Thoughts after a concert... Bach's Concerto After Marcello

Just came home from a concert where I played Bach  (Concerto after Marcello in D Minor) and Brahms (Intermezzo op.117 no 1). Brahms was more or less ok, while with Bach I felt sort of uncomfortable, especially in the first movement. I've played this piece many times in the past but only a few times did I feel that the result was satisfactory. 

What I try to do (and it's not easy!) is not to imitate Glenn Gould's performance. (from his "Italian Bach"- one of his best records, in my view). He does incredible things in this recording, yet the challenge of the performer is to develop a sense of detachment from his sound, and try to find new things and new perspectives. And yet I must admit that I am so influenced by him and so persuasive do I find his reading of Concerto after Marcello that all too often I unconsciously [and hopelessly] try to do what he does. 
Yet there is another, more subtle danger for a pianist: to try and do the opposite of what another (usually great) pianist is doing. In an effort to distance from someone else's playing, one can play things differenetly just for the sake of doing that. So, for instance, Gould plays it staccato here - I'll play legato; Richter brings out an inner melodic line- I'll try to cover it a bit. And so on... 
What's the conclusion? It's quite simple (to say it at least!): Find your self, look for your individual uniqueness, be genuine.

Morten Lauridsen: O Magnum Mysterium

Let me say goodbye to 2011, with this moving and utterly beautiful motet written by the American composer Morten Lauridsen, splendidly performed, here, by the Choir Polyphony (Hyperion). 

I do not wish to say anything about it, for it seems that no verbal expression can possibly depict or describe what remains, in essence, unsayable...

Here are the words:

O Magnum Mysterium

et admirabile sacramentum

ut animalia viderent Dominum natum

Beata Virgo cujus viscera

jacentem in praesepio!

meruerunt portare

Dominum Christum

Alleluia!

An english translation (found on Wiki):

O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, 

that animals should see the new-born Lord, 

lying in a manger! 

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb 

was worthy to bear 

Christ the Lord. 

Alleluia!

My sincere wishes to you all...

David Hill's splendid arrangement of "Silent Night"

Some more details on this splendid  arrangement of the well known Christmas song... 

As I said the other day, it was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3 on the morning of December the 24th, in the "Breakfast Show" presented by Clemency Burton-Hill, a sensitive (and multi-talented!) presenter.  

Here are the names of those who contributed to this recording which, incidentally, was specially made for this program.

BBC Singers, Paul Brough (Conductor).
Solo Tenor: Christopher Bowen 

Baritone: Jamie W. Hall. 

Here is the link, although I am afraid that you won't be able to play it after some time. (It's only available for a week, I think):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0186f1g

 

Christmas Music - Western and Eastern (Byzantine) Carols

Merry Christmas to all the friends of this blog! My very best wishes to you all! 

I was listening to BBC Radio 3 the other day, and I came across this very beautiful rendering of the famous Christmas song, "Silent Night". All I managed to hear was that the transcription was made by David Hill. So, if someone could give me more details about this transcription, I'd be most grateful!

I now remember another lovely Christmas carol which I often used to put on when I was a radio producer. It's called "Star Carol", and is composed by John Rutter. A melodious song, full of joy, light and... lightness!

What else?... Oh, let me not forget our own, Greek traditional christmas carols which my children sang on Xmas day, in our parish church, after the Christmas Liturgy. The melody is typically eastern -  actually this particular song that I have in mind has byzantine roots, so one can easily discern the typical byzantine modes. Here is a decent recording I found on the internet:

My best wishes for Merry Christmas!!!!!

Marc Andre Hamelin's cadenza on Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody

This is such a fascinatingly original cadenza! I leave aside the technical bravura (which is, however, extraordinary), I'd like to concentrate on the music: Hamelin achieved to give new breathe to this work which (alas!) has suffered so many mediocre performances. 

His writting is brilliant, his ideas clear and well defined, his melodic choices are utterly original and daring. See how  the main themes of the Rhapsody here interlock  in  such an ingenious way! All in all, a masterpiece, this cadenza! I discovered, today, the score (on youtube) and I was able to admire, once more, the excellent work of this great pianist - undeniably one of the greatest in the world today. 

