Schubert piano sonatas

[haydnguy]

Originally Posted by stephen wainman

Thanks - I looked through the 114 recordings on Amazon by Biret but couldnt find Schubert. Gone for the Serkin for the present.

Stephen, I'd be interested to know what you think of those recordings when they come in. I've put the other one you've mentioned on my 'Want List'. I also discovered that I have Schubert's Piano Sonata D. 537, with Michelangeli and am going to put it in to see how it sounds.

[stephen w]

Originally Posted by SchubertGuy

Stephen, I'd be interested to know what you think of those recordings when they come in. I've put the other one you've mentioned on my 'Want List'. I also discovered that I have Schubert's Piano Sonata D. 537, with Michelangeli and am going to put it in to see how it sounds.

Yes I'll let you know. Ever since seeing Michelangeli on television decades ago I've revered him.

My favourite pianist is Pollini - but Argerich is up there also!

[haydnguy]

Yes, and of course, Richter and also I like Dinu Lippati.

[stephen w]

Originally Posted by SchubertGuy

Yes, and of course, Richter and also I like Dinu Lippati.

On this CD:
(6) Partitas
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Dinu Lipatti

Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
with Dinu Lipatti

(16) Waltzes
Composed by Johannes Brahms
with Dinu Lipatti, Nadia Boulanger

Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor
Composed by Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
with Dinu Lipatti

Barcarolle in F sharp
Composed by Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
with Dinu Lipatti

Miroirs
Composed by Maurice Ravel
with Dinu Lipatti

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor
Composed by Robert Schumann
with Dinu Lipatti
Conducted by Herbert von Karajan

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor
Composed by Edvard Grieg
with Dinu Lipatti
Conducted by Alceo Galliera

Impromptus
Composed by Franz Schubert
with Dinu Lipatti

Nocturnes
Composed by Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin
with Dinu Lipatti

Cantata No. 147, 'Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben'
Composed by Johann Sebastian Bach
with Dinu Lipatti

Dinu Lipatti: yes. When I was a small boy someone in the family gave me a wooden box full of LP's. It was the first classical music I heard, and over the years I more or less wore them out. It was what you might call an eclectic collection - it included The Boston Pops orchestra playing the Flight of the Bumblebee, Haydn symphonies, the Bach B minor Mass, but also a recording by Dinu Lipatti which included the B minor piano sonata. This was my introduction to 'grown-up' piano music, and it made a deep impression. The sonata has meant a lot to me ever since.

As to my saying someone is my favourite pianist, I was aware of the foolishness of it even as I wrote it! A pianist friend in America sent last year a sheaf of reviews of dozens of pianists, all of them recorded artists with professional careers. . the world is stuffed full of world class performers of course. But one remains attached to some artists stumbled upon in youth; and otherwise it's often a performer who you've been to hear (Pollini made a tremendous impression on me at the festival Hall a few years back, playing the Chopin Preludes).

And sometimes notwithstanding technical brilliance, there are pianists I just don't warm to - don't want to listen to, for instance my recording of the Chopin Etudes, played by Nikolai Lugansky. They seem hectic to me, too much so to be enjoyable. It's a personal reaction.