Gary, I wish I had more to contribute (or better ways to contribute), but my analog to digital apparatus is malfunctioning. I especially appreciated that Richter/Haydn. I think the Haydn piano sonatas deserve much more attention. Horowitz was one of the few "big name" pianists who included a lot of Haydn's solo piano music in his concerts.
My personal favorite recording is of Horowitz playing the E major (Hob. XVI: 52) from a 1951 Carnegie Hall recital. I have it on a 1979 RCA Red Seal recording with his marvelous rendition of "Pictures at an Exhibition."
I have the Mussorgsky music for piano, but the Horowitz version is so much more pianistic and expressive. At least that's my story about why my playing of "Pictures" doesn't sound so hot, and I'm sticking to it.
As luck would have it, I was playing the piano as a substitute for our organist in church last Sunday, and played the first movement of Haydn's C Major Sonata (Hob. XVI: 50) as a prelude to the worship service. I was actually thinking of you because I played the Prelude & Fugue No. 6 from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier for an offeratory, and the Gigue from the English Suite No. 5 as a postlude. My wife and daughter didn't like the offeratory, though, because they thought an offeratory should be more sedate. Personally, I see no reason why offeratories should be soporific. What's wrong with lively praise to God?
John, I've got to get to your church! What can be wrong with Bach in church? My first piano teacher was a very religious girl, and she was Bach obsessed, mostly due to Bach's piety. I've started too late to ever be able to play anything from the WTC, except the Prelude in C Major. You are fortunate to have had the chance to learn, and wise to have taken that chance and go with it.
I'm just learning about Haydn, and I like him more and more. This sounds like a lot of fun to play:
This is every bit as good as I say it is because I have been listening to this piece for years and never tire of it. Midori, violin;Nobuko Imai, viola; and Christopher Eschenbach conducting the NDR Sinfonieorchester.
I will say the same for this old chestnut by Smetana: I never tire of listening to The Moldau. This recording was done in 1951. It uses a different approach than modern arrangements use, in that the initial bars, the soft flutes representing the springs, are more easily heard and you don't have to raise the volume to catch it, than lower it to listen to the rest. Weiner Philharmoniker, Wilhelm Furtwangler, conducting.
This is the first piece of classical music I bothered to play for myself besides Peter and the Wolf. My Grandad had a 78 rpm recording, two sides. I was allowed to keep it.
Ed Itt: I fell asleep listening to Sinfonia last night.
gary: Old'uns like this Padiddly one have a deep mellow tone all their own.
Somewhere in Norway (maybe Tromso), the late 40s or early 50s.
Credit: RD Gallery
Barcarolle/Offenbach
This work reminds me that life is beautiful.
For instance:
In West Spitsbergen they had from July to September to enjoy the sun and have supplies delivered by boat, in an article in the NG, 8/28, 'A Woman's Winter on Spitsbergen.'
or
'By the end of 1874 Smetana had become completely deaf...'
This thread is giving me the deepest kind of pleasure.
I have listened almost exclusively to classical since 1998, the year Liz passed. We listened to PHC on Saturdays, if we were together, and I heard some classical and operatic works, but not nearly enough. Our TV got the work-out, not my ears. After she passed and the house was quiet, I turned to the Sacramento classical station, which broadcasts from Groveland on FM, so I had my fill of classical all night long, if I wanted. Fresno is blessed with a good FM station that plays lots of it, also.
What a pleasure it is, though, to share thoughts of this music, rather than having to remain silent. It is a refuge from the sturm und drang of some of these ST threads.
And it has a basis in climbing history. Chuck Pratt, I suppose, would be mildly supportive. One wonders, too, what Royal might think.
Royal Robbins on the FA Mozart Wall, Sentinel
Credit: Tom Frost (TY)
I wanted to find a video of Horowitz playing a particular Chopin polonaise, but no luck.
Instead, here is one of the best playing another polonaise. He is E. Kissin, and for what my two pennies are worth, I think his style is what one could describe as musical. I hope you turn up your volume control a little, because he plays very softly and you don't want to spoil the first listening by having to "fiddle." :)
Any opinions here on violinists? I happen to favor Joshua Bell; his recording of the Brahms violin concerto is particularly outstanding, as is his Paganini First violin concerto. His tone quality is outstanding, and never wiry.
Let us know!