RE: GGs of today

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

On Wed, 10 Jun 1998, Bengt Christensson wrote:

> - 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.

Several years ago I ushered for a concert he gave, and got to watch him
set up onstage about 90 minutes before the audience arrived.  He was very
finicky about exactly where the piano and bench should be, to the inch. 

> - 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.

(Concerto #1) It's been several months since last time I listened to this
disc, but I remember liking the performance for its clarity and lightness. 
One prominent run in the first movement sounded as if it had a misread
note in it, or else he was using a different edition from the one I have. 
And it's interesting to hear the GG cadenzas with other details brought
out than the ones GG highlights, just for a change.  Anybody here have the
European issue of this release which includes other cadenzas for
comparison? 

My current favorite recording of the first two concertos is by Robert
Levin with Gardiner.  I think the period piano automatically gives him
advantages over anyone who uses a modern grand (advantages in
appropriateness of gesture and balance), plus he's an interesting,
spontaneous player and good scholar. 

Bradley Lehman ~ Harrisonburg VA, USA ~ 38.45716N+78.94565W
bpl@umich.edu ~ http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/