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Thanksgiving Turkeys (rebroadcast) · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:10
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Actually, today's guide won't be exactly friendly.
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  I don't think so. Because it's Thanksgiving,
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  and when it comes to Thanksgiving, the first
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  word that comes to mind is... turkey, so I'm
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  going to be talking about some genuine turkeys
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  for Thanksgiving, if you know what I mean. We're
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  first going to talk about a Beethoven concerto
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  cycle with pianist Valery Afanasyev and the Mozartium
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  Orchestra of Salzburg, conducted by Hubert Soudon.
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  and it was issued by URMS Classics. This is probably
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  the most vile and odious Beethoven concerto cycle
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  ever released on CD. Afanasyev's tempos, first
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  of all, are so damn slow, and his playing is
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  impossibly heavy. over articulated you just have
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  to listen to how he articulates the fourth concerto
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  finale's broken phrases with such exaggerations
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  of the syncopation it sounds like a bunch of
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  drunken dancers in a conga line i just couldn't
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  believe it when i heard this And then when I
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  reviewed the disc in this cycle that contained
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  the third and emperor concertos, I wrote the
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  following, and I don't think I could describe
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  it more succinctly than in these words. Valery
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  Afanasyev's cumbrous pianism. Did I really write
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  the word cumbrous? I guess I did. His cumbrous
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  pianism represents the Teutonic Beethoven school
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  at its pounding nadir. As the first movement
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  cadenza and much of the rondo bear out, Afanasyev's
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  rhythmic gear shifts in the Emperor Concerto's
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  unaccompanied piano cellos serve no structural,
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  rhetorical, or expressive purpose other than
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  to merely be different. Basically, the orchestra
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  just functions as a doormat, and this conductor
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  just allows this pianist to do whatever the hell
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  he wants. I think this is probably the second
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  most unlistenable Beethoven concerto cycle in
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  the catalog. The Boobie Prize, of course, goes
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  to the period instrument performances of Arthur
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  Schumann. where he plays on a period instrument
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  and he uses a minimum number of musicians to
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  a part. And these recordings sound as if they
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  were recorded in a tiny closet or maybe even
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  a sardine can. So you see, that's not a recommendation.
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  It's rather an anti -recommendation. Now, let
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  us behold what is potentially the worst Schubert
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  piano music recording. In the history of planet
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  Earth, it features Simon Bartow playing the Schubert
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  Impromptus, the 6 Momon Musico, and the G major
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  sonata, Deutsch number 894. The sonata just swoons
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  all over the place, or else it sputters and fits
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  and starts. I mean, it's the most discontinuous
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  self -serving interpretation of this piece I've
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  ever heard. Most of the impromptus and moment
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  musical are vulgarly over -articulated, overstressed,
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  dynamically exaggerated, and highlighted in multicolored
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  ink so that no dullard will miss every obviously
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  highlighted point. I mean, this playing is beyond
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  micromanagement. I'm saving, actually, the worst
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  detail for last. Have you ever had a perverse
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  desire to hear that sublime G -flat impromptu
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  in the first book of impromptus stretch out to
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  12 minutes and 14 seconds, which is twice as
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  long as the longest performances tend to be?
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  I mean, this is pure musical sadism. And you
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  know how the great pianist Sviatoslav Richter
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  used to liken the recording studio to a torture
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  chamber? Well, here is Simon Barto in the role
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  of the Lord High Executioner. After listening
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  for only 30 seconds or so, I start to shout out,
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  I confess, I confess. I mean, you just have to
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  hear this recording to believe it. My goodness.
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  Now we come to the most inexplicable rendition
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  of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition on
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  the Piano of Recent Times. It features pianist
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  Katya Bunyatishvili. I had been duly warned about
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  this recording by several colleagues, but I thought,
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  wait a minute, it can't be more willful or perverse
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  than the pictures and exhibitions from Ivo Pogorelich
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  or Maria Yudina, right? Well, yes, it can be
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  more unbelievably impossible than their recordings.
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  Katya Bunyatishvili cannot get through a single
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  movement of pictures without defacing each movement
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  with interpretive graffiti. I mean, the promenades
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  are fitful and twitchy, and her slow and really
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  flaccid tempo reduces the old castle to a pile
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  of dust. And her super, super slow and heavy
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  -handed bidlo movement gets even slower toward
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  the end, which is exactly the opposite of what
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  Mussorgsky indicates. And of course, this pianist
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  has to play the ballet of the unhatched chicks
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  faster than anyone on record. And it doesn't
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  sound so much like a ballet as a Keystone Cops
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  chase sequence in a silent movie. What is with
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  this pianist's long, long, long pauses between
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  sections in Samuel Goldenberg and Schmoyle? It
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  is true, granted, that this pianist brings out
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  clever inner voices in the marketplace at Limoges,
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  but... Because she works too hard over making
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  interpretive points, the music just stops in
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  its tracks and there's very little continuity.
