[perhapss]

   
 
There are many individuals who overcome their handicaps to do great things, you can't really extrapolate the difficulty of something from that, rather it makes those individuals more amazing. 

 
 
Of course. I SALUTE THEM!!!!
 
 
EDIT: I intitally hesitated to add this point because it may be seen as a personal attack but please do not take it that way. It is more a rhetorical point or general observation on my part. Your point which I`ve quoted here is indeed a profound one IMO. On the other hand, The opposite can also occur. I`ve observed many people carry on about the difficulty of something or another simply because they themselves aren`t up to the task.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

   
 
Of course. I SALUTE THEM!!!!
 
 
EDIT: I intitally hesitated to add this point because it may be seen as a personal attack but please do not take it that way. It is more a rhetorical point or general observation on my part. Your point which I`ve quoted here is indeed a profound one IMO. On the other hand, The opposite can also occur. I`ve observed many people carry on about the difficulty of something or another simply because they themselves aren`t up to the task.

 
 

 

[uchihaitachi]

  Sorry if I missed that among all the cat fights going on here 

... 
 
Still would love, if possible to know when a couple of these top pianos are used in a recording:
 
Just saw this interesting note on Schiff's ECM recordings and thought it would be an interesting note to add, since I do love their recording techniques personally (and I don't care if it's not how a real concert sounds). (https://www.ecmrecords.com/catalogue/143038752508/ludwig-van-beethoven-the-piano-sonatas-volume-i-andras-schiff)
 
ECM now presents Schiff’s long awaited first cycle of the complete 32 sonatas. The pianist opted for live-recordings. The concert situation not only facilitates communicative immediacy, but also creates musical suspense. András Schiff uses two different grand pianos: a Bösendorfer, which, as he says himself, “is adequate to the Vienna dialect”, which he likes in the early Beethoven, and a Steinway maintained by the internationally renowned piano technicians Fabbrini from Italy. Schiff rates the Steinway as the more objective and powerful instrument he prefers in the more dramatic sonatas. His approach to Beethoven is characterised by utmost conscientiousness: The pianist, who will be touring this fall (with a programme including the Sonatas op. 31 and the “Waldstein” Sonata), not only scrutinizes the composer’s manuscripts kept in various libraries and institutes, but also studies the sound and playing techniques of the pianos Beethoven had at his disposal.

Angela hewitt uses Faziolis exclusively. It's quite difficult to find pianos other than steinways, as any famous artist are contractually bound by specific sponsors to only play their pianos grr.
 
Old recordings, Cortot uses a pleyel, which is what chopin played on, soft delicate but lovely singing tone.
 
Lisista uses a bosendorfer
 
andsnes uses a steinway and his recordings are exquisitely recorded
 
There are good recordings of yulianna avdeeva playing on a yamaha during the chopin competition
 
 
A good controlled way of discerning out the differences is via listening to high quality videos of competition performances, where the acoustics will be controlled for, and each pianist uses their own sponsor piano, and you can hear it side by side. tchaikovsky or chopin competitions have the major brands of pianos on show.

 

[Quinto]

Can't believe how much I'm enjoying Celibidache's Bruckner these days.. his 9th is unbelievable
 

 

[ctemkin]

One of my favorite renditions of several Beethoven piano sonatas is Igor Tchetuev's sacd, Complete Piano Sonatas volume I, on Cara Mitis. It contains No. 7, No. 23 (Appassionata), and No. 26 (Les Adieux).  I mention this because, in response to jdpark, he is playing on a Fazioli.  It is too bad that although there were a number of volumes of "Complete Piano Sonatas," the collection was apparently never completed.

 

[jdpark]

Very interesting. I don't think it's a coincidence that so many pianists who work with, or have worked a lot with Hyperion in the past, seem to be using Fazioli pianos. Makes me wonder if that's just what they have in the recording studio. Hewitt, Tchetuev, Hough, etc.  That of course is more of a compliment than a criticism, but nonetheless a reasonable observation. 
 
