Ida Haendel as we knew her
Daily Comfort ZoneSpend half an hour in her company.
The wonder why there are none like her today.
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Such a fabulous and amazing lady and such a musician, and the first violinist I heard live as a boy!
Because each one is different….And unique.That´s why dwelling on the past is useless,and worthless….Even she herself would be different today. The worst artistic result is copying her….She was great,yes.But stylistically we have moved on…..Life and music move on.And we learn,or at least should strive to learn something new each day.
Вместе, идём – Together, let’s go, she says in russian as they walk together on stage to accept the applause. These two words could represent the dynamic, collaborative effort in music making between two extraordinary musicians with different temperaments and personalities attempting to merge to create an artistic whole. The video clip is an interesting behind the scenes peak into the sausage making aspect of the process of making music. Dwelling on the past is useless, but remembering the past is essential and discovering the past opens a new world. What treasures to be discovered, enjoyed or remembered from the music archives!
Stylistically we have NOT move on, unfortunately we did not gain anything additionally today. Without the need of copying anybody from the former great period of interpretes, unfortunately the inner need for more personal interpretations of the same pieces played as before is just not there.
Nonsense.50 years ago we played Bach like Brahms and conducted Mozart like Bruckner. Thanks God we HAVE moved on.
Are you that sure we play today Bach like Bach would have liked it? I asked Gustav Leonhardt, the great harpsichord player, about what was “authenticity” in Bach for him; his answer was everything what is musically convincingly presented becomes authentic for him, also to be found in the 50-years-ago-period you seems to dislike Bach interpretations. Hope it can make you think a bit how one of the greatest historically informed playing pioneers can has this opinion before calling out “nonsense.” (by the way, Anner Bylsma and Frans Brüggen were at the same table and both nodded in full agreement)
Yeah,of course, that´s why Anner Bylsma played Bach and Haydn with such heavy Shafran like vibrato and Brüggen conducted Beethoven in dirge like tempos, LOL!!!!!!…..
Listen to their recordings, and you know what they thought!…..I don´t care if HIP performances would please Bach or Beethoven…They just so much more logical,thrilling,dancing,vital and colorful.. i can only laugh at the disregard of many performers to the dance metrums in Baroque music before Harnoncourt,Leonhard et al….It sounds utterly senseless,dull and without any rhythmic definition….Same as 2nd mvt of Mozart No.40 in 6 in a bar or Beethoven Eroica 1st mvt in three…
Don´t get the reason for your “LOL” exclamation! Very funny that you quote two of my favorite cellists (giggling!)
Bylsma appreciated also the Mengelberg Mattheus Passion with the Concertgebouw, in my opinion quite far from what Brüggen, Leonhard and Harnoncourt would have liked. Without having to change his vibrato…
As Shafran loved the playing of Bylsma and respected him so much he invited him for the Tschaikowsky Competition…without having the urge to change his own vibrato into a lighter one! I listen (still) to records of them both , and appreciate their interpretations today more than from anybody of today…
But if Bach or Beethoven would like an HIP or even not HIP interpretation of their work, I am shure the player would care more their positive reception than if you like it, as you obviously don´t care as stated…
But still we play Mozart and Haydn on Steinways
Why not? And we still play Bach on Steinways and Faziolis too. When it is played sinderely and convincing, today or 50 years ago, I think it is worth listening to. Prefer it to unsuccessful trying to play on a Strad and early Tourte bow the Mendelsohn violin concerto with an anämic sound thinking Mendelsohn might have meant or like his composition to be played like that.
Well,this depends very much on the player.
Exactly! Bravo!
That’s so good you will soon be part of the past and made superfluous.I can’t wait we move on…. very suspect likes on your posts ….
Playing convincingly will hopefully never be superfluous, not always bad wat we heard in the past… But always worth to encounter sincere interpretations with contemporary passion and understanding today and in near future. whos suspect likes you mean by the way?
I had the joy of being on tour when she was a soloist in a magnificent Brahms Concerto. She told me about her 1970 autobiography ‘Woman with Violin’ and how her publisher had been suggesting a follow up. She said she had thought about it but the publisher would not accept the title she wanted – ‘One Night Stands’! One of the greatest violinists of the century in my view.
From many accounts, Ida Haendel was an extraordinary artist on stage, especially with the Sibelius Violin Concerto. I regret never having had the opportunity to hear her perform in person. Those seeking an explanation of Haendel’s unique position among Violinists of the 20th Century need look no further than her recording of Allan Pettersson’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Herbert Blomstedt – my submission for the most intense, emotionally involving, record of Violin playing, ever.
Amen to that!
A wonderful film, thank you N.L. for posting the link, and how fitting that the first piece performed on it is her great teacher Carl Flesch’s transcription of Handel — perhaps the most famous Flesch transcription but even that is not all that famous: too many of his transcriptions have been allowed to go out of print.
You need to phrase to the long line to do this piece justice. There are other videos of her performing the piece , videos variously titled Gebet or Prayer or “Vouchsafe O Lord” from the Dettingen Te Deum. and it is evident it had special meaning for her. Her young pianist comments on what a nice piece it is so it would seem even he was not previously familiar with it.
It is telling that even at her age in this film she still dares to play important notes with the fourth finger, since many violinists as they age find they want to re-finger some of their repertoire because the fourth finger is not always to be trusted. No wobble to the bowing or the vibrato. The only concession to age perhaps is the second tuner for the A string on the tailpiece of her violin. My teacher insisted that only the E string should have such a tuner but as he aged and found it harder to reach around the scroll to tune his A string I suspect he would have eventually seen the wisdom in her decision.
Between recordings and YouTubes and other such sources a nice variety of Haendel’s art is available to us. But even so it is regretted that a period of time went by when she made few if any recordings and we could easily have found ourselves much the poorer. She played so well and continued to do so so long that it is as if there was a rediscovery, at least by record companies. Fortunately her complete unaccompanied Bach, which to be sure is highly individual and thus is resisted by some, was recorded and preserved.
Did she have a regular contact with record company? I think she didn’t, that’s why her discography is scattered , she was too independent probably but she could have been more known and popular, as her talent deserved it. Not in her playing, but as a free personality, she reminds me of Ivry Gitlis…
they knew each other from their studies with Flesh in Berlin.
Miss Haendel’s masterclasses are irreplaceable documents of style and intuition.
There is one of her working on Tzigane with a very gifted student. But the session contains insight which is of use to pianists, singers, flautists, conductors…across the boards.
I recommend it to every singer/pianist duo preparing Die Drei Zigeuner of Liszt.
Remarkable. There is no-one alive playing at her level in this film when she was, shall we say, rather mature. What. A. Woman.
Ashkenazi behaves like a petulant child, btw. Really unappealing behavior.
Ida was truly one of the greats, an absolutely original and authentic voice both violinistically and musically. Playing was like breathing for her and you can see the joy in her music making. Not many artists are so relaxed in the moments before walking on the concert platform and so genuinly happy, it was her life blood.
What a shame that Ashkenazi behaved very badly throughtout, discouteous and boardering on rude.
Right.His conducting is,and always has been.amateurish….Played twice under him,the recording sessions in Berlin were legendary.We had to play thousands of takes because he just couldn´t do it.
I’d imagine the Stravinsky Concerto disc was quite challenging . ‘Movements’ for piano and orchestra in particular
Ashkenazy is very tense. It’s a recipe for trouble. I hope these bits get extracted from the whole film and turned into a clip on YouTube as there are some valuable lessons here for conductors.