Recordings That You Are Considering

[Que]

My first set of Fauré piano music was the Collard. Honestly, perhaps in part due to the acoustic but also to his very literal serious playing, I just assumed after listening that I did not like Fauré. His music seemed like an occasional pretty melody surrounded by tough stuff.

I am planning to get rid of my Collard box (the piano only set from Brilliant, so no chamber music) and if you want it and you're in the USA I can mail it to you for like $3-4 to cover stamps.

Agree with you on Collard. Was dissapointed myself.

Q

[T. D.]

My first set of Fauré piano music was the Collard. Honestly, perhaps in part due to the acoustic but also to his very literal serious playing, I just assumed after listening that I did not like Fauré. His music seemed like an occasional pretty melody surrounded by tough stuff.

I've since gotten over it thanks to individual CD recitals by the ultra-great Germain Thyssens-Valentin (who learned piano in the composer's time and clearly had a special closeness to his music) and the only slightly less great Nicolas Stavy and Sally Pinkas. Unfortunately that is a very expensive way to build a collection, and the GTV discs are getting tragically rare.

I am planning to get rid of my Collard box (the piano only set from Brilliant, so no chamber music) and if you want it and you're in the USA I can mail it to you for like $3-4 to cover stamps.

Thanks for the generous offer, but the consensus on Collard seems negative, so I'll pass.
I'm interested mostly in the piano music. First thought was Heidsieck, but recordings are hard to find. The GTV seem even more rare.
Now leaning toward Stott.

[betterthanfine]

Not complete, but extremely enjoyable:

[asin]B01LP5F9JU[/asin]
Minnaar is at his absolute best in French music, and the recording quality is top of the bill. I prefer him even over Stott, who would be my first choice too for a complete set.

[T. D.]

Decided to check Berkshire Record Outlet and found 4 GTV discs on Testament (3 Fauré and 1 Franck/Fauré) for a price I was willing to pay.
Quite a surprise: I hadn't ordered from Berkshire for years because their website had gone to pot, but the site recently improved and is somewhat usable (though still poor). BRO also had the Stott set, but I was lured by the rare and exotic. Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Brian]

Decided to check Berkshire Record Outlet and found 4 GTV discs on Testament (3 Fauré and 1 Franck/Fauré) for a price I was willing to pay.
Quite a surprise: I hadn't ordered from Berkshire for years because their website had gone to pot, but the site recently improved and is somewhat usable (though still poor). BRO also had the Stott set, but I was lured by the rare and exotic. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Success! I hope - if it's not, never listen to me again 

But I recently paid about $10.50 each for the GTV discs and have been enchanted. Even the late 50s sound seems to add to the atmosphere of nostalgic beauty and romantic drama.

Gonna have to check out that Minnaar disc.

[Mirror Image]

Decided to check Berkshire Record Outlet and found 4 GTV discs on Testament (3 Fauré and 1 Franck/Fauré) for a price I was willing to pay.
Quite a surprise: I hadn't ordered from Berkshire for years because their website had gone to pot, but the site recently improved and is somewhat usable (though still poor). BRO also had the Stott set, but I was lured by the rare and exotic. Thanks again for the suggestions.

I hope you enjoy the Thyssens-Valentin more than I did. I respect the playing, but I couldn't appreciate it too much due to the shoddy audio quality. I own one recording of her Fauré and regretted the purchase. Stott has been my go-to in Fauré since I heard performances this past year. He is an extremely difficult composer to get right, but when everything lines up, the magic happens and the music casts its' spell on you.

[amw]

Jean-Michel Damase has some good Fauré as does Massimiliano Damerini. Charles Owen is like GTV in good sound but with slightly less idiomatic performances. Michel Dalberto, Giulio Biddau & Angela Hewitt are decent. I'm not a huge fan of Kathryn Stott or Jean-Claude Pennetier but they're never bad, just sometimes uninteresting.

[Mandryka]

Anyone actually heard this?

[amw]

Yes & I think it's very good.

[Mandryka]

You are a very bad influence.

[Que]

Not complete, but extremely enjoyable:

[asin]B01LP5F9JU[/asin]
Minnaar is at his absolute best in French music, and the recording quality is top of the bill. I prefer him even over Stott, who would be my first choice too for a complete set.

Will check that out. 

I was recently impressed with Daniel Grimwood:



Though I wished he had used a period instrument.
Like many French composers of his time, Fauré was a colourist.

Q

[Todd]

I'm not a huge fan of Kathryn Stott or Jean-Claude Pennetier but they're never bad, just sometimes uninteresting.

