Past Purchases (CLOSED)

[DavidW]

I thought that Lewis recording was just okay.  A good recording that has already been overhyped far more than it deserves.

[kishnevi]

Re: Diabelli
I have the Lewis, the Brendel Vox, a mono by Katchen, and Serkin.  I prefer the Serkin (recorded 3-5 September 1957, Marlboro VT).   The format I have it in is part of  a Serkin series issued by Sony, in which it is coupled with the Bagatelles Op. 119 and the Fantasy Op. 77; as a companion disc, I have Serkin playing the last three sonatas.

Thread duty: pre-ordered three items to be released in the States on 9/13 from Amazon:  Gergiev's Mahler 9; a Mozart recital by Ildebrando d'Arcangelo, and Mozart on fortepianos by Demus and Badura Skoda--some of it piano four hands, some of it for two pianos.

[The new erato]

Due to the current silly prices on Harmonia Mundi (12 VAtfree £s on europadisc for this 4 disc set) I ordered this. Maybe Egarr isn't the last word in French keyboard repertoire, but Alex Ross (who seems to be listening to a lot of early music recently) recommends it, and soundclips on his site sounds tempting, so it will do for me.

And I added this, as it contains a very fine recording of the best French piano trio ever, the Faure:



Also at a silly price, and the sale draws to an end.

[jlaurson]

I thought that Lewis recording was just okay.  A good recording that has already been overhyped far more than it deserves.

That's my experience with the other Beethoven at least... (esp. true live) but I haven't yet heard the Diabelli Variations yet.
I know I am fond of Ashkenazy in the DVs, and Pollini of course, but I suppose my favorite is Julius Katchen.

... A re-issue from Decca that brings together all the Beethoven recordings of the great American pianist Julius Katchen, who tragically died at 42, includes the Diabelli Variations (op. 120) and it is, for all its sonic limitations, an interpretation I have immediately taken to. It's not at all natural to "immediately take to" the Diabelli Variations, no matter who plays it, because they are neither easy to play nor easy to listen to. Even the enormous Hammerklavier Sonata (op.106) strikes as more accessible. And the finest recordings of the Variations (above mentioned Pollini, DG, or Stephen Kovacevich, Philips) happen to be so precise and controlled as to underscore that intimidating, elusive quality of the work. (Is it coincidence that another magnum opus of Beethoven's, composed at the same time and with as much of the composer's zeal, the Missa Solemnis, strikes many as similarly difficult to access?)

In many ways the Katchen recording opens the way to greater appreciation precisely because of its superficial imperfections and infidelities. Starting with the limited sound – limits that here I find endearing, rather than disturbing... perhaps in the way that no one has ever been bothered by the sound quality of Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variations. The piano sound is a bit flattened and metallic in the upper register, background hiss is audible. It's no better than one might expect from a 1953 recording, but not much worse, either.

Before you even focus on Katchen's playing, all sense of the clinical is thus avoided. And Katchen brings to the Diabelli Variations a 'lust for life' that is immediately engaging – from the first variation on that trite Diabelli waltz to the 33rd, some 50 minutes later. It's no coincidence that some variations strongly hint at Beethoven's second-to-last solo piano work, sonata no.32, op.111. "Opus One-Eleven" inspired a complete chapter in Thomas Mann's Dr.Faustus, a record label named itself after it, and those who are obsessed with it proclaim it the alpha and omega of the piano sonata as such. Katchen's recording of it is happily coupled with the Diabelli Variations which makes it even more obvious how variation no.8 or variation no.20 have a musical kinship with op.111′s variation movement. In variation no.24 (Fughetta: Andante), Bach gets his due in a fashion that might have you forget you are listening to Beethoven. Variation 31 (Largo, molto espressivo) is fingered unto the keyboard with gentle, almost fortepiano-like delicacy by Katchen before he throws himself into the penultimate variation, the towering Fugue that serves as grand contrast to the sweetly little minuet that Diabelli's waltz has become after this traversal.

