May I have this La Valse...

[jerry and judy <jerbidoc@zianet.com>]

>    heard Bach *for the first time*
>
>I too think what you hear for the first time has a disproportionate
>impact.  It can be very hard or impossible to get that out of one's head
>as the ``right'' recording.
>
>For me, for example, I heard the unaccompanied violin pieces many years
>ago, but neglected to write down the performer.  (At the time, I didn't
>see much difference between *any* performance of *any* classical
>music. :-) None of the zillions I heard in the interim sounded as good
>to me; I finally rediscovered that it was Grumiaux's recording that was
>my icon.  I don't really think his recording is especially brilliant,
>but because I heard it first, it was special to me.
>
>The listener counts too, not just the performer and the composer :-).
>
>K


One personal example, back in the early 60's I inadvertently bought my
first album with 'classical' selections on it called "Moonlight" (for the
obvious reason).  I usually spent my allowance on rock albums, but I was
learning "Greensleeves" on the piano at the time and I just happened to
notice that it was included, along with the Chopin and Beethoven pieces
that I'd never heard of.  This record was on sale in the 99 cent bin so
even though I wasn't the least interested in widening my musical world I
figured I could buy this item without seriously affecting my determined
acquisition of the latest British groups (as I remember).  I got the album
(Whitehall, Westminster Records WHS 40019) home and something about John
Curtis' playing captivated me!  I played the disc a great deal and very
quickly started working on the Moonlight Sonata (almost immediately losing
interest in Greensleeves).  But the point is that another selection on this
record was Liebestod.  I hadn't heard another piano performance of
Liebestod until I bought the Horowitz "The Last Recording" about 5 years
ago.  Anyway, to bear out your point, I was shocked!  I had heard a great
deal of Horowitz and a number of the transcriptions that were sometimes
included in his offerings and I was moderately appreciative, some things I
liked very much more than others, but this Liebestod was all wrong! where
was the subtlety? where was the *understatement*?, the buildup - where was
the expectation? that I had remembered.  Liebestod had been ruined for my
lifetime by a 99 cent recording, maybe that's why it was in the "trash"
bin!?!  Somebody knew something...  ;-)

If it's "a penny for your thoughts" but you need "to put your two cents
in".  Hey! somebody's making a penny!

Oh and Bradley, I hope you've read this far, 'cause when I was looking for
the album above, I found an album that I had totally forgotten about.
Ferrante & Teicher playing Ravel, La Valse etc. along with some Debussy.
Eventually, I'll have to pull out my turntable to play this disc again.  I
must have bought it in the 60's, ABC-560 from ABC-Paramount Records Inc.
I'm not expecting to get through it, but the wisp of nostalgia might be
worth the effort?  Looks like I've worn out the Bolero track!  :-) Ah well,
we all have to start somewhere!


Jerry
jerbidoc@zianet.com