Lieder ohne Worte

[Mandryka]

Can't resist posting Rzewski's programme note from a performance in California in 2008

The 'Songs Without Words' are usually seen as trivial salon pieces, a
mixed dish to be offered as light refreshment in an otherwise serious
program. I see them rather as a single unified work: a systematically
constructed secular oratorio for piano, a musical Bildungsroman,
painting a ranibow of life's changing patterns and emotions within an
unchanging structure of repetitive cycles.
If there is a single dominant theme, it is water: the naturalistic
evocation of babbling brooks in spring that opens each cycle, or the
splashing of oars that ends it. But other unifying links recur
constantly: the descending fourth or tritone, for example, or the
anapestic phrase structure that reappears everywhere: two short
repetitions followed by a longer answer.
In order to make the larger form perceptible, I choose fast tempi.
(The duration might vary from 90 to 100 minutes.) I see Mendelssohn as a
radical: a revolutionary romantic, but also firmly anchored in classical
rationality. He always returns to the chorale, somehow a symbol of
Reason in a time of social upheaval.
Why call it "songs without words?" Does that mean there are words?
Schumann thought so, maybe. Could it have something to do with the
Hasidic _niggun_? Apparently not. If there were words, they were
deliberately suppressed. Why? Is it about a secret? Is the Duetto at the
end of the third cycle a simple love song, or a mystical allegory? These
are all questions I cannot answer; but I try to ask them in my playing.
--Frederick Rzewski (August 2008)

[Florestan]

I see Mendelssohn as a radical: a revolutionary romantic

This is an overstatement --- but Mendelssohn is probably the most underrated of the Romantics.

[Mandryka]

Daniel Gortler.

You were right about this.

I'd love to hear Gortler in as much Schubert as possible,

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001HADEBE/ref=dm_rwpmb_pur_lnd_albm_unrg


There's also this Trout

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9cPhfQ0_pjQ&pp=ygURR29ydGxlciBTY2h1YmVydCA%3D

Whatever you make of her voice you will enjoy the piano playing for sure.

[Atriod]

I've got a few CDs of the Liedet Ohne Worte but this is the one I always return to:

One of my favorite albums for these Liszt/Schubert song transcriptions. He played some of them when I saw him in concert recently. Incredibly good performances.

[prémont]

.... Mendelssohn is probably the most underrated of the Romantics.

Certainly. Just ask the equally underrated composer Saul Dzorelashvili:

https://wiki.youngcomposers.com/Profile:Saul_Dzorelashvili

[Florestan]

Certainly. Just ask the equally underrated composer Saul Dzorelashvili:

https://wiki.youngcomposers.com/Profile:Saul_Dzorelashvili

    

Well, even a broken watch is right twice a day...

[Holden]

One of my favorite albums for these Liszt/Schubert song transcriptions. He played some of them when I saw him in concert recently. Incredibly good performances.

You lucky bugger. Here in Australia our access to classical music pianists have their limitations and most pianists who come here mainly give concerto concerts as opposed to solo recitals. I realised what I was missing in 2019 when I was in London and feasted on music from the smaller concert halls such as Wigmore, the Barbican etc. The highlight of these was Murray Perahia recital which was simply awesome. Doesn't happen here.

[Atriod]

You lucky bugger. Here in Australia our access to classical music pianists have their limitations and most pianists who come here mainly give concerto concerts as opposed to solo recitals. I realised what I was missing in 2019 when I was in London and feasted on music from the smaller concert halls such as Wigmore, the Barbican etc. The highlight of these was Murray Perahia recital which was simply awesome. Doesn't happen here.

Even here it is more common for big name pianists to play with the nearest major orchestra than give solo recitals. This was an even more extraordinary circumstance in that Babayan more often tours in Europe, this was a special concert for the anniversary of when Rachmaninoff gave a concert at this venue, as such I was expecting an all Rachmaninoff program but was just as happy when it was over to have got the variety including a Kreisleriana and Aria from GV that I've never heard matched. The Schubert/Liszt and Rachmaninoff were just as good as his respective CDs, just with the immediacy/better sound you get in person from a very good seat; allowing me to get a better feel of his demonic intensity of Richter or Lugansk'y first recording of Etudes-Tablaux. I really wish he had a recording of the Chaconne.

After putting off seeing Lupu on several occasions to not have to return home past 1 am I'm now going out of my way to see my favorite musicians. I had planned to see Pollini at Carnegie Hall in the fall and he has cancelled, I hope it's not something serious. 

[Brian]

High-res download of the first volume of the HIP Brautigam traversal is discounted to US $6.90 today only (June 4).