BaL 12.04.14 - Schubert: Impromptus D899

[Bryn]

For those of you interested in Katin, you might also want to invest in this.

More of a Rollo than Waldo statement is that. Those with even a marginally discriminating ear will readily hear the vast difference between a honky-tonk instrument and that played by Peter Katin. They will also hear the very different sensibility of touch employed. Still, if you're lumbered with poor hearing, my sympathies to you.

[waldo]

More of a Rollo than Waldo statement is that. Those with even a marginally discriminating ear will readily hear the vast difference between a honky-tonk instrument and that played by Peter Katin. They will also hear the very different sensibility of touch employed. Still, if you're lumbered with poor hearing, my sympathies to you.

In every posse, there's always a young buck with a mean look on his face and an itchy trigger finger...........

Just having a bit of light-hearted fun, amigo. No need to be so quick on the draw.

[silvestrione]

and I thought Mr Philip a little harsh on Claudio Arrau. Altogether though a fascinating and very well presented BAL.

Yes, I was astonished at his dismissal...I was sitting there thinking, this is better than Perahia, a greater sense of total involvement in the music with a sustained line and intensity...and he comes out with those comments!

[waldo]

Yes, I was astonished at his dismissal...I was sitting there thinking, this is better than Perahia, a greater sense of total involvement in the music with a sustained line and intensity...and he comes out with those comments!

I count myself as an Arrau fan (greatest late Beethoven for me), but I can see what the reviewer meant here: it did sound a little rough and ready; sloppy, even. He recorded them very late - I think he was eighty - and you can tell. They just don't have the focus or intensity of his earlier recordings. But they are still very fine and well worth listening to. There are unique insights and the tone is as burnished and plummy as you would expect from Arrau. His late sonatas are much the same, too: interesting and rewarding, but not something you would want at the heart of your library.

Having said that, I still can't take to Perahia here, who sounds cold and uninvolved to me. I am surprised he got such a good review, actually. As far as I can see, most reviewers tend to be unimpressed with his Schubert.......

[Barbirollians]

I count myself as an Arrau fan (greatest late Beethoven for me), but I can see what the reviewer meant here: it did sound a little rough and ready; sloppy, even. He recorded them very late - I think he was eighty - and you can tell. They just don't have the focus or intensity of his earlier recordings. But they are still very fine and well worth listening to. There are unique insights and the tone is as burnished and plummy as you would expect from Arrau. His late sonatas are much the same, too: interesting and rewarding, but not something you would want at the heart of your library.

Having said that, I still can't take to Perahia here, who sounds cold and uninvolved to me. I am surprised he got such a good review, actually. As far as I can see, most reviewers tend to be unimpressed with his Schubert.......

Most reviewers ? His records received favourable reviews in Gramophone and BBCMM as I remember . Not sure if IRR was about then .

If Fanfare or the enormously self-important Hurwitz did not like his records than pah . The examples showed extraordinary sensitivity and wonderful playing in which every note told to my ears.

[waldo]

Most reviewers ? His records received favourable reviews in Gramophone and BBCMM as I remember . Not sure if IRR was about then .

If Fanfare or the enormously self-important Hurwitz did not like his records than pah . The examples showed extraordinary sensitivity and wonderful playing in which every note told to my ears.

Yes, you are right. I just did a quick survey and just about everyone seems to think highly of his Schubert - even Hurwitz. God knows why I thought they didn't........But anyway, you are right.

[Barbirollians]

Yes, you are right. I just did a quick survey and just about everyone seems to think highly of his Schubert - even Hurwitz. God knows why I thought they didn't........But anyway, you are right.

I was a touch baffled . Anyway , sorry you don't like his Schubert .

[waldo]

Most reviewers ? His records received favourable reviews in Gramophone and BBCMM as I remember . Not sure if IRR was about then .

If Fanfare or the enormously self-important Hurwitz did not like his records than pah . The examples showed extraordinary sensitivity and wonderful playing in which every note told to my ears.

