Classical Corner Classical Music Corner (thread #30)

Actor and comedian.

 

Her performance on "House" is mentioned in today's Times.

 

Ohhhhhh...now I get it.

 

McCartney's Oceans Kingdome is #1 on the classic charts!

Ocean's Kingdom' Remains Number One

More great news for 'Ocean's Kingdom' as it tops the US Classical chart for a second consecutive week! Well done Paul.

Independent
The 'Hall of Dance' section in which McCartney gets to indulge his inner Gershwin.
McCartney undeniably has an ear for melody.

The Sun
A new classical score by Macca is always an event.
McCartney packs in plenty of rhythm and builds exciting climaxes, particularly in the first section where surging seas depict the rising tides of passion. It's bold stuff...

Daily Express
The melodic score has a romantic touch that is almost 19th century in character. 4 stars.

 

Simple rule - never EVER believe in anything you read in The Sun or Daily Express!

 

Note to self: start reading newspaper in artificial light.

 

Enjoying this lovely set again. I assure you, the pianism is way better than the haircut.

 

Hey. He does what he can.

 

Tin Tin aged 55

 

He has Toast and Marmalade with his tea?

 

I love photgraphs of Brendel; I think he has a wonderfully expressive face. Maybe it's partly the photographer, but I think it's more his face, and it's gotten better as he's gotten older -- actually I suspect it's helped his album sales. I don't mean that disparagingly as I'm one of his biggest fans.

 

Indeed he has an expressive, unique face. But as for the hair, he'd have to try really hard to make it look worse than that.

 

Here is one of my favorites:

 

"Brendel impersonates Uchida."

 

What do you think of her, by the way? I really don't think I can remember anything she's recorded that I've heard. She was here in Philly a year or two ago, but I did not go.

 

Here's a pianist who apparently had quite the reputation, but is rarely mentioned nowadays, to my knowledge. These Carnegie Hall recordings from 1946 are rough, sonically, make no mistake about it, but underneath it really sounds like an exceptional performance of the Liszt Concerto, which is not a favorite of mine and usually sounds gaudy and disjointed to me, but seems much more worthwhile here.

 

I haven't heard much, but I have enjoyed her Debussy Etudes and Mozart Sonatas.

I got that whole series from the Berkshire Record Outlet awhile ago, but have only heard bits of it so far. It's high time I pulled those discs out and had a listen, thanks for the reminder. I also have The Complete HMV Recordings on HMV, which I have heard and enjoyed.

 

One of my first CDs was this one:



Brendel played in Athens during his farewell tour (I think in 2008) and I went backstage to get my cds signed. I told him that this particular was one of my favorites and he reacted with extreme expressions in his face and speaking low in a "conspirancy manner" and very very friendly, that the live performances of these works that preceded the studio recording were much better, more spontaneous but he told me "you know, the record companies want everything note-perfect".

I was very positively surprised to hear this from an artist I considered very conservative, intellectually rather than "romantic" oriented, meaning I thought that he liked everything in place and perfect (and for me this was verified from the 3 times I saw him in concert and having listened some of his recordings). Strange... Time to re-evaluate?

 

Now playing:

• Mozart: Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 'Haffner' - Trevor Pinnock / The English Concert [DG 1995, from 'Late Symphonies' 4CD set, recorded at Henry Wood Hall, London, in May 1993, Executive Producer: Charlotte Kriesch, Recording Producer: Hans Bernhard Bätzing, Balance Engineer: Hans-Peter Schweigmann, Recording Engineer: Klaus Behrens, Editing: Martin Derner — superb in every respect (especially the Presto finale), some of my very favorite Mozart is Pinnock's Mozart Symphonies]

 

Cologne - a Poem by Alfred Brendel

The Coughers of Cologne
have joined forces with the Cologne Clappers
and established the Cough and Clap Society
a non-profit-making organization
whose aim it is
to guarantee each concert-goer's right
to cough and applaud
Attempts by unfeeling artists or impresarios
to question such privileges
have led to a Coughers and Clappers initiative
Members are required to applaud
immediately after sublime codas
and cough distinctly
during expressive silences
Distinct coughing is of paramount importance
to stifle or muffle it
forbidden on pain of expulsion
Coughs of outstanding tenacity
are awarded the Coughing Rhinemaiden
a handsome if slightly baroque appendage
to be worn dangling from the neck
The C&C's recent merger
with the New York Sneezers
and the London Whistlers
raises high hopes
for Cologne's musical future

 

I can vouch for the live Schubert on this 2CD set (D959 and D960 on CD 2):



http://www.reocities.com/Vienna/5901/rr/rr13-00.htm

 

Enjoying CD 2 from this set. Absolutely great sound and performance.

 

I like that actually; very musicianly, the look of a proper artist rather than a stuffy academic.

And remember this is the late 70s/80s we're talking about which weren't exactly the height of fashion/good haircuts.

 

Probably his most celebrated recording was the Schumann Toccata, issued in the US on Victor 14263-B, backing the Chopin mazurka op 59 no. 3 (we're talking 78s here, of course). Now, Schumann's "sheep from the goats test of technical chops takes around 7 minutes as usually played nowadays. Barer gets it onto one 4.5-minute 78 RPM record side. I once saw or heard an estimate of how many notes he was playing per second; I forget the number, but suffice it to say that it was very large!

Your record contains performances that, unless I misremember, were sourced from amateur acetate instant-cut disks, first saw release on the old Remington budget LP label in the early '50s, and then more or less disappeared for a couple of decades. There's the core of why Barer is not well remembered: for an artist of his stature, and he definitely was far more than a "nobody" during his career, he made painfully few records, and little of that material survived into the LP era.