The Classical Music Guide Forums

Istvan

Murray Perahia without hesitation. Gould is far too slow at the start and this gets one off on a wrong footing. I find Perahia in general more flowing and lyrical, his sound more beautiful and his playing has greater profundity and sense of timelessness. Gould got nearer to this in a performance at...

Istvan

"Astrology" is definitely a misprint for "astronomy" in Varèse's case - see "Arcana", for instance.

Istvan

Hats off to Vickers the singer; two hats on to the man!

Istvan

"Jon Vickers also had differences with Solti during the recording of Aida. They never worked together again." The "Aida" recording was made before the Covent Garden performances of "Die Walküre", Vickers's last appearances with Solti. Solti wrote Vickers a courteous letter regretting that the tenor...

Istvan

"Jon Vickers also had differences with Solti during the recording of Aida. They never worked together again." True but Vickers could be very difficult and obstinate. His favourite line was, "I've sung this part more often than you've conducted it." Some conductors, including Solti, felt that knowin...

Istvan

Also born in 1942: Maurizio Pollini. (Though this Chinese stuff means nothing at all to me, any more than horoscopes or zodiac signs do).

Istvan

A good, thorough answer, as so often, from John Francis. I would say the clash of personalities (and the VPO's notorious anti-semitism) created a fruitful tension musically. In Chicago, for instance, where there was mutual respect, it sometimes happened, partly because the orchestra was so good, th...

Istvan

I'm afraid to say that the idea that the Solti "Ring" is made by the orchestra and soloists rather than the conductor seems utter nonsense to me, going against Wagner's whole conception of his work, i.e. that the orchestra is the chief protagonist, and you can't have great orchestral playing withou...

Istvan

It isn't written in stone tablets that the Solti recording can never ever be equaled or surpassed. It couldn't be today, because while we have a few conductors who are at least the equal of Solti himself, we lack a Birgit Nilsson (or Kirsten Flagstad or Frida Leider) to sing Brünnhilde, for starter...

Istvan

You've lost me. A few messages ago, you wrote, "I thought quite seriously about translating the Haskil book from the original French but in view of the market for classical music books today decided it was highly unlikely I would ever find a publisher." Now you seem to be dismissing it as worse tha...

Istvan

Thank you again, John, though I'm not sure it is all that good a book. Decently written but not very profound with very little on what made her playing special. Still, better than nothing, right? Well, not really. Lance's quotes from the book give an inkling of why I think one's money would be bett...

Istvan

I read somewhere that Prince Charles's valet even squeezes his toothpaste onto the toothbrush for him. Do you suppose that's true? I've read this too (in 'The Guardian') and can well believe it. He also has someone to lick his stamps for him and someone else to lick... well we don't want to offend ...

Istvan

http://www.lepoint.fr/culture/le-celebr ... 2169_3.php

Claudio Abbado died earlier today.

Istvan

Thank you again, John, though I'm not sure it is all that good a book. Decently written but not very profound with very little on what made her playing special.

Istvan

I thought quite seriously about translating the Haskil book from the original French but in view of the market for classical music books today decided it was highly unlikely I would ever find a publisher.

Istvan

Thank you, John!

Istvan

Has anyone read the Dinu Lipatti biography by Tanasescu, preface by Menuhin? Is it well-written and worth buying?

Istvan

I was lucky enough to hear him at Covent Garden as Don Giovanni (to Geraint Evans's Leporello); as Iago (twice under Solti) and as Scarpia. His entrance in the latter I'll never forget: he seemed to float into the church. It was quite eerie.

Istvan

Hey, we forgot Gobbi's centenary on 24th October! I can't think of a more beautiful and, when required, powerful and resonant baritone voice. And he was an oustanding actor both vocally and onstage.

Istvan

@ Stenka Razin

Wagner, yes, of course but Olga Scheps is a lovely pianist both to listen to and look at yet she doesn't seem to be nearly as well known as she should be and her CDs can be hard to find.

Istvan

There's a tragi-comic story about Samson François, told me by a reliable journalist, that he was found late at night in the streets of Manchester desperately searching for a teddy bear.

Istvan

http://youtu.be/oGxENmPogOo

Istvan

What do you think of this pianist? Does anyone have the dates of his Chopin recordings? I would also be interested in his Debussy ones but these were made right at the end of his career when it would seem he was a mental and physical wreck.

Istvan

The 1940s produced most of our greatest living pianists: Barenboim, Pollini, Uchida, Lupu, Perahia, Argerich, Bishop Kovacevich. Extraordinary - and what is more they also produced me, the world's worst pianist.

Istvan

Victor Orban's change of orientation is puzzling as he was a leading light in the founding of the "House of Terror" museum in Budapest revealing the horrors of the Hungarian Arrow Cross and Communist regimes during and after WW2. A most fascinatingly conceived museum; also a very moving one.

Istvan

I'm afraid I can't give an expert answer but Cosima was obviously aware of her husband's greatness and became an ardent carrier of the flame after his death so these diaries were almost certainly written with posterity in mind.

Istvan

Hey, what about me? My recordings of the early operas - which my colleague hasn't deigned to perform, apart from "Macbeth", of which my version is much to be preferred - are pretty good. And how about my new "Otello"?

