Andras Schiff Plays Bach.

Subject: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Stanron
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 05:42 PM

On BBC 4 right now. Andras Schiff Plays Bach. He is performing Book One of Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. It goes on 'til midnight. Amazing! Anyone watching?

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 06:34 PM

I'm going to catch up with that. I have Schiff's recording of the Goldberg Variations, which I treasure. I also treasure his YouTube series in which he analyses Beethoven's piano sonatas.

There was a snippet of Gould' s earlier Goldberg on Radio 3 this morning. I don't know what it is with me and Gould, and I acknowledge how revered he is, but I find his playing to be totally egotistical and self-regarding, completely getting in the way of Bach. Hey, it makes me sound like the equivalent of a climate-change denier, but I can't help it!

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:00 PM

I actually caught the last ten minutes of the recital, but I'll be catching all of it. Schiff is a one-off, politically very savvy, a bit of a leftie and a hater of Liszt. Poor Liszt. I hate his music too, full of ego and sef-regard, and, as Schiiff says, vulgar. But Schiff is a wonderful music maker.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:05 PM

Blimey, I CAN spell Schiff and self! Must wear me reading glasses in future.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Stanron
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:15 PM

Oh Boy. It's over now but what a joy. I particularly liked the fact that there was no applause between the pieces. A superb pianist, the best composer ever and a knowledgeable audience. Thank you BBC.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:19 PM

Worth the licence fee, eh what!

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Stanron
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 07:28 PM

Was that ironic? I pay by direct debit and don't begrudge the cost. I just wish there was more advert free TV.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Sep 17 - 08:51 PM

No irony intended! I'm happy to pay the licence fee even though my transactions with the Beeb are probably more limited than most. Plenty of stuff I wouldnt go near, but then I have Radio 4 and Radio 3 all day.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 03:48 AM

Hit off the last ten minutes or so and enjoyed it immensely.

Regards

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: GUEST,GT
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 05:06 AM

I hadn't known this was on, but just happened on the start of it and once it began,you just couldnt leave before the end,so to speak - riveting. I love Bach but don't know these pieces that well. I suspect you could spend a lifetime listening to them and not exhaust their potential. I loved the whole scenario - elderly man walks on stage and sits in front of the piano in this huge space and simply begins to play this intimate,intricate music,from memory, for two hours with just this beatific smile on his face.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 01:01 PM

Did he play with a finger in one ear?

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 03:06 PM

He plays the piano well but he's not fit to tie Liszt's shoelaces!

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 04:36 PM

I couldn't agree less.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Am currently listening to the Vienna Phil Fascists playing Beethoven's Seventh at the
Proms. The string playing is beautiful. The overall performance has been leaden. I have a feeling that Tilson-Thomas doesn't really get Beethoven. The finale is fast but heavy, the only movement that has risen above the lugubrious. I shan't be parting with my SCO/Mackerras version any time soon.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 04:38 PM

My God, the crowd love it.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 04:47 PM

Fast, yes, but not heavy. I agree that the earlier movements were somewhat pedestrian. But, when you know a piece well it's hard to like an alternative interpretation - whatever the genre.

This Delius seems heavy compared with my ancient 'Ace of Clubs' LP.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 05:08 PM

The Delius was clueless. Interesting comment about cherished versions, Dave, but that ain't me. Used to be, but the more I whack on Radio 3 for hours every day (been doing it for forty years!) the more I know that the received wisdom about best versions is just tosh. It's a long time since I used cherished versions as benchmarks. Therein lies serious sidetracking from what music is all about. I want to hear musicians who are trying hard to do their best and who have much love and enthusiasm for what they are playing. When you live in Cornwall, hundreds of miles from our revered "cultural centres," you get performances that demonstrate all that whilst perhaps lacking that ultimate polish and virtuosity. The Vienna Phil were just "doing it" tonight. I did enjoy the first half a lot, mind.

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 05:37 PM

Sorry, Dave, I realise that you didn't mean "cherished versions!" Been a long day...

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 06:03 PM

Yes, I wasn't thinking about 'cherished' versions so much as just the version you're used to - in my case the first version I owned and got used to. Coincidentally, for Beethoven, that was also the Vienna Phil, conducted by Karl Böhm on a DGG box set of LPs. I don't know it's good or bad but it set the 'standard' against which I still compare what I hear in the radio - tempo, particularly. That's still true despite having since bought it on CD: the Vienna Phil again, with Rattle. For better of worse Karl Böhm's version is burned into my synapses!

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Sep 17 - 07:11 PM

The first time I heard the Seventh was at the RFH in 1977. Riccardo Muti was the conductor (he's no longer the young buck he was then!) The other bits of the concert consisted of Stravinsky's Fairy's Kiss and, I think, Jessye Norman singing Strauss's Four Last Songs. I absolutely didn't get any of that first half, my severe loss! These days, I love Richard Strauss (having done my own denazification on him), and Stravinsky is my favourite twentieth century composer along with Gershwin, Ravel and Bernstein*. The Seventh wasn't a bad performance, but the best of a good number of Sevenths I ever heard was conducted by Bernard Haitink with the LPO a few years later. But I did hear Haitink conduct a horribly anonymous Beethoven Four around the same time, a cautionary tale militating against hero worship!

*Jayz, I dunno, there's Vaughan Williams, Samuel Barber, Butterworth...

I love Carlos Kleiber's Seventh and that was my go-to for years. But the Mackerras one just about pips him. Try it!

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Stanron
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 04:41 PM

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

Last night of the Proms anyone?

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 06:42 PM

The Gershwin and Weill in the second half was wonderful. The rest was the usual formula. I was encouraged by the plethora of EU flags a-fluttering, though it was crystal clear that the Beeb cameramen were under orders to avert their gaze whenever one came into prominent view. We never miss it, and we love Sakari Oramo. Lovely man. Just for once, Danny Boy enjoyed a lovely arrangement, and the Eriskay Love Lilt was sublime. The last twenty minutes of the last night is getting a bit tedious, but what an amazing festival. Go, Beeb!

But isn't Jerusalem a wonderful poem... I don't think most people get the scepticism therein.

I need to catch up with the first half, but, in this wet September, I had to grab the rare chance to cut my grass!

Subject: RE: Andras Schiff Plays Bach.
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Sep 17 - 10:23 AM

Ha, I see they were selling or giving out those flags outside the Albert Hall. Good for them! 😂

I'm sitting in a rare spasm of sunshine in a sheltered spot listening to that Bach on iPlayer. It's completely fabuloso. I'm not going in until it's finished!