Alessandra Ammara

Wow... O_O

for me
Stanislav Bunin - his fantasie impromptu in c sharp minor of chopin is the bset for me. the accent and good interpretation.

Martha argerich - Absolutely the queen

Vladimir Ashkenazy -Love his attitude and his past . he is very very handsome if you have a chance to find his old pictures .

Georges Cziffra - I love liszt so Cziffra is teh bset for Liszt's song
please listening to his speed in La campanella and you will be shocked

QUOTE (skraisorn @ Jul 4 2004, 03:53 PM)

for me Stanislav Bunin - his fantasie impromptu in c sharp minor of chopin is the bset for me. the accent and good interpretation. Martha argerich - Absolutely the queen Vladimir Ashkenazy -Love his attitude and his past . he is very very handsome if you have a chance to find his old pictures . Georges Cziffra - I love liszt so Cziffra is teh bset for Liszt's song please listening to his speed in La campanella and you will be shocked

I agree with Martha Argerich!!! (Supreme pianist!!)

Also, for the ubiquitous Campanella, you really should listen to Jorge Bolet. He doesn't play it as quickly as others, but his tone is sublime. This allows the music to shine...

Too many people play this piece too quickly..

Regards,
Mike

Being into jazz I like oscar peterson. He can play really fast solos but still make it sound relaxing.

SCOTT JOPLIN IS AMAZIN.

hello!

has anyone heard of Art Tatum or Yann Tiersen? I'm sure people will have heard of Art Tatum, but my brother introduced me to Yann Tiersen.

QUOTE (silvery @ Jun 23 2004, 05:24 PM)

[QUOTE=MikeSG,Jun 22 2004, 02:32 AM] [/QUOTE] When asked why she plays so well, her answer was, "I play what is written". Of course, the underlying philosophy of this statement could fuel ANOTHER thread. M [/QUOTE] Hm... If a pianist only plays what it written, can he/she be considered a good pianist? Or merely a parroter? I had this discussion in MEP once, and some interesting comments were made. One shared comment was that it depended on the period the music belonged to. After all, for Classical works, few dynamics/articulation etc. are given by the composer (mainly suggestions from the editor) as compared to the modern period, where pieces come littered with dynamics. (Well, maybe not all, but at least from Bartok and some Debussy pieces)

"Because I play what the composer wrote"

this is a very good aim, but almost impossible to acheive, because music publishers have to assert thir copyright over what they publish. This means putting in things the composer most definitely did not write, so as to be able to catch out anybody breaking their copyright.

I found out a bit about this when I was working for an encyclopaedia of the arts. My job was to go to the British Library and steal the information from other encyclopaedias. I was given the instructions to check from at least three encyclopaedias and, if it was differrent in each, put in the info as given by two of them. They tended to put in false info on purpose to catch people like us!

While at the library, I found loads - but LOADS - of beautiful music of all types and periods. a lot of the scores could have been simply printed without any alteration and used by music lovers. I photocopied quite a lot and took the scores to various music publishers, suggesting that they do just that. They needn't pay me even for the photocopying. This was music by e.g. Lawes, Locke, and other 17th C. english composers, violin sonatas etc. by the terrific French composers, Rebel, Francoeur and the amazing woman-composer: Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, symphonies by the Scottish classical symphony-composer, Erskine - and loads of more famous composers... None of the publishers was interested. They said they might consider employing (me or) someone to rewrite them, putting in 'deliberate mistakes' (they showed me some examples: changing cadences, writing two 3/4 bars as a 3/2 bar etc.) to catch copyright breakers. That's why - even in 'Urtext' editions you always get things - even if only fingerings - but usually a whole set of dynamic and phrasing and articuklation markings, pedal indications and a whole load more that are often the opposite of what the composer would have wanted and definitely not what they wrote.

Since finance houses (American) bought up virtually all the main music shops and publishers in the UK they have pursued a ruthless policy of rooting out and bringing into ruin the only music publishers which sold authentic and scholarly editions of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc. at affordable prices (as well as complete editions of piano music which are unobtainable elsewhere - Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Lyadov, C P E Bach and others). (The firm was called Koenemann). These will never be printed now. The reason why these editions were a threat was that they sold at roughly a third of the price of their rivals: the publishers which had just been bought up. Koenemann books were simply not allowed in the shops that had been bought.

