Good suggestions.
My two go-to pianists are somewhat more controversial and indeed two one of a kind: Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould. Great thinkers with transcendent technique. Perhaps not the best starting points though.
Mining classical music gold.
I’ve been streaming for months now. For some unexplainable reason I’ve been concentrating for the main part on the latest classical releases out there . Quizzically, I have ignored the unlimited access to recorded history that we have in our hands. Heifetz, Horowitz, Reiner, Toscanini, Piatigorsky, Stokowski and countless other twentieth century geniuses are copiously available. I just can’t believe it took me this long to wake up.
I’m writing this for any classical music lovers who, like me, have been blind to the mind-blowing potential afforded us.
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@rvpiano -- Glenn Gould is the obvious starting point for Bach keyboard peformances. It's such an ingrained habit that I nearly forgot it. But somehow Mr. Horowitz and I never had a meeting of the minds. |
Vladimir Felstman...In Goldberg... My favorite... The pulse is irresistible...Pure joy...No concentrated serious demonstration only a riveting pulse like in an improvisation... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2gfhLak-g&list=PLr0MsaDpKsY-biupbCUhZf55V3rNEzU_v https://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVD/BWV988-Feltsman.htm
He is also my prefered interpreter of the Well tempered Klavier with a poetical touch contrasting with the perfect cold mastery of Schiff my second choice...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iRFYxJK_Lw&list=PLr0MsaDpKsY9F9fHi8enCPQwv7beVX9iy
But with Bach i can appreciate all interpreters choice, and collected them... I did not count anymore... |
The thoughts above made me listen to the C Major Prelude, of Book 1. Comparing (e.g.) Gould and Hewitt - they are almost playing different works. See these YouTube links. My personal taste now leans towards Hewitt's lyricism. A few years ago I had a discussion with a Jazz enthusiast friend who maintained that Classical musicians were just technicians - all they had to do was play the notes whereas Jazz players were creating music. I played him a selection of pianists playing the C Major Prelude BWV 846. Should we now start a discussion of the Cello Suites? Qobuz has about 16 recordings, including several by Casals, through to Weilerstein. Presto has about 200 (I lost count!) versions - I guess about 3 or 4 months to work through those if I don't listen to anything else. There is also a recording by Nathaniel Rosen, on a John Marks CD. |
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