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Post by julesd68 on Jul 10, 2020 14:10:53 GMT
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!  The boy Lang Lang has recorded the Goldbergs. < Press release - Pianist Lang Lang has conquered a musical Everest, realising a lifelong dream with his brand-new recording of J. S. Bach’s monumental keyboard work Goldberg Variations. Set for release on Deutsche Grammophon on 4th September, Lang Lang gives two complementary performances. The first was recorded in a single take in concert at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Bach’s workplace for almost 30 years and his final resting place; the second was made soon after, in the seclusion of the studio. The two recordings, purchased together as part of a super deluxe edition, make this a world-first simultaneous live and studio album release. >See what you think! (It's not for me ...) And let us know what your favourite recordings of the work are!
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Post by MartinT on Jul 10, 2020 19:37:06 GMT
It's quite affected, isn't it?
Glenn Gould
Murray Perahia
Simone Dinnerstein
Andras Schiff
Off the top of my head, all made better recordings.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 10, 2020 19:47:54 GMT
I've just listened to them again and added Beatrice Rana in.
My view now is that Dinnerstein takes some beating. Her timing is exquisite. Timing, as for Satie, is everything in these pieces. I don't like to hear wilful pulling or pushing of the notes. The recording is also excellent.
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Post by jandl100 on Jul 10, 2020 20:09:08 GMT
Not keen on Dinnerstein - she hams it up a bit for me. One of my faves - played on the accordion ... open.qobuz.com/album/t0gvrowela4vb Perahia surprised me - really good. Gould is Gould - in a world of his own - although his 1955 and 1981 recordings seem centuries apart. Lifschitz, Katz, Suzuki (lovely mellow harpsichord) all excellent. So many I've never heard. |
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Post by julesd68 on Jul 10, 2020 20:21:15 GMT
Indeed, Lang Lang has as much a whiff of the Baroque as a drunken Friday night Bargain Bucket at KFC ...
Perhaps he thought the composer was Rachmaninov?
My favourite for the piano, is Ms Beatrice Rana.
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Post by MartinT on Jul 10, 2020 20:55:39 GMT
Perahia surprised me - really good. Yes, he is. As is Schiff. |
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Post by scotty38 on Jul 11, 2020 18:17:16 GMT
I’m not an expert but I see Lang Lang berated here and there so what is about him that folk that know the music don’t like?
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Post by julesd68 on Jul 11, 2020 18:39:56 GMT
Thanks for your question, it’s a very good one!
First off, I have nothing against LL personally. Some people get rather carried away about the way he ‘performs’ on stage, thinking his physical mannerisms rather too over indulgent and false.
I don’t really care about all that - it’s about what I hear and I would always base that on an individual performance.
As always, it comes down to personal preference. I like my Bach to have a reference back to the era in which it was created, so my preference has generally been a performance on a period harpsichord.
But if it’s going to be played on a modern piano as LL does, I like an understated ‘Baroque’ style performance where the pianist doesn’t try to project his or her personality on the music - the music should really speak for itself.
Bach has a great purity, simplicity and direct emotion in it. When LL plays it, his phrasing almost turns it into a 20th Century Romantic work, which is why I mentioned Rachmaninov previously. I can hear a lot of Rubato in his playing (speeding up and slowing down the tempo at will) and it just sounds totally wrong to my ears - like he is trying to ‘gild the lily’ -
< To embellish or improve something unnecessarily. To add superfluous attributes to something. >
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Post by MartinT on Jul 11, 2020 20:01:20 GMT
But if it’s going to be played on a modern piano as LL does, I like an understated ‘Baroque’ style performance where the pianist doesn’t try to project his or her personality on the music - the music should really speak for itself. Exactly this, for me. LL tries to impose too much of his personality on the music. |
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Post by julesd68 on Jul 11, 2020 21:25:17 GMT
He also does stuff like this as if some kind of modern day Liberace ...
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Post by MartinT on Jul 11, 2020 21:26:29 GMT
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Post by jandl100 on Jul 12, 2020 1:30:57 GMT
Oh no. There is no hope. It's the end of all things... I quite enjoyed that. ... It's just socially distanced piano playing.  |
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Post by julesd68 on Jul 12, 2020 12:20:38 GMT
LOL ... It's Richard Clayderman next for you Jerry! |
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Post by scotty38 on Jul 13, 2020 14:19:19 GMT
ok thanks for the feedback. The flamboyance I can probably spot, the rest less so :-)
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Post by Slinger on Jul 13, 2020 14:36:27 GMT
LOL ... It's Richard Clayderman next for you Jerry! I see him as more of a Liberace fan, Jules. I'm the meantime though, it's back to the Mrs Mills for me. Come on Gladys, start tickling those ivories. |
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Post by julesd68 on Jul 13, 2020 15:10:15 GMT
ok thanks for the feedback. The flamboyance I can probably spot, the rest less so :-) It starts to make sense if you do a very quick comparison of LL with a few of the pianists mentioned above on Spotify or the like - it's amazing how many differences you can start to hear in the phrasing just by listening to 30 secs or so! |
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