Here is the score:



 

Volodos Vienna Recital: An interesting review by the "Gramophone"

 I read today an excellent and well informed review written by Hariett Smith in the "Gramophone" magazine - possibly the best magazine on classical music. The review refes to Volodos's live recording of his Vienna Recital. I copy some of excerpts here below. (Needless to say, I agree with every word!)

"You can keep your Lang Langs, your Yuja Wangs, your Evgeny Kissins...I'd swap their collective virtuosity for one evening of Arcadi Volodos's consummate pianism. To my mind, he has produced nothing finer on disc than this live recital, captured in Vienna last spring.
[...]

But with this latest release we're once again reminded that Volodos is a one-off. He has Sokolov's genius for making even the unpianistic pianistic, yet without his occasional eccentricities. He has the steel, combined with the velvety sound, and the sense of a companionable relationship with his instrument of Gilels. Yet there's fire aplenty too -- witness his Dante Sonata, complete with the odd Volodosian touch (you'll recall from earlier discs that he likes to make pieces his own). No one quite achieves the incandescence of Ogdon in this work, as can be seen as well as heard in a terrifying vision of the work on an EMI DVD. But the sense that technically Volodos is in complete command, and that the piano is not in pain -- even at the most extreme moments -- is extraordinarily compelling. And through all the handfuls of notes he never loses sight of the work's form, the imperious left-hand theme that sweeps through the chorale-like texture done with complete assurance.

You couldn't be in Vienna without presenting a waltz or two, and here we get Ravel's skewed take on it (though less skewed than his post-war vision, La valse). Volodos is less perfumed than some -- Thibaudet (Decca) and Bavouzet (Chandos) in their different ways spring to mind -- but there's a wonderful warmth to his sound as well as a sensitivity to the pieces' inner workings that delights. He attains the balance between lyricism and a pungent neo-classicism every bit as effectively as Casadesus in his classic CBS/Sony reading.

Right from the start, this is an uncompromisingly programmed recital, Volodos plunging his audience into the strange hinterland of Scriabin. Whether in the insistent lopsided gait of the Danse languide or the deep-toned Prelude No 16 from Op 11, more sensuous than Pletnev's sharply characterised realisation, he is spellbinding. And in the Seventh Sonata Volodos is still more incense-laden and edgier than Marc-André Hamelin's beautifully etched reading, the sonorous bells building to a cataclysmic climax.

Waldszenen is perhaps the finest jewel here, with Volodos bringing his story-telling genius to every piece. Its outwardly unassuming nature is deceptive, as the many great pianists who've been drawn to it have shown. But Volodos is absolutely up there with the best of them, Richter and Pires included. Just sample the rapt wonder he brings to "Einsame blumen" or the combination of eeriness and an almost Bachian purity of No 4, "Verrufene Stelle". His leave-taking, too, in No 9 couldn't be more poignantly done, without a trace of heart-on-sleeve emoting, which makes the wistfulness all the more eloquent.

The encores are supreme, from Volodos's Bach/Vivaldi Sicilienne, which is informed by a restrained beauty worthy of Gilels, a Tchaikovsky song rendered glorious even without voice yet its piano roulades never taking the limelight, and, finally, a telling return to Scriabin. The engineers have done wonders, in spite of the live conditions, and I'd be surprised if I heard finer piano playing this year.

Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto with Richter: Leinsdorf or Maazel?

There are several recordings of Brahms 2nd PC with Richter. Two of them are in my view the best: one with Erich Leinsdorf and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the other with Lorin Maazel and L' Orchestre de Paris. Richter did not particularly like his Leinsdord recording but he is not to be taken too seriously as he did not like most of his recordings apparently! 

I personally think that both recordings are excellent indeed, but I am particularly fond of the second one (Maazel), for rather subjective reasons: I was at school when someone in my class gave me a cassete with this recording and I fall in love with it! Richter's sound is so identifiable there, so unmistakably his! Maazel has done a splendid job with the orchesta - which is particularly crucial in this concerto, a work that I think could be considered as a "symphony" with the participation of the piano. 

Richter has played this concerto pretty early in his carrier and has performed it dozens of time. (I was thinking the other day, in what ways the approach to a work can evolve, if performed so many times! I normally manage to play a work (in public) two, maximum three, times. How my performance would be after, say, 50 times? I just cannot imagine!).