I once met a German documentary maker who was also a jazz pianist, and he told me that he had recently been involved in a documentary on Brendel and had fimed him at home. He said that Brendel really disliked jazz but his wife loved it and whenever there was a break in the filming, and Brendel had to go somewhere, his wife would peep out from the curtain, and say 'OK, he's gone, play some jazz for me!'
Ethan, what a breathtaking survey, and you inspire me to listen to every one of your choices, however I might find the time that you've put in! I appreciated the mention of Leonid Hambro, with whom I took a couple of lessons on some Liszt Années when he was at CalArts. Thanks also for the refreshing, "snob-free" Rosen quote comparing Art Tatum taking on "Tea for Two" to Liszt's opera transcriptions. I feel the same way about Cecil Taylor and Boulez.
Wow! You knew Leonid Hambro! Of course posterity remembers him as Victor Borge's straight man, but somewhere I found his Griffes record and thought it truly great. Right on!
Too much for an eternal amateur like me to unpack in one reading, but I did appreciate the mention of William Bolcom, who is on my ever lengthening list of musicians who deserve critical reappraisal in contemporary terms. A unique mind and skillful performer imo
Fascinating stuff! I remember way back when I was first getting into classical music it seemed as though I heard a lot of Brendel -- his recordings were widely available on budget labels, just the ticket for a married student living off the GI Bill.
Brendel was a formative part of my taking classical music on in my 20s. At our Quaker wedding in Ithaca in 1987 we broke with tradition and had our friend Miriam Kennedy (who gave up a career at the keyboard in the 30s to raise a family) play an impromptu in the midst of the meeting at the chapel at Cornell. https://youtu.be/24DugWBRkYg?si=G4NmURVFwTa_FjLp
Worth--to me--mentioning: Brendel's early recordings for Vox/Turnabout helped kick off his well-deserved fame. I would start with his lovely readings of the Beethoven Bagatelles. In addition to giving us the best recording of Darius Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil, the great composer-pianist William Bolcom offered us the finest recording of the Scott Joplin rags (1988, reissued on alto Records). It's bears noting that Bolcom was Milhaud's prize pupil, though the Frenchman also had a close relationship with Dave Brubeck, who named one of his sons Darius, and whose Connecticut (?) home included a decorative fireplace grate with a portrait of Milhaud, which was created by Milhaud's son Daniel. We liked him, but adored his mother Madeleine, who we used to visit in her apartment in Pigalle. She was a first cousin to Milhaud, and a good sight reader. They played played through piano reductions of symphonies and new works like the Rite of Spring. Madeleine was a trip. We met her when she was 90; she almost made it to 106.
thanks for fascinating comment! I had the Brendel Beethoven box on Vox when I was younger and decided I really didn't like it. However, I don't really trust my youthful judgement and today would readily concede I will never be a Beethoven expert.
Fascinating to me that you—as a Whiteside disciple & Fred student—don't respond to Brendel's playing, which for me, is a constant master class in color. To my mind, the emotional core of his playing lives in the way he was able to draw dozens of colors out of a single note... anyhow, de gustibus...
So odd because I think of the Whiteside method as leading to / prioritizing great sound… but I suppose someone can make a great sound and still leave people cold. 🤷🏻♂️
More observations: Since the death of the incomparable Charles Rosen, no writer I can thinks of has matched his music articles--I mean the ones in the New York Review of Books--but Brendel is among those who come the closest (another is young composer and hanging judge Matthew Aucoin. I don't know what Brendel was like as a teacher. Rosen was great, I sat in on a graduate seminar he gave on Schumann. But my favorite memory of Rosen is of seeing him walking through the Union Square green market with a distracted air; he was carrying a whole chicken. Trust Brendel to appreciate the Haydn sonatas. I recommend an oldie boxed set by composer John McCabe.
As long as he didn't arrange the Heinrich Schutz Seven Last Words, a terrific piece in its own right. Best evangelist music before Bach, those recitatives are matchless.
I once met a German documentary maker who was also a jazz pianist, and he told me that he had recently been involved in a documentary on Brendel and had fimed him at home. He said that Brendel really disliked jazz but his wife loved it and whenever there was a break in the filming, and Brendel had to go somewhere, his wife would peep out from the curtain, and say 'OK, he's gone, play some jazz for me!'
hahahaha! Beautiful
I love this article! So much good info!
thanks Rob!
