Album of the Evening

[pkane2001]

Available on HDTracks in 24/96

[pkane2001]

 

Chesky's Binaural+ recording [24/192]

[pkane2001]

Debargue is definitely not the same old. Very enjoyable Ravel and Liszt. Chopin too. Scarlatti not my cup of tea. 

 

[pkane2001]

1 minute ago, semente said:

Interesting. I've just finished listening to Chopin's Mazurkas:

 

 

 

And now Franck's Prélude, Choral et Fugue... Is it me or Philip Glass has appropriated parts of this piece?

 

 

 

 

I have a few recordings by Moravec. His Beethoven is a bit better, but I felt that Chopin was not his forté, so to speak  at least his interpretation didn’t speak to me, a bit mechanical.

[pkane2001]

2 minutes ago, semente said:

 

I have a lot. He's not exuberant at all but his Nocturnes and Arrau's are my favourites...perhaps two extremes.

 

I’ll try to find some more examples, maybe the ones I’ve heard were  not representative of his ability.

[pkane2001]

1 hour ago, semente said:

 

Maybe this one:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Piano-Concertos-Nos-20-23/dp/B005MQJPPI/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1523227491&sr=1-5&keywords=mozart+moravec

 

Thanks, I’ll check this out. Any Chopin interpretations by Moravec that you particularly like?

[pkane2001]

2 hours ago, Musicophile said:

Here's my take on Moravec's Nocturnes, with a different cover though:

https://musicophilesblog.com/2015/10/07/my-favorite-versions-of-chopins-nocturnes/

 

Thank you, gentlemen! I'm going to go back and listen to more Moravec based on your recommendations. To repay, here's one of my favorite pianists. Richter's perfect technique and explosive and yet extremely thoughtful interpretation is second to none. Audio quality isn't always great, but what do you expect from the middle of last century? Definitely worth a listen:

 

[pkane2001]

4 minutes ago, semente said:

 

Love this. Very bummed he never recorded op 39 no 5 — one of my favorites. IIRC, he said in an interview that it required him to be  stripped completely naked emotionally in front of an audience which he couldn’t bring himself to do.

[pkane2001]

You can't go wrong with Trifonov and Kremer. Excellent recording, available in 96/24.

[pkane2001]

The definitive Etudes Tableaux. Lugansky is wonderful. His 39/5 is perhaps the best I've heard. On rare occasions I prefer Ashkenazy's, but Lugansky's interpretation is more brooding and a bit darker which, I'm sure, is as Sergei Vasilievich had intended it. The whole album is worth a listen.

 

[pkane2001]

Verdi Requiem. Riccardo Muti, CSO, recorded live in 2009, 88/24. Great sound, great orchestra and conductor. Soloists are all very good, although not world-class, with the possible exception of Borodina.

 

[pkane2001]

Alexei Sultanov was truly an exceptional performer, with a depth of expressive emotion and sheer exuberance not often heard. Live 1996 recording, released on CD two years after his tragic death in 2005.

 

[pkane2001]

9 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

A stunning performance of the Sonata No. 2 was recorded in May 1950. Horowitz doesn't seem to care at all about how the piece is played by others, or even how to play it properly. He handles the form, tempo, etc. freely. And if he succeeds, which is often the case, he blows the roof off.

 

He was truly one of a kind. While almost never perfect technically, his interpretations were always a revelation.