If I find Katchen's Diabelli Variations the most appealing inclusion on this budget 4-CD set, he nonetheless goes on proving that he's more than just the man for supreme Brahms. The five Piano Concertos with the London Symphony are well worth listening to. (The CD also includes the 'Ninth Symphony-predecessor', the Choral Fantasy op.80, the rarely heard B-flat major Rondo for piano and orchestra WoO 6, and the C major Polonaise, op.89.) And his fearless and intense performance of op.111, although it doesn't match other favorites (the low notes rumble more darkly than ideal and the recording has audible 'ghosts' (pre-shadows) of the music in the quiet moments before the octave runs in the first movement), is painstakingly pretty in the variation movement. First soft and gentle; on the slow side but steady – then with athletic vigor and joyful bursts of energy and tension just beneath the surface...

[The new erato]

Katchen's DV and op 111 both are on this dead cheap disc:

[Holden]

I'm a bit of a DV collector and have the following recordings

Schnabel
Kovacevich I
Kovacevich II
Arrau
Richter (2)
Kuerti
Ciani
Sokolov
Serkin (Sony)
Serkin (M&A)
Nikolayeva
Vieru
Richter-Haaser
Katchen (I'm listening now)
Brendel (VOX)
Lewis

The ones I've highlighted in red are the ones I rate the highest and of all of them I nearly always return to Arrau. He's one of the few that make the DV seem as one integrated work instead of 33 disparate pieces based on the same theme.

[DavidW]

I guess I need to hear Katchen and Serkin!   My favorite is Kovacevich, but I've only heard a handful of recordings.

[Sergeant Rock]

It's not at all natural to "immediately take to" the Diabelli Variations, no matter who plays it, because they are neither easy to play nor easy to listen to. Even the enormous Hammerklavier Sonata (op.106) strikes as more accessible.

That's good to know; makes me feel less guilty. For all my love of late Beethoven, the DV has completely eluded me for forty years.

Sarge

[DavidW]

That's good to know; makes me feel less guilty. For all my love of late Beethoven, the DV has completely eluded me for forty years.

Sarge

It's my least favorite Beethoven piano piece, I even enjoy the Eroica variations more.

[karlhenning]

It's many years since I actually listened, but yes, I seem to recall admiring it more than enjoying it . . . .

[karlhenning]

I can picture Rowan Atkinson as Diabelli telling him, "Sod off, Ludwig."

[Sergeant Rock]

It's my least favorite Beethoven piano piece, I even enjoy the Eroica variations more.

It's many years since I actually listened, but yes, I seem to recall admiring it more than enjoying it . . . .

Thanks, guys. Now I'm feeling really good about my Beethoven blindspot  In fact, I'm ready to tell Beethoven himself to "sod off"   

Sarge

[Mirror Image]

Just bought:

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[Mirror Image]

Just bought these Erkki-Sven Tüür recordings:

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[Mirror Image]

Giving Schnittke another shot with works outside of his symphonies:

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[Mirror Image]

Just bought this out-of-print 2-CD set of Elgar with Boult at the helm:

[Que]

Picked up out of the bargain bin yesterday:



Finally - a recording of Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata on arpeggione.

Q

[Willoughby earl of Itacarius]

Giving Schnittke another shot with works outside of his symphonies:

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Well if you do not like them, remember me, I will give them a good home. I always have recordings in return:)

[DavidW]

Giving Schnittke another shot with works outside of his symphonies:

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Much better choice (as compared to the symphony box set), if those don't win you over you need never look back on the composer.

[karlhenning]

Much better choice (as compared to the symphony box set) . . . .

Still . . . he didn't trouble to listen to symphonies nos. 4-9!

Imagine someone with a box of the Beethoven symphonies, and he listens to them in order . . . after listening to (and not caring for) the Third, he figures, Nah, these Beethoven symphonies can't be much . . . and doesn't bother with nos, 4 through 9 . . . .