Classical Music Thread
- Thread starter Golly
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Polish Businessman
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Some good person uploaded the (never reissued on CD) Brahms symphonies with Stanisław Wisłocki and the Polish Radio. This is the first Brahms cycle I ever listened to, and for that reason 90% of performances feel rather sluggish to me. The recording quality is shit-tier (extremely wet acoustics and distant brass), but it's worth listening if you like fast-paced Brahms. He goes crazy especially the finale of the 3rd.
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- Aug 24, 2014
Pianist Ana-Marija Markovina is so smitten by the endless innovations of the keyboard works of C. P. E. Bach that, when she first investigated the music, she resolved to record them all. She got in contact with the scholars who was preparing the latest critical editions, and the result was a box of 26 extremely full CDs, recorded on a beautiful Bösendorfer piano, that I'm slowing going through.
The "Six Sonatas for the Ladies", Wq 54, are, as the title suggests, unassuming yet charming works. Unfortunately Youtube doesn't let one to enjoy the whole set in one go, or even one sonata without interruption. If you do so you'll likely agree with Markovina -- that C. P. E. Bach's music is endlessly inventive, even when he was writing for amateurs.
Some famous pianists have taken on C. P. E., notably Mikhail Pletnev and, fresh off the pressing plant, Keith Jarrett. Such elegant music deserves a variety of interpretations and I surely hope more will be coming.
The "Six Sonatas for the Ladies", Wq 54, are, as the title suggests, unassuming yet charming works. Unfortunately Youtube doesn't let one to enjoy the whole set in one go, or even one sonata without interruption. If you do so you'll likely agree with Markovina -- that C. P. E. Bach's music is endlessly inventive, even when he was writing for amateurs.
Some famous pianists have taken on C. P. E., notably Mikhail Pletnev and, fresh off the pressing plant, Keith Jarrett. Such elegant music deserves a variety of interpretations and I surely hope more will be coming.
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2014
A few months ago I saw the 12-CD box set of Eva Knardahl's playing the complete solo piano music of Grieg (BIS) for $25 in the used store. I waited thinking the store would lower the price further. The box was nabbed by someone else in 3 weeks. Well.
Still, the Naxos discs I have with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg aren't bad at all and are even more complete, including works that don't have opus numbers, such as the folk-song arrangements Grieg did for music publishers with an eye for the amateur market. Grieg distanced himself away from those pieces, thinking that such "hack work" that he did out of money would tarnish his rep. Lasting a bare minute or less each, these are no profound artistic statement to be sure, but they are beautiful gems that you can spend many pleasant evenings with.
An interesting decision is for Steen-Nøkleberg to record the set on at least two different pianos. In the Vol. 5 of the Naxos series which consists of the first 63 pieces, he specified that he played the first pieces on a Steinway. A number of pieces were played on a Graf piano made in 1850, so as to reflect the sound that Grieg must wrote the music for. A large number of piece are just labelled "piano" with no specification, and I suspect these are played on the Steinway too.
This is the second piece of the recording ("How Glorious is the Land of My Birth"). The sonority of a Steinway should be familiar.
The Graf is a pleasant surprise: it has a rounded, warm sound, a little closer to a fortepiano, but relatively weak in higher harmonics and thus less penetrating, somewhat veiled. A domestic rather than a concert instrument, it suits pieces that are more intimate and more rural.
A small number of the pieces were played on a small organ, which has a small droneful voice which Steen-Nøkleberg thought suited the piece better. More questionable is his decision to render some pieces on the clavichord. Steen-Nøkleberg reasons that the instrument has a similar sound to the Norwegian folk instrument "Langleik", but the clavichord is a very, very quiet instrument, and the pieces on this instrument do not register well when placed alongside music played on pianos.
Still, the Naxos discs I have with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg aren't bad at all and are even more complete, including works that don't have opus numbers, such as the folk-song arrangements Grieg did for music publishers with an eye for the amateur market. Grieg distanced himself away from those pieces, thinking that such "hack work" that he did out of money would tarnish his rep. Lasting a bare minute or less each, these are no profound artistic statement to be sure, but they are beautiful gems that you can spend many pleasant evenings with.
An interesting decision is for Steen-Nøkleberg to record the set on at least two different pianos. In the Vol. 5 of the Naxos series which consists of the first 63 pieces, he specified that he played the first pieces on a Steinway. A number of pieces were played on a Graf piano made in 1850, so as to reflect the sound that Grieg must wrote the music for. A large number of piece are just labelled "piano" with no specification, and I suspect these are played on the Steinway too.
This is the second piece of the recording ("How Glorious is the Land of My Birth"). The sonority of a Steinway should be familiar.
The Graf is a pleasant surprise: it has a rounded, warm sound, a little closer to a fortepiano, but relatively weak in higher harmonics and thus less penetrating, somewhat veiled. A domestic rather than a concert instrument, it suits pieces that are more intimate and more rural.
A small number of the pieces were played on a small organ, which has a small droneful voice which Steen-Nøkleberg thought suited the piece better. More questionable is his decision to render some pieces on the clavichord. Steen-Nøkleberg reasons that the instrument has a similar sound to the Norwegian folk instrument "Langleik", but the clavichord is a very, very quiet instrument, and the pieces on this instrument do not register well when placed alongside music played on pianos.
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