Classical artists blind comparison thread #4 (Beethoven-"Tempest" Sonata)

drh, thanks for setting this up. I shifted some of my choices with additional listens and six months from now the order would probably change again.

 

I do think it's somewhat hilarious that I rated my little 21 month old son's favorite composer dead last as a piano player.

Maybe I'm hallucinating but he may have even said "nyani" while it was playing (that's what he calls him). "No son, that's Beethoven". Probably an hallucination but he did say it at some point.

Kids are smarter than us - we just have to stay out of the way and let them develop.

-s

 

I'd be quite interested to see which pianist came out top, so using my algorithm from the 2nd blind comparison thread:

#1: 1 1st place vote, 2 2nd place, 1 3rd place, 1 5th place, 4 6th place
#2: 2 1st place votes, 3 2nd place, 1 3rd place, 1 4th place, 2 6th place
#3: 1 2nd place vote, 2 3rd place, 1 4th place, 5 5th place
#4: 2 1st place votes, 1 2nd place, 2 3rd place, 2 4th place, 1 5th place, 1 6th place
#5: 1 1st place vote, 2 3rd place, 3 4th place, 1 5th place, 2 6th place
#6: 3 1st place vote, 2 2nd place, 1 3rd place, 2 4th place, 1 5th place

So that works out to:
Harris Goldsmith: 2.89
Walter Gieseking: 3.22
Anthony Newman: 3.56
Ernst von Dohnanyi: 3.67 (now THAT's a surprise!)
Lorin Hollander: 3.33
Corin de Groot: 3.78* (my no.1 won. Yay!)

Apart from #4, seems pretty much what I expected and a fair set of results overall.

 

Well done. Interesting choice of artists. I do like Gieseking. (may have to revise a couple of my artsists for future comparisons) and and other than he and Dohnanyi I was quite unfamiliar with the others.

 

It was Sviatoslav Richter, on the EMI label.

 

David, you did a wonderful job in this thread. I plan to try to do it justice in installment 5, tomorrow night. I have yet to choose a work, but I am thinking maybe Berceuse by Chopin, Traumeri or The Poet Speaks from Scenes from Childhood or a late Brahms work. Hopefully, I'll get to do this a few times, so I can do at least a few of these ideas.

 

Yeah, go for it! I suggest one of the Intermezzi Op. 117, No. 3 (C sharp minor) or Op. 119, No. 2 (E minor). Have you got enough performances of any of these in your collection for the next blind comparison (I think six should be the minimum)?

 

I agree that 6 should be the minimum. I'll be shooting for closer to 10, provided that I can find 10 that sound different enough. I think this thread is a way to higlight the effect and importance of interpretation in piano music, so I will try to find samples that are very different. I will probably choose a Chopin work for my first. In not the Berceuse, maybe one of the Ballades. In fact, the Ballades makes the most sense right now to me.

But I definitely have enough of those Brahms works, so I will sample them for my next turn.

 

I say do whatever feels right to you. I think as long as we are rotating it is a little less important that we try so hard to be as neutral and universal in what we present. I think we can all bring our own flavor to it and keep it even more interesting by doing so.

I am wondering if the need to down load kept a few people away this last time.

I really enjoyed being on the other end this time around.

 

I'm game for that, only problem is that the Ballades themselves are fairly long - a quick Google search reveals them to last from 6 1/2 minutes to almost 10 according to Pollini's interpretation.

I'd certainly be willing to listen to a longer piece (something I think this series needs more of) up to 10 times in a row, the question is whether others can find the time/inclination - we've had enough of a struggle encouraging people to participate as it is!

 

wow -an interesting lineup to be sure. To my shame I have never even heard of three of these players. My first pick (Dohnanyi) is someone whose playing I have admired before; but my second, one of those completely unknowns. Although George's dark horse would win over all for me. I am hugely intrigued by the great variance of opinion amongst those who even clearly know something about the technical side of playing, which I do not. I must admit I don't care if there are odd wrong notes, missing repeats, less than stellar tone etc and only judge on the overall impression of how the piece communicated to me. I could never have voted Gieseking's version anywhere other than last, for however brilliant it may be technically, for me communication was utterly destroyed in the rush. Guess I like to dwell a little and smell the roses.
All in all,thank you drh for a very interesting intro to SHMF . I look forward to hearing what George P can rustle up.

