Richter’s P-F is one of the few times that I think he sounds right in Chopin. Usually Richter sounds too inflexible / stiff for Chopin. Anyway I recall loving Sokolov’s P-F for his huge dynamic range & emphasis on da vertical. Horszowski in parts too.
I completely agree. Yet the SR/Chop combo is often simply too irresistible to pass by, coloured though it may be. I adore his Ballades and Etudes for instance, and think he did really well in the 4th Scherzo and a few of the Nocturnes too.
Aite, da valses verdict cummah:
Gieseking: ok, nothing special, nice pedal. rushing and weird rhythm at times.
Richter: live sounded like sight reading, studio rec sounded much better, intensity, I like.
Perlemuter: lasted 20 secs before I perlemuted it, sounded like a computer, last place.
Fiorentino: quite nice, but a bit sloppy here and there, best so far.
Casadeus: very strict, almost like a march in the first one. Redeemed in the 2nd, m-m-m. Despite its no fuzz, matter-of-factly manner it is a laidback and likeable interp. Da Hog is dethroned.
Laplante: huh, eerliy similar to Vol, fantastic, excellent even! But so similar that it becomes uninteresting as an alternative.
Zimerman, love the yt comment saying this is valses nobles not mazurkas nobles 
There certainly is quirky stuff going on in the rhythm here and there. Quite alright, doesn’t sound as naturally free as laplante, more “mannered” free. Still, definitely interesting, gets better and better.
De larrocha: a bit too sweet and pretty sometimes, lacking intensity sometimes (but not always!), but there is something unique here, a universe that’s only hers and I found myself sucked into it. My favorite pick as a Volternative to da valses, altho Casadeus also made a very good case for himself.
I deffo need to check out more by her… and casadeus, and laplante.
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AdL is my main mofette
She’s good in almost anything, but unbeatable in Spanish rep. If you search the archives I think you’ll find one or two recitals I posted with her last year, including one with the Valses IIRC.
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Richter did a studio rec? I don’t remember that… What are the dates/labels of these recs?
I dunno, it was on spotify, one cover said live and the other did not and the cover looked “studioish”, so I just assumed it was studio. I can check the specifics 2moro. But, now that I think about it I thought I heard a cough in there, so you might be right.
Right, the good version was on an album from 2007, on Disques Dom. The other one was from Sviatoslav Richter 100. Vol. 8 (Live) on Firma Melodiya.
It does sound a bit better today, yesterday I gave up and switched versions after a few bars. Still, I like the Disques Dom better, even if the sound quality is way shittier.
The one on Disques Dom (Archipel Records) is from Moscow 21/04/1954 (Live), previously released on Parnassus Records’ Richter in the 1950s Vol. 3. The Melodiya rec is live from Moscow also, 1964/12/30. I love the 1964 rec, but I also really like the Budapest 1954 rec:
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Schubert Symphony No. 5 - I love that work. Anyone has a favourite perf.?
I really like Mackerras and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment:
Bohm is great. Beecham too.
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Harold en Italie, anyone?
Is there a piano version I don’t know about?
=)
The original Berlioz please.
It’s like I’ve entered that Twlighty thing about that Zone.
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I have a score to this but no recording readily accessible. Pozz one somewhere many computers ago.
There is a Liszt arrangement for viola & piano, no?
Yes, but this is one where not even Liszt could win me over. Believe it or not but I think I’ve only heard the work all the way through once, and it left such an imprint that I’ve had difficulties returning to it since. I’m really hard to please with the soloist in particular since I have a very firm view of how I want it characterized. I can usually tell from just the first phrase whether they’re of the right timbre or not.
I can’t get my head around how HB thought of offering it to Paganini of all people incidentally, who I think did right to refuse it. Urhan however, who eventually premiered it, I think would have been hand in glove.
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It was Erdelyi playing that rec I had. Main point of interest was his completion of the Bartok though so…yeh…pointless post 
Bernstein/NYPO/Sony