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Michelangeli Big Boxes Part 3: Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon · 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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  Please consider subscribing to The Piano Maven
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  through my Substack page, and I've posted a link
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  in our episode description where you can do just
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  that. In our first season, I started a little
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  mini -series discussing the big box sets devoted
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  to the Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
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  I did a podcast episode about his complete Warner
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  Classics recordings box set, and also this box
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  set that came out on the long discontinued Aura
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  label, which was mostly live material that has
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  been bootlegged over and over and over again.
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  But somehow I put off talking about the complete
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  recordings for Deutsche Grammophon box set with
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  Michelangeli. Now, there was a slimline box set
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  that came out on Deutsche Grammophon in 2003,
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  which contained this pianist's complete recordings
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  for Deutsche Grammophon. But the box set that
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  I'm talking about now for this podcast is basically
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  an original jacket repackaging of that 2003 release,
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  but it has two additional discs. One of the discs
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  was a release that came out in 2009 containing
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  a live 1984 performance of the Schumann Concerto
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  with Daniel Bauernbaum conducting. And the other
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  disc... in this collection is Michelangeli's
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  1964 recital for the Decca label with works of
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  Scarlatti, Gallupi, and Beethoven. This was his
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  only recording for Decca, but since Decca is
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  part of the universal group of labels. It just
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  makes sense for that to be in this complete Michelangeli
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  Deutsche Grammophone recordings box. So we'll
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  talk about these two discs first. Despite some
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  moments of rather tenuous soloist orchestra coordination,
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  the Schumann Concerto, this 1984 performance,
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  stands out mainly for Michelangeli's tonal control
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  and very stentorian rhetoric, complete with his
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  famous left -hand anticipations a la Corto or
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  Paderewski. It's a fine performance of, you know,
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  the Michelangeli style of how he played the Schumann
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  concerto. But there are more incisive and polished
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  Michelangeli Schumann concertos kicking around.
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  For instance, the 1942 Telefunken studio version.
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  There's also a live 1962 Rome radio broadcast.
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  Both of these are in that Warner Recordings Michelangeli
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  box. And coupled with the Schumann Concerto with
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  Bauernbohm are four out of the six Debussy Images.
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  And these were recorded in 1982, kind of on the
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  fly during a soundcheck prior to Michelangeli
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  taping the Ravel G Major Concerto for French
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  television. And they were not intended to be
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  released. But these are really cool performances
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  because Michelangeli's playing is freer and a
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  little more animated than in his very pristinely
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  contained 1970 Deutsche Grammophon Studio versions,
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  which I'll be talking about in a little bit.
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  The Decca Michelangeli album is both pianistically
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  miraculous, to my ears at least, and musically
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  controversial. And throughout Beethoven's Opus
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  111 Sonata, that's the last of the Beethoven
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  Sonatas, number 32 in C minor, Michelangeli does
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  all kinds of old -fashioned holdbacks and taperings
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  with phrases, and he desynchronizes his hands
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  a lot. And so much of what he does really runs
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  contrary to the composer's very tautly linear.
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  aesthetic yet his tonal gradations and very specifically
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  worked out balances between the hands and really
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  meticulous articulation are pure Michelangeli
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  even if they're not pure Beethoven and I find
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  this recording really fascinating and I really
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  get a lot from it you know it may not be you
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  know, the Opus 111 of Polini or Annie Fisher.
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  But on its own terms, I think it's quite compelling.
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  And there are three Scarlatti sonatas that are
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  just ravishingly calibrated and cold as ice.
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  And the Gallupi Sonata No. 5 has just amazingly
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  refined finger work. As you're listening, you
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  notice the piano playing much more than the music,
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  because I think this is a really uninteresting
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  piece of music, to be honest. Michelangeli recorded
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  on again and off again for Deutsche Grammophon
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  between 1970 and 1990. There was just one interruption,
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  actually, in the mid -70s. He made two recordings
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  for EMI. One disc had two Haydn concertos, and
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  then the other disc had the most charmless and
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  ice -cold and totally embalmed kind of performance
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  you'll ever hear of the Schumann Carnival. Eek.
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  Now, charmless and ice -cold are... about the
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  nicest things that one can say about his Deutsche
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  Grammophon Mozart concerto recordings of numbers
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  13, 15, 20, and 25. And these were his last recordings
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  for the label, I believe. But, you know, the
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  abstract perfection of the pianism holds a kind
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  of fascination, maybe some would say morbid fascination,
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  but I'm still fascinated, I have to say. Now,
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  his live Beethoven concertos, numbers 1, 3, and
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  5, The Emperor, with Carlo Maria Giolini conducting
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  the Vienna Symphony, are admittedly sort of an
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  acquired taste, but I think they're more convincing
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  than the Mozart's interpretations. I used the
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  word embalming before, and that totally applies
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  to Michelangeli's 1970 recording of the Beethoven
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  Sonata No. 4 in E -flat, Op. 7. I mean, it is
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  so unspontaneous. It is so detailed in a way
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  where there's just no life at all to the playing.
