, 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.)
