Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Michelangeli Big Boxes Part 2: Aura's "Hommage" Edition

Transcript

Michelangeli Big Boxes Part 2: Aura's "Hommage" Edition · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:00
  This is Jed Disler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
• 0:14
  recordings.
• 0:15
  I think that this episode I should call the piano geek rather than the piano maven because
• 0:23
  I'm going to get very geeky in terms of detail and chapter and verse and discographical
• 0:30
  trivia and all kinds of arcane stuff, which I guess is inevitable when you talk about
• 0:37
  a pianist like Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
• 0:41
  This is the second of what I think will total three episodes about box sets devoted to Michelangeli.
• 0:51
  This pianist lived from 1920 until 1995 and many professionals and pianophiles considered
• 0:59
  Michelangeli to be in a class of his own.
• 1:02
  He was a pianist whose technical finish and whose total mastery of tonal application and
• 1:09
  control of timbre were held in awe by his colleagues.
• 1:14
  Of all the pianists one could consider to be perfectionists, Michelangeli definitely
• 1:21
  took the cake.
• 1:24
  If conditions weren't perfect, if his pianos were not voiced or calibrated to his painstaking
• 1:33
  specifications, if the temperature in the venue was not just so, he would be likely
• 1:39
  to cancel.
• 1:42
  It's safe to say that Michelangeli probably canceled more concerts than he actually played.
• 1:48
  But when he did show up, and he would usually show up with two different pianos and his
• 1:55
  own piano technicians, the audience members more often than not consisted of a who's who
• 2:02
  of the piano world.
• 2:04
  Just like when Vladimir Horowitz played, you would always find famous pianists in the audience.
• 2:10
  Time to think of it, you would always see piano celebrities in attendance at Alicia
• 2:15
  de la Rocha's concerts as well.
• 2:19
  And like Horowitz and like the conductor Carlos Kleiber, Michelangeli understood value in
• 2:27
  scarcity.
• 2:29
  And as he got older and older, he became choosier and choosier about where and when to perform
• 2:37
  and also when not to appear.
• 2:40
  It may come as no surprise that Michelangeli made relatively few studio recordings for
• 2:46
  pianist of his stature.
• 2:49
  And as such, piano mavens and collectors and geeks have habitually sought out broadcasts
• 2:57
  or live recordings that either circulated in the so-called tape underground or would
• 3:03
  appear on independent labels.
• 3:06
  Back in the 1990s, the Italian aura label that's spelled A-U-R-A brought out tons of
• 3:16
  live Michelangeli material on individual CDs and also in several box sets.
• 3:23
  I'd like to talk about one of these box sets.
• 3:26
  It's really quite hard to find, but it was a pretty substantial project that I think warrants
• 3:33
  a serious discussion and you should know about it.
• 3:37
  It had 15 CDs in it along with a booklet that contained extensive essays in Italian translated
• 3:46
  into English as well.
• 3:48
  And one of the essays was this impossibly rambling and discombobulated memoir from the
• 3:55
  woman who was Michelangeli's widow.
• 3:58
  But at least this essay or whatever you want to call it, gives a lot of vivid memories
• 4:05
  of Michelangeli's early years, even going back to when he was a little boy.
• 4:11
  The name of this collection is called Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Homage.
• 4:18
  It came out in the year 2000, I think.
• 4:21
  Yes, it did.
• 4:23
  Definitely it came out in 2000.
• 4:25
  It has the catalog number AUR2000-2.
• 4:32
  So if you're hunting for it, you can type that into your search engine and maybe you'll
• 4:37
  even find a copy.
• 4:39
  I wrote a rather general review of this box set back in the early days of ClassicsToday.com
• 4:47
  and I've posted a link to that review in this episode's description.
• 4:52
  But I'm going to go through each and every disc for this talk.
• 4:56
  Disc one contains the Debussy Preludes Book One recorded live at the Vatican on April
• 5:03
  29th, 1977.
• 5:06
  The interpretations essentially are the same as those in Michelangeli's Deutia Gramophone
• 5:12
  Studio recordings issued in 1978.
• 5:17
  But in less good sound and with less dynamic differentiation and some heavy handedness
• 5:23
  in places.
• 5:24
  I think part of this has to do with the slightly drab and airless sonics of the Vatican recordings.
• 5:31
  Discs two and three contain Michelangeli's complete June 13th, 1987 Vatican recital from
• 5:41
  the following decade.
