BaL 25.01.20 - Chopin: Four Scherzi

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yep the Pletnev set I referred to earlier is part of his live debut at Carnegie Hall. It’s an amazing technical feat but a difficult listen ...

[Bryn]

Yep the Pletnev set I referred to earlier is part of his live debut at Carnegie Hall. It’s an amazing technical feat but a difficult listen ...

I certainly prefer to listen to them as discrete pieces.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I agree they are better placed as one or two offs in a mixed recital I think . It’s a very personal opinion but because of their rondo form I find the constant repeats in 1 and 4 a bit monotonous. But then I can’t sit through the Goldbergs either ...

[LeMartinPecheur]

It'll probably need something super-marvellous to get me buying another set, particularly with the above warnings that no one's likely to do equally well in all four. i have six or seven versions of all of them, including complete sets by Rubinstein (HMV recordings from 78s), Vasary and Richter (HMV SXLP). Should be enough but who knows?

The third is my favourite, so maybe an illustrated knockout performance of that one might do it

[Bryn]

I doubt this one will be inthe running but it's good to hear it on the sort of insgrument the composer had to work with:

The set it comes from was one of the best £12 odd I have ever spent on CDs.

[Braunschlag]

Yep the Pletnev set I referred to earlier is part of his live debut at Carnegie Hall. It’s an amazing technical feat but a difficult listen ...

Prompted by this to give them a spin again. There sure ain’t no cobwebs left after Pletnev’s despatched them. I know what you mean but I might add they are also an astonishing pianistic feat, and live to boot. I also noticed he’s a ‘hummer on that Carnegie recital, just audible, never really noticed before.
He always impresses me by a really wide dynamic range and voicing but, having seen him live soon after his Tchaikovsky win I’ll admit to being biased. One always has to be prepared for his mercurial takes on Chopin but it suits me. Grosvenor is,in some ways, similar.

[vinteuil]

The set it comes from was one of the best £12 odd I have ever spent on CDs.

... you woz robbed. I got mine for £11.12




.

[Bryn]

... you woz robbed. I got mine for £11.12




.

I couldn't be bothered to check the exact price I paid but it would have been the same. Just how many of us leapt at that opportunity, expecting it to come to nothing?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Prompted by this to give them a spin again. There sure ain’t no cobwebs left after Pletnev’s despatched them. I know what you mean but I might add they are also an astonishing pianistic feat, and live to boot. I also noticed he’s a ‘hummer on that Carnegie recital, just audible, never really noticed before.
He always impresses me by a really wide dynamic range and voicing but, having seen him live soon after his Tchaikovsky win I’ll admit to being biased. One always has to be prepared for his mercurial takes on Chopin but it suits me. Grosvenor is,in some ways, similar.

The whole recital is at an astonishing technical level . It’s only a personal opinion but the scherzi performances on the disc are the only ones I don’t care for - I just prefer a Rubinstein style approach to rubato and more restrained agogics ...

[MickyD]

I couldn't be bothered to check the exact price I paid but it would have been the same. Just how many of us leapt at that opportunity, expecting it to come to nothing?

I bought 4 and made a killing selling them back on Marketplace! But of course kept one for myself - I agree, one of the best box sets I own.

[Barbirollians]

Richter - the version that was on HMV Concert Classics.

[Keraulophone]

Richter - on Olympia, reissued on Regis, but this is probably the same as the Melodia-Eurodisc (Munich, 1977) and SXLP (15 versions of the same recording are listed: https://www.discogs.com/Sviatoslav-R.../master/629213). In the comments on the Amazon link, someone has remarked (in 2010) that it came to their notice on BaL: “The Penguin guide gives this its highest possible rating, the Rough Guide as well. Radio 3 had a one hour special on the scherzi recently and chose Richter, hands down, above every other pianist. After hearing him on that programme I, straight away, ordered this CD” and I did likewise. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chopin-Sche.../dp/B000H8RUH6

Which are the other two Richter recordings indicated in the OP list?

[verismissimo]

I still have Peter Katin, late of this parish, on Unicorn LP. And early and late Rubinstein.

I don't think that the Scherzos were ever conceived to be played together and I agree with others that the finest interpretations are of individual ones in other contexts.

BTW the first three are dark and angry - like some Beethoven scherzos - the fourth more light and fleet of foot.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I don't think that the Scherzos were ever conceived to be played together and I agree with others that the finest interpretations are of individual ones in other contexts.

[akiralx]

Richter - on Olympia, reissued on Regis, but this is probably the same as the Melodia-Eurodisc (Munich, 1977) and SXLP (15 versions of the same recording are listed: https://www.discogs.com/Sviatoslav-R.../master/629213). In the comments on the Amazon link, someone has remarked (in 2010) that it came to their notice on BaL: “The Penguin guide gives this its highest possible rating, the Rough Guide as well. Radio 3 had a one hour special on the scherzi recently and chose Richter, hands down, above every other pianist. After hearing him on that programme I, straight away, ordered this CD” and I did likewise. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chopin-Sche.../dp/B000H8RUH6

Which are the other two Richter recordings indicated in the OP list?

Not part of a set but I recall SR's wonderful performance of the Fourth Scherzo from Helsinki in 1976 on Music and Arts - without a slight mishap in the left hand near the end it would have been one of the best ever.