[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: GGs of today
Bradley,
Thanks for your comments. All tips are appreciated.
- I like Ivo's Chopins, but need to check out the records you suggested as
well. I heard he messed up a hotel room a month ago in New York.
- I incidentally have one recording with Partmentier - a harpsichord sampler
record with several artists. You are right, he has a very distinct touch. I
guess you have heard GG's Haendel harpsichord sonatas - weird but
interesting to listen to once in a while.
- What is your view on Lars Vogt's Beethoven? Less hammering than Gilels,
and more interesting than Aszkenazy one can assume... Brendel is one of my
favorites.
- We have the same director favorite for architectural clarity. His b mass
is awesome, as are most of his Beethoven symphonies. Big man.
If you like 'elastic' piano performances, Leif Ove Andsnes (mainly Grieg and
Schumann) is one rising star to check out. Peter Jablonski is good for
Tchaikovsky, but he has a bit to go still (interesting young man, started
out as a jazz drummer - he is from my home town).
Best regards,
/Bengt
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bradley P Lehman [SMTP:bpl@umich.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 1998 10:38 AM
> To: Bengt Christensson
> Cc: 'f_minor@email.rutgers.edu'
> Subject: Re: GGs of today
>
> On Wed, 10 Jun 1998, Bengt Christensson wrote:
>
> > Being unique, still - who would you consider being followers of GG's
> style
> > today?
> > Anyone can recommend records of such artists?
>
> At GG's levels of intense clarity or interesting eccentricity, I can think
> of one of each:
>
> Clarity: an extraordinary recording of Schubert sonatas D.958 (cm) and 959
> (A) by Mark Swartzentruber, on Sony (not yet available in North America, I
> believe). He has an analytical yet passionate approach to the pieces,
> bringing out remarkable structural detail and focusing the listener's
> attention: intense performances. He uses an unorthodox miking perspective
> which sounds very close: it brings out the inner texture well at the
> expense of some tonal naturalness and dynamic range.
>
> Eccentricity: anything by Ivo Pogorelich. He seems to bring always a
> fresh and strange perspective to pieces, often using especially slow
> tempos. Teetering on the edge of the deep end, his very odd recording of
> the Brahms A-major Intermezzo takes more than seven minutes, where
> everyone else gets it done in four to five. I think his disc of Ravel's
> "Gaspard de la Nuit" and Prokofiev's sixth sonata is especially well-done
> in his color effects, without being too weird. DG 13363. But I liked his
> earlier recording of the Prokofiev 6th even better. (Vox LP)
>
> Neither of those players necessarily has anything to do with GG's
> philosophies or basic sound. I was thinking more in terms of similar
> degrees of separation from the average.
>
> There's also that recent recording of the Beethoven first concerto where
> Lars Vogt plays the GG cadenzas. EMI 56371.
>
> If in "GG style" we're not restricted only to pianists, try violinist
> Dmitri Sitkovetsky.
>
> And for levels of clarity on harpsichord, Edward Parmentier.
>
> As for an architectural and textural-clarity approach in orchestral music,
> Otto Klemperer. (Chronologically, though, he's a predecessor to GG.)
>
> Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45716N+78.94565W
> bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/