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Re: Schiff
Thank you all for your enlightening comments on Schiff!
It seems like I should listen for something completely different in S's Bach
from GG's. Since I don't have that recording of Goldbergs anymore, I will try
to appreciate the things Bradley mentioned next time I have a chance.
I do agree his performance is sensitive and elegant, but my complaint is his
lack of tension and focus which I like to find in any Bach recordings for my own
taste. I didn't have any problem with Turek and S. Richter, for example, but
somehow I immediately disliked Schiff's Goldbergs. Like John Grant said, I
might change my opinion if I listen to him now since it was a few years ago that
I had this "reaction" to Schiff.
Chisa Sugihara
Bradley Lehman wrote:
> Chisa Sugihara wrote:
>
> >> I haven't heard Schiff's English Suites yet. I bought his Goldbergs
> >> just for an experience, and never played it again. If any of you have a
> >> to say anything good about Schiff's playing other than no humming,
> >> please let me know. I am very interested to hear. If this topic was
> >> discussed before, please forgive me.
>
> ...and Mike Flemmer responded:
>
> >There is plenty good things to say about Schiff. He is certainly
> >one of the very best Bach pianist's today. Especially his live Bach.
> >It's fantastic. No one should pass up a chance to see Schiff live
> >playing Bach. I've heard a few of his live Bach performances on the
> >radio and it's spectacular. (Schiff's Beethoven is not so hot though)
> >
> >Schiff's recordings are a mixed bag. The English Suites are very
> >good and the high praise from critics is well deserved. They are
> >worth a listen and worthy of purchase too. Schiff's Goldberg's are much
> >less desriable. Schiff takes the opening Aria too fast and compared to
> >Gould, it sounds rushed and not as 'sensitive.'
>
> Hmm. I've liked all the Schiff recordings of Bach that I've heard. As
> Bach's biographer Forkel wrote about the Partitas, anyone who learned to
> play some of these pieces well could make his way in the world, and that's
> exactly what Schiff did in 1984: excellent recording of them. It was one of
> the first Bach-on-piano CD's I ever bought (already having most of the GG
> LP's). I listened again to some of it this morning and am impressed with
> his touch: gentle, and sensitive, as if he were playing a clavichord (Rubsam
> also plays this way on piano). There is an easy flow to his playing, with
> poise and balance. I don't own copies of his Goldbergs, Inventions, or
> English Suites, but remember them all being similarly excellent, especially
> the gracefulness and flow in the Goldbergs.
>
> There's a fantastic new Schiff recording of the Busoni "Fantasia
> Contrappuntistica," which is Busoni's elaboration of the unfinished fugue
> from Bach's "Art of Fugue." He uses the two-piano version, with Peter
> Serkin at the other piano. I've heard about ten recordings of this piece,
> and would put this one among the very best for dimensionality and
> contrapuntal clarity. (The reviewers in _Fanfare_ and _American Record
> Guide_ were unfortunately both too unfamiliar with this piece to make any
> substantial comparisons.) Serkin has recorded this piece before (with
> Richard Goode at Marlboro), and his own solo debut recording many years ago
> was the Goldbergs. So, he and Schiff both bring excellent background to
> this performance.
>
> Bradley Lehman, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl
> Dayton VA