Artur Schnabel

[Orpheus]

I like them more than the same ones on Pearl, as the the latter has some weird high  pitched noises on one of the concvertos (I forget which), plus the Naxos is much cheaper and easier to find.

Thanks George! Probably, it will be my first Schnabel on disc... 

[George]

Thanks George! Probably, it will be my first Schnabel on disc... 

I recommend following it up with Op. 2. 

[Orpheus]

I recommend following it up with Op. 2. 

Sure. I hope Naxos will assemble the piano sonatas in a big box...

[George]

Sure. I hope Naxos will assemble the piano sonatas in a big box...

They are cheap enough now so that you can consider it box set price, I think.

[Clever Hans]

They are cheap enough now so that you can consider it box set price, I think.

I don't think 70 euros for recordings from the 1930s is cheap, not to say it isn't worth it.

[George]

I don't think 70 euros for recordings from the 1930s is cheap, not to say it isn't worth it.

That's a lot more than MDT is charging.

$7.63 x 9 = $68.67 = 52.28 Euros

[Clever Hans]

That's a lot more than MDT is charging.

$7.63 x 9 = $68.67 = 52.28 Euros

But one must get the Diabelli variations and really also the concertos.

[George]

But one must get the Diabelli variations and really also the concertos.

I agree, but he was referring to the sonatas:

Sure. I hope Naxos will assemble the piano sonatas in a big box...

[Clever Hans]

I agree, but he was referring to the sonatas:

I see. Still not cheap in my opinion. But then, I think all recordings more than 50 years old should be free to anyone and their production subsidized by arts and cultural institutions.

Absolutely worth it, though, particularly if one has no other issue of Schnabel doing the sonatas.

[George]

I see. Still not cheap in my opinion. But then, I think all recordings more than 50 years old should be free to anyone and their production subsidized by arts and cultural institutions.

That would be nice! 

I guess when I say cheap I am comparing it to the only other decent mastering of those performances, the Pearl OOP (and expensive) CDs.

Absolutely worth it, though, particularly if one has no other issue of Schnabel doing the sonatas.

Agreed. 

[Coopmv]

I like them more than the same ones on Pearl, as the the latter has some weird high  pitched noises on one of the concvertos (I forget which), plus the Naxos is much cheaper and easier to find.

Do these Naxos Historicals ever get OOP?

[George]

Do these Naxos Historicals ever get OOP?

Not to my knowledge.

[Mandryka]

On one of those Naxos remasterings ny MOT there are  three Brahms late short solo piano pieces.

Worth hearing.

[Coopmv]

On one of those Naxos remasterings ny MOT there are  three Brahms late short solo piano pieces.

Worth hearing.

MOT is the gold standard for remaster/reconstruction of historical recordings ...

[Mandryka]

People used to laugh at that cadenza in K.491 - it's interesting to me as a fact of modern musical reception that you find the cadenzas "fit the interpretation perfectly", Mandryka. I agree, of course, always have, but in the 70s this was regarded as slightly "weird".

I wouldn't use my response as an indicator of modern reception trends -- I have cultivated slight wierdness for years And don't forget that there are many people who post on this form who would say their favourite Mozart interpreter is Sofronitsky (Fille) or Bezuidenhout.

His performance of K.482 (1941 w/NYPO/Walter on The Radio Years), for instance, is rather noisy (radio interference too) but clear - and indispensable, I find, majestically and dramatically introduced by Walter (you could be listening to his Don Giovanni!), Schnabel enters with quasi faux-naiveté dispelled in a few seconds by insolently pointed figuration leading to thundering profound chords as the music and the sound of the piano itself turns darker ...and so on. The shadowy nocturnal aspect of the Andante is richly etched by Schnabel and Walter, an ideal partnership here, I must say, and the cadenza of the third movement is heavenly - and then shocking! 

Good dope. What astonishing, life enhancing music making. Heavenly and shocking is no overstatement.

Sound wise it seems just fine given its antiquity -- I can certainly hear the music without too much  pain.

[Mandryka]

|Does anyone have this recording of Szigeti and Schnabel in Brahms? How is the sound?


[asin]B00004T8XF[/asin]

[George]

|Does anyone have this recording of Szigeti and Schnabel in Brahms? How is the sound?

Poor.

[early grey]

Can I offer for your perusal my website
www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk
which contains two of AS's Beethoven Society Albums together with his performances in K.V.467 with the LSO under Sargeant and also his recording with the ProArte group of the Trout Quintet. An earlier contributor suggests that AS wrote cadenzas for several Mozart concerti and the K.V.467 cadenzas seem to me to have a similarity in elements of figuration with the Allegro Vivace section of the 3rd movement of the Sonata no.13. The Opus 109 performance has a helter-skelter Prestissimo which I am not sure does the detail evident in the score justice, but it doesn't lack excitement! A strange ghostly sound intrudes at the end of the pp middle section of this movement which could be from an adjoining studio or possibly a spurious pedal-movement artefact. The final Variation 6 starts with 2 bars of 3 crotchets and Schnabel puts in his own slight rit before the 3rd bar begins and the effect is magical.   

[mjwal]

|Does anyone have this recording of Szigeti and Schnabel in Brahms? How is the sound?


[asin]B00004T8XF[/asin]

Yes,I have it (not here at the moment) - I found it hard to attend to properly because of noise and distortion, especially in op.78. When i get back to France I'll give it a re-listen. But nobody, not even Szigeti/Schnabel, can compete with the slow movement of op.78 with Busch/Serkin, one of the top slow movements on record for emotive power.

[Mandryka]

But nobody, not even Szigeti/Schnabel, can compete with the slow movement of op.78 with Busch/Serkin, one of the top slow movements on record for emotive power.

Probably -- I like the drama and the moment when times stands still about three quarters of the way through. All the others I can think of are flawed (I like Goldberg and Ferras  more than most other violinists,  but  Balsam and Barbizet not as much as many other pianists.)

Richter+Kagan in Op 78 special though.