Monday 19 August 2013

wouldn't wish to change a note

Here is a trio of classical music performances that really capture the different moods of relationships just right. As Moriz Rosenthal said, "it's not servants of art we need, it's masters!" and these are all masterful interpreters.

For Russian singing these days you can't beat Anna Netrebko, in Rachmaninoff she is superb, also in Rimsky Korsakov; if this doesn't remind of your passsionate first love... as Anna de Noailles wrote, music promises more than love...


As for Rachmaninoff's friend Chaliapin, you can't beat this performance of Glinka for conveying the paranoid mood of the song to perfection, this really makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.



But if it's vocal style of piano playing you are looking for, Shura Cherkassky is your man, as in this setting of a Tchaikovsky Lullaby, transcribed by Pabst. When Cherkassky was asked what he had learnt from his legendary teacher Hofmann, he replied: "Pedalling, dynamics, general vibration". Well, his general vibration is sounding pretty darned good!