BaL 21.11.15 - Bartok: Piano Concerto no. 2

[Nick Armstrong]

Ni moi non plus



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

I have pieced together that Babs played the role of Hope Springs in Carry on, Girls - opposite Mr James's memorable Sidney Fiddler...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SIDNEY-FIDDLER-BARBARA-WINDSOR-SPRINGS/dp/B008184IBU

and hence...

He surely means to echo my hope that such a recording will one day turn up in someone's collection

So...

oh, I'm too exhausted to carry on....!

[Serial_Apologist]

I sympathise totally, Cali - I'm doubled over with mirth, literally.

[Rolmill]

Not sure that Bryn's addition of the word "eternal" after the picture was registered by everyone....

[ahinton]

Not sure that Bryn's addition of the word "eternal" after the picture was registered by everyone....

It was registered by me, even though I failed to get the connection until prompted with a clue; that said, I wonder what Mr Bartók would have made of all this forum ribaldry surrounding his finest piano concerto?!...

[Bryn]

It was registered by me, even though I failed to get the connection until prompted with a clue; that said, I wonder what Mr Bartók would have made of all this forum ribaldry surrounding his finest piano concerto?!...

Dare I venture that I just prefer the 1st, the composer's easing back in the 2nd in the hope of getting more work notwithstanding.

[ahinton]

Dare I venture that I just prefer the 1st, the composer's easing back in the 2nd in the hope of getting more work notwithstanding.

You may, of course; I just don't find that it has the substance of no. 2!

[Serial_Apologist]

You may, of course; I just don;t find that it has the substance of no. 2!

Agreed. And from what I remember reading once, Bartok was pretty upbeat about his situation around the time of No 2's composition - not a familiar occurrence in his lifetime - and for me, no other composer manages to convey unalloyed joy the way he did in that work's ending.

[akiralx]

Since I learnt the piece from the Richter/Maazel/Orchestre de Paris recording, and it was the only one I had over many years (I now have the Pollini and the Anda), it still sounds 'right' to me! Anda seems pell-mell and over excited, and Pollini less poetic than Richter.

Richter gives a wonderful account of the solo part. The way he matches piano sonorities to the brass in the first movement is astonishing. You don't forget the magic of the small number of quieter moments in that movement, too. Richter is completely at home in the idiom, rendering the crunchy harmonies memorably. The slow movement is slow, certainly, but mesmeric. In my view the orchestra give a good account of themselves. In this version, it's the slow movement of the 'Emperor' concerto you think of, not Beethoven's fourth.

I recall from Richter's memoirs that at one O de Paris session (perhaps not this recording) Maazel became so appalled by the orchestra's attitude that he snapped his baton in two in frustration...

[verismissimo]

Who won?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Who won?

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda, on CHANDOS

(the winners of all BaLs are "emboldened" in the Threads OPs. (After they've been announced on the programme, of course!)

[Pulcinella]

Who won?

I thought that BBM had copyright on that question.

[verismissimo]

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, BBC Philharmonic, Gianandrea Noseda, on CHANDOS

(the winners of all BaLs are "emboldened" in the Threads OPs. (After they've been announced on the programme, of course!)

Yes but …

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

???

[verismissimo]

???

Gotcha.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Have you been ... <ehem> ... "celebrating" something today, verismismism?