Hard to believe it has been 29 years today. One of my favorites from my favorite pianist of all time.

Damon, he was a champion of Chopin's music. Which Chopin performance of his do you like the best?

Call me crazy, but I'm not a fan of his Chopin. Let me think about that for awhile. In the meantime:

Hard to believe indeed.


Damon, you're crazy.

Oh wait a minute, I didn't see that smiley the first time. You want me to discuss recordings of THAT composer. I'll take a short break from my Chopin-free holiday to offer this piece. It has the advantage of being my favorite Chopin piece but I do think it is played wonderfully.

A complete album collection is scheduled to be released January 31st. I'm not positive that it is the same as the prohibitively expensive box set, but if it is, it will be mine. Perhaps Hank Drake will read this as he seems to be expert in things of this sort.

IMO, one of Chopin's greatest works, and played beautifully by Rubinstein.


I don't have a lot of Rubinsten in my library, but I did collect a number of the chamber music volumes in the massive RCA reissue. He was almost nonpareil as a chamber player. His recording of the Dvorak Eb Piano Quartet is particularly wonderful, and the piece itself is a favourite of mine. Offhand, I didn't see it on YT (mostly the A major Quintet), but it is worth searching out.

I never thought of Rubinstein as a champion of Chopin's music, though he's associated with it. Chopin has always been so popular that it never needed an advocate. Make that *most* Chopin, anyway. A significant number of pieces have rarely been recorded by anyone, and I think a real 'champion' would have done so. Rubinstein's on record as identifying his favorite composer as Brahms.

One of my faves too (top 2 or 3 for sure), but I'd have to say it's the worst job Ruby ever did with a Chopin piece.

If I had never heard anyone else play it and didn't have a completely different idea of it, I'd think it was excellent. But having the different kind of idea, I think it's borderline terrible.

P.S. My rating scale for someone like Rubinstein is a tough one. When I say "terrible" I mean it's sort of like an A-.

Because most of his Chopin I'd give A+++.

That is funny. I know your favorite recording of the piece is by that blind guy, which I think is awful, but we both like Horowitz here. Curious.

Indeed. Here is his treatment of a popular piece around here. I think there are a couple takes in the "member recordings" section.

I think this a rather odd performance of this piece. (I've been working forever on this one)

I LOVE Rubinstein's Brahms recordings!! I have some of his Brahms recordings and they are fantastic. I think his Chopin is great, too.

Right, we both like Horowitz on this piece, but you must be thinking of some other member about "that blind guy." I don't even know of any recording of the F# minor Polonaise by a blind guy.

I confess I haven't heard (not that I recall) Rubinstein's Brahms concertos, are they any match for Serkin, Giles or Fleisher? And unlikely Richter in the Bb, nor Andsnes (to bring us up to date) in the D minor...

DIFFERENT!

In a way I like Rubinstein's better. But the main thing IMO is that you can't really much "compare" Rubinstein's to others; it's just different.

+1



+1

No, it was you. Bad joke alert.

You got it.

Yes, his Brahms is great too. In fact, give me anything by him and I'll be happy to listen to it. His playing at 80+ is what really amazes me! Argerich might do it, we'll have to wait and see. Not too many others that can play like that at that age!

For my money, it doesn't get better than this performance of Chopin's Barcarolle. The tone, the touch, the expression... Simply amazing.

Rubinstein - Chopin Barcarolle

I agree with you, Damon. I've always been a devotee of Rubinstein but I did not like his rendition of 119/3. He made it into a romantic piece when I think it should sound more like a scherzo.

Oh OK -- my bad.

(I mean I don't really think so, but what the heck, I'll take the blame.)


P.S. Great memory!!!

Yes! We could quibble about whether it can get better -- I think I'm more partial to Horowitz, but as in that post about the Brahms concerti, it's more like they're just "different" -- but whatever....it's wonderful.

It sounded to me like he couldn't quite decide. Rubinstein usually is much more consistent. I am quite undecided myself about how I want it to sound. At least I can play the notes now.

Rubinstein's D Minor and B flat major are both great, though I still have to take Firkusny, Serkin, and Ogdon (especially Ogdon in the third movement) for the D minor and de Larrocha (even over Richter) in the B flat.

The set has the same contents as the 1999 muy-expensive box, except it does not have the 1964 Moscow recital - which is available elsewhere on both CD and DVD. However, the new set contains three CDs of previously unreleased live performances from Rubinstein's 1961 ten concert marathon at Carnegie Hall. included are four pieces new to Rubinstein's discography: Scriabin's Nocturne for the Left Hand, Debussy's Isle of Joy, Falla's Dance of the Miller's Wife Stravinsky's Three Scenes from Petrouchka. The set is already out at some international sellers.

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The heck with it, I can't get the video to embed. So, here's my old blog post with the video included - some early Rubinstein.

http://hankdrake.blogspot.com/2011/05/rubinstein-revisited.html

Did Rubinstein play Albeniz' Iberia? I thought I heard somewhere that he did... Maybe I'm wrong.

Yes, he played quite a lot of Spanish music including Iberia. His performances in Spain and his interpretation of Spanish music helped his career tremendously. Navarra was one of his signature pieces.