After Edwin Fischer, why does anyone else even bother

Because Edwin who.

stfu about fking avatars already.

I can't tell if the point of this - besides hitting on me - is to diss Fischer or to imply he's obscure, but if the latter, he's not. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22edwin+fischer%22+music&client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=1024&bih=649&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiZtcv8x-fQAhUH2mMKHdLpDk0Q_AUICCgA&dpr=2 Maybe you're just a hick.


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I guess because no performance is as good as the piece itself. I bet MOzart himself played them pretty well, but alas no-one was around to record them.

What's wrong with Uchida or Brendel...or Perahia?

What's wrong with Uchida or Brendel...or Perahia?
In my opinion, they're too dreamy in the opening movements. Mozart's opening movements are where he showed off what he could do as a keyboard player. (Typically, openings in the time of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were played faster than finales - the idea of a finale seems to have been, if I may add my own interpretation, was less like a spectacular finish and like more dessert after the meal.) But basically everybody since the time of Fischer and Schnabel plays Mozart's opening movements not as bracing showpieces, but more like wistful reflections. (Charles Rosen is an honorable exception in his recording of the B flat major sonata, K. 333, on the stunningly beautiful Siena fortepiano, but as far as I know he never recorded any of the concertos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8CwcGwnxEk) I understand that part of the reason for this is probably the nature of the modern piano, so different from the light action fortepiano that Mozart himself played (though the wistful style of performance has become such a convention that all the recordings I've heard of the concertos on fortepiano are like that too - Bilson, Levin, etc.)

To be clear, this isn't simply a matter of speed. e.g. Schnabel's recording of the 19th concerto with Malcolm Sargent is quite slow in the opening movement, but thrilling in a way that I've never heard in later recordings of the concertos or any live performance that I've had the privilege of attending, because instead of slowing down all over the place to be Expressive or whatever (or maybe when pianists slow down in certain passages of Mozart's openings, it's like what Rachmaninov said about Cortot's Chopin etudes: whenever it gets hard, he adds expression), he keeps a steady pace (not rigid, of course), so for example toward the end of the exposition he's built up an amazing cumulative tension. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJzLHaE71u4) But then Schnabel probably can't exactly be considered idiomatic Mozart - such a big sound; such an unpretty sound; not that I want to give support to the never-quite-dead myth that Mozart is merely pretty, but prettiness is an aspect of his art (or maybe I should say "charm," or what Mozart criticized another composer's music for lacking, "Hexerei," that is literally, "witchery"). But that's where Fischer comes in, who is both exciting and pretty.


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Addendum: When I got the Charles Rosen link off YouTube, Solomon's recording of the same sonata showed up in the sidebar, and it occurred to me I'd never listened to his recordings of the Mozart concertos. (I'm already eternally grateful to him for being one of the few pianists who've recorded the opening of the Hammerklavier at something close to Beethoven's prescribed beats-per-minute - which, surprise!, makes the movement much less borderline-boring than when it's played slower!) I've now listened to Solomon's recordings of the openings of the 15th and 23rd concertos, both on YouTube, and at first pass they sound pretty good. Though again, like Schnabel, rather short on prettiness.


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Thanks for the link - I listened to most of it. Hmm, it reminded me of how Schiff plays Bach, ie almost as if it's Schubert - quite willowy. Aside from the unwelcome portamentos in the violins at the opening I found the ensemble a little messy, with occasional changes of tempo as you mentioned, but Schnabel's playing has undoubted quality...you can feel the poetry in his fingers...I didn't find it unpretty (or indeed that slow) at all!, a little like Kempff even, though louder. It's not a concerto I know backwards however.

I'm never quite sure where I stand with Mozart's music. Its perfection can almost seem annoying at times, like exquisite fine bone china that's almost too pretty to have any real character. Perhaps I should add too that Mozart piano concertos are only occasionally my bag. I love 23, & really like 20 & 21, but I could quite happily not listen to many of them again.

Incidentally, have you read Rosen's book, Piano Notes? I didn't like it nor him - it was rather cold & preachy I thought, though perhaps he should be judged more on his playing.

I like that Rach / Cortot quote, though it reminded me of how irritating it is that he's most famous for Chopin. I can hear his excellence, it's just a shame I have so little time for Chopin.

After all that, I'm interested n trying Fischer. Alas the link you posted is a no-no in the UK...

Here's an attack you might enjoy: http://www.kylegann.com/PC031021-Rosen-Sins.html

I guess I liked Piano Notes okay. Definitely not his best book. That's probably The Classical Style, though having absorbed that, these days I'm more likely to dip into The Romantic Generation; Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen; and Romanticism and Realism (cowritten with Henri Zerner). Oh, and his Schoenberg monograph is a jewel.

Alas the link you posted is a no-no in the UK...
Oops. Does either of these work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkUTuXcLEPc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dJIobxtztw


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Maybe you're just a dick.
Of course he's obscure.

stfu about fking avatars already.