Ethan, my father grew up in Germany before coming to this country in the 1920s. He was not a musician, but could pick up an instrument--piano, accordion, flute, whatever and play by ear. This is a talent which I most definitely did not inherit. Anyway, every morning at breakfast he listened to classical music when I was growing up. I was into rock and was not interested. In my late teens I got into jazz and he had no ear for it and we had arguments. I was immature and could not argue properly. He died when I was 19.
It was not until my early 30s that I explored European classical. Beethoven symphonies, Brahms, Gould's Goldberg, Bartok string quartets etc. Then I bought a live recording of Rudolph Serkin playing Beethoven's piano sonata op 111. It was mystical and brought tears to my eyes. When he plays that syncopated variation in the arietta.... "This is jazz!", I thought. "This is jazz!' As my father would have said, "Mein Gott im Himmel."
As always you have a unique critical ability to allow non-musicians entry into challenging music.
A cool insight: "This is one of the major problems faced by all critics in any genre: How do you get away from first love? Early moments of initial contact can never be undone. Youthful passions afflict our every judgement. It’s the only real reason any of us are in this game anyway: We are still chasing that germinal intoxication."
Definitely get what you're saying about the rhythm some of the greats have. Sometimes Richter reminds me of the 60s Miles Davis records where somehow almost parodic extremes of tempo still land and make sense - I have a live collection of Richter where he plays Schubert so slow it almost starts to become totally abstract, but I still love it. Gould also has way more rhythmic skill in this way than the 'robotic/typewriter' critics seem to notice.
A pianist's performances with which I'm particularly taken are those of Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, whose versions of Fauré have a magical or even at times fairyland aspect that I haven't heard from others' interpretations; particularly in the thirteen barcarolles and thirteen nocturnes, and more so in the earlier rather than the last ones.
I ran onto this when I asked a friend if other composers before Debussy had made non-functional harmony an integral part of their work. He mentioned Liszt and Fauré. I was then fortunate enough to run onto Thyssens-Valentin's recordings on YouTube and was smitten.
I didn't know about Richter's playing until I read Charles Rosen writing about him playing Feux Follet. So I listened. Richter had already abandoned studio recording. I am still overwhelmed by this music and the viruosity of his performance.
Every time I hear Solomon I'm impressed! But I don't know those particular recordings, and in fact the late Beethoven sonatas are not my thing, really. They are great, of course, but honestly I probably prefer the Diabelli Variations. For sonatas I like early and middle LvB best
Ethan, my father grew up in Germany before coming to this country in the 1920s. He was not a musician, but could pick up an instrument--piano, accordion, flute, whatever and play by ear. This is a talent which I most definitely did not inherit. Anyway, every morning at breakfast he listened to classical music when I was growing up. I was into rock and was not interested. In my late teens I got into jazz and he had no ear for it and we had arguments. I was immature and could not argue properly. He died when I was 19.
It was not until my early 30s that I explored European classical. Beethoven symphonies, Brahms, Gould's Goldberg, Bartok string quartets etc. Then I bought a live recording of Rudolph Serkin playing Beethoven's piano sonata op 111. It was mystical and brought tears to my eyes. When he plays that syncopated variation in the arietta.... "This is jazz!", I thought. "This is jazz!' As my father would have said, "Mein Gott im Himmel."
As always you have a unique critical ability to allow non-musicians entry into challenging music.
thanks very much, also thanks for interesting comment!
A cool insight: "This is one of the major problems faced by all critics in any genre: How do you get away from first love? Early moments of initial contact can never be undone. Youthful passions afflict our every judgement. It’s the only real reason any of us are in this game anyway: We are still chasing that germinal intoxication."
thank you!
Definitely get what you're saying about the rhythm some of the greats have. Sometimes Richter reminds me of the 60s Miles Davis records where somehow almost parodic extremes of tempo still land and make sense - I have a live collection of Richter where he plays Schubert so slow it almost starts to become totally abstract, but I still love it. Gould also has way more rhythmic skill in this way than the 'robotic/typewriter' critics seem to notice.
At his best, Glenn Gould can be pretty dang swinging!
A pianist's performances with which I'm particularly taken are those of Germaine Thyssens-Valentin, whose versions of Fauré have a magical or even at times fairyland aspect that I haven't heard from others' interpretations; particularly in the thirteen barcarolles and thirteen nocturnes, and more so in the earlier rather than the last ones.
I ran onto this when I asked a friend if other composers before Debussy had made non-functional harmony an integral part of their work. He mentioned Liszt and Fauré. I was then fortunate enough to run onto Thyssens-Valentin's recordings on YouTube and was smitten.
I didn't know about Richter's playing until I read Charles Rosen writing about him playing Feux Follet. So I listened. Richter had already abandoned studio recording. I am still overwhelmed by this music and the viruosity of his performance.
Would be interested to hear what you think of Solomon's late Beethoven sonatas, my first love.
Every time I hear Solomon I'm impressed! But I don't know those particular recordings, and in fact the late Beethoven sonatas are not my thing, really. They are great, of course, but honestly I probably prefer the Diabelli Variations. For sonatas I like early and middle LvB best