Schubert

Small amount of naughtiness on eMusic (I got suckered by a free offer, and ended up buying some stuff as well) which included the complete Schubert Piano Sonatas, played by Georges Pludermacher. He's not a pianist I know much about, and I didn't own any of his recordings previously. Like many, I grew up listening to Brendel play Schubert and Mozart, and in some sense his voice and interpretation became definitive.

Anyway, the comparison between the two is about as good an example of the importance in interpretation as I can think of off-hand. Brendel is soft, well-mannered, genteel. Somehow his approach conjures images of mittel-Europische charm, with a sense of irony and melancholia.

Pludermacher (French wiki article here), on the other hand, has a certain muscularity. Perhaps less tenderness where we (I) expect it, but much more overt power. Perhaps it's worth thinking of Schubert as a young man sometimes, rather than the miserable syphilitic of popular perceptions.

Anyway, he's not going to replace Brendel in my affections (where he reigns supreme in the playing of Schubert and Mozart, if not Beethoven), but from now I will listen to the two versions with more information and appreciation of what is in the music, and what is brought to it by either interpreter. It turns out, quite a lot of both.

(I might also have bought some Vierne Organ Symphonies (silly) and some Schutz as well. But I don't know anything about Vierne really, and the German Baroque will have to wait for another day.)

Recent Acquisitions

Bit of a buying spree of late, (almost) all from Barnardo's or Oxfam, so I feel less guilty...

• James, the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Eisenman, Robert H
• From the Holy Mountain: A Journey In The Shadow of Byzantium, William Dalrymple
• The Human Factor (Vintage classics), Graham Greene
• Fathers and Sons, Alexander Waugh
• Newton and the Counterfeiter, Thomas Levenson
• A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople - From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube, Patrick Leigh Fermor
• A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh 
• A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
• Complete Poems and Plays of T.S. Eliot
• The End of Ancient Christianity (Canto original series). R. A. Markus
• Catullus: The Complete Poems (Oxford World's Classics), Catullus
• The Places In Between, Rory Stewart

Prom 9 - Parry, Scriabin, Tchaikovsky

Tonight, BBC Phil, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky, with Nelson Goerner as soloist in Scriabin's 1st Piano Concerto.

The Parry 5th Symphony (Symphonic Fantasia) kicked off: not a piece I know at all, and on tonight's rendition, not one I will be hurrying to hear again. No criticism of conductor or orchestra, it just isn't really very interesting. A bit of pomp, with none of the great tunes that make Parry's other work rise from the pedestrian.

Scriabin's 1st Piano Concerto was described in the Prom's booklet as being influenced by Chopin. I can see the point that the author was making, and it certainly isn't the mature Scriabin of the Poem of Ecstasy. Chopin tho? The melodic treatement was much much more fragmented than Chopin, and the lyrical sweeps were of a Russian style, not the elegant Romanticism of Chopin. Goerner was a fantastic soloist: he obviously believed in the work, which could, I suspect, fall rather flat. Tonight it didn't.

Main attraction of the evening, however, was always going to be Tchaikovsky's Pathetique - one of those pieces which always brings a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. No exception tonight - Sinaisky had a romantic conception of the piece (doesn't everyone?) that also allowed lots of detail to emerge. I have to say, mostly details that I have never noticed, despite having three recordings, all of which get regular outings. One of the reasons for seeing things live, is, for me at least, the opportunity to watch what happens - often the theatrical show can make you notice things which otherwise are missed in the purely musical thrill.

Sadly, some of the horn playing was a bit off, as was the double bassoon at one (crucial) stage.

So, not a vintage night, but thoroughly enjoyable. Now off to look for some more bits of Scriabin and look up my Mravinsky recordings...