Topic: Baroque and early music on piano excluding Bach

[Mandryka]

I think it's perfect background music while reading or sipping a drink. 

I’m not sure but I don’t think it’s an acoustic piano. I wonder if it’s midi.

[Florestan]

I’m not sure but I don’t think it’s an acoustic piano. I wonder if it’s midi.

You mean Fontana? No way midi. I already got a volume and it definitely sounds like a genuine piano. A nice piano sound, even.

Info: https://www.girolamofrescobaldi.eu/en/minimal-english-2/

[Mandryka]

You mean Fontana? No way midi. I already got a volume and it definitely sounds like a genuine piano. A nice piano sound, even.

Info: https://www.girolamofrescobaldi.eu/en/minimal-english-2/

Thanks for that, I see he’s recorded Fiori Musicali on the Mantua Antgenati, I shall listen tonight.

(The piano reminded me of the sound of Claudio Columbo. He too has recorded Frescobaldi on a piano.)

[milk]

Hah!

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2376.msg1094880.html#msg1094880

Ah it was you guys both who put it that way. Yes. I've got to put this on. I've gotta admit I'm not getting any mysticism from Fontana. But let's see I guess. ETA: Listening to Fontana and Schlime, they both have something to say here. Schlime does seem a bit freer but he also doesn't seem to be playing the entire scores? Is he shortening things? Or not playing some sort of repeats? I can't tell because this music is so abstract and weird. All the tracks on the Schlime are like two minutes. But Schlime is captivating.   

[milk]

Thanks for that, I see he’s recorded Fiori Musicali on the Mantua Antgenati, I shall listen tonight.

(The piano reminded me of the sound of Claudio Columbo. He too has recorded Frescobaldi on a piano.)

I don't think Claudio Columbo is a real person. There's someone who's used some sort of technology to pump out (in midi) nearly every composer you can possibly think of and flood outlets with these. That's the name on it. Who knows if it's one person. To me, it's a bit of a scam.

[amw]

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Fontana so far. He doesn’t play things completely straight and modernist like Pienaar in Gibbons (who I do like even though he’s just typing—he has energy and style, even if it is the style of the Stravinsky Serenade in A) or Brubaker in the Codex Faenza (who I like even more for the same reasons) and he doesn’t go into a haze of pianistic colour and softness like Kolesnikov in Couperin (who I also like, even though it’s arguably just salon music that way; that’s very much true to the context in which Couperin worked). Fontana feels sightread even though it isn’t; it’s hard to tell if he has a sense of longterm phrasing and everything seems very middle of the road. But I do like the meantone tuning on the piano so I’ll listen to all of the volumes in more detail and report if anything else stands out.

[milk]

I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Fontana so far. He doesn’t play things completely straight and modernist like Pienaar in Gibbons (who I do like even though he’s just typing—he has energy and style, even if it is the style of the Stravinsky Serenade in A) or Brubaker in the Codex Faenza (who I like even more for the same reasons) and he doesn’t go into a haze of pianistic colour and softness like Kolesnikov in Couperin (who I also like, even though it’s arguably just salon music that way; that’s very much true to the context in which Couperin worked). Fontana feels sightread even though it isn’t; it’s hard to tell if he has a sense of longterm phrasing and everything seems very middle of the road. But I do like the meantone tuning on the piano so I’ll listen to all of the volumes in more detail and report if anything else stands out.

That Tristano Frescobaldi recording is of a different sort. I think there's more command in the playing there while also seeming chancy and improvised. It seems more "rounded." 

[Mandryka]

I listened to the cento partite by Fontana.  The piano doesn’t have a strong bass response,  in fact some harpsichords are like this too, and Rousset has argued that this is the best way in the music. I found my ear constantly drawn to the top line. The interpretation, in the first part at least, is a bit linear. Claudio Colombo has also recorded it on piano.

[milk]

I listened to the cento partite by Fontana.  The piano doesn’t have a strong bass response,  in fact some harpsichords are like this too, and Rousset has argued that this is the best way in the music. I found my ear constantly drawn to the top line. The interpretation, in the first part at least, is a bit linear. Claudio Colombo has also recorded it on piano.

Francesco Tristano is really talented IMO.
I was looking up Colombo and I think we had this discussion before, maybe many years ago.
I also found this old thread discussing him. It's interesting:

http://www.pianosociety.com/threads/claudio-colombo.1990/

[Mandryka]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/YPyNWSolkFY" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/YPyNWSolkFY</a>


Michael Hersch plays Josquin des Prez

[Mandryka]

I really haven’t heard an organ transcription that I’ve liked. This one, like many others, is so heavy and pianistic. I know it’s because the transcribers are all romantics.

Yes, but I think the playing and sound are good and the music will appeal to people who enjoy all those 19th and early 20th century Bach piano transcriptions. Not me and it had me soon fleeing to the same music recorded by Harald Vogel!

[The new erato]

I thought this disc a revelation.

[milk]

I thought this disc a revelation.

I quite like it. I still need to spend more time with it. But I've been enjoying what I've heard. I'm not sure there is another pianist who's done something like this.

[Mandryka]

https://soundcloud.com/katapataptwsi/tiento-del-tercer-tono

Antonio de Cabezón: Tiento del Tercer Tono
Pavlos Antoniadis

[Mandryka]

Imri Talgam , Frescobaldi Cento partite - shows it can indeed be done on a piano


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WIFZcMQzS8

[milk]

I might want to say something about this. I just put it on but I'm already intrigued by the obvious minimalist inclinations of this pianist/composer playing early baroque. BTW: There was another piano take on early baroque to be released. But I forgot what it was and it should be out by now. This is an impossible question but has anyone spotted a new recording on piano of baroque keyboard music? It's something that would have come out in recent weeks.

[Mandryka]

This is an impossible question but has anyone spotted a new recording on piano of baroque keyboard music? It's something that would have come out in recent weeks.

Schlime

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/a6h26k/francesco-tristano-on-early-music

[milk]

Schlime

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/a6h26k/francesco-tristano-on-early-music

That’s it! Yes. Thank you. I think it’ll be more inspiring than Batagov. I keep thinking there’s something very big missing from the Batagov recording. It’s not anywhere near the level of Armstrong - or the Schlime that I’ve heard in the past.

[milk]

Schlime

https://www.highresaudio.com/en/album/view/a6h26k/francesco-tristano-on-early-music

This music is so self-conscious. I can’t take it. Batagov, on the other hand, summed to have nothing to say. Am I being hasty?

[Mandryka]

This music is so self-conscious. I can’t take it. Batagov, on the other hand, summed to have nothing to say. Am I being hasty?

I think you may be being hasty about the Batagov actually, which seems at least rather beautiful, introspective and refined.

But the Schlieme is quite another matter. Everything seems less subtle in terms of colour and weight than it was in his Frescobaldi CD. I just don’t like it at all!