Davidsbundlertanze

Started by Mandryka, August 28, 2009, 04:42:11 AM

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Mandryka

Quote from: Herman on September 06, 2009, 01:22:38 PM
Baffling. Perhaps you're trying to say you like modern dance better than ballet. It's a bit like saying it's too bad Schumann didn't write for flute. Balanchine is arguably the greatest ballet choreographer of the twentieth century. DBT is a beautiful work of his, it's just not from his best years.

I dunno Herman. Balanchine is great. This is beautiful -- and powerful. There's a scene where they are all dancing with their arms raised which has the effect of jubilation, extasy.

But I would like to see what Pina Bausch would do with it. That's all.

I like some modern dance it's true, and I like some ballet. I find that movement is a very direct communicator for me: I am as emotionally effected by movement as I am by music.  So I like both I guess.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

ccar

#21
Quote from: Mandryka on August 28, 2009, 04:42:11 AM
I enjoy Gieseking's recording a lot. In fact, it's probably my favourite Giekeking performance. He never bangs even in the more bouncy pasages, and the lyricism in some of the dances towards the end -- 14 especially -- is beautiful.

I do like the Davidsbundlertanze pieces very much. And Gieseking is always a phenomenal artist-interpreter.
Apart from Gieseking (I have the Andante 1947 Berlin recording - note there is reference in some reviews and editions to a 1942 version but in my "1942" Andromeda ANDRCD 9009 it is the same 1947 recording) I also would like to share a mention to a not so well known artist I enjoy - Catherine Collard - and from whom I have 2 different Davidsbundlertanze readings - 1973(?) and 1989. Unfortunately she died prematurely. Does anyone have a personal impression about her ?
     
Carlos

Herman

I have the Cath Collard Davidsbundlertanze too. I got a copy from longtime GMG member Ezodisy.

It's a fine version of this piece, just lacking that essential touch of madness IMO, as do most.

ccar

Quote from: Herman on September 16, 2009, 04:59:39 AM
I have the Cath Collard Davidsbundlertanze too. I got a copy from longtime GMG member Ezodisy.

It's a fine version of this piece, just lacking that essential touch of madness IMO, as do most.

Some madness (specially if combined with talent and taste) may be a fascinating ingredient. But, as you said, a very rare one. Where do you remember it in the Davidsbundelrtanze - Cortot ?

Carlos   

mjwal

I imprinted on Gieseking's op.6, and some of it is transcendent in a way that will make a roomful of musical innocents* fall silent & listen raptly (I experienced this when I was a post-grad student many years ago in a flat I shared with physics students. It is my favourite Schumann piano work; the Fantasie is No.2, Kreisleriana 3. Or the other way round...
*This does not mean they were dumb, simply not very experienced with classical music.
I have very much appreciated the DG Anda version recently re-issued by Brilliant - but that special quantum of wildness is achieved in a live Anda performance on Aura (Ascona 1965), less perfect than the DG, but riveting. It is also worth listening to the performance by a Clara Schumann pupil, Fanny Davies, on Pearl. I haven't heard the Perahia - his playing tends to make me lose my concentration - too smooth, or what? I know it's my fault. It was like that with his Bach and his Mozart piano concertos, anyway.
The Pollini is lovely, perfect even; but to quote an early poem by John Berryman "The moon at the heart of man is cold".
The Violin's Obstinacy

It needs to return to this one note,
not a tune and not a key
but the sound of self it must depart from,
a journey lengthily to go
in a vein it knows will cripple it.
...
Peter Porter

Bulldog

Quote from: ccar on September 16, 2009, 03:02:13 PM
Some madness (specially if combined with talent and taste) may be a fascinating ingredient. But, as you said, a very rare one.

I think that "madness" is an essential ingredient of the work. 

Mandryka

Quote from: Bulldog on August 28, 2009, 05:51:51 AM
My eight favored versions: Gieseking, Cortot, Backhaus, Schein, Zacharias, Cooper, Kempff and Anda.  I pefer Backhaus most; he's entirely wild and unpredictable.  For the modern route, Ann Schein on Ivory Classics takes my breath away with her transcendent representation of Eusebius.

Are you sure the Backhaus recording on Piano Library is genuine? It seems to have only ever been released on Piano Library as far as I can see, I can't find it on LP. I don't know how reputable Piano Library is.

It doesn't sound like anything else I've heard  from Backhaus, but I'm not a Backhaus expert. far from it.

By the way, whoever's playng it's a remarkable performance.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Sammy

Quote from: Mandryka on February 12, 2013, 07:36:31 AM
Are you sure the Backhaus recording on Piano Library is genuine? It seems to have only ever been released on Piano Library as far as I can see, I can't find it on LP. I don't know how reputable Piano Library is.

It doesn't sound like anything else I've heard  from Backhaus, but I'm not a Backhaus expert. far from it.

