(western) classical music discussion

[Rev. Rye]

Angela Hewitt has recorded two sets of the WTC (both books twice), and both did an exemplary job. If you're not going to go with Glenn Gould, she's your girl.

[abaris]

In Haydn's defense he called it Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser.

Yeah, they just took it and changed the words a few times. I wonder what ol Haydn would have thought of that!

It's called stealing. Even more so since the Germans already had their own anthem going by the same tune as the english one. Not only were they closely related, they couldn't even think of different anthems.

[Pyrrho]

Ah very good, the Well Tempered Clavier is still missing in my CD collection. What other recordings of it would you recommend? How do you like Pollini (if you have an opinion)?

Just buy the one I recommended (even though it is only Book I).  Do I ever steer you wrong?  I gave a copy of it to a pianist friend of mine, along with other CDs of Rubinstein doing Chopin.  I thought she would like the Rubinstein Chopin, and just slipped in the Horszowski Bach, which is what I really wanted her to hear.  But she particularly liked the Bach done by Horszowski, and hardly acknowledged the Rubinstein Chopin.  She is someone with a graduate degree in music, in piano, who teaches piano to others (which I would imagine is soul crushing).  So I am not good at predicting what she would like, but I was right in what to give to her.

I do not have an opinion of Pollini for the Well Tempered Clavier.  I do, however, have a generally more favorable impression of Pollini than of Gould.  But buy the Horszowski.  Even if you decide you want something else, you need Horszowski.  If you don't like Horszowski, you should hang your head in shame!

The only time you might not want to go with Horszowski is when he is live.  He was apt to make some mistakes from time to time (and because he recorded so rarely, everything that was recorded, no matter how screwed up in recording quality or in performance, is likely to have been released).  But even so, even when he was wrong, he could do no wrong.  I suspect that many people will not understand that remark, but somehow I think you might.

In the case of the Well Tempered Clavier, it is a studio recording, in good quality analog sound (just before almost everyone switched to digital).  Just buy it, and then post online about it, telling everyone that I am a stupid fool, if that is your opinion after hearing it.  And if you have good taste, feel free to thank me for the recommendation online.


Edited to add:

You can read other opinions of the performance at:

http://smile.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Well-Te...B000G8NVZC

http://smile.amazon.com/Bach-Well-Temper...B0000023F6

I should mention, however, that, judging from what I have read, one of the reviewers is wrong about the LPs originally including Book II.  According to what I have read, they started recording Book II, but cancelled the project, and so only Book I was ever released.

[Alex K]

Very good - I got myself the Andras Schiff version because I like most things he does and bc I wanted to listen to it during my drive yesterday, so I got a version that comes with the free mp3, but I consider getting your recommended one if it is different enough.

[Pyrrho]

I have found a place to sample little bits of it on your computer:

http://smile.amazon.com/Bach-Tempered-Cl...B00QWAROLU

Of course, it is irritating to listen to it that way, as it just chops off the music abruptly when the allotted time is up for each sample.

There is also another customer review there.

I recommend that you just buy the CDs.  Then, if you wish, complain bitterly about how I misled you, if that is how you feel after listening to it properly.  If you are greatly offended at it, you can PM or email me a link to your wishlist on Amazon, and maybe I will buy you something of approximately equivalent value from your wishlist.

However, I think you are likely to enjoy it.  Whenever I listen to it, I really wish that Book II had also been recorded.  But having Book I is much better than not having it.

Horszowski is my favorite pianist.  I also very particularly like:

http://www.amazon.de/Plays-Schumann-Chop...B000005J0V

It might be cheaper to buy it from a different Amazon site, or from some other source.  

The other Electra Nonesuch discs he recorded are also well worth getting.


Edited to add:

And you might want to buy the Bach discs from the U.S. or some other place for price:


http://smile.amazon.com/J-S-Bach-Well-Te...B000G8NVZC

[Minimalist]

While we are banging on keyboards....my favorite Beethoven sonata.

[Rev. Rye]

For the record, my Bach list has expanded:

I will now add versions of Art of the Fugue by Neville Marriner (with Musical Offering), and Helmut Walcha, the St. John Passion by John Gardiner, and the B Minor mass by Otto Klemperer.

Fun fact: when I had my second root canal two years ago (for tooth #8), I elected to have nitrous oxide administered, and at the moment, I was listening to the B Minor Mass. By the time it got to the Gloria, the experience could only be described as transcendental. Between the Bach and the nitrous, it almost made you forget that a man was drilling a hole in your front tooth. Well, except for the shit they spray into your mouth so they keep the area clean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e41xaMNg...7YsxIwEV6x

[Alex K]

Talking about Walcha and Bach,


Yesterday I listened to his completion of the unfinished fourteenth fugue from art of fugue. How strange after hearing the characteristic unfinished ending a million times before, and hearing the oher voices just go on.

Any of you know it? I thought it was cool to have a complete version where the original first theme is finally reintroduced as a grand finale. But one can't help notice that the style immediately changes where Bach left off. It doesn't "sing" any more like so many of bachs things do, and becomes more of an exercise that makes you feel how complicated it is. The harmonic transitions seem to become more forced and less inevitable. Granted, the fugue does become more complicated, but even in the ricrercar a 6 of the musical offering, there is still an effortlessness that Walcha simply doesn't manage. Still, it is enjoyable to have a completion, if only as an illustration how great the guy was

[Alex K]

While we are banging on keyboards....my favorite Beethoven sonata.

Ah, finally some classical music in this classical music thread. It's funny, I didn't exactly know which one the pathetique was, but every part of it is so familiar, I guess to almost everyone, even though it is not as obviously famous as say the fifth symphony.

[Alex K]

Angela Hewitt has recorded two sets of the WTC (both books twice), and both did an exemplary job. If you're not going to go with Glenn Gould, she's your girl.

Mmh, so far I could only find very expensive import versions...