Music Thread ~ CLASSICAL ~

[Kryztian]

Today, April 4th is the birthday of Eugène Bozza (1905 – 1991)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CsxZcXuaS18

[Tintin]

𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐨 (𝐀𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐢𝐚𝐳𝐳𝐨𝐥𝐥&#119834 - 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐚𝐦
Beautifully performed

[Ivanhoe]

Just thought I'd share something I needed to hear.
Hope you enjoy!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JLmSpBsDxdk

[Michel Leclerc]

Posted by Ivanhoe (here)
Just thought I'd share something I needed to hear.
Hope you enjoy!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=JLmSpBsDxdk

Oh, oh... Kempff‘s 1964 recording.. Have just listened to the Allegro con brio... Kempff‘s celebrated depth of tone, tenuto.. What an extraordinary differentiation really – and by this means of song-likeness, achieving an utterly persuasive exposition of the piece’s divine architecture. The staccatos in the left hand singing even; the “stumbling” little ritardandos at about 3:10 and 7:40. The extraordinary expressiveness of the three times halted upward phrase right before the final chords. Not too fast, and yet, the waves of sound keep coming, irresistible (after 6:00 for instance). The German piano school... imbued with Italian grace...

Thanks Ivanhoe..

p.s.: the short bridging middle movement (like in the 4th Piano Concerto of the same Olympic middle period) how clear! and then the Finale, which is so often emptied of lyricism when the note figurations become the sole object of focus – how Kempff, from about 18:38, achieves the mysterious three-minute buildup until the song theme of the Finale comes back, shining as if it were a greeting from the angels.. leading to the Coda presto Kempff holding the tension (the right-hand trills!) so that in the left hand, the staccato of the first movement quote can clearly be heard.. and the listener can be said goodbye to by the friendly three-chord “Le-be-wohl" motif — !

[Michel Leclerc]

In these end times the value of real artistic creation shines stronger than ever.

The growing interest for the greatness of a young Soviet pianist who four decades ago managed to “flee to the West” in his mid twenties, then in 1988 died from aids when he was 33 in Amsterdam, Youri Egorov (actually to be pronounced Yegorov), is a balm on my heart. The reincarnated Dinu Lipatti he has been called – and that is an apt description because he has Lipatti’s purity of line, emotional subtlety, sincerity..

I will briefly introduce three of his most masterly readings. Mostly just his music – there are not many live performances to be seen.

But first a moving documentary about Youri Egorov made in the Netherlands, where after his post-Queen Elisabeth contest participation (he won 3rd prize) he found the love of his life.

[Michel Leclerc]

Youri Egorov the incredibly empathic interpreter of Chopin, Schumann, Schubert – yes. I will present this music later.

But first I would like to introduce what I am only discovering now, while typing this: Youri Egorov’s version of Sergei Prokofiev’s 8th Sonata, the last of the trio of War Sonatas (together with the 6th and the 7th, obviously) written in 1943, if I am right, while Prokofiev was in the USSR Georgia. Whereas the 6th Sonata is sharp, aggressive, witty and the 7th mobilises the demonic and the forces of madness, the 8th is more the music of introspection and melancholy sadness at the terrible human cost of the “Great Patriotic War”. Most pianists however emphasise its towering size (half an hour for its three movements) and its monumental, virtuoso Finale.

Not so Youri Egorov. His is simply the best version I know of this sonata since I was so fortunate to hear Emil Gilels play it in Antwerp when I was 16 or so. Supreme clarity, unerringly sounding its depths. A live recording from 1981. Youri was 26 or 27.

The comment on the Youtube recording is moving and enlightening.

[Ivanhoe]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=DHJsjZFu89U

[Lunesoleil]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=G7dOvJlb8Xo

I listened a lot in my youth 🎹

[Kryztian]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ybq6Ea79nZ4

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_IzI0vn8egw

Heil’ge Nacht, du sinkest nieder;
Nieder wallen auch die Träume,
Wie dein Mondlicht durch die Räume,
Durch der Menschen stille Brust.
Die belauschen sie mit Lust;
Rufen, wenn der Tag erwacht:
Kehre wieder, heil’ge Nacht!
Holde Träume, kehret wieder!

