BaL 16.12.17 - Schubert: Piano Sonata no. 21 in B flat D960

[Nick Armstrong]

Yep I have no issues at all, reliability or sound quality

Ditto. What a boon to be able to listen to the recommended Pires version immediately after BAL, in top quality sound on the hi fi. (Good to know about the ECM catalogue too, thanks - esp. in the light of the poor value if one had to buy the bloody things, as pointed out above)

Back o.t., the Pires is a superlative performance!

[BBMmk2]

Ditto. What a boon to be able to listen to the recommended Pires version immediately after BAL, in top quality sound on the hi fi. (Good to know about the ECM catalogue too, thanks - esp. in the light of the poor value if one had to buy the bloody things, as pointed out above)

Back o.t., the Pires is a superlative performance!

I do on Spotify Premium! The hifi is pretty good though. I'm satisfied with mine!

[aeolium]

Having listened to a few different versions of the first movement with the help of the Naxos Music Library, I enjoyed the sound of the Bilson fortepiano and his poetic performance, but he does omit the repeat of the exposition, and I also found his rubato excessive at times - it had the effect for me of weakening rather than strengthening the lyricism which he seemed to be trying to achieve. Pires and Lupu both repeat the first movement exposition, which means there is an even split between repeaters and non-repeaters in DON's shortlist. Incidentally, Lupu's tempo for the first movement was if anything marginally quicker than Schnabel's, which IIRC was treated rather dismissively by DON for being too hasty and sounding as if he was playing a Mozart sonata - I have to say I think that was one of the sillier remarks of his survey, as to me it sounds nothing like that.

[Sir Velo]

How reliably uninterrupted do you find Spotify Premium? I have been experiencing far too many glitches and dropouts on QOBUZ HiFi FLAC and mp3, streaming of late, even with a 100Mbps fibre.connection.

Odd how these things work. Following a recent fibre upgrade here in the remote depths of the Zummerzet borders, I thought I would audition the QOBUZ hifi offering on a month's free trial. So far so good, with nary a moment's glitch even at peak hours, and the thing's been on constantly since purchase. Highly impressed. Currently running through all the main runners and riders from yesterday's meet. Revelling in the beauty of Schiff's instrument; Zimerman next up on the playlist, Pires to follow that. Have things ever been this good?

[Nick Armstrong]

Have things ever been this good?

Exactly, that very thought occurs to me too - especially as the tech allows it to beam wirelessly to my (oldish) hifi, thereby giving a new lease of life to hardware meticulously chosen in the 90s before this technology was available. A pleasing example of compatibility, for once!

[Barbirollians]

You'll have made a start on the Christmas brandy then, Barb...

I found this BAL rather bitty, no doubt due to the stilted "What have we got next?" dialogue format which wasted time and annoyed me more than some other two-handers in the past. Sporadically informative but after the focused interest and illumination of the recent Gerontius and Bruckner motet BALs, I found it was frustrating. No quarrel with the conclusions reached, however.

(Surprised that there hasn't been more outcry here over the fact that, DON having highlighted the first time bar and the first movement repeat, the Brendel was played without reference to its omission...)

As his preferred fortepiano recording was the Bilson I couldn't believe he would choose it over the modern piano versions in his shortlist - which Fleisher apart pretty much mirrors mine with Brendel and Pires .

Pires was a deserved winner - it is a fabulous performance as is the account of D845 with which it is coupled . I do so hope her imminent retirement is just from concerts and not the recording studio . I missed the middle of the BAL did Annie Fischer, Perahia or Fleisher get a mention.

[Karafan]

I was actually recording Richter live from the RFH when he played the d.894. I was stunned - devastated - by the first movement, nearly half an hour long. I’d heard nothing like it, but such was its length it overshot my SAX-90 by a few seconds of the finale (which stunned me again by ending softly!).
Of course, the pain of that failure-to-record only made the experience the more intense. How could I bear to be without it? I kept the tape and listened to it, agonisingly, poignantly, incomplete….