Yes thank you Ethan for covering both jazz and classical as well as other forms of music. Life's too short to spend it in a single musical genre.
Ethan, what a breathtaking survey, and you inspire me to listen to every one of your choices, however I might find the time that you've put in! I appreciated the mention of Leonid Hambro, with whom I took a couple of lessons on some Liszt Années when he was at CalArts. Thanks also for the refreshing, "snob-free" Rosen quote comparing Art Tatum taking on "Tea for Two" to Liszt's opera transcriptions. I feel the same way about Cecil Taylor and Boulez.
Wow! You knew Leonid Hambro! Of course posterity remembers him as Victor Borge's straight man, but somewhere I found his Griffes record and thought it truly great. Right on!
Thanks for this, Ethan. I've been meaning to go back to Brendel's Op. 111, one of my favorite recordings.
Too much for an eternal amateur like me to unpack in one reading, but I did appreciate the mention of William Bolcom, who is on my ever lengthening list of musicians who deserve critical reappraisal in contemporary terms. A unique mind and skillful performer imo
Fascinating stuff! I remember way back when I was first getting into classical music it seemed as though I heard a lot of Brendel -- his recordings were widely available on budget labels, just the ticket for a married student living off the GI Bill.
Thanks Karl!
Brendel was a formative part of my taking classical music on in my 20s. At our Quaker wedding in Ithaca in 1987 we broke with tradition and had our friend Miriam Kennedy (who gave up a career at the keyboard in the 30s to raise a family) play an impromptu in the midst of the meeting at the chapel at Cornell. https://youtu.be/24DugWBRkYg?si=G4NmURVFwTa_FjLp
Worth--to me--mentioning: Brendel's early recordings for Vox/Turnabout helped kick off his well-deserved fame. I would start with his lovely readings of the Beethoven Bagatelles. In addition to giving us the best recording of Darius Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil, the great composer-pianist William Bolcom offered us the finest recording of the Scott Joplin rags (1988, reissued on alto Records). It's bears noting that Bolcom was Milhaud's prize pupil, though the Frenchman also had a close relationship with Dave Brubeck, who named one of his sons Darius, and whose Connecticut (?) home included a decorative fireplace grate with a portrait of Milhaud, which was created by Milhaud's son Daniel. We liked him, but adored his mother Madeleine, who we used to visit in her apartment in Pigalle. She was a first cousin to Milhaud, and a good sight reader. They played played through piano reductions of symphonies and new works like the Rite of Spring. Madeleine was a trip. We met her when she was 90; she almost made it to 106.
thanks for fascinating comment! I had the Brendel Beethoven box on Vox when I was younger and decided I really didn't like it. However, I don't really trust my youthful judgement and today would readily concede I will never be a Beethoven expert.
Fascinating to me that you—as a Whiteside disciple & Fred student—don't respond to Brendel's playing, which for me, is a constant master class in color. To my mind, the emotional core of his playing lives in the way he was able to draw dozens of colors out of a single note... anyhow, de gustibus...
Thanks for comment. I’ll have to ask Fred, but Sophia definitely didn’t like Brendel’s playing
So odd because I think of the Whiteside method as leading to / prioritizing great sound… but I suppose someone can make a great sound and still leave people cold. 🤷🏻♂️
More observations: Since the death of the incomparable Charles Rosen, no writer I can thinks of has matched his music articles--I mean the ones in the New York Review of Books--but Brendel is among those who come the closest (another is young composer and hanging judge Matthew Aucoin. I don't know what Brendel was like as a teacher. Rosen was great, I sat in on a graduate seminar he gave on Schumann. But my favorite memory of Rosen is of seeing him walking through the Union Square green market with a distracted air; he was carrying a whole chicken. Trust Brendel to appreciate the Haydn sonatas. I recommend an oldie boxed set by composer John McCabe.
I like John McCabe playing Haydn! In fact I plan to write about a true oddity, McCabe playing The Seven Last Words (in an anonymous transcription)
As long as he didn't arrange the Heinrich Schutz Seven Last Words, a terrific piece in its own right. Best evangelist music before Bach, those recitatives are matchless.