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Invitation to the Dance · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven podcast
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  through my Substack page by clicking on the link
• 0:21
  to the episode description. Paid subscribers
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  where we share listening experiences and we'll
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  be meeting special guests fairly soon. So please
• 0:35
  consider subscribing to help us reach out further
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  into the piano community and to keep this podcast
• 0:42
  in production. It's possible that Carl Maria
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  von Weber's Invitation to the Dance is his best
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  -known composition. Although the overtures to
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  the operas Der Freischütz and Oberon probably
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  rate very highly in that regard. And also the
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  concertstück for piano and orchestra of Weber
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  used to be really quite popular. It's not performed
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  as frequently now as it used to be. But Invitation
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  to the Dance was once very popular in a version
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  for orchestra made by Hector Berlioz. And it
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  was really quite popular in its original piano
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  version. And in the early days of 78s, many pianists
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  were encouraged to record it. But one rarely
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  hears Invitation to the Dance on piano recitals
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  these days. Certainly not with the same frequency
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  that you heard it in recitals in the early 20th
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  century. And I think it really deserves to have
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  more prominence because it's a real showpiece
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  and it's a really communicative piece of music.
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  And historically speaking, you know, it's an
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  early example of a piano piece that is out -and
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  -out program music. Weber composed Invitation
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  to the Dance in 1819 for his young wife. It was
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  Weber himself who supplied the narrative, which
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  translates roughly into English this way. At
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  a ball, a gentleman approaches a lady who evades
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  him. He presses his invitation and she relents.
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  They converse sympathetically, take their places
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  for the dance, then swirl happily away. At the
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  end, they thank each other and withdraw, leaving
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  only silence and the memory of an exhilarating
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  experience. I don't know if that sounds like
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  Invitation to the Dance or Last Tango in Paris,
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  but anyway, that's what Weber wrote. And that
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  description, you really hear that depicted really
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  quite literally in the music. I've picked some
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  recordings of Invitation to the Dance from the
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  78 era, the mono -LP era, and the stereo -digital
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  era that I have really enjoyed a lot. And it's
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  true that there are a couple of these where I
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  may not agree with the interpretive conceptions
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  all the way, but they still intrigue me. The
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  first recording that I'm going to talk about
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  features the pianist Eugene Dalbert, who lived
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  from 1864 until 1932. He was a highly celebrated
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  pupil of Franz Liszt, and he also pursued a career
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  as a composer. In fact, his interest in composing
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  led to him neglecting piano practice. So he was
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  known for his wrong notes. And he also approached
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  recording in a rather casual manner. And there's
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  often a cavalier and rather slapdash quality
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  to his recordings. But in the recording Eugene
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  d 'Albert made of Invitation to the Dance, which
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  I think happened between 19... 10 and 1912, he's
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  in pretty good technical shape and there's terrific
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  energy and security technically. And you get
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  a hint of the power and the force that he must
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  have conveyed in his prime. And he does play
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  a heavily abridged version of Weber's text. And
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  usually on 78s, pianists had to abbreviate the
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  text, leave out repeats. take out sections from
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  different parts of the piece. But still, I think
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  you get a really good idea of how he must have
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  played this piece when he was close to his best.
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  Alfred Courtauld's acoustic recording of Invitation
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  to the Dance leaves out the slow introduction,
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  but he does play the entire work in his 1926
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  electrical recording. And this is a wonderful
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  recording. It's so full of dash and personality.
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  And also considering that Courtauld was another
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  pianist prone to finger slips, he's on really
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  great form here. There's also considerable volatility
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  and abandon in the recording that Ignaz Friedman
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  made of Invitation to the Dance on 78s. But some
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  listeners may prefer the simplicity and the grace
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  of Arthur Schnabel's 1947 recording. And by the
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  way, I found on YouTube a link to an unpublished
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  1930 test pressing with Schnabel, it seems like
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  it's an authentic document. Although personally,
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  I prefer the 1947 recording on both sonic and
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  interpretive grounds. Schnabel's student Leon
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  Fleischer brought leanness and nervous energy
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  to his 1958 recording of Invitation to the Dance,
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  which was the best one of the mono LP era to
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  my mind. I would say maybe it's one of the two
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  best, and we'll be getting to that second one
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  in a little while. Now, getting into the digital
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  era, Stephen Hough is crystal clear in his performance.
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  Maybe it's a little dry, but I like it very much.