It was some 10 years later before I had a CD player, and Richter’s recordings of d.894 on Philips, and Brilliant Classics. (I thought BBC Legends carried that RFH recital, but I can’t find it now…)
And I feel just the same about his various d960s (and perhaps even more so of his extraordinary Reliquie, or the 575, 664 and 784 sonatas - that sense of the visionary, the deeply withdrawn and serene, the sharp-pricking instant of cognition or recognition) if without the lighting-bolt sense of revelation that d894 had wrought - the first Schubert I ever heard Richter play.

I always loved this Richter Aldeburgh performance of D.894, Jayne - it might make amends for the foreshortened SAX-90!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcei2nCYbNs

Karafan

[barb]

Forgive my reprise of this (I came late to the thread after enforced, prolonged absence) but....


I was actually recording Richter live from the RFH when he played the d.894. I was stunned - devastated - by the first movement, nearly half an hour long. I’d heard nothing like it, but such was its length it overshot my SAX-90 by a few seconds of the finale (which stunned me again by ending softly!).

It was Richter's recording of this sonata on Supraphon that first made me prick my ears to Schubert as a wonderful composer ( after falling asleep as an 8 year old to his ... ahem 'Unfinished Symphony' in a live performance

Remains forever a treasured recording. After that Paul Badura Skoda in a live recital. From then on just a fascination with all the different interpretations, I love the music and have in my mind how I would play it as the best

[Richard Tarleton]

I missed the middle of the BAL did Annie Fischer, Perahia or Fleisher get a mention.

No - full list here

[Nick Armstrong]

No - full list here

I hadn't realised they listed all the extracts played... but then I checked and it seems to be a one-off. They must have a particularly energetic Christmas vacation intern this year.

Must be because, being live, the BAL excerpts were swept into the list along with all the other extracts played on the live 'critics forum' programme

[DracoM]

Yes. Strange. He kept the Lupu right to the end, but only referred to it as 'veiled' or understated throughout. He probably admired Lulu (who wouldn't?) but didn't have time to justify his reasons because of the dreaded format. In fact DON has the clout and broadcasting experience not to be too bothered by the AMcG interjections. In fact I'd like publicly to stick up for DON, disliked as he is by some on The Forum. He is hugely well-informed and a fairly nifty pianist, and in yesterday's BAL he was being serious and to-the-point and not in his jocular-popularising-music-to-the-masses mode. Nothing wrong with that either!

Absolutely - a truth breath of fresh air, AND with technical detail that took us into the music, AND let that technical stuff illuminate the entire piece. More, please!!

[Alison]

I hadn't realised they listed all the extracts played... but then I checked and it seems to be a one-off. They must have a particularly energetic Christmas vacation intern this year.

Must be because, being live, the BAL excerpts were swept into the list along with all the other extracts played on the live 'critics forum' programme

This really seems the age of the ‘intern’. Every booger seems to have them now

[gurnemanz]

This really seems the age of the ‘intern’. Every booger seems to have them now

I misread this as "blogger" first time around. I'm reminded of my student days in Durham. The college caretaker (with a strong Northumbrian twang to his voice) was usually accompanied by a large, shapeless black dog, which he only ever called "y'booger".

[Alison]

I misread this as "blogger" first time around. I'm reminded of my student days in Durham. The college caretaker (with a strong Northumbrian twang to his voice) was usually accompanied by a large, shapeless black dog, which he only ever called "y'booger".

Ps congrats on the win at Leicester.

Back on topic, just taken delivery of Zimerman.

[gurnemanz]

Ps congrats on the win at Leicester.

Back on topic, just taken delivery of Zimerman.

Thanks for congrats. We are used to the yo-to effect. Iain Dowie's bouncebackability may be kicking in.

On subject - perversely - I have ordered Richter, "too slow for repeated listening". I thought I'd take the challenge.