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Dr. Kallberg: I am interested in knowing if you've ever heard any of Vladimir de Pachmann's recordings. And if so, what did you think of his playing? I just finished reading several pages of a new book about him called Chopin's Prophet by Edward Blickstein and Gregor Benko. (I download a sample of it on my Kindle Fire). From just what I read, it appears he was a master at playing Chopin's music and vastly underrated because of his personality and lifestyle. How I would love to download the whole book, but at over $60.00, it's just a little too pricey for me at this time.
Thank you, Kathleen
Chopin’s music is all I need to look into my soul.
I've tried to listen to some of Vladimir de Pachmann's recordings but found the few I have so unrestored and deteriorated as to be unlistenable and was so distracted by the "static" that I couldn't tell much about the music itself. I also would like to here what Dr Jeff has to say of his playing.
Dr. Kallberg: I am interested in knowing if you've ever heard any of Vladimir de Pachmann's recordings. And if so, what did you think of his playing? I just finished reading several pages of a new book about him called Chopin's Prophet by Edward Blickstein and Gregor Benko. (I download a sample of it on my Kindle Fire). From just what I read, it appears he was a master at playing Chopin's music and vastly underrated because of his personality and lifestyle. How I would love to download the whole book, but at over $60.00, it's just a little too pricey for me at this time.
Thank you, Kathleen
Dear Kathleen,
Just a brief reply for now: I find much of de Pachmann's playing to be really interesting, especially from the standpoints of rubato and "improvised" ornamentation. This serves him especially well in the nocturnes and mazurkas.
I picked up an excellent CD compilation of his a few years back - when I'm home I'll check on the details. As with all early recordings, though, you simply have to "listen through" the surface noise. Strangely, perhaps, I've come to enjoy the crackle, and don't much like those remastered recordings that remove the noise.
Home finally: what I was recalling is a 2-cd set of de Pachmann on the Arbiter label - mostly Chopin recordings, and with lots of material not easily available elsewhere. Well worth a listen.
I'll look forward to checking out the videos of de Pachmann. I guess I believed the sources that referred to him as kind of a loon, and looked no further.
I don't really understand why there's a question about m. 91 of 17/4. You just roll the chord. No big deal. Might take some practice but there are no problematic technical issues with it.
For 63/3, the performance commentary to the National Edition has a reworked version of the sticky section in mm. 65-71 that is extremely helpful. The notes are divided between the hands a little differently, in such a way that the voice leading is preserved but playing it becomes far more reasonable. I wish they had written that above the other notes in the piece in the main book instead of in teensy notes in the commentary. If I had scanning capability right now I'd show it to you, but sadly, I don't. Anyway, there is no problem whatsoever with redistributing notes between the hands (despite what some say around here) to make a passage playable, assuming that you still are playing the notes, rhythms, and phrases the composer wrote.
I'll look forward to checking out the videos of de Pachmann. I guess I believed the sources that referred to him as kind of a loon, and looked no further.
I don't really understand why there's a question about m. 91 of 17/4. You just roll the chord. No big deal. Might take some practice but there are no problematic technical issues with it.
For 63/3, the performance commentary to the National Edition has a reworked version of the sticky section in mm. 65-71 that is extremely helpful. The notes are divided between the hands a little differently, in such a way that the voice leading is preserved but playing it becomes far more reasonable. I wish they had written that above the other notes in the piece in the main book instead of in teensy notes in the commentary. If I had scanning capability right now I'd show it to you, but sadly, I don't. Anyway, there is no problem whatsoever with redistributing notes between the hands (despite what some say around here) to make a passage playable, assuming that you still are playing the notes, rhythms, and phrases the composer wrote.
....I find much of de Pachmann's playing to be really interesting, especially from the standpoints of rubato and "improvised" ornamentation. This serves him especially well in the nocturnes and mazurkas.
+++!!!
By the way, I imagine the reason you said "much of" isn't so much because some of the pieces aren't that great but more because some aspects of his playing of anything are a bit much. Or actually, I should say, both 'a bit much' and 'not enough.' Some of his things are just too eccentric or ridiculous, and some of what he does is lacking in pianism (at least in his recordings, which admittedly all come from his later years).
But despite all that, I've had the impression that from any recordings that exist by anybody, his playing is the closest to how Chopin himself played. Yes, probably a caricatured version and not nearly as skillful -- kind of like, I dunno, like an Eddie Murphy impression of Stevie Wonder ....but still the closest thing we have.
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....As with all early recordings, though, you simply have to "listen through" the surface noise. Strangely, perhaps, I've come to enjoy the crackle, and don't much like those remastered recordings that remove the noise.
Me2, absolutely!