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  There are a few live performances of him playing
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  this piece, which are just as deliberate, but
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  they have a little more life to them. But I've
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  never really liked this studio recording. And
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  there's a Chopin recital disc. here too, that
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  has 10 mazurkas. And I kind of like the thrown
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  away quality of Michelangeli's phrasing in these
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  mazurkas. Very interesting details. But I find
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  his accounts of the G minor ballade and the B
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  flat minor scherzo kind of... fragmented and
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  not very spontaneous. And, you know, all poetry
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  kind of goes out the window. There are live performances
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  that I think are a little bit better. But he
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  does play the Chopin C -sharp minor prelude,
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  Op. 45, wonderfully well. It's a very austere
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  yet full -bodied interpretation. And it kind
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  of... makes you think about this music's textural
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  kinship to Brahms in certain ways. Actually,
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  Michelangeli's Brahms on Deutsche Grammophon,
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  he recorded the Op. 10 Ballades, and I think
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  these count among his finest studio recordings.
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  This was originally coupled with a large -scaled
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  and rather unsmiling and not... terribly lyrical
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  account of Schubert's A minor sonata, Deutsch
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  number 537. There's a disc that contains two
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  Schumann works that stem from a 1957 BBC broadcast,
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  and I guess Deutsche Grammophon was able to license
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  it from the BBC, and they've retained the license
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  from what I understand. Of these two performances,
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  I prefer a really fervent rendition of the Faschingsfunk
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  aus Wien, Op. 26, to the relatively brusque and
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  kind of unsmiling Carnival, Op. 9, although this
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  Carnival is a zillion times better than that
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  mid -70s EMI studio version. Now, when it comes
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  to Debussy, however, there is no disputing Michelangeli's
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  multi -leveled mastery. And his 1970 accounts
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  of the image books one and two belong in every
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  serious record collection. And, you know, even
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  some of his famous left hand anticipations managed
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  not to distract in this music. Now. Reflet dans
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  l 'eau is just a remarkable performance, and
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  those fast runs at the beginning of the piece
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  that go up and down the keyboard in the right
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  hand, you will notice that he does not have to
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  compromise or slow down to get all the notes.
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  He is absolutely in tempo, and the tonal application
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  and the phrasing, I mean, it just beggars belief.
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  And also in Mouvement, Michelangeli is one of
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  the few pianists on record who really gets Debussy's
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  accents right. For instance, in the opening.
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  I'm not singing it very well, and I don't know
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  if I was keeping such strict rhythm, and I was
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  exaggerating the fourth beat accent. But a lot
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  of pianists tend to be very casual, that kind
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  of detail. But Michelangeli not only observes
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  the accent, but he does so uniformly and meticulously.
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  all of the textures and the balances are just
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  worked out to the proverbial nines. I mean, it's
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  quite a performance. And the homage book two
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  are just as amazing. And there are some pedal
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  effects in Poisson d 'Or, the goldfish, where
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  he will put the pedal down for a certain part
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  of the phrase. And then at the very end of the
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  phrase, he takes the pedal off. So you have this
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  little moment of dryness. kind of hits you in
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  the face. It's very scintillating. He does something
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  similar, one of the climax points in Réflé dans
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  l 'eau, actually, and it kind of reminds me of
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  Art Tatum. I don't know why I'm thinking like
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  that, but there's just that crispness and lightness,
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  but also incredible concentration and focus.
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  Now, let's talk about Michelangeli's recordings
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  of the Debussy preludes. He did the preludes
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  book one in the late 1970s. I've never really
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  loved these recordings. I think I respect them
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  more than I love them. Somehow there's a kind
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  of aloofness that doesn't allow the inherent
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  delicacy and simplicity. selections such as Le
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  Vent dans le Plaine or The Footprints in the
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  Snow or The Girl with the Flaxen Hair to really
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  come across. And even the sunken cathedral seems
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  less shimmering than kind of static in this recording.
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  There is a video of Michelangeli playing the
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  Prelude's book one, which is stylistically similar,
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  but I think it has a little more animation to
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  it. But I would also say similar things about
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  the Preludes Book Two, which I think were recorded
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  in 1988. I mean, look, Michelangeli knows exactly
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  what he wants to do and how to do it. Honestly,
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  if you like this kind of calculated precision
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  in the DABC Preludes, I find a little bit more
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  warmth and mobility in Christian Zimmerman's
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  recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, which I think
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  are stylistically a little bit similar, but,
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  you know, as I said, warmer and a little more
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  mobile. The original 2003 Michelangeli Deutsche
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  Grammophon box set that I mentioned earlier had
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  a really excellent and informative biographical
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  essay by Jeremy Siepman, but it's been replaced
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  in this complete Deutsche Grammophon album collection
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  with personal reminiscences by Cord Garben, who...
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  produced many of Michelangeli's Deutsche Grammophon
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  recordings, and he also conducted the four Mozart
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  concertos in this box. And there are some rehearsals
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  that you can find on YouTube where basically
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  Michelangeli is yelling at Cord Garbin to, you
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  know, hey, tell them what you want, or I can't
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  remember exactly what it is, but he's giving
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  his conductor a hard time, let's just put it
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  that way. While one might not sympathize with
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  all of Michelangeli's interpretive conceptions,
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  there... There's no disputing his immense authority
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  and his unique keyboard voice. So if you don't
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  have any of these recordings, or maybe you only
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  just have one or two, this really is a box set
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  worth getting. And, you know, maybe the Mozart,
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  you know, you'll dip into it every now and then.
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  It's not going to be your reference Mozart, but
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  definitely the Debussy image, the Brahms ballads,
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  the Schumann. pieces and the Beethoven concertos
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  with Giuliani. So a lot of really absorbing stuff
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  here. This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings. And thank you so much for
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  tuning in. And I hope that you will tune in to
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  the next episode. And I look forward to being
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  together with you for that. Take good care.