New Releases

Started by Brian, March 12, 2009, 12:26:29 PM

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Florestan

#12800
Quote from: Mandryka on November 23, 2021, 10:21:39 AM
It's very good I think. I don't listen to the preludes enough.

Just the other day the thought occured to me that I could listen to nothing but Chopin all day long, 24/7, and never get bored.

No, seriously, I eagerly explore the piano music of this or that lesser-known/unknown/unsung composer and every time I feel dissatisfied and frustrated (which is most of the time, honestly), I play some Chopin and lo and behold! I feel like coming home. Like a glass or two of good red wine in the armchair beside the fireplace and a warm blanket afterwards --- all that, after walking all day long on muddy roads during heavy rain.

You can read French, please tell me what do you make of this:

Chopin, mer de soupirs, de larmes, de sanglots
Q'un vol de papillons sans se poser traverse
Jouant sur la tristesse ou dansant sur les flots.
Reve, aime, souffre, crie, apaise, charme ou berce,

Toujours tu fais courir entre chaque douleur
L'oubli vertigineux et doux de ton caprice
Comme les papillons volent de fleur en fleur;
De ton chagrin alors ta joie est la complice:

L'ardeur du tourbillon accroit la soif des pleurs.
De la lune et des eaux pale et doux camarade,
Prince du desespoir ou grand seigneur trahi,

Tu t'exaltes encore, plus beau d'etre pali,
Du soleil inondant ta chambre de malade
Qui pleure a lui sourire et souffre de le voir...

Sourire du regret et larmes de l'Espoir!

--- Marcel Proust





Every kind of music is good, except the boring kind. — Rossini

JBS

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 23, 2021, 08:36:44 AM
I very much admire Lortie.

Well Brendel is a better artist than anyone else listed (other than of course the divine Ms Argerich) in this discussion, but I happen to think Ms. Hewitt is one of the best Bach pianists around, and her French recordings are relatively good (the Chabrier might indeed be best of that group). OTOH there's nothing very distinctive about her Beethoven and her Schumann CD was positively dreary.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on November 23, 2021, 12:46:46 PM
Well Brendel is a better artist than anyone else listed (other than of course the divine Ms Argerich) in this discussion, but I happen to think Ms. Hewitt is one of the best Bach pianists around, and her French recordings are relatively good (the Chabrier might indeed be best of that group). OTOH there's nothing very distinctive about her Beethoven and her Schumann CD was positively dreary.

Thanks for this, I'm unsure when last I read something positive about Ms. H.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mandryka

#12803
Quote from: Florestan on November 23, 2021, 11:41:05 AM
Just the other day the thought occured to me that I could listen to nothing but Chopin all day long, 24/7, and never get bored.

No, seriously, I eagerly explore the piano music of this or that lesser-known/unknown/unsung composer and every time I feel dissatisfied and frustrated (which is most of the time, honestly), I play some Chopin and lo and behold! I feel like coming home. Like a glass or two of good red wine in the armchair beside the fireplace and a warm blanket afterwards --- all that, after walking all day long on muddy roads during heavy rain.

You can read French, please tell me what do you make of this:

Chopin, mer de soupirs, de larmes, de sanglots
Q'un vol de papillons sans se poser traverse
Jouant sur la tristesse ou dansant sur les flots.
Reve, aime, souffre, crie, apaise, charme ou berce,

Toujours tu fais courir entre chaque douleur
L'oubli vertigineux et doux de ton caprice
Comme les papillons volent de fleur en fleur;
De ton chagrin alors ta joie est la complice:

L'ardeur du tourbillon accroit la soif des pleurs.
De la lune et des eaux pale et doux camarade,
Prince du desespoir ou grand seigneur trahi,

Tu t'exaltes encore, plus beau d'etre pali,
Du soleil inondant ta chambre de malade
Qui pleure a lui sourire et souffre de le voir...

Sourire du regret et larmes de l'Espoir!

--- Marcel Proust



Very nice, I like de la lune et des eaux pales camarade. Proust certainly liked that image of insects going from plant to plant - remember the start of Sodome et Gomorrhe, there's a similar image, when Marcel looks down from the window of his room to see Jupien up to all sorts of unnamable things with Charlus. Presumably he felt a certain sympathy for Chopin in the chambre de malade - though if I remember right Proust didn't let the sun come into his (I could well be wrong about that.)
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Todd

Quote from: Brian on November 23, 2021, 06:55:28 AMDang, that's harsh!


And not really relevant.  Hewitt's rejections will sell easily enough.  They were purpose/custom built, etc.  I mean, come on, let's look at the market for these pianos.
The universe is change; life is opinion. - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

People would rather believe than know - E.O. Wilson

Propaganda death ensemble - Tom Araya

staxomega

When the news first broke ( :P) of her piano being destroyed it swept the non-classical world as well; our PA asked me if I heard about it and she doesn't listen to classical. In that article the founder of Fazioli said he'd never build another four pedal given the difficulty. Interesting to see him going from never to we'll build five.

