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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #150 on: 15:12:18, 15-05-2008 » |
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NOW...what about Wanda?! How did Madame Landowska play it? In this way. She is faster than the others, but not at all unpleasant. We are especially fond of her trills, and she correctly hesitates in bar thirty-four (a point of execution which was regrettably altogether omitted by one of our crackpots and in the negotiation of which the other - the unfortunate Mr. Berben - comes as Mr. Iron has already told us seriously unstuck). There is something of a break at one point though - across a tie too - while she changes gears on the machine. She was quite famous for the unobtrusiveness of her gliding onto platforms. It is said that anti-aircraft fire can be heard in her 1940 recording of Scarlatti sonatas, and shortly thereafter she had to abandon her school ( l'Ecole de Musique Ancienne) just north of Paris, her library of 10,000 volumes, and her valuable collection of instruments. The article in Grove whence we glean this information does not relate whether she ever recovered them. It was written by one Lionel Salter, whom we looked up in turn in the Oxford Dictionary of Music, only to find that he had been "an authority on jazz"; we at once crossed him off our list of serious persons. Wanda Landowska was seventy years old when she recorded these 48 Preludes and Fugues in 1947. |
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« Last Edit: 15:37:23, 15-05-2008 by Sydney Grew »
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Baz
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« Reply #151 on: 16:10:27, 15-05-2008 » |
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This is a really polished performance by Wanda! The only thing I don't like is the noise exuding from the instrument. Temptations again cause her to slide into 16' mode, thereby muddying the harmonies, and overburdening the rhythms. She might have had her instruments built by Pleyel, but that is no excuse at all. Yet her overall sense of pacing, and her technical prowess are really impressive.
Baz
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« Last Edit: 17:48:34, 15-05-2008 by Baz »
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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #152 on: 08:40:29, 16-05-2008 » |
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The E flat minor Prelude from Book I has already made a premature appearance, but since it is so staggeringly beautiful in the crackpot version - something to do with the half-diminished seventh at the second beat of bar thirteen no doubt - and reveals hitherto entirely unsuspected aspects of Bach's musical genius, we present it again here to-day. Its companion work, the long D sharp minor Fugue from Book I, may be heard here. It is dare we say not very memorable. Tovey tells us that it is a work which "has always attracted the special attention of theorists," and that of course tells us much more about theorists than about Bach. Tovey himself goes on to list a plan of the work's "ten stretti" as an aid to its memorization. We wonder whether one of Bach's intentions here was to indicate that E flat minor and D sharp minor were now with equal temperament no longer to be routinely differentiated. We know there are plenty of Members with ideas about that matter! It may or may not be of interest to know that the corresponding pair in Book II are both notated in D sharp minor. |
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« Reply #153 on: 14:49:17, 16-05-2008 » |
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The attention of theorists, but also of Mr. George Crumb.
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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #154 on: 10:36:42, 17-05-2008 » |
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The attention of theorists, but also of Mr. George Crumb. Crumb . . . ah yes, Crumb. We recorded some things of his - " Haunted Landscape" and " Star-Child" - by mistake the other day because we confused his name with that of Henry Cowell the leader of the Northern American homosexualists. So how did George Crumb occupy himself with that fugue then? To-day's crackpot item is the E flat major Prelude from Bach's second Book. Tovey marks it " Allegretto tranquillo, quasi andante"; but our anonymous crackpot renders it as a bold, brassy, and very loud allegro energico, with lots of fanfares! ( Rapidshare or sendspace.) |
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Baz
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« Reply #155 on: 11:10:57, 17-05-2008 » |
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To-day's crackpot item is the E flat major Prelude from Bach's second Book. Tovey marks it " Allegretto tranquillo, quasi andante"; but our anonymous crackpot renders it as a bold, brassy, and very loud allegro energico, with lots of fanfares! ( Rapidshare or sendspace.) This is, I am to presume, exactly why this crackpot decided to remain anonymous? It is indeed difficult to think of any redition more opposed to the composer's intentions. We need not worry too much about many of the melodies being cut to pieces with scissors just because it was more convenient to notate them as floating between one stave and another. What is much more of a concern is that there do not seem to be any melodies at all! This is strange, because surely this movement is one of a number (of which the E Major Prelude from Book 1 is another) in which Bach provides a song-like melody (almost, indeed, Mendelssohnian in character) against which he places gentle harmonies coloured with subtle imitations. This difference in mood (compared with other more boisterous movements such as the Prelude in D Minor book 2) is one that is often ignored by piano-playing show-offs who feel that the only thing needed is to rattle off the notes as quickly and as 'virtuosically' as possible. (They seldom realise that part of the supposed 'virtuosity' lies within the intelligence through which a sympathetic performance as such may then arise.) So this has to be something of a "thumbs down" affair. Perhaps our anonymous prankster will have better luck with his next endeavour? Baz |