• 5:43
  It's a very long and generous program.
• 5:45
  The first half contained Beethoven's Sonata No. 3 in C major, Opus 2 No. 3, and both books
• 5:53
  of Debussy's Images.
• 5:55
  The second half began with Chopin's Andante Spianato in Grand Polonaise and it concluded
• 6:01
  with Ravel's Gaspardal en Oe.
• 6:04
  That's a very big program come to think of it.
• 6:07
  Much of this playing is proficient enough, but it's kind of musically stiff.
• 6:14
  And Michelangeli's interpretation of the Beethoven Sonata, which he had played all throughout
• 6:19
  his career, I think had grown more and more calcified over time.
• 6:25
  And the Debussy Images have almost none of the tonal magic and subtle nuance of his Deutia
• 6:32
  Gramophone Studio recordings.
• 6:35
  And Ravel's Gaspardal en Oe, which was once a specialty of the house with Michelangeli,
• 6:41
  receives a really charmless and kind of unyielding performance.
• 6:46
  And the fabled precision that we know from Michelangeli's great 1959 BBC recording of
• 6:54
  Gaspardal en Oe has slightly eroded in both Andine and Scarbo.
• 7:00
  It's true that Michelangeli still spins out a very pearly Cantabile line in the Chopin
• 7:07
  Andante Spianato.
• 7:09
  But honestly, the Polonaise here goes over like a lead balloon.
• 7:14
  And it's really no match for how Michelangeli played this piece, especially in his early
• 7:20
  60s television version, issued on LP and CD by Chetara.
• 7:26
  And I talked about that when I was talking about the Michelangeli Complete Warner Recordings
• 7:31
  box set.
• 7:33
  But filling out CD number three, however, are really subtle and refined readings recorded
• 7:41
  in Torino in 1962 of Chopin's A minor mazurka, obis 68, number two, the D flat mazurka, obis
• 7:50
  30, number three.
• 7:51
  Well, actually, that one is a little harsh and emphatic, so it's not that subtle.
• 7:57
  Also, there's the B minor mazurka, obis 33, number four.
• 8:01
  Now, how many Michelangeli performances of that mazurka exist?
• 8:06
  Quite a few.
• 8:08
  And there's a brisk yet beautifully shaped Berceuse here.
• 8:13
  And there are three Chopin waltzes to round this out.
• 8:17
  CDs numbers four and five preserve a recital from Brigitte's that took place on January
• 8:25
  15th, 1988.
• 8:27
  This is kind of late for Michelangeli.
• 8:30
  It sounds as if the source is an audience tape, maybe made on a Walkman.
• 8:36
  I mean, I have no idea, but it's certainly not professional sounding.
• 8:42
  The first three pieces, which are three Scarlatti sonatas, go pretty well.
• 8:48
  They're not as fresh as you would hear in earlier Michelangeli Scarlatti performances,
• 8:54
  but they're still OK.
• 8:55
  And then the Bach busone chaconne is next.
• 8:58
  And this performance is slower and much more monumental than in Michelangeli's famous late
• 9:05
  1940s HMV studio recording.
• 9:09
  And then he plays the Brahms Paganini variations.
• 9:13
  And unlike Michelangeli's earlier performances of this piece, here he plays them in Brahms'
• 9:20
  running order.
• 9:22
  And he doesn't monkey around with the text as he used to do.
• 9:26
  But I have to say that even though Michelangeli gets through the notes, there's really no
• 9:32
  sense of effortlessness or lightness or characterful contrast.
• 9:38
  And I think it's a rather dull performance, to be frank.
• 9:42
  Then Michelangeli plays Chopin's A minor waltz, Op. 34, No. 2, and he stretches out phrases
• 9:50
  to kingdom come, and then he similarly diddles and dawdles over the trio of Chopin's B minor
• 9:59
  scherzo.
• 10:00
  You know, the theme of this trio section is based on a Polish song called Sleep, My Jesus.
• 10:08
  And all I can say about this rendition is, Jesus, it put me to sleep.
• 10:15
  But the outer sections catch reasonable fire at times.
• 10:20
  And this recital concludes with Beethoven's Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111.
• 10:27
  I think the interpretation is interesting.
• 10:30
  It still retains Michelangeli's anachronistic breaking of hands and arpeggiated chords from
• 10:38
  his earlier recordings.
