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

[rauschwerk]

Moiseiwitsch- lovely playing especially the Rachmaninov arrangement of Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream overture

A terrific recording indeed, done in one take (I think you must mean the Scherzo).

[ahinton]

A terrific recording indeed, done in one take (I think you must mean the Scherzo).

Yes, he does and, at least in this instance, it doesn't give rise to questions about whether it should be placed before or after an Andante...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Dave's post has reminded me that I owe DON a favourable word or two - he was remarkably enthusiastic not only about Feldman in that discussion on Record Review, but also about Nic Hodges' recent NEOS release of the complete (so far) Piano Music of Brian Ferneyhough. (Spoiling it only by mocking Ferneyhough's meticulous written prose.)



(What ahinton does for Sorabji, I can do for Ferneyhough.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just a pity the Beeb hasn't bothered to make footage of the Perfect Pianism of Hodges - or Pace, or Woodward, or Hind, or Nicolls, or Powell, or Tilbury ... - to include in such a programme.

[ahinton]

Just a pity the Beeb hasn't bothered to make footage of the Perfect Pianism of Hodges - or Pace, or Woodward, or Hind, or Nicolls, or Powell, or Tilbury ... - to include in such a programme.

I suppose that none of these is considered to be BBC4 material (for whaever unreason or none); Hodges, Nicolls and Powell are particular remarkable examples, of whom the first and last studied with the same teacher, Sulamita Aronovsky.

[Dave2002]

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.

I have a faint recollection that we also had the Tchaikovsky concerto no 1 performed by Rubinstein with the NY PO conducted by John Barbirolli. I really liked the Beethoven sonatas we had, and my rose tinted ears recollection is that even though they were on 78s, they sounded fine, and demonstrated a very forceful and dynamic musicality - which is not always present in more modern recordings by others.

[BBMmk2]

Worth the licence fee!

[Nick Armstrong]

Just giving a bump - 8pm today....

[Dave2002]

Thanks for bump.

Just possible that my recollection of the Tchaikosky piano concerto 78s (msg 21) could have been with the LSO rather than the American orchestra I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure what the date of our 78s was - I suspected 1940s/50s rather than 1930s. I'm also not sure now whether the 78s had the plum coloured centre label, or the bright red ones. Mozart Serenade 13 with Bruno Walter (VPO?) was bright red, I'm fairly sure of that.

[Gordon]

Thanks for bump.

Just possible that my recollection of the Tchaikosky piano concerto 78s (msg 21) could have been with the LSO rather than the American orchestra I mentioned earlier. I'm not sure what the date of our 78s was - I suspected 1940s/50s rather than 1930s. I'm also not sure now whether the 78s had the plum coloured centre label, or the bright red ones. Mozart Serenade 13 with Bruno Walter (VPO?) was bright red, I'm fairly sure of that.

It was the LSO on 9/10th June 1932 at Abbey Road, see Naxos 8.111271. The Victor numbers in the LSO discography were: Victor set 180 = 7802-5, you may be able to get the label type/colour from those? The "180" maybe a prefix for the set. Try this:

http://majesticrecord.com/labelsvictor.htm

In the US post 1929 Victor, having just been acquired by RCA as a result of the crash, dropped several big names for a while and so they came to HMV, the UK affiliate, to record instead, it seems that the European economy wasn't so badly hit. [See Roland Gelatt, Fabulous Phonograph].

Rubinstein also recorded Brahms 2nd with Coates/LSO October 22nd 1929 at Kingsway [Naxos 8.111272 again, I've had a copy for a while] and also Chopin 2 and Mozart 23 with Barbirolli in January 1931 also at Kingsway [Brahms on several CD issues but not Mozart]. Chopin 1 followed in April 1937 with Barbirolli at Abbey Road.

[Zucchini]

Just giving a bump - 8pm today....

I can't go and see dead pianists (for a bit anyway} so not remotely interested. Live Cycling and Italy Unpacked on iplayer will do

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Dave's post has reminded me that I owe DON a favourable word or two

Which I am delighted to repay here: a very enjoyable programme - yes; all the flaws of these " ... at the BBC" clip programmes (too bitty; irritating cuts-off, mid-piece; rather lightweight), but DON kept a low(-ish) profile and used his knowledge and skills to illuminate the pianists' technique rather than ... well, I owe him, so sush!

[Nick Armstrong]

Richter........!!!!!




(I preferred the later version of the Étude - which we heard first - but ... for crying out loud! How is that possible?!)

Which I am delighted to repay here: a very enjoyable programme - yes; all the flaws of these " ... at the BBC" clip programmes (too bitty; irritating cuts-off, mid-piece; rather lightweight), but DON kept a low(-ish) profile and used his knowledge and skills to illuminate the pianists' technique

Haven't seen it all yet (had to pause and vent about the superhuman Sviatoslav; and the below) - it's fascinating so far.

But.

For the sake of zooming all archive footage to fill the wide screen 16:9 format, they've lopped off the top and bottom of all the original 4:3 screen ratio films, as far as I could see. So that for example for much of the clip of Radu Lupu playing the Grieg with the LSO and Previn, poor old André was chopped off at the shoulders, and the upper reaches of the keyboard had gone too. Did everyone else find the same thing? I wondered whether it's an issue with the signal - my telly automatically switches between 16:9 and 4:3 material (many documentaries have old footage, and usually one sees it in the original format, with black bars down each side, while modern footage is automatically screen-filling).

If they have scythed off the top and bottom of all the clips, it's very poor.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I presumed that the scything was in order to concentrate on the pianists' hands/faces.

[Nick Armstrong]

I presumed that the scything was in order to concentrate on the pianists' hands/faces.

So did I to start with ... until hands disappeared at the bottom of my screen