Maurizio Pollini. 1942 - 2024

[silvestrione]

Which one ? There are two one from the late 1970s early 1980s and one from the 1990s I think.

If you're talking about the Brahms PC2, the 1997 live one with Abbado/BPO is my favourite.

[Belgrove]

If you're talking about the Brahms PC2, the 1997 live one with Abbado/BPO is my favourite.

That’s the one.

[Sir Velo]

Thansk for posting that.I remember eagerly getting the LP when it came out with its brilliant scarlet cover . The Gramophone didn't like it. 'A waste of Pollini' they said. I still think it's one of Nono's best pieces. Of course I listen to it purely as a piece of msuic. I don't follow any of the political connotations.

Battling with the Gramophone's truly execrable search tool and even worse OCR, I eventually managed to track down the review to which you refer:

"In Coma una ola de fuerza y luz (1971-72), the engineering is still more intricate and inventive. Indeed it's the very substance of the piece, for in the traditional sense there is little enough 'composing' involved: the tensions which sustain the affair arise from juxtapositions of blocks of sound much more than from patterns of notes. Maurizio Pollini dispatches the piano part-much hammering of repeated notes-with great rhetorical flair, which is all that i t requires. (It does at least do something to disguise the rhythmic invertebracy of the whole piece.) Both Pollini's contribution and that of the soprano soloist, Slavka Taskova are subjected to various electronic transformations and fed back into the score. After several hearings, I find that the sheer sumIptuousness of. the sound still compels admlration. MUSically there is scarcely anything that demands one's attention but I can imagine that on a suitable occasion either piece might make rather a splendid, decadent effect." David Murray (7/74).

A reappraisal of the work seemed to have taken place by the time Arnold Whittall reviewed the re-release in 1980:

"Nono's recent Sofferte onde serene, written specially for him, Pollini balances rhetoric and reticence with superbly cor;ltrolled judgement. Only the earlier Nono piece, Como una ola de Juerza y luz, continues to disappoint: it is too long and over-emphatic, though the performance makes the best possible case for it.".

[pastoralguy]

Battling with the Gramophone's truly execrable search tool and even worse OCR, I eventually managed to track down the review to which you refer:

The Gramophone search engine is truly dire, isn’t it?! I really wish it was easier to use.

[smittims]

Thanks, Sir Velo. It seems I remembered the phrase 'what a waste of Pollini!' from another review of the same disc. I have it in the DG box of Pollini's 20th-century music with a miniature reproduction of the original sleeve. I think the piece is great fun , but I suspect I'm not taking it as seriously as the composer intended.

[silvestrione]

The Gramophone search engine is truly dire, isn’t it?! I really wish it was easier to use.

I recommend using google instead - works for me. i,e, just put 'gramophone review of...' and any other detail you know, year, author, etc

[Sir Velo]

I recommend using google instead - works for me. i,e, just put 'gramophone review of...' and any other detail you know, year, author, etc

If you can find and send me a link to the Gramophone review of James Levine's Vienna Phil recording of Brahms 3 I will be forever in your debt!

[silvestrione]

If you can find and send me a link to the Gramophone review of James Levine's Vienna Phil recording of Brahms 3 I will be forever in your debt!

I give in! I had a go, but no luck this time.

[Sir Velo]

I give in! I had a go, but no luck this time.

Believe it or not, it was reviewed in June 95. I've read the review (and the second opinion in the Quarterly Retrospect) but it is absolutely impossible to find via the p*** poor Gramophone search engine. In the end I found it by googling "Levine Brahms Vienna" finding an image of the back of the CD and deducing from the 1995 recording date that it would be reviewed some time within the next 12 months. Thence followed searching each month's digital magazine until finally tracking it down!

They really are having a laugh charging £80 pa for a piece of software that's next to useless.

[pastoralguy]

Believe it or not, it was reviewed in June 95. I've read the review (and the second opinion in the Quarterly Retrospect) but it is absolutely impossible to find via the p*** poor Gramophone search engine. In the end I found it by googling "Levine Brahms Vienna" finding an image of the back of the CD and deducing from the 1995 recording date that it would be reviewed some time within the next 12 months. Thence followed searching each month's digital magazine until finally tracking it down!

They really are having a laugh charging £80 pa for a piece of software that's next to useless.

Absolutely!