The Slipped Disc daily comfort zone (236): The best and the brightest

The Slipped Disc daily comfort zone (236): The best and the brightest

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norman lebrecht

November 17, 2020

Sviatoslav Richter and Benjamin Britten, a transcendental communication.

 


You must hear this one, too.

Comments

  • Shalom Rackovsky says:

    Richter and Britten recorded a number of 2-piano and 4-hand performances, all of which are truly wonderful. Richter recorded some other 2-piano masterpieces. There is a performance of the Bartok Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion, with Lobanov, which has to be heard to be believed…..

    • Greg Bottini says:

      Re: the Bartok – you are so right, Mr. Rackovsky! Thanks for mentioning it.
      That Bartok performance with Lobanov is one of the greatest ever. And the recorded sound and balance is excellent.
      Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Bartok performed it in New York in 1940 for a CBS radio broadcast (which was later a famous release on the VOX/Turnabout label), but the two percussionists employed were so inept and clueless as to almost be considered saboteurs. A real tragedy.

  • Guy says:

    Yes, this is a nice historical document – but seriously – you need to move on – nostalgic as you are.

    #deadwhitemen

  • Nijinsky says:

    Listening to the first movement, and how the music takes a turn so that in the “recapitulation” it has form, however “THAT” requirement (the recap) is fulfilled, but I had to go change something I was thinking about in a cadenza, after that movt. because of the reminder of how music takes form. Now the other movements.

  • Pianofortissimo says:

    Perhaps more than pure musical interplay?

    • Hilary says:

      Both were indeed Gay but that need not open speculation about anything else.

    • Paul Brownsey says:

      Do you make the same sort of remark when, say, a straight man is Cavaradossi and a straight woman Tosca? Or do you only imagine sex when two performers are of the same sex and gay?

  • Nijinsky says:

    There’s also Martha Argerich and Barenboim playing this, and Martha looks like he’s having fun, which is good to see.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iePyP2HOr8&pbjreload=101&fmt=22

    I really don’t understand why people think that one has to suffering to attain whatever, and it’s majorly disruptive, such thoughts….

    And it doesn’t work, which is what it teaches in the end, and why it would seem real at all without being so…

    • Paul Brownsey says:

      Stand by for Pianofortissimo (see above) to remark that Martha and Daniel are having it away. I mean, enjoying music together can’t be anything else but foreplay, can it?

  • Nick says:

    Amazing!

  • GD says:

    I wish there was film of this.

  • Jo Hammond says:

    I’m amazed at this. It’s gripping. Fascinating. Never thought it possible.

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