Whose Fantasie…. Richter’s or Yuja’s?
Daily Comfort ZoneFans have uploaded a performance of Schubert’s four-hand Fantasie, played on their recent tour by Yuja Wang and Vikingur Olafsson. There is much to admire in it by way of phrasing and accuracy, but the dynamics are extreme and the expression feels synthetic.
Now listen to the masters at work in the same piece – Sviatoslav Richter and Benjamin Britten:
Spot the difference?
Wang/Olofsson = Exaggerated, stylistically ignorant and borderline disrespectful and grotesque.
Britten/Richter = Stylistically on point and effective.
Generation gap par excellence.
So … obviously only people who are of this site’s taste have the right to interpret anything or behave in any way – and those who are not part of this “select” circle are picked on at every opportunity and even more opportunities.
the richter-britten seems so inevitably right that i don’t need to hear beyond the first minute of the other version.
But my first choice would surely be the Lupu-Perahia version – one of the greatest piano records ever !
Shouldn’t this beautiful piece be played on one piano?
I think Wang and Olafson totally missed what Schubert’s music is all about. It’s not virtuosity but intimacy and emotions. They failed miserably in that way.
Neither of them are known to be Schubert interpreters and it shows why.
What a difference in the performance ofRichter and Britten.
What’s with the two pianos??
I am very happy that I don’t know that much about music. All I do is listen and enjoy. I am very happy that I live in the same time as many of these greats such as Zimerman, Sokolov, and Wang. I don’t have the skill to compare them with others such as Rubinstein, Richter, etc. If I have to think about who is better, I doubt that I would enjoy this as much.
what an odd combination..
Well Wang and Olafsson are clearly not on the same page, nor on the same level. Not sure why they are even playing together, to be honest. Thanks for the Richter/Britten performance.
Though it should be pointed out, that the Richter/Britten recording has a much warmer recorded sound, always a big advantage in recordings of Schubert’s piano music. Berlin Philharmonie/Philharmonic’s tonmeister (who used to work for DG) unfortunately has no idea how to record pianos. (Listen to his disastrous effort with Petrenko/Gerstein’s Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto, for another example.)