But Perahia does leave me cold in Schubert. I take it from "the examples" that you are aren't familiar with the entire recording? I agree that the excerpts do sound good, but he doesn't hold my attention over the whole span. I tried listening to his late Schubert Sonatas earlier, to see if I still felt the same about them, and I found I was yawning almost immediately. Then I put on Pollini for comparison and found I had no choice but to listen all the way through.

Just personal taste, obviously, and of little general or critical importance......

(Written before your last post!)

[Barbirollians]

I have known the perahia since the LP came out - I have owned that since 1984 ! I know them inside out and love them still.

[waldo]

I have known the perahia since the LP came out - I have owned that since 1984 ! I know them inside out and love them still.

Fair enough. It was probably around then - 1984 - I first heard of Perahia. My grandmother recorded (on video) a set of Beethoven piano concertos for me. I used to spend every Sunday afternoon there. I'd watch Perahia while I ate a bowl of mint-chocolate angel delight topped with whipped cream...........

[Barbirollians]

Pollini on the other hand I find cold far too often .

For example in Chopin his playing has always struck me as perfect but almost of marble with two exceptions - his magnificent Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 ith Kletzki and the near contemporaneous account of the Preludes only recently released on Testament which is quite breathtaking and compared with his later and much praised set for DG has much more warmth and feeling.

I don't know his Schubert however .

[amateur51]

Pollini on the other hand I find cold far too often .

For example in Chopin his playing has always struck me as perfect but almost of marble with two exceptions - his magnificent Chopin Piano Concerto No 1 ith Kletzki and the near contemporaneous account of the Preludes only recently released on Testament which is quite breathtaking and compared with his later and much praised set for DG has much more warmth and feeling.

I don't know his Schubert however .

I tend to agree with you about Pollini's playing Barbs but i would encourage you to try his Schubert piano sonata D.959, which I think is tremendous.

[aeolium]

I tend to agree with you about Pollini's playing Barbs but i would encourage you to try his Schubert piano sonata D.959, which I think is tremendous.

His playing of the D845 A minor sonata is quite wonderful imv, very different from Lupu's but with just as delicate a touch. And I've never heard anyone equal his playing of the Wanderer Fantasy, especially the technique in the final movement. The impression that has been created about Pollini's playing, that it has fantastic technique but almost Apollonian (or Apollinian) detachment, is quite misleading imv; his playing can be as full of warmth and passion as anyone's.

[waldo]

His playing of the D845 A minor sonata is quite wonderful imv, very different from Lupu's but with just as delicate a touch. And I've never heard anyone equal his playing of the Wanderer Fantasy, especially the technique in the final movement. The impression that has been created about Pollini's playing, that it has fantastic technique but almost Apollonian (or Apollinian) detachment, is quite misleading imv; his playing can be as full of warmth and passion as anyone's.

I agree - especially about the warmth and passion. I never understood this business of his supposed detachment, or his "intellectual objectivity". The emotion, for me anyway, seems to come from a feeling of inevitability which is somehow built into each and every bar and phrase. How he does it, I don't know, but he does. I haven't heard all his recordings, by any means, but I certainly put his Schubert, Beethoven and Schumann up there were the very best. His Schumann Fantasy in C could well be my favourite piano recording of all time.

[amateur51]

His playing of the D845 A minor sonata is quite wonderful imv, very different from Lupu's but with just as delicate a touch. And I've never heard anyone equal his playing of the Wanderer Fantasy, especially the technique in the final movement. The impression that has been created about Pollini's playing, that it has fantastic technique but almost Apollonian (or Apollinian) detachment, is quite misleading imv; his playing can be as full of warmth and passion as anyone's.

I've tried to love his Beethoven sonatas 'live' over the years, and recently he gave a very disappointing (to my ears) op.106.

Having said that, as well as his Schubert, I am grateful to him & to Shai Wosner for opening my ears to Schoenberg's piano music