even Mustonen?
No, definitely not Mustonen. Finns are different though, their language comes off a different branch than Norwegian/Swedish/Danish and has no relation to them. I think it belongs to the same family as Hungarian for instance.
awww yeah mystery pianists mofos. I love those games. Iām searching for the name of a pianist and just came across your reaction to the mystery Ravel PC I uploaded:
ā10 minutes in, and Iāve pretty much run through the whole spectrum of reactions. This is weird, intriguing, beautiful, chaotic, preposterous and captivating - all at once - but above all itās the first time in ages a performance really captures my attention. There are moments of stunning beauty and originality here - often right next to moments where you wonder what the hell heās doing.ā - my man The X
I uploaded it in full later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG0UlYrJsNg
The search continuesā¦
ATTENTION: the search has ended. The finest most amazing beautiful and just plain awesome Ravel PC Iāve ever heard was by Pierre Sancan. Does anyone have that hard-to-find CD? It was taken down from YT a few years back. I havenāt heard it in years and wonder if my first reaction will still hold up.
Haha, have to revisit this later today
Sancan - I donāt
Listening nowā¦ yep, Iām still me. 
I wouldnāt recommend this to someone whoās new to the work or to someone who has it as his/her favourite PC, but for me whoās grown blind to it this suddenly makes it interesting again. It reminds me a little of Cherkassky.
I still really like it too. Iāve asked YT user On Top ofā¦to re-upload the Sancan (if he still has it). Hopefully someone will find it again, I remember it was quite amazing.
Re: Volodos - Ravel, please someone capture this, the only Vol Ravel Iāve heard is Valses, so this is intriguing to me either way.
Re: Andsnes, donāt worry CJ, I find a lot of Andsnes bland as well.
Both in his music and appearances you get the feeling that everything is too carefully prepared and polished.
There are few surprises with this guy, but I think he did really well with da brotha PCs.
I think Andsnes, particularly live, is great. Personally I like this kind of playing.
Youād know better than I would. This is the first time Iāve ever encountered such an analysis of the Finns. Does the same thing apply to Finnish culture though? If you know of any scholarship on this Iād be fascinated to read it.
Hehe, I think Brew is the linguist among us in that case. But as for culture - my history is probably a bit rusty, but Finland was a part of Sweden for 500 years or something like that and we only lost it to the Russians in 1809 as part of a failed war - not from an independence movement from the finns. It was then part of Russia throughout the 1800s, after which they broke free and became their own nation following the 1917 revolution. This still feels weird to me since Norway feels a lot closer to Sweden than Finland does - culturally, linguistically and certainly geographically - despite that the historical bonds Sweden/Finland are much stronger. But the recent historical bonds are closer Norway/Sweden, and I suppose thatās what matters.
Finlandās not part of Scandinavia, right?
I wouldnāt call myself a linguist since I only speak two well, although I am very interested in languages (mostly European ones).
Btw, I managed to cap the Rana on replay.
It seems pretty good so far. I really like her playing in general.
Sheās also looking pretty juicy in this silver dress, and like many Italian girls she has great hair.
To be honest, based on this performance I would go see her play this piece if she were playing it here instead of the Prokofiev 3rd.
I wonder why she doesnāt, since the rest of the programme is dedicated to Tchaikovsky?
Interesting. I was always taught that Scandinavia included that whole geographic region, including Finland. And I had assumed there was at least some common culture, just like West European would have some similarities in culture. All of which might extend to its musical culture and traditions.
None of this changes the fact that I too find Andsnes boring, and that I find Mustonen (Scandinavian or not) fascinating.
The funny thing is that - so was I. For me the Nordic countries are Norway/Sweden/Denmark while Scandinavia also includes Finland and Iceland, but thatās the opposite definition of what wikipedia says (though there is debate).
Oh well, Mustonen is such an odd pianist that Iām not sure how tied he is to Finnish or Scandinavian culture regardless. I really like him too - half of the time he drives me nuts (last I heard him he karate chopped his way through an entire PC), but no matter how bizarre his playing always stays in your mind for days, weeks or years afterwards. And I think heās done some semi-revelatory things along the way too. But he is best enjoyed in small doses and with a remote with a fast forward button nearby.
Yes I feel that way with Mustonen too. But in some works larger doses work nicely. I took his sets of Bach and Shosty P&Fs and sorted them properly, and they make for great listening as individual cycles.
Have you heard his compositions? If so Iād be interested to hear your take on them in light of what we were discussing about āScandinavianā tradition. He seems interested in weaving in folk-like idioms.
I have recordings of a few of them, but I must admit Iāve never listened. What I can say however is that Iāve always felt the contemporary (original) compositions of PƤr Lund reflect modern Sweden wonderfully, and in particular the essence of Stockholmās southern suburbs where PƤr grew up (though I suppose you have to be from Stockholm to recognise it). Otherwise I guess itās Grieg for Norway, Peterson-Berger or Stenhammar for Sweden (or maybe AlfvĆ©n, but in a clichĆ© kind of way in that case) and Sibelius for Finland.
How about Rautavaara and Lindberg?
Not familiar with them 
I donāt know, Iāve always had a pronounced disinterest for anything Scandinavian in art (except Grieg, who I love). I guess itās more fun to explore ways of thinking or viewing things which are a little further away from you. I love early music for this reason for instance - it takes you to a whole different world, even if the journey is in time then rather than space.
Did anybody catch this?
meloman.ru/concert/lyuka-debarg-2-151008418397/
Apparently it was live streamed, but I was 2 hours late :-/
They might put it up in a couple of days, but they donāt seem to always do it.