Classical Music

Music For The Day

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

A fine example of Brahms playing today from Stephen Hough and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. This is an extended excerpt from the second movement of Brahm’s first piano concerto.

 

The slow buildup beginning with the restatement of the first theme by the orchestra at 3’36, leading up to those great glacial piano chords at 5’20 is especially well done here.

I have always been most partial to the Glenn Gould (live at Carnegie Hall with the NYPO) and Emil Gilels (studio) recordings of this work, but judging from the second movement alone in this video, Hough’s performance is right up there with those greats.

Music For The Day

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

You can take your Alfred Brendel recordings and Daniel Barenboim discs and let them gather dust in a cellar as far as I’m concerned; Glenn Gould made Beethoven sound fresh, exciting and just plain fun to play in his quixotic romp through the piano sonatas (the ones he liked, at least).

No more so than in this recording of the opening movement of the Piano Sonata no. 6, Op. 10 no. 2:

 

Makes me want to stroll to the piano showroom down the road and pretend to be an interested buyer so I can abuse one of the lovely remodeled Steinways again for an hour or so.

Mahler’s Ninth Turns 100

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

Mahler’s Ninth Symphony was premiered on this day 100 years ago, and to celebrate, Gramophone Magazine has reviewed some of the finest recordings available.

I must confess – and I am sure this will forever mark me out as a classical music heretic, if the Glenn Gould appreciation hadn’t already done the job – that I am not a big Mahler fan. I have grown to like his first symphony a lot, especially the Leonard Bernstein/New York Philharmonic recording, but as a symphonist, in general, Mahler doesn’t do much for me. I feel that there is a lot of overwrought, introspective symphony-ing for the sake of it, especially in the ones where he felt it necessary to draft in vocal soloists and a massed chorus. Having said that, I’m sure I’m wrong.

However, I did listen to the various extracts selected by Gramophone, and enjoyed this one, conducted by Claudio Abbado:

 

So happy birthday, Mahler’s Ninth! I’m going to go listen to some Shostakovich now.