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  I also like the radiant warmth and the full -bodied
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  sound that Julian Jacobson brought to his recording.
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  That recording really appeals to me a lot, and
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  definitely check it out. For me, though, it's
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  hard to choose between the poetry and the finesse
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  that both Michael Endres and Garrick Olson brought
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  to their respective versions. Which one of those
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  do I prefer? I think I have to keep both of them.
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  I'd also use those words, poetry and finesse,
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  to describe a particularly dulcet rendition by
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  Herbert Sush. It's really beautiful. One recording
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  that I recently heard again for the first time
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  in many, many years was a 1973 recording with
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  the French pianist Thierry de Brunhoff. who turned
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  90 in 2024. He's been living for many years as
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  a Benedictine monk. And his parents, by the way,
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  were the creators of that wonderful children's
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  book series about Barbar the Elephant. At first
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  hearing Runhoff's invitation to the dance seems
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  rather small -scaled and maybe emotionally inhibited,
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  as if the dancers were... surrounded by their
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  rather intimidating chaperones. But I've started
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  to warm to Runhoff's intimacy and the refinement
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  of his playing and that very beautiful touch
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  that he brings to the florid right -hand scales.
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  I can't say that this is how I would play this
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  piece, but sometimes it's instructive to experience
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  a seriously considered interpretation that goes
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  against your instincts as a player or listener,
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  because you can get something of value from it.
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  And as such, I think a Salon -like approach,
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  such as what Thierry de Brunhoff brings to this
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  music, has stylistic validity, at least to a
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  certain extent. As you would probably expect,
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  Anatole... Gorski's recording of Invitation to
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  the Dance is on the slow and mannered side, and
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  he takes longer than anyone to play the piece.
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  It's more than 10 minutes in a work that usually
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  requires much less time. However, for a relatively
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  modern recording that captures some of the angularity
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  and daring of the 78 RPM versions I talked about
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  earlier, I'm going to mention a mono LP recording,
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  and this may well surprise you. I've talked about
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  Paul Badura Skoda. In a recent episode, I talked
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  about his messy and totally discombobulated discography.
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  As far as Paul Badura Skoda's piano playing,
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  you never knew what you would get on records.
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  Like, one day he could be as stiff as a board
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  and as f***ed. four square as they come. And
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  yet on another day, he could play the Lissanata
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  and the Chopin etudes like nobody's business.
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  So when I was exploring around YouTube, putting
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  this podcast episode together, I kept running
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  across Paul Bodura Skoda and his 1957 mono LP
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  recording on Westminster of Invitation to the
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  Dance. It was turning up. in all kinds of compilations.
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  And I listened to it. I hadn't heard it in years
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  and years. And I really liked the performance.
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  It has long singing lines. It has dynamic surges
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  that ride over you like ocean waves. It has great
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  dynamic contrast. And you really get a sense
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  of Weber's narrative subtext coming to life.
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  I've posted a link to this. some of the other
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  recordings in my podcast description so you can
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  hear all of these for yourself This recording
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  was included as part of an edition of Paul Badoura
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  Skoda's Westminster solo recordings reissued
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  by Deutsche Grammophon in 2017. The physical
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  box set is not available so far as I can tell,
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  but you can obtain it in download format for
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  not all that much money. And I've posted a link
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  to that collection as well in my episode description.
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  I almost forgot to mention that several pianists
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  made their own performing versions or transcriptions
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  of Invitation to the Dance, like Karl Taussig,
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  like Adolf von Henselt, and Leopold Godowski.
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  And basically, these versions add notes and expand
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  the passage work, and they basically make...
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  Weber's original score into a more elaborate
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  and technically difficult piece. Probably the
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  best recording of the Tausig arrangement is the
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  one made by Benno Moiseevich on 78s. And George
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  Bolette made a specialty of the Leopold Godofsky
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  invitation to the dance, which I think is a rather
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  overloaded arrangement. There are some live performances
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  with Bolette that are floating around YouTube.
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  But I think the best one that I've heard is a
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  live recording from 1980 that took place in Edinburgh.
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  And it's included in that box set on the Marston
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  label, George Paulette Volume 2, Ambassador from
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  the Golden Age. So I hope you will put on your
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  dancing shoes and visit some of these links and
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  check out these recordings. This is Jed Disler,
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  and you've been listening to The Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Thank you for tuning in, and I look forward to
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  being with you for the next episode.