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They Recorded THAT? - Pianists "Playing Against Type" · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  A subscriber suggested that I might do an episode
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  about pianists who've recorded works that one
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  would never associate with these particular pianists.
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  At least one wouldn't associate them with these
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  works off the top of your head. A good example
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  of this could be a pianist like Artur Schnabel,
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  who was the doyen of the Austro -German school,
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  you know, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms.
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  And he called this music that was better than
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  could be played, which was kind of an elitist
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  thing to say. I mean, could one say, The same
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  about the Chopin Barcarolle or the Ravel Sonatine,
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  that these are works that are better than can
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  be played. But the truth is that when Arthur
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  Schnabel was young and long before he made his
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  first recordings, he played a wide range of repertoire
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  in public. He played the 24 Chopin Preludes in
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  public. He played the Lissonata. And he even
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  participated in one of the first performances
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  of Schoenberg's Piero Lunare. One couldn't really
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  imagine him playing Liszt, but there is a story
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  that Vladimir Horowitz went to hear Schnabel
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  play Beethoven. I think it was the last three
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  sonatas. And Horowitz went backstage and he said
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  to Schnabel, you know, you ought to play Liszt.
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  You know, you could. playlist, meaning that if
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  he had the virtuosity and the temperament to
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  play Opus 111, he could certainly play the Lissanata,
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  I imagine. Likewise, there's that story about
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  Jamie Laredo. recording the Bach violin and keyboard
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  sonatas with Glenn Gould at the piano. And during
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  breaks in the sessions, Gould would just sit
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  down and rattle off list transcriptions of Wagner,
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  according to Jamie Laredo. And the violinist
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  was totally gobsmacked and astounded because
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  he never expected to hear that kind of piano
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  playing from Glenn Gould. Gould made no secret.
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  about his aversion to Chopin. But he did play
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  Chopin as a student, and there are some recordings.
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  There's actually a beautiful recording of Gould
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  playing the second impromptu when he was a teenager.
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  I don't think that's in general circulation.
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  I'm not sure. But in 1970, Glenn Gould recorded
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  Chopin's B minor sonata, the sonata number three,
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  for the CBC in Canada. Now, Gould was of two
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  minds about this performance. In 1973, he told
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  the writer Jonathan Cott in an interview that
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  he had had a lot of fun recording the Chopin
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  at this session. But then in 1980, he told Tim
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  Page in another interview that he tried to play
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  Chopin to see how it would feel and that it didn't
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  feel too good. Well, I've heard the recording
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  and I just find it very stiff and unyielding
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  and rigid and unpoetic and as un -idiomatic as
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  possible. And I think that that was intentional
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  on Gould's part. Goodness knows what Gould's
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  Liszt Sonata would have sounded like. Although
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  I have to say that he plays the Liszt transcriptions
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  of the Beethoven 5th and 6th symphonies fabulously
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  well. Wilhelm Kempf was also a pianist known
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  for the Austro -German canon like Schnabel, although
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  he was a totally different kind of pianist than
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  Schnabel. But he did on occasion play Chopin.
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  The biggest surprise in his discography, though,
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  is a 1945 German radio recording of the Sixth
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  Nocturne by Gabriel Fauré with Wilhelm Kempf,
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  and it is... Absolutely gorgeous. Long floating
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  lines you get. You hear luminous transparent
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  textures and great sensitivity. God, I wish that
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  Kempf also had recorded the seventh nocturne
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  at this broadcast, but we're lucky to have his
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  sixth nocturne. This is very special. The next
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  three pianists that are on my list also happened
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  to have been Austro -German custodians, if you
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  know what I mean. But when they go slumming,
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  they have a great time, as you will find out.