Of course, the point is not actually to play what the composer wrote. Composers of the 18th century and earlier did not write everything down as they played it. there were all sorts of traditions in different places. The main point is that vibrato was used only rarely as a special effect. More or less all notes should be played detached, unless marked legato etc. The point is to play what the composer actually meant. This means that teachers should tke the trouble to find out about various traditions, and encourage their students to do the same.

Somebody on this forum said that you can be freer with Romantic composers. This is nonsense! First of all: who is 'Romantic'? did they carry little badges on their jackets, saying "I'm Romantic. Do with me what you want!" No. They were deep, passionate, thoughtful, trivial, angry, creative, happy, unhappy people, just like 'Baroque' composers (who also didn't have labels. An wahat are we, by the way?). On the contrary: because they were publishing their music for people they had not even met, 19th century composers could no longer assume that everyone knew the local tradition: therefore they put down a lot more detail of how to play their pieces. If anyone tried to play these pieces 'exactly as written' they would be coming closer to what the composer meant than with earlier composers. Wagner couln't stand vibrato. Chopin did not want too much rubato. Schumann writes very exact articulation, which not one single pianist even tries to play corectly nowadays, because they are sloshing about the sustaining pedal all the time, splashing their fingers about and showing off.

Tryy and recompose all the music you play. Make it up your way. then go back and see what the composer actually did. Gradually you'll go through the same exeriences as he did when he was composing the piece the first time. That way, you've got a chance of getting near to what the music is really trying to say.

i think Ronald Smith
he was my teacher and he played so nicely
he really made the notes sing
he was a great teacher , but he died may 27
i would recomened you listen to his cds

good post...misuc..

"Because I play what the composer wrote"


Perhaps it means articulating the composer's intention. An established pianist (I forgot who) once said, "you can play Bach your way, I play it his way". Being faithful to the score and composer's intention is different from following the score mechanically. I believe composers leave hints of their messages and intentions in the music - composers write music, not notes. The score is not simply dots and lines and dynamic markings. When a performer can truly understand the meaning behind these dots and lines and dynamic markings (i.e. the harmonic structure, the phrases, the melodic development etc.), only then he/she has played what the composer wrote.

Just my two cents worth.

Yann Tiersen
really amazing!!!

Cziffra for me.

it depends...different pianist has a different style and approach..

I have had the pleasure of hearing many pianists during my time and there is only one in my view who can sit at the top of the pile and that is John Lill.

I have heard him many times and there isn't anybody who plays Beethoven like him. Amongst the many highlights I have experienced in John Lill's concerts are being able to listen to him perform the complete cycle of beethoven piano sonatas on two seperate occasions. His Prokofiev,
Rachmaninov and Tchaikowsky are amazing as are his playing of Brahms, Schumann and Liszt and for good measure Mozart and Chopin are composers whose music he often plays.

There are not many pianists who perform the second piano concerto of Tchaikowsky but John Lill is among those who does. We are fortunate to have such a brilliant and wonderfull pianist to represent this country.

There is nothing fancy or fashionable about his playing and John Lill is a pianist who does not get in the way of the music. So many musicians do get in the way. His approach to his music is I believe, one that is full of humility and sheer integrity. I have been moved to places by his playing that no other pianist has come close to reaching.

If there are those of you who have never herad him play, then do try to hear him sometimes. He performs regularly throughout the U.K and the reast of the world.

My writing is of course just an oppinion but it is based on 23 years of experience of hearing him play regularly. There are a number of recordings available all of which are quite superb.

Hammerklavier

you should listen to Cziffra's Chopin Etudes...

Schubert and Chopin are my favorites =D

Ehhh I don't like Mozart much. That alberti bass just.. >_<

chopin and rachmaninoff ....fab..

as well as my piano teacher...she is a professional pianist...

QUOTE

Ehhh I don't like Mozart much. That alberti bass just.. >_<

It's not all Alberti bass you know... but yes I really do know what you mean! *slams lid of piano on someone playing a piece like this*
Well yes it can get that bad...

Alfred Brendel, particularly his interpretation of Schubert's Impromptu D899

For living pianists, I'd probably go for Brendel as well for Beethoven, Schubert and Schumman at least), or perhaps Argerich...of all time, probably Richter, Gilels, or Gould (for Bach)

Dave