People often/usually/almost always complain about it. To me, it's special, which I'm sure is because I've come to associate it with great long-ago ways of playing that we can only dream of having experienced.
I'm not sure I'm remembering this right, but....I think one time on Saturday Night Live, Stevie Wonder was the musical guest and they did this thing of Eddie Murphy auditioning people trying to do Stevie Wonder impressions. Stevie Wonder was one of the auditionees, and Murphy starts telling him how he wasn't doing a very good job -- "When you do Stevie Wonder, you have to go 'like this,' and 'like this'...."
I had a lot of trouble with the Presser website; probably better to call them. Expensive books but the last word in accuracy and scholarship.
(As with the Stevie Wonder story, I heard an anecdote that was supposed to be true about some famous person entering a lookalike contest that was about him, and losing.)
To introduce a new topic, has anyone ever noticed how many instances there are of marked similarities between the music of Chopin and that of Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart? The theme of Chopin's Opus 28/24 and Beethoven's Opus 57, to name just one.
Hello all! Sorry I seemed to have run away. If I could be honest, I get a little nervous when I post stuff on the internet, it's kind of my first time doing this kind of thing. II'm a little shy so you don't know how many times I've gone over my post to make sure their perfect...me and my paranoid self...
Elene: "And please, I beg you-- don't write a story about Chopin's life till you really feel you understand something about him. So much crap has been written about him already, and he doesn't deserve that."
I agree, I hope if I ever did I'd want do him justice. But I'm still in very young and I have a lot to learn about writing in general. And in regard to the researching (the most important aspect of writing) I'd say I have barely scratched the surface. The story I did for senior project didn't turn out so well. I'm notorious for not finishing stories, my biggest enemy. It was a real struggle to finish. I can't say I'm glad at the finished product, I had to cut it short for time, there was so many things I wanted to add to it, but it probably would have been unnecessary, too complicated. For the time being I plan to keep it in a cabinet somewhere and pull it out later when I'm a more experienced writer and have more research under my belt. Well...there I go rambling again.*rolls eyes*
I've been skimming this thread and came across some discussion of Sand but have not yet found yours I'll go back and find it. I can't wait until the index is up and running, though I done with the story, its just fun reading about this interesting person whose music I've grown to love.
Thank you for taking the time to respond, like I've said before I'm a little nervous posting things on the internet, which I guess is the major reason why I seemed to run off. I remember reading somewhere that Chopin didn't teach beginners, I can only imagine why, being a beginner myself... The reason why I asked about his love of children though is I've dreamed up his personified works running around his house doing God knows what, I'm such a terrible person for putting him through all that chaos!
I was surfing the net the other day and came across and instance where Chopin was being a little funny! I can't find the article in a series of Chopin episodes I've read through (http://www.radiochopin.org/welcome), but the story goes that he fished a wedding ring out of powder as a game, anyone else heard this strange tale before
Chopin stated that he didn't teach children or beginners (I don't remember where, would have to find that)-- but he did teach Solange Sand when she was young. He mainly taught quite advanced students. Some were teens, but not really children. The fact that he advocated starting on a scale with black keys in the middle, as I think he wrote about in his sketch for a method book, does not mean that he was working students who had no playing experience whatsoever. Often one has to do quite a lot of rehabilitation with advanced students. Many of us here have probably been through that either as students or as teachers, or perhaps both.
I've heard the ring story. It's hard to imagine someone managing it, even with a nose like Chopin's! Chopin was known as a wit, though, and for him to be funny was not at all unusual. WesCraven, you may know about his Victor Borge-like comedy act at the piano.
It's worth it to keep trying to write even if one is not necessarily satisfied with the finished product. After all, many if not most artists are dissatisfied with their work on a regular basis. Certainly Chopin often had trouble feeling positive about his works– which he did occasionally speak of as his children. One has to keep at it anyway in order to have any hope of improvement.
I play a half-dozen of Chopin's simpler pieces/etudes/preludes...
He's a sadist.
Every piece looks so simple on the eyes. I look at his simple and intermediate stuff with delight. I hear it and it is incredibly expressive and beautiful. Then I put my hands down and play them.
Usually the first so-many bars lure you in with seductive simplicity. Then he throws in a few zingers--bars which are beasts to play--and you wonder what that cock was doing that for! Next, I realize that no matter how many times I play, those difficult bars aren't going much easier. After playing the pieces a few hundred times, I've tackled the difficult bars... only to find that I can't get my mind around memorizing his stuff!
He created piano to torture others. I've never seen another composer like him in that regard.
Currently working on/memorizing... "It's You" from Robotech "He's A Pirate" "Crazy Bone Rag" "What The World Needs Now"
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....but still the closest thing we have.