Off the top of my head I don't think I can recall any recordings I have where they specifically say recorded on a Fazioli though I have discs from some others on Fazioli's artist page. The Boris Giltburg Beethoven cycle highlights for me just how good they can sound but I don't think they're any better or worse than Steinway, it's nice to have some variety. The best sounding piano I've heard live was one of Mechanics Hall's full size Bosendorfers.

Mandryka



On the basis of listening for 10 minutes, this is the Bartok cycle we've all always wanted.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

amw

Quote from: Brian on November 21, 2021, 05:55:46 PM
Also February will bring the end to Angela Hewitt's Beethoven cycle...



Op 111
10:09 (!)
21:04 (!!!)

Disappointing but not, I guess, very surprising. At least it won't be as bad as Anatol Ugorski.

Spotted Horses

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 23, 2021, 01:14:25 PM
Thanks for this, I'm unsure when last I read something positive about Ms. H.

If you've read my posts you've read many positive things about Angela Hewitt. I derive a great deal of enjoyment from her Bach series, the Goldberg Various and WTC especially, and found her recordings of Ravel and Faure to be superb, bringing out internal counterpoint in music which is often played in a more atmospheric manner.

There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind. - Duke Ellington

Mandryka

#12809


A rerelease of this

https://www.discogs.com/release/1202517-Frédéric-Chopin-Fou-TsOng-1810-1849-Préludes-Op-28-45-Posth

- available everywhere and of course, including YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/v/JZdIILY7uVs

Such wonderful music!

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#12810
Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2021, 12:16:53 PM
If you've read my posts you've read many positive things about Angela Hewitt. I derive a great deal of enjoyment from her Bach series, the Goldberg Various and WTC especially, and found her recordings of Ravel and Faure to be superb, bringing out internal counterpoint in music which is often played in a more atmospheric manner.

The one that sticks in my mind as being interesting is Davidsbundlertänze. The way she manages the contrast between Florestan and Eusebius made me think of rock and roll dancing where the man is relatively still and the woman pirouettes around him. Long time since I heard it, so the above may be utter crap.

(Listening now - what I said is utter crap of course - but no matter, the performance is really excellent)
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mirror Image

Quote from: Mandryka on November 24, 2021, 10:15:29 AM


On the basis of listening for 10 minutes, this is the Bartok cycle we've all always wanted.

I'll be giving this a listen tomorrow. From what I've sampled, the Ragazze Quartet have a fine sound.

Karl Henning

Quote from: Spotted Horses on November 24, 2021, 12:16:53 PM
If you've read my posts you've read many positive things about Angela Hewitt. I derive a great deal of enjoyment from her Bach series, the Goldberg Various and WTC especially, and found her recordings of Ravel and Faure to be superb, bringing out internal counterpoint in music which is often played in a more atmospheric manner.



Thanks. Don't know how I missed your posts.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

amw

Quote from: Mandryka on November 24, 2021, 12:39:23 PM
The one that sticks in my mind as being interesting is Davidsbundlertänze. The way she manages the contrast between Florestan and Eusebius made me think of rock and roll dancing where the man is relatively still and the woman pirouettes around him. Long time since I heard it, so the above may be utter crap.

(Listening now - what I said is utter crap of course - but no matter, the performance is really excellent)
I have no idea what you're talking about but yes it's a perfectly good recording; I'm not sure why people might dismiss it as dreary. Admittedly she refuses to ever stick to a single tempo for more than two bars in succession but if you downsampled the recording to mono, slapped a vinyl/tape hiss filter on it and claimed it was by Ernst Levy, the same people who dismiss it now out of sheer anti-British contrarianism (which, in all fields except music, I am 100% supportive of) would probably love it.

I obviously prefer my Davidsbündlertänze to, well, dance, but Hewitt is notable in her total commitment to the (inferior) 1850 version (e.g. removing the tied note at the beginning almost all other pianists retain), which is properly titled "Davidsbündler: achtzehn Characterstücke"; Schumann preferred at that point in his career to totally attenuate the dance character of the piece. Ugorski is again the exemplar of this style but those who like his recording (which is his best outside the 20th century, and much better than his Op. 111) will also like Hewitt's.

JBS

In fact I don't have Hewitt's DBT--didn't know or forgot that she had done them. The recording I called dreary is this

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

amw

Ah. I haven't heard that one. Apologies.

Karl Henning

Quote from: JBS on November 24, 2021, 06:57:17 PM
In fact I don't have Hewitt's DBT--didn't know or forgot that she had done them. The recording I called dreary is this


Is there anything less felicitous than a dreary Humoreske?
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

JBS

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on November 24, 2021, 07:15:24 PM
Is there anything less felicitous than a dreary Humoreske?

To be fair, it's been a long long time since I've listened to it.  I should go looking for it and see if my ears have changed in the interim.

Hollywood Beach Broadwalk

Brian

For those who were talking about Anders Eliasson a page or two ago, eClassical's deal of the day is a disc of his chamber music for US $4.64. Nov. 26 only.

André

Quote from: Brian on November 26, 2021, 07:04:57 AM
For those who were talking about Anders Eliasson a page or two ago, eClassical's deal of the day is a disc of his chamber music for US $4.64. Nov. 26 only.

That's an excellent disc. The harpsichord quintet is very stimulating.