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  However, Bunyastishvili's worst transgression
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  occurs in Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua, where,
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  when the promenade theme comes in, she plays
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  it not in B minor, as written, but in B. be major.
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  I mean, I've never seen any printed edition of
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  the score. Oh, you hear all the sirens in the
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  back? I think that's the Urtext police on their
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  way to arrest this pianist. You hear that? You
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  see, I'm not recording in a professional studio
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  here. I'm recording this in my home studio. You
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  see, you get all the kitchen secrets. But anyway,
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  back to this very bizarre misreading. I've never
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  seen any printed edition of pictures and exhibition
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  that indicates anything but B minor. So I'm wondering,
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  how could such a blatant misreading go by without
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  having been corrected? I mean, did this pianist's
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  producer even notice or even care? I have absolutely
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  no clue. In a way, I feel a little bad about
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  giving a Golden Turkey Award to this cycle of
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  the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas that came out
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  on a small label that doesn't seem to have a
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  name. But it's a really awful Beethoven cycle,
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  and I feel bad for saying so. you know, it is
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  out there and the pianist did sign off on it.
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  I found this cycle for something like $10 at
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  a thrift store. And it's one of the crown jewels
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  of my collection, because when I have pianist
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  colleagues come over to the house, usually I
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  like to play them wonderful recordings that perhaps
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  they didn't know about. But they always light
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  up in anticipation when I tell them that I'm
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  about to play them a sample of the worst Beethoven
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  piano sonata cycle ever thrust onto the market.
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  The pianist is the late Greek musician Rita Bouboulidi.
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  She actually made a very nice disc in the mid
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  -1950s, I think, for the Errato label. I think
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  it was on a 10 -inch LP, and it had music of
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  Schumann and Brahms. It's very good, and you
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  can hear this on YouTube. But around 1980 or
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  1981 or something like that, Rita Bouboulidi
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  came out with... an LP that contained the most
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  lugubrious Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 on record.
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  I mean, it was so lugubrious that it made even
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  Simon Bartow's later mauling of this piece on
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  the Capriccio label sound like Leon Fleischer
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  or Rudolf Serkin by comparison. Rita Buboliti...
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  wanted so badly to be recognized as a serious
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  Beethoven interpreter. And she certainly was
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  serious about her business. I remember hearing
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  her play a Beethoven concert that I think was
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  part of a complete cycle that she gave in 1985
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  at New York's Greenwich House. And I remember
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  that she seemed very sincere and very focused,
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  but she was also really struggling quite a bit.
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  And in these recordings, she does get through
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  the notes, sometimes by the skin of her teeth,
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  but she does play the notes. But to be honest,
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  there's hardly one sonata that is either not
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  way under tempo or just plain effortful or even
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  unmusical or just simply ponderous in expression
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  and execution. I feel really bad, but, you know,
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  she did sign off on these recordings, and they
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  really are totally uncompetitive. You know, there's
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  this story about how when Rita Buboliti was recruited
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  to play Ned Roram's third piano concerto in New
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  York, and this is a very demanding piece, and
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  Jerome Lowenthal had premiered this piece, and
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  he made a dazzling recording of it. Anyway, Ned
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  Rorm went to coach Rita Buboliti in the concerto,
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  and he heard her play, and then he told her that
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  her tempos were half the tempo that they should
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  be. Anyway, she said something to Ned Rorm, like,
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  oh, but your harmonies are so beautiful that
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  you really do have to take the piece very slowly,
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  something like that. Ned Roram did not buy that.
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  And he said to her, you just got to practice.
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  So did she practice? I imagine she did. But many
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  years later, when I asked Ned Roram about this
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  particular performance, he told me that it had
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  transpired pretty much as he had expected. Or
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  perhaps just as he had feared. So anyway, you
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  get an idea of what to expect from Rita Bubalidi's
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  Beethoven Sonata Cycle. If you find a cheap copy
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  of it, grab it for at least curiosity value.
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  But if you see it selling for like more than
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  $50, $90, even more than $15, I don't know. i
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  i wouldn't spend a lot of money on it anyway
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  i wish you a happy and peaceful and restful and
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  bountiful thanksgiving and i hope that the turkey
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  you are having with your family meal is much
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  better than these Thanksgiving turkeys I've been
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  speaking about on this episode. 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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  I'm afraid I wasn't all that friendly for this
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  particular guide. Usually I'm very friendly.
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  Anyway, I look forward to being with you next
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  time.