30,801
I went to the new Apple store on 5th ave. last night. They are open 24 hours a day! How much different would our lives be if all businesses did this (Austin is kinda already like this)? The Paris Subway stops at midnight. How pathetic!
non sequitur
The piano player I mentioned before named Maurizio Pollini is always in heavy rotation in my music world. I have seen him perform over 10 times. I loved him the first time I heard him (Chopin's Preludes). I could say a lot about him, but I think after reading a weird profile of him in the Times a couple of weeks ago I have decided that he, quite simply, is a perfect balance between left and right brain aptitudes. Or to put a it a different way: he has the heart of a gypsy and the discipline of a soldier.
This is what the Times printed:
Such perfectionism is in keeping with the main criticism leveled at Mr. Pollini, that he is distant, perhaps even cold, in his performances.
Jeremy Siepmann, in ''Chopin: The Reluctant Romantic,'' writes of Mr. Pollini: ''His meticulous attention to every detail of the composer's text often results in the nearest thing to an aural photograph of the printed page. His virtuosity is untainted by any sense of ego, indeed there are many musicians who find his playing cold and impersonal.''
I have a feeling that there is no word more horrible to a virtuoso of Pollini's level than "cold".
Have a listen for yourself:
Etude Op. 25 No. 3
Cold?
Pollini is a master of Chopin's music. Very few other pianists living or dead compare in my mind. I did finally hear one that can match up however (playing Chopin). Alfred Cortot is really, really good.
Etude Op. 25 No. 3
I started to get excited about this and was wondering if anybody else had noticed a sort of bond between these two fellows. There were 30,800 articles posted on Google with both of their names. One thing I read that interested me is that Cortot would deliberately rewrite some notes in the pieces he played. You can hear it on the left hand of the first etude.
Etude Op. 10 No. 1
He was born in 1877, so he learned to play the piano before recordings. His only influence was what he heard growing up in his town. Players of his generation had a lot more "ego" as Mr. Siepmann would say and were not afraid to inject more of themselves into the music. Vladimir Horowitz is considered the last player of this type. Anyway here is the "Napoleonic" Pollini playing the same etude.
Etude Op. 10 No. 1
P.S. World: you can just listen without downloading now. I have finally gotten up to around the year 2000 in blogging technology.
non sequitur
The piano player I mentioned before named Maurizio Pollini is always in heavy rotation in my music world. I have seen him perform over 10 times. I loved him the first time I heard him (Chopin's Preludes). I could say a lot about him, but I think after reading a weird profile of him in the Times a couple of weeks ago I have decided that he, quite simply, is a perfect balance between left and right brain aptitudes. Or to put a it a different way: he has the heart of a gypsy and the discipline of a soldier.
This is what the Times printed:
Such perfectionism is in keeping with the main criticism leveled at Mr. Pollini, that he is distant, perhaps even cold, in his performances.
Jeremy Siepmann, in ''Chopin: The Reluctant Romantic,'' writes of Mr. Pollini: ''His meticulous attention to every detail of the composer's text often results in the nearest thing to an aural photograph of the printed page. His virtuosity is untainted by any sense of ego, indeed there are many musicians who find his playing cold and impersonal.''
I have a feeling that there is no word more horrible to a virtuoso of Pollini's level than "cold".
Have a listen for yourself:
Etude Op. 25 No. 3
Cold?
Pollini is a master of Chopin's music. Very few other pianists living or dead compare in my mind. I did finally hear one that can match up however (playing Chopin). Alfred Cortot is really, really good.
Etude Op. 25 No. 3
I started to get excited about this and was wondering if anybody else had noticed a sort of bond between these two fellows. There were 30,800 articles posted on Google with both of their names. One thing I read that interested me is that Cortot would deliberately rewrite some notes in the pieces he played. You can hear it on the left hand of the first etude.
Etude Op. 10 No. 1
He was born in 1877, so he learned to play the piano before recordings. His only influence was what he heard growing up in his town. Players of his generation had a lot more "ego" as Mr. Siepmann would say and were not afraid to inject more of themselves into the music. Vladimir Horowitz is considered the last player of this type. Anyway here is the "Napoleonic" Pollini playing the same etude.
Etude Op. 10 No. 1
P.S. World: you can just listen without downloading now. I have finally gotten up to around the year 2000 in blogging technology.
posted by jEFF at 12:32 PM
1 Comments:
i have never listened to two different interpretations of the same piece back to back like that before -i think a whole new world of understanding may be winking slightly at me were i to pursue it with more than my usual laziness...wonderful post and intriguing parallels and divergences
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