What Classical Music Are You Listening To?

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, Referentzhunter said:

John Dowland, vol. 1

Very good 👍 ....

[Referentzhunter]

7 minutes ago, soulpope said:

Very good 👍 ....

Calming and meditative... this is a must-have for you (if i may say so) !

Fantastic sound quality also.

Edited January 18, 2024 by Referentzhunter

[soulpope]

24 minutes ago, Referentzhunter said:

Calming and meditative... this is a must-have for you (if i may say so) !

Fantastic sound quality also.

Agreed on all accounts .... btw got this one 😇😁 ....

[soulpope]

Obviously the whole career of Sviatoslv Richter was wondrous, but i do prefer his later recordings where his incredible technical furor has been partially suplanted by slowed down and pensive readings .... and this approach suits well with Haydn sonatas ....

[soulpope]

As good as it gets ....

[soulpope]

A concert which changed his public perception .... and considered by Jorge Bolet as highlight of his career  ....

[Chuck Nessa]

The sonatas.

[Peter Friedman]

[HutchFan]

13 minutes ago, soulpope said:

A concert which changed his public perception .... and considered by Jorge Bolet as highlight of his career  ....

In what sense, soulpope?  Did the concert & recording create a big splash -- and lead to him becoming more well-known & highly regarded?

 

3 minutes ago, Peter Friedman said:

What do you think of this album, Peter?  

I always enjoy Vásáry's playing.  So soulful and poetic.  But I was unaware that he'd recorded for Collins. 

 

[Peter Friedman]

32 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

I

 

What do you think of this album, Peter?  

I always enjoy Vásáry's playing.  So soulful and poetic.  But I was unaware that he'd recorded for Collins. 

 

HutchFan, I just discovered that Mozart Piano Concerto recording for Collins.

You said it all when you described Vasary's playing as "soulful and poetic". That comes through very very well on the 2 Mozart Piano Concertos on the Collins label

[soulpope]

40 minutes ago, HutchFan said:

In what sense, soulpope?  Did the concert & recording create a big splash -- and lead to him becoming more well-known & highly regarded?

His career never really took off and when he was finally signed by RCA in 1972 and a master-tape  of works by Liszt was made but not issued. The tape languished on the shelf for thirty years and was finally issued on CD in 2001 by RCA as "Bolet Rediscovered" (btw a "must have") ....

Jorge Bolet - who was already 60 years (!!) at that time - said much later about the Carnegie Hall Concert  " I hate to hear myself play, and up till now, there's been only one recording I can stand—and that comes from a 1974 Carnegie Hall recital which RCA put out."

Critic Eric Salzman wrote about the released Concert :

 'I don't know about you, but much as I like tramping off to unusual places for unusual experiences, I wouldn't normally walk across the street to hear anyone play a piano transcription of Wagner's Tannhauser Overture - unless . . . unless perhaps the player were Liszt himself playing his own arrangement. Well, Jorge Bolet is not Liszt, but he is about as close as you can come these days, and you can hear him playing the bejeezuz out of that transcription in your own living room on a new RCA recording.'

Of the Chopin Preludes: 'There was no hyphen involved in these, but the program might just as well have read "Chopin-Bolet", for he takes every possible expressive liberty, playing off the beat, sustaining tones, arpeggiating chords, creating new lines and cross -rhythms, playing fast and free with the tempos, even changing the text here and there. Yet all of it has such authority and sensibility of touch, nuance, color, line, and phrase that one ends up agreeing with Bolet and not the dry-bone notes of the printed music! He re-creates it all afresh.'   Concerning the Viennese waltzes: 'In a way, it's a pity
that so much skill - and I mean musicality, sensitivity, swiftness, sureness, taste, and communicativeness, not mere facility - is tossed away so lightly, so prodigally, on so many soap bubbles.'

Subsequently to this sensational concert  it took anothe two years before producer Peter Wadland persuaded Ray Ware (of the L'Oiseau-Lyre/ DECCA label) to meet Jorge Bolet. His reminiscences :

"Jorge Bolet had given a recital the day before the sessions, Sunday, 2 October 1977" Wadland picks up the story. ‘I remember the Queen Elizabeth Hall being almost empty, with perhaps as few as 200 people there (after all there had been no publicity) but when it came to the end there was a standing ovation— not only from the audience but also from all the critics—something I have never witnessed before or since. I persuaded Ray Ware, then Label Manager of L'Oiseau-Lyre to meet Jorge and myself for lunch. I was surprised that Jorge seemed slightly mistrustful of our intentions. He had, after all, not had wonderful experiences with record companies. Finally I was able to persuade him to make this record for L'Oiseau-Lyre, and the sessions took place on October 3rd and 4th, 1977, at Kingsway Hall."

