Oistrakh
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2006
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Originally Posted by Oistrakh /img/forum/go_quote.gif |
Originally Posted by Schalldämpfer /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah... kinda leaning towards that sentiment myself. The only violin sonatas that struck me as amazing were Bach's first through third and also his partitias. Violinist was Henryk Szerying. I couldn't get to the scratchy tune of the violin when I first started listening to classical, but after a while, they became one of the most beautiful and thought-provoking pieces I own. |
Originally Posted by Oistrakh /img/forum/go_quote.gif get milstein's recording... |
Originally Posted by Oistrakh /img/forum/go_quote.gif |
Originally Posted by Oistrakh /img/forum/go_quote.gif get milstein's recording... |
Originally Posted by JayG /img/forum/go_quote.gif You do love your fortepiano recordings, don't you, Bunny? I don't have much experience at all with the instrument, but all of your glowing posts about fortepiano performances (Mozart concertos, sonatas) are making me want to pick some up. -Jay |
Originally Posted by BAwig05 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Grummiux's (spelling,) is on a Philips Duo (Philips) |
Originally Posted by JayG /img/forum/go_quote.gif That was an interesting and informative read. I think, though, that when it comes to actually performing these works (especially composers of the Romantic period and later), it becomes counterproductive to get totally caught up in HIP practices. I think it's important to know where the music came from and how it might have been performed in it's day, but I think it's more important to get inside the music itself and really try to understand what makes it sing and what the composer wanted to say. I'd take a more inspired performance of Brahms on a modern piano, muddier chords and all, over a performance of the same piece on a HIP piano that lacks an equal level of interpretive strength. All composers (except maybe Beethoven) wrote for the instruments they had available. If they were working today, and they wanted to write piano music, they would write for the modern piano. Maybe they would have made some small changes to voicing and harmony to make things more clear on the modern instrument, but it's just a vehicle to get their musical vision out. If a performer wants to use a historical instrument because they feel like it will help them get to the heart of the music better, more power to them. But if they want to perform on that instrument just because they want people to hear how it would have sounded in the composer's day, they might as well not waste their time. The instrument should be a secondary consideration; a decision to make once you have decided that you have a genuine reason to put a personal and individual mark on a piece of music. -Jay |
Originally Posted by Bunnyears /img/forum/go_quote.gif For me, it's a matter of wanting to know how the composer heard the music and understood the balance between all of the instruments in ensemble playing. For years I listened to Beethoven with the woods and reeds barely discernible through the heavily vibrato enhanced, expanded string sections. Then I heard Beethoven played in a more historically informed manner and I was actually shocked by the difference. I have experienced the same shock when centuries of grime are carefully removed from a great painting. All of the "patina" of added layers of varnish and dirt which we admired and mistook for the true colors are stripped away and something so much more vibrant appears. Hopefully when a painting is cleaned or a piece of music is performed in an historically informed manner, the works won't be mishandled so that too much is stripped away. Ideally it should illuminate how the composer or painter envisioned the work, and not create a new, different, false vision. Btw, bad performance is not a function of how historically informed the practice is. I've heard bad performances that are conventional and historically informed. Every performance and interpretation should be trying to gain insight into the music, but unfortunately I've been to enough clunker-concerts and bought enough clunker-recordings to admit that sometimes it just doesn't happen. |