BaL 21.11.15 - Bartok: Piano Concerto no. 2

[teamsaint]

It's just that her 'subjectivity(?)' was directly concerned with her thoughts on the performances in question, rather than abstract emotional responses which we had just two or three weeks ago in the violin concerto of Berg's BaL, which frankly didn't mean anything.

Just my thoughts, nothing more.....

Ah, OK, thanks for clarifying that ,VN.

[Bryn]

I have enquired of a noted authority on John Ogdon's recorded legacy and it sadly appears that, even if it was recorded, it is no longer known to exist; who knows, though? Somone might have a copy!...

eternal.

[Nick Armstrong]

Can't wait for the explanation for that post to come to light, Bryn!

[ahinton]

eternal.

Care to explain that one, O Welsh mountainous one?

[Nick Armstrong]

Care to explain that one, O Welsh mountainous one?

Something to do with Twin Peaks perhaps?

[Serial_Apologist]

I have to say that those eerily glacial strings moving against each other in perfect fifths in the second movement have always had the most extraordinary effect on me.

May I then refer you (and anyone else) to the under-recognised imv French composer Charles Koechlin, whose music is full of such open fifths, often recalling Mediaeval faux bourdon, often moving in contrary motion, sometimes drifting into bitonality? I've always felt his to have been Bartok's main influence in those repeated fifths passages in the work's wonderful second movement.

[ahinton]

Something to do with Twin Peaks perhaps?

Can't see a connection with Bartók 2, I have to admit - or John Ogdon, come to that - and it was couducted by Solti, not von Carry on...

[Bryn]

Can't see a connection with Bartók 2, I have to admit - or John Ogdon, come to that - and it was couducted by Solti, not von Carry on...

Barbara Windsor in the role of Hope Springs, of course.

[Nick Armstrong]

not von Carry on...

That's very good!

Barbara Windsor in the role of Hope Springs, of course.

I feel none the wiser, nor yet better informed...

[ahinton]

Barbara Windsor in the role of Hope Springs, of course.

Of course indeed; must bone up on all that stuff, on which you are clearly a far greater authority! That said, if Aussie James, then Clive every time...

[ahinton]

That's very good!


I feel none the wiser, nor yet better informed...

He surely means to echo my hope that such a recording will one day turn up in someone's collection and we'll get to hear it!

[Bryn]

He surely means to echo my hope that such a recoding will one day turn up in someone's collection and we'll get to hear it!

Re-mastered perhaps, if such a recording exists, but I would question whether it would merit recoding.

[ahinton]

Re-mastered perhaps, if such a recording exists, but I would question whether it would merit recoding.

Indeed - still less retyping, methinks...

[Hornspieler]

As usual I've come late to this thread, but as the owner of thirteen of those recordings listed at the beginning (including the now apparently unavailable Kocsis/Fischer) I just wanted to add my praise for Harriet Smith's perceptive and discriminating BaL. ......

...... HS was right to put aside Lang Lang and, unfortunately, also Andras Schiff, for taming, even prettifying, Bartók's fierce pianism. I deplore any attempt to make Bartók easier on the ear and more approachable, a temptation he himself, alas, succumbed to in his Third Concerto when he was beset by the depressing circumstances of his New York exile.

Stimulated by that review, I shall now embark on my own journey through those thirteen recordings on my shelves…

For clarity :

The HS referred to in this post was in reference to Harriet Smith's assessments of the recordings under discussion.

So far. I have nothing to contribute to this discussion.

Hornspieler.

[Serial_Apologist]

I feel none the wiser, nor yet better informed... :erm

Ni moi non plus



Barbara Windsor -> Windsor Castle -> Bluebeard's Castle? Probably too remote...