• 10:41
  But it doesn't have the awesome pianistic sheen of the 1961 BBC Op. 111 or his 1964
• 10:50
  DECA studio recording.
• 10:52
  I think the older Michelangeli almost sounds like a caricature of his younger self.
• 10:59
  Somehow the rhetorical exaggerations and the cragginess of it all appeal to me.
• 11:06
  And filling out this disc are some Chopin selections from a recital in Brescia recorded
• 11:12
  in June 1967.
• 11:15
  There are six mazurkas and there's the first ballade.
• 11:19
  And it's excellent playing, but they are presented here ever so slightly off pitch.
• 11:26
  That's a shame.
• 11:28
  But also on this disc is the Liszt Concerto No. 1 recorded in Tokyo in April of 1965 with
• 11:36
  the Jomiuri symphony under the direction of Jindrich Rohan.
• 11:43
  And it preserves Michelangeli's staggering rendition of the piano part.
• 11:49
  Oh my god, this is amazing piano playing.
• 11:52
  And he often plays decorative passages in tempo to quite scintillating effect.
• 11:59
  And the kind of fire and ice sensibility that so often characterizes Michelangeli in virtuoso
• 12:06
  repertoire totally comes across in the concerto.
• 12:10
  But the sound quality is not all that great.
• 12:12
  And the orchestra, honestly, leaves a lot to be desired.
• 12:17
  CD No. 6 offers two air checks taken from Michelangeli's first American tour in the
• 12:25
  late 1940s.
• 12:27
  And you have to put up with lousy sound in order to appreciate the remarkable pianistic
• 12:33
  mastery and a Schumann concerto with Dimitri Metropolis from 1948, as well as the Frank
• 12:41
  symphonic variations from Los Angeles with Alfred Wallenstein conducting.
• 12:47
  That was from 1949.
• 12:49
  It's too bad this is the only performance that exists, so far as I know, of Michelangeli
• 12:54
  playing the Frank symphonic variations.
• 12:57
  And the Schumann, by the way, is pitched sharp, so that makes it a non-starter.
• 13:03
  And filling out disc No. 6 is that amazingly poised 1942 studio recording on telefunken
• 13:11
  of the Greek concerto.
• 13:14
  And this must be the worst transfer I've ever heard of the Greek concerto.
• 13:18
  I discussed this recording in my talk about the Michelangeli complete Warner recordings.
• 13:25
  CD No. 7 gives us a recital that Michelangeli gave in the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires on
• 13:33
  July 21, 1949, or at least part of the recital.
• 13:39
  And he is on absolutely fantastic form in the Beethoven Opus 2 No. 3 Sonata.
• 13:45
  He plays the Chopin mazurkas in A minor, Opus 68 No. 2, and the inevitable B minor, Opus
• 13:52
  33 No. 4, and the Andante Spianato in Gran Polonaise.
• 13:57
  And there are encores by Grieg and Gallupi.
• 14:01
  And what a shame that the sound quality is so horrible and distorted in this recital,
• 14:07
  but at least it's on pitch.
• 14:09
  On CD No. 8, we have a recital from Helsinki, and it's preserved in decent, though rather
• 14:16
  dry and dynamically constricted sound.
• 14:20
  But here Michelangeli is at the peak of his powers in five Scarlatti sonatas.
• 14:27
  But he also plays the Schumann faschisch-funk aus Wien, and his interpretation is starting
• 14:34
  to get stiffer and more atrophied in the first movement.
• 14:39
  When you compare this to his great live 1957 Royal Festival Hall performance or his BBC
• 14:47
  broadcast from the same year, it really pales.
• 14:53
  In both books of Debussy's Images, Michelangeli shows a little more freedom and impulsiveness
• 15:00
  compared to the Deutsche Grammophon studio recordings that he would make the following
• 15:04
  year in 1970.
• 15:06
  And I frankly prefer the studio recordings.
• 15:09
  But these 1969 Helsinki Images are atypically unfettered and I think kind of interesting,
• 15:18
  and I like the freedom in the performances.
• 15:21
  The ninth CD is part of an audio soundtrack of the April 7th, 1981 Lugano recital, which
• 15:31
  you also have on video.
• 15:33
  And here we have performances of Schubert's A minor sonata, Deutsch nr. 537, and the Four
• 15:40
  Brahms Ballons, Op. 10.
• 15:43
  And there's not much interpretive difference between these Lugano performances and the
• 15:48
  Deutsche Grammophon studio recordings of these pieces released later in 1981.