I personally think the actual recording quality of a lot of Hyperion piano works that I have even in Hi-Rez, is inferior to the redbook recordings I have from DG and ECM... But the selection of the music itself and the playing tends to be very good there. To me a lot of their cd's sound soft and fuzzy with only okay dynamic, not sharp and focused like ECM, or highly dynamic like DG. All my own subjective observations, though. I would never pass up a Hyperion album just because I think the label is sub-par by today's standards of recording and engineering.

 

[Claritas]

A good, but opinionated, guide to pianists is David Dubal's

Dubal's documentary, The Art of the Piano (aired in the 90s?), along with Harold Schonberg's Great Pianists first got me interested in old piano records.



I hunted down CD transfers of the whole Golden Age--probably much easier to find now. If I liked what I heard, I'd buy more; if not, no. I ended up buying the complete Hofmann as it was released.

The last time I heard Earl Wild, he had switched from Baldwins to some space-age Kawai. There's was a funny moment where he started some French piece and decided he didn't like the way it was going--it was fine, really--so he declared, "Let's take it from the top!" and started over. He was a born showman, like Rubinstein. My favorite Wild record is his Chopin Etudes.

 

[uchihaitachi]

Dubal's documentary, The Art of the Piano (aired in the 90s?), along with Harold Schonberg's Great Pianists first got me interested in old piano records.



I hunted down CD transfers of the whole Golden Age--probably much easier to find now. If I liked what I heard, I'd buy more; if not, no. I ended up buying the complete Hofmann as it was released.

The last time I heard Earl Wild, he had switched from Baldwins to some space-age Kawai. There's was a funny moment where he started some French piece and decided he didn't like the way it was going--it was fine, really--so he declared, "Let's take it from the top!" and started over. He was a born showman, like Rubinstein. My favorite Wild record is his Chopin Etudes.

Wild's got some crazy good rachmaninoff too.

 

[RRod]

  Wild's got some crazy good rachmaninoff too.

 
His recording of Hahn's Le rossignol eperdu is a nice repository of little gems.

 

[perhapss]

   
 

 
 
YESSIR!!!
 

 

[SunTanScanMan]

 
3am music - I can't quite grasp the melody, but it remains enticing every time I listen.

 

[uchihaitachi]

   
 

What do you think of Lupu's Schubert?

 

[CanadianMaestro]

What do you think of Lupu's Schubert?

Lupu does Schubert well. Introspective like Brendel, not as overtly poetic as Kempff. Lupu can tend to sound like he is trying too hard to be dramatic, as in the BFlatMajor D960, but at least it does not derail like with some of Schiff's Schubert.

I also think Uchida does the late sonatas quite well. But Mozart suits her better.

Surprised that Arrau did not rec a complete cycle here. I couldn't find one.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

3am music - I can't quite grasp the melody, but it remains enticing every time I listen.

So I finally listened to the #8 quartet, by the St Lawrence Quartet. It is indeed creepy, that first mvt. Reminded me a bit of Frankenstein 1932, for some bizarre reason.

 

[CanadianMaestro]

Dubal's documentary, The Art of the Piano (aired in the 90s?), along with Harold Schonberg's Great Pianists first got me interested in old piano records.



I hunted down CD transfers of the whole Golden Age--probably much easier to find now. If I liked what I heard, I'd buy more; if not, no. I ended up buying the complete Hofmann as it was released.

The last time I heard Earl Wild, he had switched from Baldwins to some space-age Kawai. There's was a funny moment where he started some French piece and decided he didn't like the way it was going--it was fine, really--so he declared, "Let's take it from the top!" and started over. He was a born showman, like Rubinstein. My favorite Wild record is his Chopin Etudes.

Yeah, there's a ton of piano music out there that I haven't even touched yet. These books are great compasses to get started on new paths.