Holy night, you sink down;
dreams, too, float down,
like your moonlight through space,
through the silent hearts of men.
They listen with delight,
crying out when day awakes:
come back, holy night!
Fair dreams, return!

[Ivanhoe]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kg7aXEvCeXY

[bojancan]

Still watching Palestinians dying... and my heart is broken... there is NO Christmas for them...


MALAKAI sings 'Pie Jesu' from his debut album GOLDEN

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gqVRAE9xFLc

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WPlyqsbCADo

[Ravenlocke]

Thank you so much Bojancan for these beautiful renditions of Pie Jesu.

My heart is broken too for the same reason as yours😢

[Myristyl]

Amazing playing from Edith Pageaud.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zPjBD54gGo4

[Myristyl]

Some more if I may ... There is a whole Album but I can't get the embed link to work.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pH1m_WaJ-Xc

Rameau, Scarlatti, Couperin, Bach
Sergio & Odair Assad

[bojancan]

Love this Mendelssohn's Concerto...

Itzhak Perlman - Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E - Various Conductors & Orchestras/Fan Compilation

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=PC6cPairOTA

[Tintin]

This is truly wonderful, and really, I agree, how it should be heard

Description via Classical Melodies on X:

This piece sounds much better being played by a quintet than how we usually hear it with a full orchestra. This is definitely how it was meant to be.

🌷𝐌𝐨𝐳𝐚𝐫𝐭: 𝐄𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐤 | 𝐆𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐬 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐟𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐧 (𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬&#119852

ℹ️ One of the most emblematic works in classical music: Mozart’s Serenade in G major (K. 525), better known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
🔹Composed in the summer of 1787, at the height of Mozart’s success.
🔹Originally written for two violins, viola, cello, and double bass—though today it’s often heard in orchestral form.

Saved to the library in a new directory devoted to classical music, from which much may be gleaned from this wonderful thread

2005 performance from Rammenau Baroque Castle



The MP3 here for those that prefer to listen to just the music:

[Ewan]

Brought a tear to my eye, akin to a mini flashmob but it may well have been a little more impromptu than that?

10 yr old maestro on violin joins a pianist in Vivaldi's Four Seasons - Summer

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NpWNDWfkQJM

[rgray222]

Delibes: Lakmé - Duo des fleurs (Flower Duet),
I know that opera is tough for some to like but when you listen to really great piece like this it is extremely hard not to fall in love with this great music. The French artist Sabine Devieilhe & Marianne Crebassa.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=C1ZL5AxmK_A

[Kryztian]

Happy 59th Birthday to Natalie Dessay - the French coloratura soprano sensation.


The "Song of the Bells" from the opera Lakme. She has such amazing control and stays so completely calm and grounded as her voice soars all over the stratosphere!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=UlodKR_mx1Y

From "The Tales of Hoffman" - Dessay as the mechanical doll "Olympia" - she might just look like something you wind up that dances around, but if you wear the rose colored spectacles (as Hoffman does here) she seems alive, and he falls in love with her.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=iUFN9QzsSG4

Zerbinetta's aria "Großmächtige Prinzessen" from "Ariadne auf Naxos" is the most difficult and treacherous aria for the colortura, yet Dessay makes it look so easy and graceful.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=T8uup4yOpO0

[Kryztian]

𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗼𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝘀 𝗕𝗼𝗿𝗻
https://www.facebook.com/partenope/p...yoqeiVN3452ekl

The famous failed collaboration between 𝗜𝘃𝗼 𝗣𝗼𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵 and 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝘃𝗼𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗻 concerned 𝗧𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗸𝗼𝘃𝘀𝗸𝘆’𝘀 𝗣𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗼 𝗡𝗼. 𝟭 𝗶𝗻 𝗕-𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿, 𝗢𝗽. 𝟮𝟯, and it took place in 1984, when Pogorelich was still one of the most controversial young pianists in the world. The project promised to be sensational: Karajan, the supreme orchestral autocrat of the late twentieth century, together with Pogorelich, the pianist who had become famous precisely because he refused to sound conventional. Yet the meeting collapsed before it could become a recording. The concerto was cancelled after a tense rehearsal, and the planned collaboration entered musical history as one of the most revealing artistic failures of the 1980s.

