Richter plays 24 Grieg Lyric Pieces

[neilnw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vhrt0MAFE

On the occasion of the Grieg sesquicentennial (1843-1993)

[maestrob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vhrt0MAFE

On the occasion of the Grieg sesquicentennial (1843-1993)

Wonderful!

I have the Gilels on CD, and didn't know Richter had performed these as well.

As always, many thanks, Neil!

[neilnw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vhrt0MAFE

On the occasion of the Grieg sesquicentennial (1843-1993)

Wonderful!

I have the Gilels on CD, and didn't know Richter had performed these as well.

As always, many thanks, Neil!

Also well worth checking out is Leif Ove Andsnes' 2002 CD, played on Grieg's own piano, in his house.

[maestrob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9vhrt0MAFE

On the occasion of the Grieg sesquicentennial (1843-1993)

Wonderful!

I have the Gilels on CD, and didn't know Richter had performed these as well.

As always, many thanks, Neil!

Also well worth checking out is Leif Ove Andsnes' 2002 CD, played on Grieg's own piano, in his house.

Yes, of course. I bought that EMI CD when it was first issued.

[Lance]

Oddly, Richter didn't seem to record much solo Grieg, three Lyric Pieces live on the Aura label; he also recorded the concerto. But then there is a greatly expanded 2-CD release of the Lyric Pieces on the Italian Stradivarius label [37179], which gives us 25 of them as recorded in 1993 in Greece. The discs include six Preludes from Book 2 by Debussy as recorded live in in Italy in 1993.

[Belle]

Even long past his prime Richter was still compelling. Wedding Day at Troldhaugen; some unusual rhythm detected there! This piece is dear to me because my late mother played it one day spontaneously after never having touched a piano for some years, and that piece for decades (she had a phenomenal memory). I had bought a very old piano so I could start lessons and she was testing its chops!! My mother had 18 months left to live and was just 57. The rickety old piano moved along the vinyl floor on its casters because she played it with such vigour (just as in the scene in Scott Hicks' film "Shine" when the young David plays at an eisteddfod). We all laughed as she attempted to keep up with the moving piano, my mother laughing the loudest!!

[barney]

Even long past his prime Richter was still compelling. Wedding Day at Troldhaugen; some unusual rhythm detected there! This piece is dear to me because my late mother played it one day spontaneously after never having touched a piano for some years, and that piece for decades (she had a phenomenal memory). I had bought a very old piano so I could start lessons and she was testing its chops!! My mother had 18 months left to live and was just 57. The rickety old piano moved along the vinyl floor on its casters because she played it with such vigour (just as in the scene in Scott Hicks' film "Shine" when the young David plays at an eisteddfod). We all laughed as she attempted to keep up with the moving piano, my mother laughing the loudest!!

That's a delightful memory.

[Belle]

I miss her greatly; her musicality, intelligence and fabulous sense of humour. She threw 'vibrant' parties, played by ear - sometimes in an up-market restaurant in Newcastle - and adored the music of tin pan alley. Stride jazz piano was her preferred mode of expression, something like this. Not in George's league!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A94Ncds0_Vs

[Lance]

Those are lovely, warm and precious memories.

[Belle]

Those are lovely, warm and precious memories.

Thank you so much, Lance. What would life be without music? (Rhetorical question)

[maestrob]

Even long past his prime Richter was still compelling. Wedding Day at Troldhaugen; some unusual rhythm detected there! This piece is dear to me because my late mother played it one day spontaneously after never having touched a piano for some years, and that piece for decades (she had a phenomenal memory). I had bought a very old piano so I could start lessons and she was testing its chops!! My mother had 18 months left to live and was just 57. The rickety old piano moved along the vinyl floor on its casters because she played it with such vigour (just as in the scene in Scott Hicks' film "Shine" when the young David plays at an eisteddfod). We all laughed as she attempted to keep up with the moving piano, my mother laughing the loudest!!

A lovely story, Belle. Thanks for sharing.

[Lance]

Life, I fear, would not be very interesting. Music provides so much! It has healing powers, it lifts our spirits, it supplants worries, it provides wonderful memories, and so much more. I cannot think of life without it.

Those are lovely, warm and precious memories.

Thank you so much, Lance. What would life be without music? (Rhetorical question)

[Belle]

When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
(Keats)

[neilnw]

Nearly thirty years ago, having moved from Colorado to Oregon to slug it out in a music school at a university that thought it was a conservatory, I got dropped from their doctoral program after eight fruitless years. Paralysis, total unhappiness were what marked my time there. The piano professors tried molding, changing my slouching technique to a virtuoso grade. They set out to make out of me what Leschetizky tried to make out of Paderewski. The roughest time of my whole life.

On June 15, 1993, two months before moving out of Eugene and taking lock,stock, and barrel to Seattle, I drove to a nearby church that stayed open during evening hours for individual prayer, and set myself at the baby grand that stood at the altar. I decided to make my own commemoration of Grieg's 150th birthday, taking with me my two Peters' edition volumes of his piano works; they were still quite costly in those days, before the Dover reprints. I channeled the image in my mind of him and my lifelong devotion to his music. Particularly the Lyric Pieces.

For about the next hour and fifteen minutes, I dug out and performed, to an audience of only one--the composer--"Shepherd Boy," "Notturno," "Berceuse," "At the Cradle," "At Thy Feet," "Grandmother's Minuet," "In My Native Country," "To Spring," "March of the Dwarfs," "Norwegian Peasant's March," "Valse Improm[tu," "Elegie," "Peace of the Woods," "Once Upon a Time," "Bell-Ringing," "Arietta," "Remembrances," "Watchman's Song," "Gade," "Gratitude," "Salon," "She Dances," "Melancholie," "Summer's Eve," "Valse Melancholique," "Halling," "Skipping Dance," and a few others. Many of these were from memory, others I had always just sight read.

Within that short length of time, my old "no-virtuoso" technique had returned. No discomfort, no hands-falling-asleep, no paralyzed arms, no aches.

It wasn't to remain afterwards, of course.

But I felt that the composer's countenance was smiling down on me. A most memorable and heartening evening.

[Lance]

It was your special moment in time that remains very special to you. Well stated, Neil.

[maestrob]

Yes, thanks for that reminiscence, Neil. You have lived a full life and survived the struggle. A precious moment in time, indeed.