But it took another four years (during which he toured recurringly) before Jorge Bolet started recording for Decca on ongoing bases from 1981 onwards .... btw unfortunatey the artist became seriously lill and the recordings from the later 80`s suffer from that fact .... 

[mjzee]

There are two Jorge Bolet albums in the Decca Piano box, both of which I greatly enjoyed.  First, the album referenced above, recorded October 3 & 4, 1977:

The other, recorded November 1981:

 

 

[HutchFan]

47 minutes ago, soulpope said:

His career never really took off and when he was finally signed by RCA in 1972 and a master-tape  of works by Liszt was made but not issued. The tape languished on the shelf for thirty years and was finally issued on CD in 2001 by RCA as "Bolet Rediscovered" (btw a "must have") ....

Jorge Bolet - who was already 60 years (!!) at that time - said much later about the Carnegie Hall Concert  " I hate to hear myself play, and up till now, there's been only one recording I can stand—and that comes from a 1974 Carnegie Hall recital which RCA put out."

Critic Eric Salzman wrote about the released Concert :

 'I don't know about you, but much as I like tramping off to unusual places for unusual experiences, I wouldn't normally walk across the street to hear anyone play a piano transcription of Wagner's Tannhauser Overture - unless . . . unless perhaps the player were Liszt himself playing his own arrangement. Well, Jorge Bolet is not Liszt, but he is about as close as you can come these days, and you can hear him playing the bejeezuz out of that transcription in your own living room on a new RCA recording.'

Of the Chopin Preludes: 'There was no hyphen involved in these, but the program might just as well have read "Chopin-Bolet", for he takes every possible expressive liberty, playing off the beat, sustaining tones, arpeggiating chords, creating new lines and cross -rhythms, playing fast and free with the tempos, even changing the text here and there. Yet all of it has such authority and sensibility of touch, nuance, color, line, and phrase that one ends up agreeing with Bolet and not the dry-bone notes of the printed music! He re-creates it all afresh.'   Concerning the Viennese waltzes: 'In a way, it's a pity
that so much skill - and I mean musicality, sensitivity, swiftness, sureness, taste, and communicativeness, not mere facility - is tossed away so lightly, so prodigally, on so many soap bubbles.'

Subsequently to this sensational concert  it took anothe two years before producer Peter Wadland persuaded Ray Ware (of the L'Oiseau-Lyre/ DECCA label) to meet Jorge Bolet. His reminiscences :

"Jorge Bolet had given a recital the day before the sessions, Sunday, 2 October 1977" Wadland picks up the story. ‘I remember the Queen Elizabeth Hall being almost empty, with perhaps as few as 200 people there (after all there had been no publicity) but when it came to the end there was a standing ovation— not only from the audience but also from all the critics—something I have never witnessed before or since. I persuaded Ray Ware, then Label Manager of L'Oiseau-Lyre to meet Jorge and myself for lunch. I was surprised that Jorge seemed slightly mistrustful of our intentions. He had, after all, not had wonderful experiences with record companies. Finally I was able to persuade him to make this record for L'Oiseau-Lyre, and the sessions took place on October 3rd and 4th, 1977, at Kingsway Hall."

But it took another four years (during which he toured recurringly) before Jorge Bolet started recording for Decca on ongoing bases from 1981 onwards .... btw unfortunatey the artist became seriously lill and the recordings from the later 80`s suffer from that fact .... 

@soulpope, thank you so much for this background info, a history lesson on Bolet in miniature.

As usual, I'm the beneficiary of my fellow forum members' expertise & insight. 

 

[Referentzhunter]

6 hours ago, soulpope said:

Agreed on all accounts .... btw got this one 😇😁 ....

then you're OK !!!

[soulpope]

1 hour ago, HutchFan said:

@soulpope, thank you so much for this background info, a history lesson on Bolet in miniature.

As usual, I'm the beneficiary of my fellow forum members' expertise & insight. 

You're welcome 👍 ....

[Chuck Nessa]

Disc 1 - Impromtus

[soulpope]

2 hours ago, mjzee said:

There are two Jorge Bolet albums in the Decca Piano box, both of which I greatly enjoyed.  First, the album referenced above, recorded October 3 & 4, 1977:

The other, recorded November 1981:

Both excellent, nevertheless Chopin/Godowky nearer to my heart ....

[Peter Friedman]

[mikeweil]

[Ron S]

Hanson, Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, and 5 / Piano Concerto / "Merry Mount" Suite / Lament for Beowulf

Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony and Chorale, Carol Rosenberger (piano, Concerto) (Delos)

[Peter Friedman]

[soulpope]

5 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

Distinct view on Bach .....

[soulpope]

Anatol Ugorski plays Liszt Sonata in b-minor "live" in the early 2000's ....

[soulpope]

Vitaly Margulis plays Scriabin Etudes "live" in the late 1990's ....

[soulpope]

Günter Wand - as usual - brisker paced, but not rushed ....