𝗣𝗼𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵 had become internationally famous after the 1980 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where his elimination before the final caused a scandal. His official biography describes how the jury was sharply divided, while Martha Argerich resigned in protest and called him a genius. His playing was admired for its originality, tone control, and radical imagination, but it also provoked listeners who felt that his freedom distorted the score. This background is essential: Pogorelich did not arrive before Karajan as a normal young virtuoso eager to obey a great maestro. He arrived as 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲, 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘆.

Karajan, by contrast, had a very different idea of musical authority. In concerto recordings, he did not usually behave as a passive accompanist. He shaped orchestral texture, tempo, balance, phrasing, and architecture with almost symphonic control. Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto was a work he knew intimately: he had performed it across many decades and recorded it with major pianists including Sviatoslav Richter, Alexis Weissenberg, Lazar Berman, and Evgeny Kissin. For Karajan, the concerto was not merely a vehicle for pianistic display; it was 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.

The clash came during a rehearsal in the Musikverein in Vienna. According to Richard Osborne, who witnessed the episode and is quoted on the official Karajan website, Karajan “uncharacteristically ran out of patience.” There were heated exchanges. At one point, Karajan left the rostrum and hammered out the rhythm on the piano lid. At the end of the rehearsal, he announced: “Tomorrow evening we play Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6.” The meaning was clear: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱.

The central problem seems to have been 𝗮 𝗿𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. Pogorelich’s style depended on extreme flexibility: stretched phrases, unusual accents, long silences, sudden contrasts, and a sense that the music was being reimagined from within. Karajan, although capable of broad and luxurious phrasing, needed a deep underlying pulse and a unified structural flow. In a concerto as public, rhythmically charged, and theatrically exposed as Tchaikovsky’s First, those differences could not easily be hidden. What may have seemed to Pogorelich like expressive freedom may have seemed to Karajan like instability; what may have seemed to Karajan like architectural necessity may have seemed to Pogorelich like restriction.

The failure was therefore not simply a matter of temperament, vanity, or bad manners. It was 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵. Karajan believed in monumental continuity, orchestral discipline, and a controlled dramatic line. Pogorelich believed in radical individuality, microscopic detail, and interpretative risk. In a solo recital, Pogorelich could impose his own sense of time entirely. In a concerto with Karajan, that private time had to coexist with the conductor’s vast orchestral machine. In this case, it did not.

There is also an important symbolic dimension. The young Pogorelich represented the post-competition scandal, the new cult of interpretative originality, and a kind of glamorous rebellion against academic correctness. Karajan represented the old imperial model of the conductor: 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗴𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆. The recording failed because neither man could truly become secondary to the other. A successful concerto partnership requires hierarchy to dissolve into dialogue; here, hierarchy and individuality collided.

What makes the episode so fascinating is that it might have produced either a disaster or a legendary recording. Pogorelich’s Tchaikovsky, if disciplined by Karajan’s orchestral command, could have been extraordinary. Karajan’s opulent sonority, if unsettled by Pogorelich’s imagination, might have revealed new psychological tensions in the concerto. But the rehearsal showed that 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗶𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. Sometimes the more powerful the personalities, the more impossible the collaboration.

In the end, the failed Karajan–Pogorelich recording remains one of the great “what ifs” of late twentieth-century classical discography. It tells us that a recording is not only a document of talent, but also a fragile human agreement. 𝗞𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗷𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗼𝗴𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁. They failed because both were too strongly themselves.

https://www.facebook.com/partenope/p...yoqeiVN3452ekl

* * * * * * * * * *

Pogorelich did finally record the Tchaikovsky with another world class conductor, Claudio Abbado:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZlPtyqexpnU

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WluCxal-Wok

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=9jYtdTKh1eQ