 

I'm just glad that we are getting any amount of people to particiapate. I promise to make my debut interesting. I hope to find very different interpretations to present. In fact, that will be my guiding principle in choosing a work.

Good point. I will defintiely consider it.

Can you or others recommend any CDs there may be of him playing the piano? I tried amazon and can't seem to find any.

 

Well good luck, but it seems most people would rather argue in a nonsensical poll that runs to 9 pages than participate in this, or something like my best songs of the millennium thread...

In fairness, not many people here have sufficient interest or knowledge in classical music to really want to take part in this series - nothing wrong with that per se, as it's down to whatever floats people's boats - but as a slight aside, I occasionally wish people were more willing to think up/become involved in more original discussions than the usual classic rock/favourite songs/albums related stuff that gets periodically regurgitated on the rest of this forum.

 

First off, thanks to everyone for the kind words. I had a blast putting my selections together, and I'm glad y'all found them enjoyable too!

Just so long as he said "nyani" and not "Yanni"!

So Dohnanyi is his favorite composer? And here I thought *my* girl was advanced for loving Bach and Tchaikowsky! I'm impressed.

Yeah, in retrospect I wonder about that, too. It never occurred to me at the outset, because I had downloaded everything myself and didn't even realize that one could play straight from your links in the earlier threads. Could the service that you use handle direct play of FLAC files, or at any rate anything of higher quality than .mp3?

As noted, glad you enjoyed!

I'd like to suggest as a rule of thumb--not a hard and fast rule, but just a guideline--that we try to keep things to maybe between 30 and 40 minutes' worth of music in each set. That works out to 8-10 four-minute cuts, 6-8 five-minute cuts, or 6 six-to-seven minute cuts. In the vocal listening group that I used to attend, I learned the hard way that it's best to err on the short time anent total running time of a program. Moreover, at least in my case, that works out to about the time I spend on the road when commuting, a good opportunity to listen to a string selections without interruption (and with aforementioned child heavily involved in activities and school in the house, that "without interruption" time can be hard to come by sometimes!).

He recorded the Nursery Rhyme Variations with Boult on LP; I'd imagine that must have made it onto CD at some point. (He also recorded it earlier on 78s.) My recordings are all on LP and 78s, I'm afraid, and at least as to the Everest and Remington stuff, I doubt that the outlook is very good.

 

I'm not sure Erno was more advanced than Johann or Peter so I wouldn't sweat it. Mostly he just goes for the Eb Minor piano quintet. Originally he would grab records with orange jackets and then that developed into a fixation for the quintet where he'd have to hear it several times a day and then it just stuck with him. I also downloaded the sheet music and play it for him sometimes, so it's kind of our father/son music education thing that we enjoy. But if you want to be impressed, one time I was playing him something in C he likes (Sad Songs by Elton John if you must know) and then I stopped and played an Eb above middle C and he said "nyani". Just the one note, which is the first note of the melody! Kid freaks me out sometimes.

But kids are funny, the way they latch onto some things. I just think that old record of the Eb Minor Quintet has some magical resonance for him. I want to make a family vacation to Gainesville sometime so we can see Donhanyi's grave and Bo Diddley's studio.

Anyway, it's fun to put on a Malcolm MacDowell accent and settle down for "the old Erno von"....

 

It really doesn't play. It just links you to the file and whatever player you have plays the file. I figured mp3 was the most universal so I chose that format. I suppose good old WAV would be fairly universal too, no? I was also concerned about space. You only get so much space with a free account to drop box. I think some tests are in order.



But I think the problems with the sound quality with my comparisons were source based more than format based.

 

I wonder if Pearl released anything?

 

George P - these two came up start away for me

http://www.amazon.com/Ernö-von-Dohn...=sr_1_4?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1331822022&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Masters...=sr_1_6?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1331822022&sr=1-6

 

whoa! so that second one has him playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. definitely could cause me to give in and purchase a CD, if there's no vinyl...

 

Thanks!

 

Thread #5 is up and running: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=280001

 

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