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....I much preferred the music of Debussy to Chopin.

More Richter, this time playing Brahms....

fergus wrote:Next up....





....I much preferred the music of Debussy to Chopin.

Strange fellow! :) I have to confess that I love both. If I had to choose between the two -- and I can't for the life of me imagine why I might ever have to to do so -- then I would choose Chopin first.

Seán wrote:I would choose Chopin first.

funnily enough, so would I... ;-)

fergus wrote:

I had dinner 3 times with Claudio Arrau, how about that. And I heard him play 5 times the Emperor.
This was in 1976.

Jose Echenique wrote:

fergus wrote:

I had dinner 3 times with Claudio Arrau, how about that. And I heard him play 5 times the Emperor.
This was in 1976.

That is a lovely LP; I hope that the meals were as nice....I am sure that they were if you went back for more LOL!! Was he an interesting person to talk to Pepe?

One of the most underrated piano recitals of the last few years has been Piotr Anderszewski's deeply affecting readings of three of Robert Schumann's most neglected works,  Humoresques,  Studies for Pedal Piano and Morning Songs, for Virgin Classics.  This is careful and deliberate music-making of a high order which is keenly alert to the composer's state of mind when writing the music.  Anderszewski's playing gives the impression of remoteness and an abstraction from reality that is unsettling yet profoundly moving.  There is also a sense of nervousness which echoes the transitions between Schumann's fugitive emotional states, from joy to despair, and which also suggests an elusive instability at the heart of this music.  There is an understated quality to his pianism which expresses the emotional pulse of this music in a very sincere and direct way.  This is music of fragility rendered with an exquisite sense of sensitivity.  Listening to Anderszewski playing this music evoked Debussy to my mind, such are the imagistic qualities that are suggested by the composer and realised by the pianist.  This comparison with Debussy may seem strange but there is something in Schumann's rhythmically ambiguous approach to melody which can have a dislocating effect on the listener in a way that is strongly reminiscent of Debussy.  There is certainly nothing of the fluidity of Chopin in this music.  The more I have listened to this music the more I have been impressed by Anderszewski's achievement.  This is music that is very difficult to assimilate which is precisely why many of the great Schumann interpreters have chosen to ignore these pieces.  Anderszewski succeeds in this repertoire by rejecting any attempt to sentimentalise this music, and, by favouring a more minimalist approach, conveys beautifully the sense of emotional wonder that lies at the heart of this deeply contradictory music that is simultaneously poetic and idealistic, yet also frenetic and unbalanced.

The last poignant strains of M9 have just faded away............

fergus wrote:The last poignant strains of M9 have just faded away............

does it linger in the memory?