I've not heard Pennetier and have no pressing urge to, but Stott is dreadful.  I heard her set first and thought I disliked Faure, much like Brian's experience with Collard, whom I enjoy.

The best single Faure piano music disc I've heard, and one rather unlike all others, is from Esteban Sanchez.  Eric Heidsieck's Nocturnes, Micheal Endres' Barcarolles, and Kun Woo Paik's recital are all quite fine, and very different.  GTV sets the standard for now.  I'm hoping Dumont establishes a modern day standard.

[MickeyBoy]

BBC CD Review in 2011 on Faure's Nocturnes: Stephen Plaistow discusses each piece in turn and accords special praise to several pianists for their performances of individual pieces. Regarding no 6, which I long thought Kempff owned, he signals out Jean Hubeau, classical and near ideal; Stott, more pedal, alive to every twist and turn, a grand performance; Thyssens plays without pedal - very difficult - and adds curiously that the pianist should concentrate on being a flute and a harp at the same time. For all 13 he enthusiastically recommended Mrs Thyssens, with compliments for the superb authority of Hubeau, the impassioned feeling of Stott, and nods towards Roge and Crossley.

My own impressions are that pianists like Collard and Crossley tend too much to play all the pieces with a similar feeling or style. And for some reason Crossley's playing strikes me as fussily irritating. Surely that is being unfair.

[Mandryka]

Thyssens plays without pedal - very difficult - and adds curiously that the pianist should concentrate on being a flute and a harp at the same time.

I've always thought that Thyssens' sound is funny and indeed fute and harp is about right. Thanks.

(Eric le Sage for me! For the counterpoint!)

[Judith]

Just ordered the 12 CD set of Mozart symphonies by ASMF and Sir Neville Marriner. Am looking forward to these🎼🎼

[Madiel]

I've not heard Pennetier and have no pressing urge to, but Stott is dreadful.  I heard her set first and thought I disliked Faure, much like Brian's experience with Collard, whom I enjoy.

The best single Faure piano music disc I've heard, and one rather unlike all others, is from Esteban Sanchez.  Eric Heidsieck's Nocturnes, Micheal Endres' Barcarolles, and Kun Woo Paik's recital are all quite fine, and very different.  GTV sets the standard for now.  I'm hoping Dumont establishes a modern day standard.

Why do you consider Stott dreadful?

Given that hardly anyone else does.

[Ratliff]

I should revisit Collard, which I haven't listened to for ages.

I have the same feeling about Stott's Faure as Leslis Howard's Liszt, consistently respectful, technically assured interpretation, a good starting point to branch out from. Amazing how different Faure pieces can sometimes sound from different performers. Switching to Hubeau, Hewitt, the same piece can sound very different.

Then there's the chronically out-of-print Doyen set...

[Brian]

Side bar, I sampled bits of Leslie Howard Liszt because I wanted to collect the Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions specifically, and Howard seemed so damn slow. Very dutiful sight reading, it seemed like.

Anyway Schubert-Liszt recommendations welcome.

[Daverz]

Side bar, I sampled bits of Leslie Howard Liszt because I wanted to collect the Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions specifically, and Howard seemed so damn slow. Very dutiful sight reading, it seemed like.

Anyway Schubert-Liszt recommendations welcome.

Sofronitzky recorded at least 7 of them.  Just reporting, I haven't gotten around to them yet.

7-06   –Franz Schubert   Die Stadt   2:32
7-07   –Franz Schubert   Die Junge Nonne   4:45
7-08   –Franz Schubert   Am Meer   4:04
7-09   –Franz Schubert   Frühlingsglaube   3:31
7-10   –Franz Schubert   Auf Dem Wasser Zu Singen   4:14
7-11   –Franz Schubert   Der Doppelgänger   4:12
7-12   –Franz Schubert   Erkönig   4:51

[asin] B001716JRE[/asin]

EDIT: well the sound is pretty primitive (and Sofronitzky vocalizes).  I'd want more sensuous sound in these pieces.

[Ratliff]

Side bar, I sampled bits of Leslie Howard Liszt because I wanted to collect the Schubert-Liszt song transcriptions specifically, and Howard seemed so damn slow. Very dutiful sight reading, it seemed like.

Anyway Schubert-Liszt recommendations welcome.

I've only listened to a few things from the set. The recordings of Annees de pelerinage and Harmonies poétiques et religieuses struck me as poetic and satisfying, the sonata in b minor one of the most fast and intense recordings I've heard. Obviously not every piece is a reference recording in such an enormous set.

For the Schubert transcriptions I'd recommend Jorge Bolet, my favorite Liszt pianist overall.