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  Rudolph Serkin, for example, had a much wider
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  repertoire than he presented in public in his
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  last decade or so before the public. For instance,
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  he played the Edward McDowell Second Concerto,
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  I think, in the 1950s. And he played the Barber
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  Sonata not too long after Vladimir Horowitz had
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  premiered it. So he was playing quite a lot of
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  repertoire. But the best example I can think
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  of of Rudolph Serkin Going Against Type, so to
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  speak, is a performance from 1948 at the Library
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  of Congress, where he played all 12 of Chopin's
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  Etudes, Op. 25. I admit that these are not the
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  most poetic or nuanced presentations, but they
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  are technically all there 100%, and Serkin projects
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  this music like crazy, and the performances have
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  an honesty and an integrity i mean not one note
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  falls under the table Likewise, Alfred Brendel
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  was not known for Chopin. He made one Chopin
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  album, which was devoted to Polonaises, and Brendel
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  even admitted in an interview that this recording
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  did not make him happy. It did not make my late
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  friend Harris Goldsmith happy when he reviewed
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  it for High Fidelity magazine. I love quoting
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  this review because the first sentence of the
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  review read as following. occupied Poland. Well,
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  you know, this record isn't that bad. I mean,
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  you know, it's very stiff Polonaise playing,
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  but it's not horrible by any means. But the example
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  that I like to trot out to show how brilliantly
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  Alfred Brendel could play against type with unambiguously
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  great virtuosity and style is his mid -1950s
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  recording for the Vox label of the three movements
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  from Petrushka by Stravinsky. And he just nails
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  this music to the wall. Now, maybe the Russian
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  dance is a little heavy -gated. I mean, the tempo
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  is great, but one could imagine lighter textures.
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  But the second movement and then the Shrovetide
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  Fair, he just plays the daylights out of them.
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  And we sometimes forget that... Decades before
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  Wilhelm Backhaus became Mr. Beethoven and Mr.
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  Brahms and sometimes Mr. Mozart and Mr. Schubert,
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  when he was a young pianist, he recorded lots
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  of romantic encore -type virtuoso fare. And he
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  often played these pieces better than pianists
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  known for this kind of repertoire. I mean, his
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  1923 acoustic recording of Moskovsky's Caprice
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  Espagnol yields not one... inch, not one centimeter
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  to Joseph Hoffman, believe it or not. And Bauhaus,
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  by the way, also plays Liszt's Second Hungarian
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  Rhapsody fabulously. You would never associate
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  him with that. And he even made one of the most
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  heartfelt and beautiful recordings ever of the
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  Liszt's third Liebestrom. I mean, such a hackneyed
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  piece. And Bauhaus plays it with such nobility.
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  But it's that Moskowski that will really surprise
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  you. Now, what about a pianist known for romantic
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  repertoire and virtuoso showpieces playing German
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  music? George Chifra, of course, was best known
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  for showpieces and for his own crazy transcriptions
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  and his wild list playing and, of course, his
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  most insane Chopin etudes in the history of the
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  universe. But he did set down a few Beethoven
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  sonatas, and his commercial recording of the
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  Beethoven Appassionata Sonata I actually think
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  is one of the best out there, not just in terms
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  of style, but in terms of stylish inspiration.
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  And everything is there. I mean, he's not going
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  to dot every I and cross every T on every dynamic
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  marking or phrasing indication. But this is terrific
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  and really heartfelt and convincing Beethoven
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  playing. And you know who made me aware of this
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  recording was my late friend Joe Patrich. We
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  were talking about... our favorite recordings
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  of Beethoven sonatas. And he said, have you heard
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  the Cifra Appassionata? And of course I had heard
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  it, but I didn't really pay close attention to
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  it because I figured, eh, you know, Cifra and
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  Beethoven, you know, this is probably not his
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  bailiwick. But my God, this is a really, really
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  strong Appassionata. And last but not least,
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  a colorist such as Walter Gieseking. who could
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  play Debussy and Ravel with such delicacy. You
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  would never imagine him to be able to unleash
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  all of the power and passion that is required
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  to really bring off Rachmaninoff's second concerto.
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  But my goodness, he really did. in a 1940 live
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  performance with Willem Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw
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  Orchestra. This has been reissued many times,
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  and there's an excellent new transfer of this
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  performance in a box set from Mellow Classics.
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  It's a 29 -disc set of Gieseking live performances
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  and broadcasts, and I'm going to be covering
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  this box set. on the Piano Maven fairly soon.
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  I'm still listening to it and mulling over all
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  the performances. But listen to this Rachmaninoff
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  second with Gieseking and Mengelberg. It is quite
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  powerful and passionate. I've posted some links
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  to the performances I've been talking about in
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  my episode comments, and I'm curious to learn
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  what you think about these performances. And
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  maybe you also have some suggestions about pianists
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  playing against type. Who recorded pieces that
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  you wouldn't expect to hear from? these pianists?
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  Who recorded pieces that you wouldn't expect
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  from them? I would love to know your thoughts
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  on this, so contact me and let's get a dialogue
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  going. This is Jed Dissler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. Thank you so much for listening,
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  and I look forward to being with you for our
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  next episode.