BaL 1.02.14 - Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can see why, with a programme called CD Review, people might expect CD-only content, but if there's a performance that the reviewer thinks heads off the competition and it's not available on CD then I think it's not unfair for him/her to recommend it (as was the case with the DVD of Abbado's Mahler #6 last year) provided that s/he also gives honourable mention to a CD version as alternative.

But perhaps the programme name should revert to Record[ing] Review to embrace all media?

Lovely work, by the way - very few poor recorded performances: I learnt it from Shura Cherkassky with Boult and the LPO on an MfP LP bought on my Summer holidays in Bournemouth in 1974. A pity that's no longer in the catalogue - they did it proud.

[visualnickmos]

Nick

You certainly don't need to go that far!!




Therein lies the path to, if not madness, then making the job of the reviewer even more difficult (poor EA would labour for ever with copies of old Gramophone Catalogues etc etc). My cheeky remarks were meant simply not to have versions in the running excluded if they only happened to be available as downloads.

Hope that it's warmer in the Languedoc than here!

HD

P.S. Oh that Gordon's wish for the field to either be mentioned or published on the CD Review website might see someone wave a magic wand to make it happen ....

It certainly does make the reviewer's job pretty tough in that the 'provenance' - for want of a more apt word - has to be checked on, as well.

Weather report Languedoc. Fairly grey, warmish afternoons, a bit of sunshine on and off, freezing first thing in the morning. (I'm worse than Michael Fish!)

[Karafan]

Just a labour of love

And we love you for it, dear Alpie!

[VodkaDilc]

I'm more than happy with my old Stephen Bishop-K recording, with Andsnes if I feel like something more recent. I'm not sure if I'll listen or not. This reviewer seems to end up being a caricature of himself; my prediction is that he will be the centre of the review, rather than the music.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

What energy and enthusiasm from DON. Highly informative too.

[LeMartinPecheur]

As usual DON shows us lots about how the piece works, as well as how performances do, or don't. Did feel the Richter arrived rather as deus (diabolus) ex machina/ rabbit out of hat though

[Barbirollians]

Yes and the orchestral sound was very coarse to my ears . Richter was pretty dazzling as one might expect. I did not like the Hough extracts he played at all -sounded very show off .

Lipatti at least hung in there until the end but only once played - poor old Solomon and Perahia never spotted at all . It is a shame the Michelangeli from the Proms on BBc legends is unavailable - that is truly spectacular .

[ardcarp]

Yes, I think he's [DON's] great. Just love the witty asides. Not keen on Karajan is he?!
I have to say I listened more for him than for Grieg's warhorse. Humour aside, DON really focused on the nuts and bolts of the concerto. In fact his de-construction of it was really quite cruel, e.g. Grieg's tricks of playing a tune then doing it again higher, or of giving it to the orchestra with a wholesale repeat from the piano. I can remember being given a similarly damaging forensic analysis as a student by a lecturer who clearly couldn't abide the piece. DON might also have mentioned Grieg's four-bar building blocks, which once you've noticed them become almost funny.

DON began by saying (more or less) that this is the greatest piano concerto of all time. Well I suppose it is if 'great' equals most loved by most people...and who could deny any composer the accolade 'great' for achieving that?

Maybe another reviewer might have dwelt more on the 'emotional' side of things. After all this is a a late, great, Romantic work. He did use the metaphor of the piano being a child which grows up during the course of the piece. Interesting.
I also liked his self-critical remark, 'well what do you expect if you've known a piece since before you could think'.

I'm none the wiser about whose version I'd choose. Probably not the Richter. I haven't even bothered to look which versions I've got on my shelf...mainly extinct LPs I suspect.

But thanks, DON, for the entertainment.

[Richard Tarleton]

I like the way pianists and conductors really can't get away with anything with DON - Michelangeli leaving out half a bar, indeed . I had a look at the HvK album cover, he certainly did love his own profile, did HvK. A most enjoyable BAL. We've had singing before but was the whistling a new departure?

[amateur51]

I like the way pianists and conductors really can't get away with anything with DON - Michelangeli leaving out half a bar, indeed . I had a look at the HvK album cover, he certainly did love his own profile, did HvK. A most enjoyable BAL. We've had singing before but was the whistling a new departure?

a DON classic, i agree I'm full of admiration too for the 'let's get on with it' way in which he didn't complain about the size of his task, although the way in which Solomon, Bishop, etc go short shrift, or no shrift at allk was a nod in that direction - the best some got was "plenty of interest here". His ridicule of von Karajan's self-absorption was justified and he let the musical example speak for itself - some stiletto

I'll certainly investigate the Richter and the Richard Farrell and the Arrau recordings, and purchase if they are bargains. Otherwise, it was a really enjoyable BaL - many thanks once again DON

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er can we have DON in his own hour long programme on a weekly basis?
i will look for the Hough but not urgently after all we can rely on Roger W giving us this piece often eh?
brilliant 50 minutes, just brilliant!

[Barbirollians]

Did her ever compare the Richter live with his studio recording with von Matacic ? I missed the first 10 minutes .His criticism of the 1980s Karajan here is fair but I still have kept my LP as (a) Zimerman is wonderful and (b) it was my first recording of the piece .

Soon superseded by SBK and then Solomon and Lipatti .

The little "touches" in the Hough put my teeth on edge !

[Goon525]

Did I mis-hear, or did he dismiss the early Andsnes recording, saying he wished Andsnes would record it again. Which he did, over a decade later, with the Berliners and Jansons! Judging by reviews at the time, this would have been a strong contender - yet DON seemed blissfully unaware of this major release!

[mercia]

er can we have DON in his own hour long programme on a weekly basis?

almost my exact thoughts, except why not 4.30-6.30pm Monday to Friday ?

[DracoM]

An absolute natural. Arguably the very best reviewer mixing erudition, sense of fun, straight talking. At the end of it, you actually care less about the final choice since the education as you travel has been so good.