Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Youri Egorov's Slow Motion Bach

Transcript

Youri Egorov's Slow Motion Bach · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:06
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:11
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:15
  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven by clicking
• 0:18
  on the link to my Piano Maven sub stack page
• 0:22
  listed in the episode description. Paid subscribers
• 0:26
  get free downloads at the start of each month,
• 0:30
  as well as invitations to Zoom meetings. And
• 0:33
  we will be having some guests from time to time.
• 0:37
  I have yet to schedule that, but that will be
• 0:40
  happening later this year. But in any event,
• 0:44
  I would really like you to consider. a paid subscription
• 0:47
  to keep this podcast in production. You can also
• 0:51
  subscribe for free, and of course, that way you
• 0:54
  still can access the podcasts. But if you do
• 0:59
  take out a paid subscription, you get all the
• 1:01
  other goodies. I was really fortunate to hear
• 1:05
  the late Yuri Egorov several times in concert.
• 1:10
  He was a pianist who was born in 1954. And he
• 1:15
  died tragically young of AIDS at the age of 33
• 1:20
  in 1988. He gained international attention when
• 1:26
  he was eliminated from the 1977 Van Cliburn competition.
• 1:32
  And I think he was eliminated to the total surprise
• 1:36
  and disappointment of many audience members,
• 1:40
  as well as fellow musicians. So what happened
• 1:43
  was... After he was eliminated, there was a consortium
• 1:47
  formed to raise the equivalent of the first prize
• 1:52
  money to give to Yuri Egorov, which would help
• 1:56
  underwrite a New York debut and to give his career
• 2:01
  kind of a jump start in the United States. And
• 2:07
  basically to get him the attention that the...
• 2:11
  public thought that he deserved during the Clyburn,
• 2:14
  and that was a really big move that got a lot
• 2:19
  of attention. Anyway, he made his New York debut
• 2:22
  to great critical acclaim, and he soon signed
• 2:27
  a contract with the EMI label, for whom he made
• 2:31
  some terrific recordings, including things like
• 2:35
  the Schumann Carnival. some Chopin. He recorded
• 2:39
  the Beethoven Emperor Concerto with Wolfgang
• 2:42
  Savalisch. He made an excellent recording of
• 2:46
  both books of Debussy's Preludes. And as he became
• 2:49
  better known, some of his earlier recordings
• 2:52
  started coming out of the woodwork and showing
• 2:55
  up on small labels. One good example of that
• 3:00
  was a 1975 All Bach program that included the
• 3:06
  Italian concerto plus three preludes and fugues
• 3:11
  from the well -tempered Clavier Book I, the D
• 3:14
  major, the F sharp major, and the B minor. And
• 3:19
  this is really intelligent and stylish and full
• 3:22
  -bodied Bach playing. Yuri Egorov makes this
• 3:26
  music sound completely at home on the concert
• 3:29
  grand, but he does so without imposing anything
• 3:33
  stylistically artificial. However, the main point
• 3:37
  of interest on this disc is the B minor prelude
• 3:42
  and fugue. This was the last one in book one.
• 3:45
  And Yuri Egorov takes both the prelude and the
• 3:50
  fugue at very measured tempos. And the total
• 3:55
  amount of music making clocks in... At more than
• 4:00
  17 minutes, it must be the longest performance
• 4:03
  of this Prelude in Fugue on record. There might
• 4:06
  be one that's longer, but this is pretty long,
• 4:09
  17 minutes. And in the hands of most pianists,
• 4:13
  such slow tempos can easily fall apart. But Yuri
• 4:19
  Egorov's concentration and his sustaining power,
• 4:24
  I think... really transcend any issues of mere
• 4:28
  minutes and seconds. My good friend Mark Ainley
• 4:32
  posted this performance of the B minor Prelude
• 4:36
  and Fugue on his page The Pianophiles with Mark
• 4:41
  Ainley and I've provided a link to it in my episode
• 4:45
  description and you get a sense that Egorov is
• 4:49
  following through each contrapuntal line to its
• 4:54
  final destination without ever losing focus.
• 4:58
  You also will notice in the performance, especially
• 5:03
  in the fugue, his subtle scaling of dynamics
• 5:07
  and his really deliberate way of determining
• 5:10
  where the peaks and the valleys and the louds
• 5:15
  and the softs all occur. It's really mapped out.
• 5:19
  very intelligently, but also very musically.
• 5:22
  And the results, to my ears at least, sound utterly
• 5:26
  natural, yet also inevitable. This is really
• 5:30
  impressive work for a 21 -year -old pianist.
• 5:34
  Now, it's not the kind of interpretation of this
• 5:37
  prelude and fugue that you'll want to hear all
• 5:40
  the time. Personally, I prefer faster tempos
• 5:44
  and more of an à la bref treatment of the prelude
• 5:48
  instead of I prefer something more like I'm totally
• 5:59
  out of tune here because it's early in the morning
• 6:01
  and I am just about to have my coffee and my
• 6:05
  brain's a little discombobulated as it usually
• 6:08
  is. But what I want to say is that Yuri Egorov
• 6:12
  really pulls you into his sound world, and he
• 6:16
  manages to convince you as you are listening.
• 6:21
  It's only after you hear the performance that
• 6:24
  you can think, well, do I really want to hear
• 6:26
  this piece that slow? But while you're listening,
• 6:29
  you are really caught up in this really terrific
• 6:34
  artistry. And it's a listening experience that...
• 6:38
  remains in your ear long after the music stops.
• 6:42
  This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
• 6:45
  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
• 6:49
  to piano recordings. And definitely check out
• 6:52
  this link to Yuri Egorov playing the B minor
• 6:56
  Prelude and Fugue from Bach's well -tempered
• 6:59
  Clavier Book I. I look forward to being with
• 7:02
  you for our next episode. Take good care.