"Perfect Pianists at the BBC" - Friday 4 March 20:00, BBC Four

[Nick Armstrong]

A new programme, I think, with Norris!

Blurbed thus on the BBC website:

David Owen Norris takes us on a journey through 60 years of BBC archive to showcase some of the greatest names in the history of the piano. From the groundbreaking BBC studio recitals of Benno Moiseiwitsch, Solomon and Myra Hess in the 1950s, through the legendary concerts of Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein to more recent performances including Alfred Brendel, Mitsuko Uchida and Stephen Hough, David celebrates some of the greatest players in a pianistic tradition which goes back to Franz Liszt in the 19th century.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0729r6r

[rauschwerk]

I have been keenly anticipating this ever since it was mentioned on DON's website many months ago. I expect to be frustrated at the measly length, I'm afraid. Would that the BBC could make available an online version with good long excerpts.

[Dave2002]

Mention of Moseiwitsch has caught my attention. Currently I'm working through the cheapo box of Wilhelm Kempff playing Beethoven, but mentally I'm comparing his playing with Benno's, which possibly because I heard his recordings first, I still prefer. The first piano recordings I got to know on 78s were by Moseiwitsch and Rubinstein. I would be interested to know how many recordings Moseiwitsch made, and whether some or most have now been transferred to CD.

Looks like some Beethoven was transferred and made available on Naxos - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benno_Moiseiwitsch

[rauschwerk]

Very many of Moiseiwitsch's recordings are available on Naxos, going right back to 1916. See their website.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A new programme, I think, with Norris!

Oh, lor'.

I'll stick with Waldemar.

[Keraulophone]

The first piano recordings I got to know on 78s were by Moseiwitsch and Rubinstein.

Snap! They were the 78s my parents brought from Calcutta when moving to London in 1950. Rachmaninov Preludes and Chopin Nocturnes respectively, the easiest of which my mother had played to her fellow Army officers during the war.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh, lor'.

I'll stick with Waldemar.

My droll eccentric's better than your droll eccentric !

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My droll eccentric's better than your droll eccentric !

I shall certainly give it a go - but at the first sign of any "did you know that if you play the second clarinet line from Flordiligi's second aria backwards slowly and with a different rhythm, you get a melodic line very similar to the second subject of the Finale of Stanford's second Piano Trio of 1899? But to return to the subject of this week's BaL, Debussy's Children's Corner ... " I'm back to reruns of Midsomer Murders on ITV3!

[Cockney Sparrow]

Interesting, looking forward to it. (that is - to "Perfect Pianists at the BBC")

Looking at tonight's schedule -no (even token) classical, or even non rock non pop non show business, music item (again!!). I was thinking its time to lodge a formal complaint. I've seen the comment about the decimation of the arts/music program staff and a new "Music Controller" (new supremo, no doubt handsome salary - net effect - less music than before). And suggest if they can't even schedule one hour once a week, they might as well switch the serious science/art/environment material to BBC 2, and run the endless repeats of Top of the pops and rock footage to BBC4 and put it online only - like they have done with BBC3.

If they can repeat TOTP and "XXX at the BBC" for hours and hours, why can't they repeat "Masterworks: Six Pieces of Britain" - I've been wanting to revisit the wonderful program where the BBCSO played the Tallis Fantasia in Gloucester Cathedral (and the other programmes)

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/51097029d65e4f0393f2c93a5959b735

[Nick Armstrong]

I shall certainly give it a go - but at the first sign of any "did you know that if you play the second clarinet line from Flordiligi's second aria backwards slowly and with a different rhythm, you get a melodic line very similar to the second subject of the Finale of Stanford's second Piano Trio of 1899? But to return to the subject of this week's BaL, Debussy's Children's Corner ... " I'm back to reruns of Midsomer Murders on ITV3!

[ahinton]

did you know that if you play the second clarinet line from Flordiligi's second aria backwards slowly and with a different rhythm, you get a melodic line very similar to the second subject of the Finale of Stanford's second Piano Trio of 1899?

Oh, surely they'll do no such thing; after all, everyone who watches BBC4 already knows that, don't they? It's a bit like the one that says that if you turn the opening of Das Rheingold upside down (and shorten it a little) so that it descends magically from the stars above the Rhine rather then emerging from its depths, you have something quite closely resembling the opening of Gurrelieder...

[Barbirollians]

I shall certainly give it a go - but at the first sign of any "did you know that if you play the second clarinet line from Flordiligi's second aria backwards slowly and with a different rhythm, you get a melodic line very similar to the second subject of the Finale of Stanford's second Piano Trio of 1899? But to return to the subject of this week's BaL, Debussy's Children's Corner ... " I'm back to reruns of Midsomer Murders on ITV3!

I don't mind Norris too much annoying as those asides are - his final choices on BAL , however, are often very bizarre .

I have a 2CD set in Philips short lived Great Pianists of the Century with Moiseiwitsch- lovely playing especially the Rachmaninov arrangement of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream overture

[Dave2002]

I shall certainly give it a go - but at the first sign of any "did you know that if you play the second clarinet line from Flordiligi's second aria backwards slowly and with a different rhythm, you get a melodic line very similar to the second subject of the Finale of Stanford's second Piano Trio of 1899? But to return to the subject of this week's BaL, Debussy's Children's Corner ... " I'm back to reruns of Midsomer Murders on ITV3!

I quite like DON, though I think he does tend to micro analyse things. I was shocked at how many modulations he noticed in his BAL review of Poulenc's Flute Sonata a few months back. Surely one should not count the insertion of one or two extra sharps or flats on a bar by bar basis as a change of key - or maybe I've got that wrong?

A few weeks ago he was rapturous about some "subtle" pedalling point in a piano part which he claimed was a high point in the work. Was it perhaps For Bunita Marcus by Morton Feldman? At times I think he is a prime candidate for Pseuds' Corner - though I think SMP was also involved on that occasion.

[french frank]

At times I think he is a prime candidate for Pseuds' Corner

Always a bit of a risk when people are that enthusiastic: you either relish it (I do) or rubbish it

Slightly deflated (actually) to discover it's on television - I didn't notice and thought it was on R3.

[gradus]

Cali, thanks for the heads-up on this programme, I'd probably have overlooked it otherwise.