger, the white is more delicate), there is the rösti debate; my favourite way of cooking potato. Do you parboil the potatoes or griddle them from raw? I favour the Zürich way - from raw - though most people find the residual starchy, uncooked taste unpleasant. I like it.

On solo piano works: I blush to confess that I've never much enjoyed Beethoven's sonatas, and of Mozart's I particularly like the Fantasias. I wonder if there is a clear pattern to these various tastes or are they random preferences?

[Serial_Apologist]

Do you parboil the potatoes or griddle them from raw? I favour the Zürich way - from raw - though most people find the residual starchy, uncooked taste unpleasant. I like it.

When I worked in a hotel in Zurich (1967/8) the method was to steam the spuds in their skins, allow to cool, skin and grate.

On solo piano works: I blush to confess that I've never much enjoyed Beethoven's sonatas, and of Mozart's I particularly like the Fantasias. I wonder if there is a clear pattern to these various tastes or are they random preferences?

I'm not knowledgeable on late 18th/early 19th century classical music - it not being really my scene - but I do tend to agree on Beethoven: the piano writing being often very heavy in the bass department - thick, masculine left handfuls of triads you don't get so much (or so emphaticaly) in Mozart, more suited to boogie woogie (cf Meade Lux Lewis: Honky Tony Train Blues).

It's been said that Beethoven was the first capitalist composer - sold his scores on the market. Men in the main led the capitalist revolution - them being the merchants, bankers, entrepreneurs - and also the Industrial Revolution in its wake coinciding with Beethoven's time - a time of the first real human onslaught on the natural order. Maybe this is stretching analogies too far, but could it be that those who admire Beethoven for his expanding form also feel some temperamental ambivalence in their admiration?

I do. I feel ambivalent about Wagner, another "progressive", but for different reasons.

[Flosshilde]

re asparagus. The whole question of whether eating asparagus causes a particular smell in one's pee is one that fascinates me.

The debate continues as to whether -
a) only a certain percentage of the population digest asparagus in such a way as to produce the characteristic smell
b) only a certain percentage of the population have the particular olfactory sensibility that detects that characteristic smell

Research continues, but it appears that some 22% have the autosomal genes that enable the olfactory detection...

Asparagus affects both my & my partner's pee, & we can both smell it. If it's in ones genes then it's quite a coincidence that we both have the same genes (although his won't fit me - not long enough)

[Flosshilde]

& while we are talking about the effect of vegetables on bodily functions, is anybody else alarmed at the state of their number twos the day after eating beetroot?

[Pianorak]

I much prefer chamber music (including solo piano) to symphonic/orchestral stuff. Misguided, no doubt, but there you are.

Misguided? Au contraire! A true music lover!

On solo piano music: Janáček is a particular favourite of mine: In the Mists, On the Overgrown Path.

Don't forget the Sonata

On solo piano works: I blush to confess that I've never much enjoyed Beethoven's sonatas. . .

I'll be very surprised if you don't like these early Sonatas: Leichte Sonate 1791/92 - WoO51; Sonatas Op. 2 nos. 1, 2 and 3.

[Stunsworth]

& while we are talking about the effect of vegetables on bodily functions, is anybody else alarmed at the state of their number twos the day after eating beetroot?

I was ready to drive to casualty before I remembered I'd eaten a lot of them the day before.

[EdgeleyRob]

Misguided? Au contraire! A true music lover!


Don't forget the Sonata


I'll be very surprised if you don't like these early Sonatas: Leichte Sonate 1791/92 - WoO51; Sonatas Op. 2 nos. 1, 2 and 3.

Why do we hear so little Alkan Pianorak?
As I am a piano music numpty (I can't play a note,just love listening to it) I'd love to hear your expert opinion on his music.
Why isn't he held in the same high regard as say Liszt and Chopin?

[Pianorak]

. . . Why isn't he held in the same high regard as say Liszt and Chopin?

I'm no expert. I've listened to a fair amount of Alkan and, honestly, tried to like Alkan - but (whisper it quietly) I don't think he is in the same league as Liszt and Chopin. However, glad you mention Alkan as I will go back to his music. Any particular pieces you like and would recommend?

Actually there is something in Albeniz' Iberia which sounds very much like Alkan which I've got to look into - Hello ahinton and Jonathan!

[french frank]

When I worked in a hotel in Zurich (1967/8) the method was to steam the spuds in their skins, allow to cool, skin and grate.

Isn't there a rule here on this forum against showing the rest of us up?

[french frank]

Don't forget the Sonata

I haven't! On the same disc as the others.

I'll be very surprised if you don't like these early Sonatas: Leichte Sonate 1791/92 - WoO51; Sonatas Op. 2 nos. 1, 2 and 3.

I must check them.

The reason why I like the Mzt Fantasias, though, is because they have that freedom from any strict form. To me, a good performance sounds as if it's improvised.

[Pianorak]

. . . Actually there is something in Albeniz' Iberia which sounds very much like Alkan which I've got to look into - Hello ahinton and Jonathan!

Well, yes - sort of: Alkan: Le festin d'Esope, Op. 39/12 and Albeniz: Fête Dieu à Séville have similar staccato and rhythmic opening sections.

[EdgeleyRob]

I'm no expert. I've listened to a fair amount of Alkan and, honestly, tried to like Alkan - but (whisper it quietly) I don't think he is in the same league as Liszt and Chopin. However, glad you mention Alkan as I will go back to his music. Any particular pieces you like and would recommend?Actually there is something in Albeniz' Iberia which sounds very much like Alkan which I've got to look into - Hello ahinton and Jonathan!

Where to start?.

Concerto for solo piano (Hamelin).
Grande sonate les quatre ages (Hamelin).
Etudes op 39 (icludes Le Festin D'Esope, earworm alert).
Mindblowing works those (for me).
For a bit of light relief(?) Esquisses op 63 (Naxos).
This set is fantastic.

[Pianorak]

Etudes op 39 (icludes Le Festin D'Esope, earworm alert).

Alas, too late!

Grande sonate les quatre ages. Don't know that one - but will investigate.
I just don't get the Concerto for Solo Piano which I have with Ronald Smith who I also heard it play at Brighton College quite a few years ago now.