La Tribune: Un BaL Français

[Roger Webb]

I wd hope they might consider them in separate categories -

eg

'Historic' : Thibaud/Casals/Cortot &c
'Modern' : Pennetier/Pasquier/Pidoux &c
'HIPP' : Staier/Sepec/Dieltiens ; Immerseel/Beths/Bylsma ; Vermeulen/Despiegelaere/Steylaerts ; la Gaia Scienzia, &c

.

They don't specifically, but there are usually a couple of 'historic' in the mix-of-six considered. Don't forget they listen 'blind', although these categories should be easily picked out - they often choose an historic recording as their number one.

I'm fond of the Pennetier/Pasquier/Pidoux recordings mostly on Harmonia Mundi....one of my all-time favourites is their recording of Chausson Trio Op.3 and with the addition of Bruno Pasquier on alto, Quatuor Op.30 - Chausson's masterpiece amongst his chamber compositions.

[Quarky]

A personal view. BaL is of value for the specific comments of the reviewers and the reasons why they prefer one recording to another. I'm sure that Tribune offers even more vauable comments, but my work-a-day french is not up to understanding the discussion, which is conducted at a very high level.

I do listen to a lot of French Radio, but Tribune is perhaps the most difficult of all the programmes. Unless France Musique or Google comes up with some sort of sub-title arrangement, I will stick to Musique Matin and Etonnez-Moi Benôit!

Having said that, I do find Jeremy's report page interesting

Google gives me an answer - Settings/ Accessibility Options/ Live Captions/ French. I get a pretty good text translation in real time. That should solve my issue with Tribune.

[Roger Webb]

Google gives me an answer - Settings/ Accessibility Options/ Live Captions/ French. I get a pretty good text translation in real time. That should solve my issue with Tribune.

That's very useful, and would solve the language problem.......but I can't get it to work! What device are you using it on? I get my France Musique page translated automatically when I bring it up, but can't get any captions at all.

[Quarky]

I've taken a screen print, which sets out the buttons to tick, but I don't know at the moment how to paste that into a message.
You do need the Google Browser, three dots at the right top, gives the Setting Option. Settings has the Accessibility option.
Tick Live Caption
English preferred language.
Download French language pack
Tick Live Translate
Translate to English

That should work, if I haven't missed anything!

[Roger Webb]

I've taken a screen print, which sets out the buttons to tick, but I don't know at the moment how to paste that into a message.
You do need the Google Browser, three dots at the right top, gives the Setting Option. Settings has the Accessibility option.
Tick Live Caption
English preferred language.
Download French language pack
Tick Live Translate
Translate to English

That should work, if I haven't missed anything!

Yes I'm in my Google browser, I go to 'Settings' then 'Accessibility' then I get stuck as there is no 'Live Caption' option. It's possible it's not available on this antiquated Lenovo tablet - I have a Chromebook which is only a year old which I have 'plumbed in' to my HiFi, I'll try it on that.

[Quarky]

I can only imagine Google Chrome needs updating?

I have a Dell laptopn and a Dell PC, both over 10 years old, running Windows 10 and Google Chrome.

[Roger Webb]

I can only imagine Google Chrome needs updating?

I have a Dell laptopn and a Dell PC, both over 10 years old, running Windows 10 and Google Chrome.

Thanks Quarky, my nephew is coming here over the weekend, he'll know what to do. he's a bit of a wiz compared to me...well almost everyone is!

[Roger Webb]

I'm fond of the Pennetier/Pasquier/Pidoux recordings mostly on Harmonia Mundi....

Also in the Schubert on Harmonia Mundi label Trio Wanderer are very persuasive, with lovely clean sound.

[vinteuil]

My current favourite is the Robert Levin / Noah Bendix-Balgley / Peter Wiley

For wine people : this was recorded in the Couvent des Jacobins, Beaune, - sponsored by Louis Jadot and Domaine Puig-Parahy, and produced by

https://lepalaisdesdegustateurs.com/

.

[Roger Webb]

My current favourite is the Robert Levin / Noah Bendix-Balgley / Peter Wiley

For wine people : this was recorded in the Couvent des Jacobins, Beaune, - sponsored by Louis Jadot and Domaine Puig-Parahy, and produced by

https://lepalaisdesdegustateurs.com/

.

That's very interesting Vinteuil, I've found the Levin Schubert on Qobuz, saved it and I'll have a listen later.....some of the other stuff looks good - I wondered what had happened to Boris Berman after his Prokofiev sojourn at Chandos...I didn't know he played Debussy. Love the wine connection, Louis Jadot of course, but don't know the other.

[MickyD]

Out of interest, what piano does Levin play on those discs? Staier plays a copy of a Graf.

[vinteuil]

Out of interest, what piano does Levin play on those discs? Staier plays a copy of a Graf.

... he's not HIPP here : he's playing a Steinway. (The Staier disc is lovely, isn't it?)

[Roger Webb]

... he's not HIPP here : he's playing a Steinway. (The Staier disc is lovely, isn't it?)

Loved the Levin, beautiful dynamic recording (on Qobuz, only 16/44.1 but sounds great). The perspective is similar to my favourite seat in my favourite chamber music venue, The Great Barn at Hellens....Christian Blackshaw comes often and plays Schubert usually. I was going to ask about the piano (no booklet download on Qobuz), not what we normally hear from Levin....and the string players use a touch of vibrato which they probably wouldn't accompanying a forte-piano.

Unfortunately Qobuz only has about half the catalogue from this label, and not the Boris Berman Debussy, but there are several other things I'll try.

[MickyD]

... he's not HIPP here : he's playing a Steinway. (The Staier disc is lovely, isn't it?)

Ah, right, thanks. Yes, I adore the Staier, too. Maybe I'll stick with that one!

[Roger Webb]

... he's not HIPP here : he's playing a Steinway. (The Staier disc is lovely, isn't it?)

Correct me if I'm wrong but HIPP means Historically Informed Performance Practice. Surely it means the Performance is Informed by the Practice of using Historically 'accurate' instruments. It doesn't mean that the instruments are necessarily historically accurate copies of those used in the composers' times or are actual instruments from those times.

Therefore, because Levin often/normally plays Period Instruments his performance on a modern Steinway may still be thought of as HIPP.......as performance by many artists may be who don't always play Period Instruments, but are often described as playing in a HIPP way - I'm thinking of a lot of violinists here....a Strad's a 'period instrument', but may, or may not have period (gut) strings or period tuning, but even with steel strings and modern concert pitch the artist may give a HIPP performance if he or she applies techniques learned from playing on 'Period Instruments'.

Surely a better acronym for those Performances that are played on Period Instruments should be PIP (Period Instrument Performance).....leaving HIPP to do what it says on the tin, irrespective of the historical 'accuracy' of the instruments used.