Istvan

The Cosima Wagner Diaries should never go out of the catalogue but I bet they have. They certainly don't deal in trivia: the couple's mealtime conversation was on the highest level, discussing the great philosophers, world affairs, politics and the arts. We learn a great deal about their individual...

Istvan

Oh, no, Ernest Newman's biography of Wagner isn't boring at all - I found it compelling reading. On the way, one can check up on facts in one of the smaller, more matter-of-fact tomes available.

Istvan

. Ernest Newman's 3-volume life of Wagner. One of the best-written and readable of composer biographies but on the expensive side.

For Liszt, unhesitatingly, Alan Walker's 3-volume life, unlikely to be surpassed for many years.

Istvan

Aren't Telramund and Ortrud psychologically disturbed? - and Beckmesser too, for that matter.

Istvan

No, because the sound quality isn't good enough. I used to buy musicassettes in the 1970s and early 80s but the quality, with a few exceptions such as "Decca", was not really acceptable. First they often jammed after a few playings because of warped hubs, which were fiddly to replace. Then the leve...

Istvan

From curtain rise in "Das Rheingold," where the Rhine maidens frolicking in the river are replaced by prostitutes (talk about mundane!) plying their trade atop a hydroelectric dam, Chéreau and Peduzzi set their production against the story. Myself, I have never seen prostitutes plying their trade or...

Istvan

Of course this kind of dramatic production is not easy on some members of the audience, maybe many members, who are perhaps made uncomfortable by such a great disparity with the real, mundane world outside the theatre. That's too bad for them. But genius (yes, I mean that word) does not always acco...

Istvan

"But the breakthrough to what we now know as Eurotrash came in 1976 , celebrated with a new "Ring" cycle to mark the centennial of the opening of the Festspielhaus with the first complete "Ring."" Would you really call Chéreau's production trash, John? I can't make a proper judgement having only se...

Istvan

"But the breakthrough to what we now know as Eurotrash came in 1976 , celebrated with a new "Ring" cycle to mark the centennial of the opening of the Festspielhaus with the first complete "Ring."" Would you really call Chéreau's production trash, John? I can't make a proper judgement having only se...

Istvan

What excellent writing! I presume you are/were in publishing or journalism or something in that line?

Istvan

If you decide to buy new speakers and want a combination of small size with good sound, then SoundScience's QSB model gives remarkable results from small cubes of very solid build with plenty of power, including bass. They connect to a USB port and cost around £50 (they cost me nearly double that l...

Istvan

Others here have difficulty answering the question at all - instead they answer other questions that haven't been asked. Variety is the spice of good conversation! It is in any case a difficult question as one generally doesn't seek to identify with people like oneself since one sees in them one's ...

Istvan

Another I should have included on my list is Sir John Barbirolli. The warmth of his sound and the passion of his music making is reflected in what seems to have been a very warm-hearted and kind personality, without the slightest pretentiousness; he also had a great sense of humour. On the other ha...

Istvan

What John says about Barenboim as a man is absolutely true but can he be considered a serious contender for the title of the world's greatest living conductor, as the "Guardian" journalist's remarks imply?

Istvan

It is conductors I can't identify with, against popular opinion, which puzzle me most . For instance, I read the following in today's "Guardian" about Barenboim: "The 70-year-old conductor-pianist certainly remains the most exciting and authoritative musical superstar in a congested firmament. His ...

Istvan

"Purple prose" or "wishful thinking"?

Istvan

"Carlos Kleiber, that deeply unhappy man." A friend of mine, usually very reliable on such background, told me that Kleiber had several nervous breakdowns and had to be hospitalized. I haven't read his biography (still available only in German) but if it is true I can only sympathize but wouldn't w...

Istvan

It depends what is meant by "identify with". Does this mean from a musical point of view or from that of the conductor's personality? From the past, I would choose Solti and from today's maestros, Muti. For their superb command of the orchestra and the excitement of their music making, which does n...

Istvan

Amplification is fine for pop music as it helps cover up all its weaknesses but for good music it is awful. I went not long ago to a weekend festival at the Cziffra Foundation in Senlis, held in a church. It began with an arrangement for 13 wind instruments of the Liszt B minor Sonata; such was the...

Istvan

According to the biography by Jeannie Williams (now extremely expensive) Vickers's condemnation of Tannhäuser's character was a pretext. He didn't want to admit that his voice was no longer up to the role. Some journalists didn't fail to point out that he had already portrayed on stage a paedophile...

Istvan

Mary Jane Philips-Matz's big biography of Verdi

It's a magnificent work, based on minute research and also very readable - but only available second hand.

Istvan

My hearing starts to decline at 4kHz and drops fast after 8kHz. As one's hearing declines tinnitus increases because without any outside input or stimulation the brain, acting like an amplifier, "turns up the volume" to compensate and the tinnitus becomes more intrusive. However, people's hearing or...

Istvan

In Sibelius's house "Ainola', near Järvenpää north of Helsinki, is the green-tiled stove in which he burnt the manuscript of the 8th Symphony, to the eternal regret of his admirers. He suffered all his adult life from acute anxiety, assuaging this with doses of whisky which would have killed most o...

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