Bach on the piano

Started by mn dave, November 13, 2008, 06:12:24 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 4 Guests are viewing this topic.

milk

Quote from: Mandryka on October 06, 2018, 12:55:32 AM
No, Kurtag made his own transcriptions as did Kempff and Feinberg.

Is it any different than what they do all the time?
I take your point. It's not. I seem to have a much greater tolerance for a variety of styles with WTC. I suppose the transcriptions are much less widely tackled and so there's less variety in what we find on the market?
Doesn't it seem also seem like much more music could be transcribed from the organ ouvre? Maybe I don't know what's out there already though. Do you think pianists/transcribers like/liked to do the Chorales because they're open to dynamic treatment? Is this replacing what registrations did on organ (I've no idea)? There also many beautiful preludes and fugues. I imagine some ingenious musician making a new "book" of piano music, maybe involving more of Bach's (organ) fugues. Perhaps I'm just off the deep end tonight.   

milk

Piotr Anderszewski's Bach partitas...or Fray's...any thoughts? I should rest on my collection but the desire to hear more...But, unless it's a must-have I should pass.

Mandryka

Fray in the CD with Partita 6, it's an imaginative vision, for better or for worse. Anderszewski less groundbreaking I think, though these things are hard to measure - Anderszewski still has plenty of ideas of his own about nuances, voices to bring out, rhythms etc, the usual stuff.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

Quote from: milk on November 02, 2018, 04:42:52 AM
I should rest on my collection

No. These guys have got things to say, all of them. You must hear everything even if only once. This is why streaming is so good.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

milk

Quote from: Mandryka on November 02, 2018, 05:17:40 AM
No. These guys have got things to say, all of them. You must hear everything even if only once. This is why streaming is so good.
i have some obsession about owning it somewhere - stupid and costly!

Mandryka

#525
Have you heard the Partita 6 here?  I think it's not bad at all.



Quote from: milk on November 02, 2018, 05:21:05 AM
i have some obsession about owning it somewhere - stupid and costly!

I recommend hypnosis to cure you of this obsession. (I'm only half joking actually. I am extremely suggestible and I've used hypnosis to great effect to lose weight)
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

milk

Quote from: Mandryka on November 02, 2018, 05:32:03 AM
Have you heard the Partita 6 here?  I think it's not bad at all.



I recommend hypnosis to cure you of this obsession. (I'm only half joking actually. I am extremely suggestible and I've used hypnosis to great effect to lose weight)
Looks like an interesting concert. I like Woodward. I'll check it out. I guess I have to consider, like Spotify? I should ask this somewhere else but which is best?

Mandryka

#527
Quote from: milk on November 02, 2018, 05:59:01 AM
Looks like an interesting concert. I like Woodward. I'll check it out. I guess I have to consider, like Spotify? I should ask this somewhere else but which is best?

Spotify has a big catalogue but not the best sound, maybe adequate sound especially given the price, and if you like something and want better sound, you can buy the CD or a better download. A lot depends where you are, I can only speak for the UK. Th big question is how you're going to listen - if you want to listen through a hifi system which isn't wired to  your computer things become more complicated, but very doable,
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

aukhawk

Not to derail the thread but Spotify sounds perfectly good to me listening on good speakers or headphones, and I'm a (retired) sound engineer.

Ghost of Baron Scarpia

#529
Quote from: milk on October 06, 2018, 12:03:55 AM
Is everyone working off old/romantic transcriptions? Maybe it's a fertile area if musicians experiment more with it. It goes without saying that there's a boatload of amazing organ music from Bach; it seems like everyone does the same handful of pieces transcribed by Busoni and a few others? I can see what would have been attractive about this kind of music for C19 dudes...this, in addition to the WAY they play this stuff which really is unbearable.

You really have to think of these as original works inspired by Bach pieces, rather than transcriptions. I can digest them in limited quantities.

The Hyperion Bach Transcription series has a transcriptions by a variety of composers, not just Busoni, and some have a lighter touch and some are fairly literal, rather than puffed up. It is the more literal ones that seem most successful to me.

milk

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 02, 2018, 10:40:49 AM
You really have to think of these as original works inspired by Bach pieces, rather than transcriptions. I can digest them in limited quantities.

The Hyperion Bach Transcription series has a transcriptions by a variety of composers, not just Busoni, and some have a lighter touch and some are fairly literal, rather than puffed up. It is the more literal ones that seem most successful to me.
Makes good sense. I do like transcriptions that show up here and there. Especially piano duos which I guess are bound to be more literal.
And thanks to others for the replies re: streaming. Amazon has streaming too. Hmm...

Ghost of Baron Scarpia

Quote from: milk on November 02, 2018, 01:50:17 PM
Makes good sense. I do like transcriptions that show up here and there. Especially piano duos which I guess are bound to be more literal.
And thanks to others for the replies re: streaming. Amazon has streaming too. Hmm...

When Busoni transcribes Bach organ music he seems to add lots of extra notes which I suppose are supposed to invoke all the reverberation and varied overtones of the different ranks of the organ. Reger seems to have a lot more respect for the music of Bach. I particularly like his two-piano transcription of the Brandenburgs.

milk

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 02, 2018, 02:34:42 PM
When Busoni transcribes Bach organ music he seems to add lots of extra notes which I suppose are supposed to invoke all the reverberation and varied overtones of the different ranks of the organ. Reger seems to have a lot more respect for the music of Bach. I particularly like his two-piano transcription of the Brandenburgs.
Oh! Haven't heard those! Any particularly recommended recording?

Ghost of Baron Scarpia

I like this.

[asin]B0000021GL[/asin]

milk


Ghost of Baron Scarpia

#535
Quote from: milk on November 02, 2018, 03:10:19 PM

I just noticed this.

That, in my humble opinion, is a horror. Your results may vary, of course. :)

Search works! I found the previous discussion of it.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,11592.msg1141643.html#msg1141643

I think Jens quote sums up my reaction

Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on April 13, 2018, 03:53:23 PM
Oh heaven help, that IS awful.

Very mechanical performance and cluttered arrangement.

milk

Quote from: Ghost of Baron Scarpia on November 02, 2018, 03:14:54 PM
That, in my humble opinion, is a horror. Your results may vary, of course. :)

Search works! I found the previous discussion of it.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,11592.msg1141643.html#msg1141643

I think Jens quote sums up my reaction

Very mechanical performance and cluttered arrangement.
I just turned it off and came back here (I'm trying out Amazon music). Yup. Sounds like something you'd hear at the dentist's. OK, I'll try a Reger transcription recording.

Karl Henning

I've lately been enjoying some Liszt transcriptions a great deal, specifically György Sándor playing transcriptions of the Prelude & Fugue in a minor, BWV 543, and the Fantasia & Fugue in g minor, BWV 542.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mandryka

#538
Marcelle Meyer experimented with Bach on a modern piano. The result is light and civilised, like refined dance music almost, ballet. Not at all disagreeable to hear. It makes me think of music for a girls prep school in Surrey.

https://youtube.com/v/NwjxXmwdb00
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#539
Maria Tipo also tried to find a way to play Bach on a modern piano. Her performance here is rather solemn, and she makes me think of music for to accompany a film of a solemn major event: in fact, this may be spot on if Egarr's right to suggest that Partita 6  encodes ideas and affects related in the baroque mindset to The Passion of Christ.

https://youtube.com/v/Jmdi17AsqBc
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen