good pianists

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by kid cue

i don't think of Bach as obvious, other than being obviously baroque. Chopin i liked earlier (and i always thought he was quite popular, much more than Liszt), but his compositions always seemed to have this linear or even 'narrative' quality that made it difficult for me to listen to him repeatedly. i felt like once i got the story there was nothing else to be gotten. i'll dig out my recording of the ballades & scherzos today though.

Gould didn't like him either....

I really don't find him popular at all with people who listen or play classical music. Gould's response is pretty much in the same vein as anyone else I talk to and I find it based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the music. Chopin was never meant to be played in the miniaturist,precious, pretty way he's usually interpreted. Which explains why gould would call him a failure in all of the big roles music fills. The rain drop prelude is a prime example. Chopin detested it being associated with "rain drops" and thought the idea someone would write a song about "rain drops" the way saint seans was writing songs about swans and liszt was writing songs about love dreams was preposterous. The only narrative chopin ever admitted to was polish history, not unlike beethoven's use of narrative.

My suggestion is to play it without the prettiness. Wrest it away from ballet pas de deuxs and parlour room aesthetics and emphasize its intellectual homage to bach (chopin was trying to emulate bach more than anyone else). In this way I find him the most challenging and rewarding to play.

[Strangelet]

i think the readership of this thread has plummeted now that you and I are nerding out on this shit so I'll just end by this quote

Chopin's reverence for the compositions of Bach and Mozart, in preference to the overtly 'virtuosic' and Romantic music written by his contemporaries, cannot be overstated. His art was essentially remote from the Romantic movement. ".. deaf to the contemporary world, the Chopin of the Preludes anchored himself in Bach so as to see himself more clearly - and, despite himself, into the future." (J.-J.Eigeldinger:Chopin Studies). Chopin had a life-long devotion to the music of Bach, which had a powerful influence on him. This fact is particularly of relevance in discussing Chopin's Preludes as there are affinities beyond the connection of tonal design of Bach's celebrated '48', The Well-Tempered Klavier. Bach's scores of the '48', comprising of Preludes and Fugues (*two of each in all of the major and minor tonalities), accompanied Chopin to Majorca, where he completed work on his Op.28 for publication in January 1839. Chopin had also, with all modesty, undertaken the task of correcting Bach's scores in the Parisian edition 'not only the mistakes made by the engraver, but those which are backed by the authority of people who are supposed to understand Bach'.

[chino]

Originally Posted by Strangelet

no way. he's great. if we're getting into this scene let me add michael nyman for his composition work.

bb mentioned tom waits. "The piano has been drinking" is brilliant in its own tom waits way.

And what about Brad Mehldau?

[kid cue]

okay, i was a total idiot for dissing Chopin. he is awesome. i absolutely hear you on the "un-romanticism" of his music too.

Strangelet can you recommend some Chopin recordings? the only one i have is Philippe Entremont playing the Scherzos, Ballades, and Waltzes, which seems pretty good, if not very often cited.