Prom 21: Alina Ibragimova plays Bach (1.08.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

On a more practical note, shouldn't these two Alina Thingummybob threads be wed together too?

Sorted

[ahinton]

How many violinists would have the confidence to want what she said next? - "I don't really want my violin to do what I tell it to do... I want it to come up with something itself... challenge me...make me react."

Almost none, I imagine - not least because of the risks obvious risks involved in the conscious adoption and development of such a strategy - but then, for all her immense technical assurance, risk taking seems to be as fundamental a part of Alina's modus op as it is of Martha Argerich's - and, perhaps as a consequence, it would not at all surprise me if, when Alina reaches her early 70s, she'll have retained a similar sense of eternal youthfulness allied to maturity in her playing. I wouldn't seek to press the anaolgy farther than it deserves to go, but both are most commanding, compelling and involving communicators as performers.

[Lordgeous]

I did enjoy a lot of it but were'nt there (suprisingly) quite a few wrong notes? I still love Heifitz playing ANYTHING! Guess that's my age though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q-Zqz7mNjQ

[Keraulophone]

...when Alina reaches her early 70s, she'll have retained a similar sense of eternal youthfulness allied to maturity in her playing.

Horowitz retained a sort of devilish youthfulness in his playing right up to the end, although it's always difficult to compare this uniquely brilliant pianist with anyone else; a bit different from the 'eternal youthfulness' of Alina and Martha, perhaps. Ivry Gitlis, playing in an IMS concert in St Ives when in his mid-80s, had a puckish, wide-eyed, spontaneous approach to music-making of someone a quarter of his age.

Gitlis, speaking in 2007: "Dear young colleagues of the up-and-coming generation, please have the courage to be yourselves, to take risks and not be copies of your recordings or of others'. Practice your instrument in order to free yourself from any psycho-technical constraint, to be able to create when you play. Listen to your inner ear, which is connected directly to your hearth and spirit, the one that tells you what you feel is you! And the one you don't feel isn't you. Remember that a beautiful "wrong" note by a Kreisler, a Thibaud, a Casals or a Callas is worth more than a thousand so-called "right" notes and that playing that is hygienically and clinically correct is not necessarily a sign of good health!"

[ahinton]

Horowitz retained a sort of devilish youthfulness in his playing right up to the end, although it's always difficult to compare this uniquely brilliant pianist with anyone else; a bit different from the 'eternal youthfulness' of Alina and Martha, perhaps. Ivry Gitlis, playing in an IMS concert in St Ives when in his mid-80s, had a puckish, wide-eyed, spontaneous approach to music-making of someone a quarter of his age.

Gitlis, speaking in 2007: "Dear young colleagues of the up-and-coming generation, please have the courage to be yourselves, to take risks and not be copies of your recordings or of others'. Practice your instrument in order to free yourself from any psycho-technical constraint, to be able to create when you play. Listen to your inner ear, which is connected directly to your hearth and spirit, the one that tells you what you feel is you! And the one you don't feel isn't you. Remember that a beautiful "wrong" note by a Kreisler, a Thibaud, a Casals or a Callas is worth more than a thousand so-called "right" notes and that playing that is hygienically and clinically correct is not necessarily a sign of good health!"

That reminds me of a published review of the late, great Shura Cherkassky which mentioned the fact that he didn't play all the correct notes but he did play all the right ones...

[Richard Tarleton]

That reminds me of a published review of the late, great Shura Cherkassky which mentioned the fact that he didn't play all the correct notes but he did play all the right ones...

Sounds awfully like a quote from somebody else......

[ahinton]

Sounds awfully like a quote from somebody else......

I must confess that this is rather what I thought at the time(!) but, in all seriosuness, I know what the writer meant.

[Norrette]

D Minor Partita.
The Chaconne has always been a piece that moves me to tears,more usually in the Busoni arrangement for some reason,tonight the thing has done for me.

I didn't enjoy this as much as I did her first Bach prom, perhaps it's because I have the Vengerov version of the Chaconne - I didn't know there were two arrangements - perhaps Vengerov uses the alternative? I got used to it whichever it was.
Given that her playing is very popular on here I'll give it another try.

[ahinton]

I didn't enjoy this as much as I did her first Bach prom, perhaps it's because I have the Vengerov version of the Chaconne - I didn't know there were two arrangements - perhaps Vengerov uses the alternative? I got used to it whichever it was.
Given that her playing is very popular on here I'll give it another try.

Believe you me, it isn't merely "popular", on here or anywhere else; it is simply what it is!

[Richard Tarleton]

I have the Vengerov version of the Chaconne - I didn't know there were two arrangements - perhaps Vengerov uses the alternative? I got used to it whichever it was.

Ibragimova and Vengerov - and violinists generally - play/perform/interpret the Bach original for violin. There isn't a Vengerov "version". Busoni and others made piano transcriptions or versions. I've heard Vengerov play it live, he also plays it here, at the end of a TV documentary about Auschwitz.

[Norrette]

he also plays it here, at the end of a TV documentary about Auschwitz.

Which is where I first heard it. Sorry to use the word popular. Perhaps I'm the ignoramous that should push off ....

[Richard Tarleton]

Which is where I first heard it. Sorry to use the word popular. Perhaps I'm the ignoramous that should push off ....

Don't do that! Nothing wrong with popular! And she does have at least one detractor here

That Vengerov performance was remarkable I thought - trudging through the snow, it seemed to have a sort of exorcising effect, an inspired way to end the documentary.

I got to know it first via transcriptions for classical guitar - first by Segovia, then Julian Bream, long before I heard it performed on the violin. Here's Bream's most recent version, recorded shortly before he retired. I have an LP of it that he recorded back in 1955.