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« Last Edit: 11:18:29, 17-05-2008 by Baz »
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #156 on: 12:41:04, 17-05-2008 » |
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We wonder whether one of Bach's intentions here was to indicate that E flat minor and D sharp minor were now with equal temperament no longer to be routinely differentiated. We know there are plenty of Members with ideas about that matter! On a keyboard with 12 notes to the octave Eb and D# minors don't really stand much chance of being differentiated routinely or otherwise whatever the temperament...  Do we have a vague memory of one of the two originating in an E minor and the other in a D minor version? Well yes we do but does it in the knowledge of our scholars have any basis in fact? |
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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #157 on: 14:29:52, 17-05-2008 » |
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It is indeed difficult to think of any redition more opposed to the composer's intentions. The audience is revolting! Perhaps this - Chopin on the violin - will settle them down. Is it the work of a true crackpot or not, that is the question. At one point it seems to go up well past the limit of human hearing. |
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« Reply #158 on: 16:07:12, 17-05-2008 » |
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Crumb . . . ah yes, Crumb. We recorded some things of his - "Haunted Landscape" and "Star-Child" - by mistake the other day because we confused his name with that of Henry Cowell the leader of the Northern American homosexualists. So how did George Crumb occupy himself with that fugue then?
Somewhere in Makrokosmos he quotes this fugue at excessive length. |
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Baz
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« Reply #159 on: 16:20:22, 17-05-2008 » |
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It is indeed difficult to think of any redition more opposed to the composer's intentions. The audience is revolting! Perhaps this - Chopin on the violin - will settle them down. Is it the work of a true crackpot or not, that is the question. At one point it seems to go up well past the limit of human hearing. Nothing much to make a song and dance about there Mr Grew - since it is essentially only 'song and dance' music anyway it does not seem to make much difference to the piece whether it is played just upon the pianoforte, or shared with a violin. As we suspected from the very first bar - to be confirmed by the announcement made at the end of the performance - 'Italian taste' is responsible for this one (why could they not simply stick with Opera we wonder?). Baz |
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Baz
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« Reply #160 on: 17:04:50, 17-05-2008 » |
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...At one point it seems to go up well past the limit of human hearing.
Perhaps in emulation of 'Music of the Spheres'? Baz |
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« Reply #161 on: 23:30:55, 17-05-2008 » |
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Do we have a vague memory of one of the two originating in an E minor and the other in a D minor version? Well yes we do but does it in the knowledge of our scholars have any basis in fact?
You are not alone in this vague memory. A lot of the earlier Kleine Präludien und Fughetten are simplified version of WTC pieces. |
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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #162 on: 12:36:03, 18-05-2008 » |
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To-day's admittedly crackpot but nonetheless rewarding rendition is of the F - yes, no, sorry - E flat major Fugue from Book II. Sit back and enjoy it without worrying about the stretches! Rapidshare and Sendspace. |
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« Last Edit: 13:50:15, 18-05-2008 by Sydney Grew »
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Baz
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« Reply #163 on: 13:31:48, 18-05-2008 » |
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To-day's admittedly crackpot but nonetheless rewarding rendition is of the F major Fugue from Book II. Sit back and enjoy it without worrying about the stretches! Rapidshare and Sendspace. We know you are only trying to keep us "on our toes" Mr Grew, and that what you have given us is actually the Eb Fugue (not the F major). Never mind that - but what about all the "vibrato-twanging"? What have you got to say about that then?!!! Baz |
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Baz
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« Reply #164 on: 14:14:22, 18-05-2008 » |
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To-day's admittedly crackpot but nonetheless rewarding rendition is of the F - yes, no, sorry - E flat major Fugue from Book II. Sit back and enjoy it without worrying about the stretches! Rapidshare and Sendspace. I sat back and - er - 'enjoyed' it. I felt at first as though Frankinstein was rising from the coffin. The really funny thing was that when the subject appeared in stretto I fully expected the fangs to extend in a mock-friendly (but of course threatening) manner. Instead, they seemed utterly tamed and emasculated! Just in case I wasn't having nightmares, I then played Leonhardt's performance, and it frightened me so much that I shall be having real nightmares tonight! I never thought that the simple idea of stretto could become so stressful. There must be a lesson there somewhere? Baz  |
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