• 15:55
  And you used to be able to find these performances on DVD.
• 16:00
  Also on this recital were Beethoven sonatas nr. 11 and 26, but they're not in this box
• 16:07
  set.
• 16:08
  Okay, we are at CD nr. 10.
• 16:11
  We're moving along here.
• 16:13
  We've got Mozart's Concerto nr. 15 in B-flat, Kershaw 450, in a live 1974 performance with
• 16:21
  Edmund de Stout's and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.
• 16:25
  This is a concerto that figured pretty regularly throughout Michelangeli's career and his discography.
• 16:33
  Years ago, when I reviewed a reissue of Michelangeli's 1950 studio recording of this piece, I said
• 16:42
  that the pianist subjects each phrase to finely tune gradations of touch and dynamic scaling,
• 16:50
  leaving not one note unscrutinized and unaccounted for.
• 16:55
  And that's pretty true about this performance.
• 16:58
  The sound quality is a bit reverberant and it lacks bottom.
• 17:03
  And to be honest, there are better recorded and conducted examples of Michelangeli in
• 17:08
  this concerto.
• 17:10
  Also on this disc is the only known recording of Michelangeli and chamber music.
• 17:17
  It preserves a performance of Mozart's piano quartet in E-flat, Kershaw 493, with the violinist
• 17:25
  Jean-Pierre Wale, violist Claude-André Joubert, and the cellist Frankie Dariel.
• 17:34
  This performance took place on September 19, 1972, on a cruise ship of all places.
• 17:42
  This was a musical cruise that featured an array of star performers.
• 17:47
  And you would never expect somebody like Michelangeli to participate in such a venture and to play
• 17:54
  on a Yamaha piano at that, instead of the usual Steinway from Michelangeli.
• 18:00
  But surprisingly, Michelangeli agreed to this gig.
• 18:04
  And the story goes that originally he was supposed to have played chamber music with
• 18:10
  Isaac Stern and Alexander Schneider.
• 18:13
  But at the end of their rehearsal, he closed the score and he said something to the effect
• 18:18
  of, I cannot play with gypsies.
• 18:21
  So he agreed to play the Mozart quartet, but only on the condition that he could play it
• 18:27
  with Jean-Pierre Wale.
• 18:29
  Apparently Michelangeli totally dominated the rehearsals and gave absolutely no quarter
• 18:36
  to his colleagues.
• 18:37
  It was either Michelangeli's way or the highway.
• 18:41
  But it's a performance that I think is thoroughly integrated and unified and painstakingly detailed
• 18:49
  without sounding micromanaged.
• 18:51
  And the sound quality is not the greatest, but it's perfectly listenable.
• 18:55
  So it's an interesting curio.
• 18:58
  CD number 11 is a disc titled The Unknown Recordings, which is totally nonsense because
• 19:05
  all of these recordings are known, at least to Michelangeli specialists.
• 19:09
  It contains fragments from performances in Geneva from 1939 to 1941 of the Liszt first
• 19:17
  concerto, the Greek concerto, and Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.
• 19:21
  These were published by Chetera.
• 19:24
  And there's also a handful of Michelangeli 78s from HMV Italy that I discussed in my
• 19:32
  podcast about the Warner Box, except that these transfers are not as good as the ones
• 19:38
  in the Warner Box.
• 19:39
  So we can pass over this disc, honestly.
• 19:43
  CD number 12 is really interesting.
• 19:46
  It is the live October 27th, 1982 Stuttgart performance of Debussy's Prelude's Book Two.
• 19:55
  And although the sound quality suggests that this recording was made from an audience machine,
• 20:02
  again, maybe a Sony Walkman or something like that, I don't know, the performances do tend
• 20:08
  to be faster and much more spontaneous than those in Michelangeli's 1988 studio recording
• 20:16
  of Book Two.
• 20:17
  And there's also a lovely performance of a short piece from Franz Liszt's On Ney de Pelerinage
• 20:23
  Book One.
• 20:24
  This is a work he never otherwise recorded.
• 20:27
  I don't think any other Michelangeli performance of it has surfaced.
• 20:32
  As I said, it's not a professional sounding recording sonically, but your ears do adjust.
• 20:38
  And I really enjoyed hearing this again.
• 20:42
  CD number 13 gives us another audience recording, and this time from the Brighens recital from
• 20:50
  March 3rd, 1985.