By the way, whoever's playng it's a remarkable performance.

I can't even be sure that you're genuine.  ;D

It is a wonderful performance, but I wouldn't bet my life that it's Backhaus.

Mandryka

Quote from: Sammy on February 12, 2013, 07:57:11 AM
I can't even be sure that you're genuine.  ;D

It is a wonderful performance, but I wouldn't bet my life that it's Backhaus.

But who if not? It is so good, as you say!
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Leo K.

Uchida is my top recording.

Mandryka

Quote from: Sammy on February 12, 2013, 07:57:11 AM
I can't even be sure that you're genuine.  ;D

It is a wonderful performance, but I wouldn't bet my life that it's Backhaus.

Someone (a serious collector who I trust) has told me that no DBT LP was released by Backhaus.

Someone else suggested that it could be Gieseking, a sound check that he disowned. I just listened quite carefully to both Gieseking and the Piano Library CD and my bet is that it is indeed Gieseking. Some of the feeling of savagery in the performance may come from the sound.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: Agent Leo K. on February 12, 2013, 12:48:17 PM
Uchida is my top recording.

I haven't played the record much but I saw her perform it in London and it was indeed very good.

My own listening to this has focussed recently on a live record by Pollini, from a concert in Salzburg in 1984. And a remarkable performance from Thierry de Brunhoff. The latter defies all expectations, it's very very charming. I can't say why I like it, I shouldn't like it, but it's so charismatic that I love it.

Thierry de Brunhoff gave up pianism to become a monk. A loss to the piano. All his records that I've heard are charismatic and different. They used to be available on an. "Rarissimes" CD box.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Octave

Quote from: Mandryka on February 12, 2013, 09:21:27 PM
My own listening to this has focussed recently on a live record by Pollini, from a concert in Salzburg in 1984.

If this is the one I think it is, it is a storied recording.  I only know it as a release of the Exclusive label from the ~mid-90s; does anyone know if it's been reissued since?  I would like to get a hardcopy of it, but of course I am have no intention of paying $80 for the privilege.

[asin]B00008G29S[/asin]
Help support GMG by purchasing items from Amazon through this link.

val

After all this years, Geza Anda still remains my favorite. But Karl Engel has here one of his most inspired performances. And there is Gieseking in his version of 1947 with an imagination unique but also a very bad sound.

What a pity Yves Nat didn't record this beautiful work.

Mandryka

Quote from: Octave on February 12, 2013, 09:44:42 PM
If this is the one I think it is, it is a storied recording.  I only know it as a release of the Exclusive label from the ~mid-90s; does anyone know if it's been reissued since?  I would like to get a hardcopy of it, but of course I am have no intention of paying $80 for the privilege.

[asin]B00008G29S[/asin]

That's the one.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: val on February 13, 2013, 01:01:08 AM
After all this years, Geza Anda still remains my favorite. But Karl Engel has here one of his most inspired performances. And there is Gieseking in his version of 1947 with an imagination unique but also a very bad sound.

What a pity Yves Nat didn't record this beautiful work.

Are there any other Gieseking recordings?
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

val

QuoteMandryka
Are there any other Gieseking recordings?

I don't know. But that one is the only I know.

I hope that one day Jonathan Biss records this work. With the Fantasiestücke opus 12. It would be a very beautiful CD.

Mandryka

#37
Quote from: val on February 16, 2013, 12:58:28 AM
I don't know. But that one is the only I know.

I hope that one day Jonathan Biss records this work. With the Fantasiestücke opus 12. It would be a very beautiful CD.

Your dream has come true



I finally got round to hearing Biss's Kreisleriana. What a distinctive touch this guy has, rich and smooth, like purple satin. He can do dreamy and he can do bouncy - the latter nicely percussive without losing any richness of timbre. And he communicates some pretty disturbing emotions.

Very beautiful, but not too beautiful IMO. Thanks for mentioning Biss, I'm going to listen to some more of his records now, including that DBT.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: Sammy on February 12, 2013, 07:57:11 AM
I can't even be sure that you're genuine.  ;D

It is a wonderful performance, but I wouldn't bet my life that it's Backhaus.

Someone has "cleaned up" the sound on that Piano Library CD. It sounds much better. Let me know if you want it.

I still think it's Giesekng, but not everyone agrees.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Sammy

Quote from: val on February 16, 2013, 12:58:28 AM
I hope that one day Jonathan Biss records this work. With the Fantasiestücke opus 12. It would be a very beautiful CD.

As Mandryka has offered, Biss has recorded the Davidsbundlertanze and done quite well with it.  My only reservations are that he's a little undernourished with the Eusebius sections and in a few interludes where the dialogue between Florestan and Eusebius is not as vivid as I would like.  Overall, good but not outstanding.