Hungerford Video

[Donald Isler]

Yesterday, for the first time since he died in 1977, I SAW Bruce Hungerford playing the piano. It was a video from a concert in East Germany (I think), and it was the cadenza and conclusion of the first movement of the Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto. It was posted on Facebook by Meloclassic. I don't know how to copy it here, for those not on Facebook who may be interested, but it's acessible to people on Facebook via Meloclassic, which has done a big service to Hungerford's memory by posting this.

[jserraglio]

Thank you for the alert. It's easy to d/l this FB video to your computer and play it. All you need is the video URL printed below and any one of many online apps that grab FB or YT videos. No installation necessary.

BH video URL:
https://www.facebook.com/meloclassic/vi ... 650334229/

Download FB video to MP4 format (15.5 mb): Paste url and click "Download".
https://keepvid.com/sites/download-facebook-video.html
or
http://www.downvids.net
or
Any other app that does the same thing

[Holden Fourth]

This is awesome and reading the responses on Youtube, Meloclassic have the whole performance!

I can't find any recordings of Hungerford in the LvB PCs so this is an absolute gem.

[Donald Isler]

Thank you so much, JSerraglio , for putting up the video here!

HoldenFourth, do you mean the entire performance is viewable?

[jserraglio]

Thank you so much, JSerraglio , for putting up the video here!

HoldenFourth, do you mean the entire performance is viewable?

Sorry to butt in on this, but I think Meloclassic might have put the 4-min clip up as a promo for a possible later commercial release. At least I hope so.

[jbuck919]

Thank you for the alert. It's easy to d/l this FB video to your computer and play it. All you need is the video URL printed below and any one of many online apps that grab FB or YT videos. No installation necessary.

BH video URL:
https://www.facebook.com/meloclassic/vi ... 650334229/

Download FB video to MP4 format (15.5 mb): Paste url and click "Download".
https://keepvid.com/sites/download-facebook-video.html
or
http://www.downvids.net
or
Any other app that does the same thing

I just want to thank jserraglio. I tried to do this myself, since I had responded to Donald's post on Facebook, but I couldn't figure it out. j may think that it is easy, but half of what he says makes little sense even to the relatively computer literate. I will have to copy and paste this to a text file so I don't lose track of it as it goes down the line.

[Holden Fourth]

Thank you so much, JSerraglio , for putting up the video here!

HoldenFourth, do you mean the entire performance is viewable?

Reading the youtube comments I was certainly under the impression that this is the case based on a comment from Meloclassiscs themselves.

I don't believe that there is an extant recording of any LvB PC by Hungerford. However, a comment from another poster on Youtube sounded as if he had an LP of this work by Hungerford.

After some searching I found this.

https://www.cdandlp.com/en/bruce-hunger ... 115164807/

I certainly hope that Jserraglio is correct in his assumption.

[Donald Isler]

That is the 2 LP album produced in 1978 by the Bruce Hungerford Memorial Foundation, started and run for 25 years by my parents and some other Hungerford friends.

[Holden Fourth]

That is the 2 LP album produced in 1978 by the Bruce Hungerford Memorial Foundation, started and run for 25 by my parents and some other Hungerford friends.

So did I read it correctly and it does a have a PC4 on it?

I'm also interested in what the archives at IPAM contain but I haven't worked out a way to access their database.

EDIT: Amazing how just a little bit of information can help one research. I've now come up with this thanks to Donald and yes, there is a G major LvB PC.

[Donald Isler]

I'm not sure, but suspect that the Beethoven PC 4 performance on the memorial album may be the same as the one on this one, the "Legendary Hungerford" 4 CD album, produced by Vanguard Records, but funded by the same Bruce Hungerford Memorial Foundation. It came out around 1998, when there were few if any Hungerford releases coming out, and my father, a friend of Bruce going back to 1946, wanted to do something about that.

[Holden Fourth]

I imagine that this set would be almost impossible to acquire given the provenance and recording date. A pity because it has some Hungerford performances on it that I don't see existing anywhere else.

[Donald Isler]

Actually, I believe that three of the four discs in the "Legendary Hungerford" album are from his Vanguard recordings. The fourth disc, with the Schubert Wanderer Fantasy and the Beethoven Concerto No. 4, probably come from the BHMF memorial album.

[Donald Isler]

I was very happy, last night, to see that two excerpts from Hungerford's 1958 LP have recently been put on Youtube, and recommend people listen to them. They are the C Minor Allegretto of Schubert, and the Busoni transcription of the Bach C Major Organ Toccata, Adagio and Fugue. The Schubert performance is my ideal conception of that piece, and the Bach-Busoni is, in my opinion (and also that of Tim Page), more impressive than the Horowitz performance at his great comeback (1965) recital.

Here's the Schubert:
https://youtu.be/RbMuGBuS_tU

And here's the Bach-Busoni:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls4NXCAVeV8

[Ricordanza]

....the Bach-Busoni is, in my opinion (and also that of Tim Page), more impressive than the Horowitz performance at his great comeback (1965) recital.

Don, perhaps you can answer this question. In the very first minute, after a couple of rapid runs, Hungerford plays a repeated chord, while Horowitz breaks up the chord. Is this something that Horowitz added?