Blind Comparison LIGHTNING ROUND: Beethoven's 'Waldstein'!

[kishnevi]

Serkin vocalizes a little throughout.  The crickets are noticeable in the quieter passages.

I didn't notice them.  But as I stated before, there are benefits to using a cheap CD player....

[kishnevi]

Listening again (it's not like it's a chore to listen to this recording, after all!)
Seems like many people in the audience were squirming in their seats (or at least getting more comfortable for the last few minutes of the performance), and a couple of doors were opened or closed. 

[Ken B]

The fact that it was one of the only two versions at my local Borders (not sure how many hundreds of CDs I ended up buying there in the next few years, as it slowly dwindled and then went out of business) was the main reason I got it.  The other version was the Brendel box I got a few weeks later.

Now playing tracks 32 and 33 of that CD.  Not hearing crickets, but I do hear what appears to be some Gould like vocalizing randomly appearing in a ghostlike way.

ETA: there is some further noise on track 34,  including what sounds like someone stepping on something crunchy.

Yeah but you chose that store.

[NJ Joe]

Forgive me:  what are "crickets"?

[Todd]

Seems like many people in the audience were squirming in their seats (or at least getting more comfortable for the last few minutes of the performance)

There's some audience noise, but there's also some crickets a chirpin'.  (Or maybe one, if Distler is right.)  Every once in a while, animals intrude, like some birds in Blandine Verlet's Froburger recording, or in some of the Fitzwilliam's DSCH quartet recordings.

Forgive me:  what are "crickets"?

[Holden]

Serkin top choice for the Waldstein..... some thoughts

Amazingly, this is not even Serkin's best version of Op 53



this one is and also my all time favourite.

Many pianists can play the Introduzione and Rondo well but fall well short on the first movement. Maybe a segment of this could have been added to the mix.

Well done Brian for putting this together.

Now that we've all had a listen, out of all the recordings that you own or have heard, what is the stand out performance for you?

[Brian]

Thank you so much Brian for organizing this, it was a lot of fun.  As I am almost always under limited time constraints, I really enjoyed the "short clip" format.

Love organizing these! I think the next one might be Chopin's Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48 No. 1, in 3-4 months.

[NJ Joe]

 


There's some audience noise, but there's also some crickets a chirpin'.  (Or maybe one, if Distler is right.)  Every once in a while, animals intrude, like some birds in Blandine Verlet's Froburger recording, or in some of the Fitzwilliam's DSCH quartet recordings.

I didn't know you literally meant crickets! I thought it was some kind of slang term for audience noise or coughing, or something else.

[Brian]

I didn't know you literally meant crickets! I thought it was some kind of slang term

I say, old chap, that wasn't very cricket!

[aukhawk]

A long time ago I worked in a sound studio where the echo chamber was, actually, an   echo   chamber.  As opposed to a pair of large metal plates as was more common at that time, or a 'box of bits' as it would have been 15 years ago, or a software plugin as it would be be now.
This was just a bare-walled rectangular room with a loudspeaker and a microphone in it, some distance from the main control room.  I think the facility dated back to the '30s and I'm not sure anybody actually knew where the room was any more - but the mic was still working.  In winter, it would flood, so if you invoked the fader marked 'reverb' there was a chance of hearing some gentle lapping. 
Then in the spring, of course birds nested in it ...

[ibanezmonster]

Okay, good, I know of a new pianist to check out now: James Brawn.

Seems he's very obscure right now, but hopefully that will not always be the case.
First video I check out of his on youtube and I'm thinking that I can't imagine a better interpretation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDE9mSnfN0g

[Mandryka]

Now that we've all had a listen, out of all the recordings that you own or have heard, what is the stand out performance for you?

The two by Lubimov,  and Badura Skoda's on Astree.

I think there's so much percussive music the sonata that the texture is more attractive on a piano with less resonance than a Steinway, especially in the allegro. And at the end too, in the fast music in the 3rd movement,   I hear more composure on an older instrument than a on a big modern grand -- Serkin in that mono recording you like so much just sounds rushed and hectic to me, compared with (for example) Lubimov's 2012 recording. I also find that the strong accents, sforzandi, sound more natural on the old pianos than the modern ones, less intrusive.

Of course there are some wonderful recordings on modern piano, like Arrau's digital one, made very late in his life. And indeed Cziffra's studio one has always been a favourite because of the originality of his conception of the music, and his poise. But I think that the ones on old Viennese pianos are particularly revealing.

[Holden]

I found the Brawn recording on Spotify and with all due respect to Brian, the excerpts don't do it justice as Brawn's 'big picture' concept of each movement is obviously not evident. This is a very good recording in that it is extremely well played and interpreted and is not like anyone I've heard in this sonata before. I'm going to listen the rest of his LvB on Spotify to see if I can get an overall impression of his approach to LvB.

My Waldstein recordings (CD and DVD) in no particular order include:

Arrau, Gilels (x3), Rudolf Serkin (x2), Rubinstein, Cziffra, Schnabel, Barenboim (EMI), Hungerford, Annie Fischer, Kempff (mono), Levy, Brendel (1st version), Ciani, Tomsic, Lamond, Solomon (my first recording) Kovacevich, Pollini, Willems, Houstoun, Lupu.