BaL 29.06.19 - Mozart: Piano Quartets 1 & 2

[visualnickmos]

I loved Period Taliban and the piano reference. Keep it coming

Indeed, it was worth listening if only for these accidental comedic references!

[jayne lee wilson]

I loved Period Taliban and the piano reference. Keep it coming

The counter-revolution is well under way.... be afraid MickyD, be very afraid.........
It's like HIPPs never happened 4-4-3...

[visualnickmos]

The counter-revolution is well under way.... be afraid MickyD, be very afraid.........
It's like HIPPs never happened 4-4-3...

Fundamentally, we just have to settle for the fact that there are two approaches. Some on here, prefer one over the other - some like a bit of both... that's really all it boils down to.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Fundamentally, we just have to settle for the fact that there are two approaches. Some on here, prefer one over the other - some like a bit of both... that's really all it boils down to.

Be nice, though, if the Steinway Stasi would exercise a little self-restraint with their "accidental comedic references", don'tcher think? No?

[Maclintick]

Haven't caught up with this yet, but I'd just like to extend massive thanks & respect to Alpie for providing us with exhaustive ( & I'm sure exhausting, in compilation) lists of available versions over the years.

[visualnickmos]

Be nice, though, if the Steinway Stasi would exercise a little self-restraint with their "accidental comedic references", don'tcher think? No?

It would be - but I was saying that the "accidental comedic references" were the only worthwhile aspects of an otherwise rather wan broadcast.

[visualnickmos]

Haven't caught up with this yet, but I'd just like to extend massive thanks & respect to Alpie for providing us with exhaustive ( & I'm sure exhausting, in compilation) lists of available versions over the years.

Wholeheartedly agree. See my post # 75 'up-thread'

[jayne lee wilson]

Having heard the BaL I can only say how shocked I am at the criticisms on this thread; clearly one of the better BaLs of recent months. Laura Tunbridge has a lovely radio voice: mellow, a smooth controlled articulacy, and her dialogue with AMcG worked well, better than some others in recent weeks; they sounded like they got on well together, and enjoyed doing so. (I'm baffled at Mal's comments on how he felt they related to each other. I didn't sound like an awkward partnership to me at all.
So - listen for yourselves, people...)

Her interpretative points were clear and well-illustrated across a wide range of approaches (this is more important than sheer numbers) and very carefully related to the examples; so it didn’t really matter if you agreed with them or not; Tunbridge’s argument was always coherent.
(Some here are asking too much of BaL; it has a near-impossible task anyway given length and the size of the classical catalogue, and is not a study of the actual works; simply a personal choice from those available. I do think it important that it be reasonably uptodate about more recent recordings though, which this one was.)

Among several points of interest, what a vital, stylish Mozartian Szell was as pianist in 1947! Clearly foreshadowing his marvellous Cleveland records. And Mozart’s own fortepiano, as played by Schiff, is clearly NOT one of the best on record; as Laura T said, it does this music no favours, restricts musical flow and energy; there are several better instruments out there (Bilson, Badura-Skoda etc). (And BTW Mal - the final choice, the Fauré Quartett, were exemplified several times (extended extract from the 1st movement and finale coda to k478, k493 (i) etc), with clear points made about them. And they are way above average...!).

There was nothing HIPPs-prejudiced about this presentation; just clear, precise description of each recording’s characteristics. So the comments earlier in this thread are WAY OTT - don’t let them put you off listening.
One of my own favourites, Sonnerie, was left out, but - so what? I’ve discovered a wonderful version I never heard before, just what you want from a BaL….

More on that gorgeous thing later…..!

[Sir Velo]

Sounds like a good one to have missed (busy doing something else), and one not even worth catching up with.
Thanks, Mal!

Not so fast! "period Taliban": what the hell is that supposed to mean? Methinks, Bernard O'Hanlon, or his alter ego David Hurwitz has joined the ranks of For3 with these crazy, insane prejudices,

I'm with JLW on this one: an informative, clearly presented and articulate "twofer", whatever you think of the format. Good to hear some real performances which present the music in a manner in which we can imagine Mozart himself having played.

[Bryn]

Let us not forget the meaning of the word transliterated as "taliban" or "taleban". Nothing derogatory about being a student of period performance practice.

[cloughie]

The counter-revolution is well under way.... be afraid MickyD, be very afraid.........
It's like HIPPs never happened 4-4-3...

443 didn’t really happen - it was incomplete string trio! I have no problem with HIPPs but having heard Bach keyboard works on a modern piano I don’t really want to hear them solely on harpsichord, similarly I don’t prefer Mozart on fortepiano. It is personal preference nothing else! I think what you like is not revolution so much as retro-evolution.

[jayne lee wilson]

Personal preference as a musiclover, yes.......

But the HIPPs movement appeals to history, to the study of performance practice and the original instruments, to the very sound of the instruments, for musical and interpretational insight; and very creatively stimulating that has turned out to be.

[Barbirollians]

More Stephen Johnson would be good too.
Too white, male, middle aged ?

Let alone Richard Osborne no doubt too clever too erudite and too old.

I tend to agree with Mal’s amusing critique of this BAL . It was dire , the first I have listened to for weeks , Professor Tunbridge restricted to a small number of recordings - with inane interruptions ( indeed the BAL improved a bit when AmcG shut up towards the end ) . The HIPP recordings played seemed to be pretty dull to me - I assume there is no Brautigam - the modern recordings not much better though I retained my preference for the Lewis.

What it sent me back to was the entirely ignored Curzon which to my ears is in a different league .

[jayne lee wilson]

One doesn't need too many words to describe the Fauré Quartett’s performances (DG, 2006): heard via Qobuz Studio at 16/44.1, simply the very model of idiomatic delicacy and subtlety; nothing taken for granted, nothing overstated; wonderfully fluid, rippling pianism (rather like a fortepiano with greater sustain), remarkably well-matched to the string trio in their own wide-ranging timbres and micro dynamics. Deft, light-of-touch.

Playing with and for each other in intimate correlation (perhaps only a dedicated piano quartet group can really achieve this), the ensemble flows along effortlessly, can withdraw deep into quiet contemplation, but still surprise you with their dynamic range and impact. (No lack of intensity in the development of k478 (i) - the very precision and discipline offer an aptly classical formal emphasis).

Phrase and tempi wonderfully well-judged, always drawing attention to the music, never to themselves. The ear is constantly engaged by the range of colour, the variety of attack, the expressive light and shade. A rubato so subtle, so natural you feel it as an instinctive response.
But this is Mozart, not Beethoven or even CPE Bach, and it is that idiomatic stylishness that makes these performances so persuasive: never too intense. With spacious, perfectly balanced recorded sound, this is a truly lovely record, one to return to again and again, a potential winner in any comparison.

[Mal]

In The Aesthetics of Music, Roger Scruton wrote that "the effect [of HIP] has frequently been to cocoon the past in a wad of phoney scholarship, to elevate musicology over music, and to confine Bach and his contemporaries to an acoustic time-warp. The tired feeling which so many 'authentic' performances induce can be compared to the atmosphere of a modern museum.... [The works of early composers] are arranged behind the glass of authenticity, staring bleakly from the other side of an impassable screen". Notice the "frequently" indicating that sometimes, Roger admits, the music makes it through the musicology and you escape the tired feeling. This has been my experience, I've enjoyed some period performances, but not in K478.