• 20:53
  All of the selections on this disc are by Chopin, and technically Michelangeli is on
• 20:59
  excellent form, although he's become more stentorian and studied with time.
• 21:06
  But if you can accept that, you will hear new details of voicing and balance in the
• 21:14
  four big works on this disc.
• 21:17
  The F minor fantasy, the second scherzo, the first ballade, and the Andante spinato in
• 21:23
  Gran Polonaise.
• 21:25
  And these details are very interesting when you compare them to earlier performances.
• 21:31
  The G minor, opus 67, number two, mazurka, and what else?
• 21:36
  The B minor, mazurka, opus 33, number four, are also more drawn out here than in earlier
• 21:44
  Michelangeli performances.
• 21:46
  But they do hold your attention, and I'm quite drawn to the playing on this recital, and
• 21:52
  your ears do adjust.
• 21:54
  And even with this audience recording, you do somehow get a sense of how Michelangeli
• 22:00
  had the ability to really project his tone to the fullest over the footlights.
• 22:07
  CD number 14 gives us the first half of the April 29th, 1977 Vatican concert, from which
• 22:15
  we already talked about the second half's Debussy Prelude's book one, which are on CD
• 22:21
  number one in this set.
• 22:23
  If we didn't have better Michelangeli performances elsewhere of the Brahms, ballades, opus 10,
• 22:31
  and the Chopin piano sonata number two, we could probably accept these Vatican performances
• 22:38
  with all their dynamic limitations.
• 22:41
  But there are better Michelangeli versions to be had of these works.
• 22:46
  So as far as this disc is concerned, I give it a meh.
• 22:50
  And lastly, CD number 15 is a recording from Michelangeli's last London recital.
• 22:58
  This concert took place at the Barbican Center on May 10th, 1990.
• 23:04
  And my comments about the Beethoven opus 111 sonata, the inevitable Chopin B minor mazurka,
• 23:14
  and the B minor scherzo, and the Andante spinata on grand polonaise from the 1985 and 88 concerts
• 23:22
  that I was talking about earlier, largely pertain here.
• 23:27
  And the playing is even more stentorian and italicized compared to Michelangeli's interpretations
• 23:34
  from even just a few years earlier, certainly from earlier decades.
• 23:39
  But now in 1990, it's a little more technically labored.
• 23:44
  And the notes are pretty much there.
• 23:47
  But the musical personality has grown more dour and I think even a little pretentious
• 23:53
  in regard to the robatos.
• 23:57
  By and large, you can source all of, or at least most of, the performances in this box
• 24:04
  set, either on other independent labels or maybe even on YouTube.
• 24:10
  There was another box on Aura that duplicated some of this 15 CD sets contents, but it also
• 24:17
  offered some real gems that I wish had been in this box set, such as really wonderful
• 24:24
  live performances of the Brahms ballads and the Paganini variations from Lugano on May
• 24:31
  21, 1973.
• 24:34
  Those are well worth checking out, and I think you can find those easily on YouTube or, you
• 24:39
  know, if you dig around the catalog somewhat.
• 24:43
  Also the 1981 Lugano Beethoven sonatas, 11 and 12, that I mentioned earlier were in this
• 24:50
  other box.
• 24:51
  The point is that all of these independent labels seem to copy and recopy and re-re-copy
• 25:01
  all kinds of live Michelangeli recordings back and forth.
• 25:06
  And even with the Aura labels claim to being a quote unquote authorized edition, honestly,
• 25:13
  who are we kidding?
• 25:15
  We've basically given up chasing down Michelangeli performances on independent labels of variable
• 25:22
  credibility, you know, kind of in the same way that I long gave up trying to keep track
• 25:27
  of the vast Sviatoslav Richter discography, both official and unofficial.
• 25:35
  I mean, life is too short.
• 25:37
  But if you can find this Aura box set for a reasonable price, it might be worth it.
• 25:45
  And like I said, these performances can be accessed in various incarnations if you kind
• 25:52
  of hunt around for them.
• 25:54
  This is Jed Disler, and thank you for your patience as I've gone through 15 CDs worth
• 26:01
  of live and broadcast Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli performances.
• 26:08
  And if that holds any interest for you, then good luck hunting these recordings down.
• 26:16
  And there's really a lot to enjoy, honestly.
• 26:20
  So until the next time, take care and I look forward to being with you for our next episode
• 26:27
  of The Piano Maven.