I uploaded a video of Bashmet playing this
I heard that on the radio a few weeks ago and I was wondering which Mozart symphony it was. Really nice piece though
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Random rezurrection to azk wutz da bez rec ov da ZHOE op1?
Randomly loved diz piece eva zince da 
live @ 
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As much as I hate to admit it that’s a really good recital.
My go-to rec is Richter, London 1963.
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I think my favourite is Haskil. Richter’s super good too.
Kissin from his Carnegie Debut is the one I like the best.
@simonme20 I’ve played that concerto before.
It’s fun (and challenging) to practise it, though yes it’s kind of “bare” - as if Schumann was pressured by a patron to write out a concerto, Schumann said he isn’t comfortable with the form, and the patron insisted it must be written and played within a week - the result? An attempt at a showoff piece that shows little of Schumann’s ingenuity and suggests a pretense of Germanic aggression, to Schumann’s regret!
It was somewhat hard for me to understandhow some people consider it his masterpiece or something. It does not sound as sophisticated as his other monumental works.
However, another part of me will say, ok f*ck that, the concerto is decent, if you didn’t find it appealong at first under your hands you can make it to be so!!!
Respectable speed
How on earth did you find a 2yr+ old post in a dormant thread to reply to 5 minutes after you’ve joined?
I definitely think the concerto is a masterpiece, but I don’t care for it that much myself. I feel about the same with it as with Chopin’s 3rd Ballade - it feels… maybe not trivial, but… lightweight somehow, concerning ordinary matters.
The newest replies are pretty much a few days ago so I saw this thread and checked out its first posts.
I’m really satisfied in the capabilities of this forum apparently. Has the “88st” died already? It seems people there reply really slowly.
Bezt Zhoe Carnage rec?
Zo many to chooze from and lookin fo recommendationz wiz dezcriptionz
Da 
by about 1 million miles
I used to love that work, but today honestly not so much. It’s also hopeless to give recommendations in since AFAIC that “killer rec” is still missing, while there is a large number of diverse and excellent aspirants.
The classic recommendation is what Dr. Trumofo has already given you, and if people will converge on anything in this one it will be on Rach/Victor or ABM/EMI, but bah. I need something different in it. The one I usually turn to today myself is late Cherkassky. Lots of fun and lots of colour - perfect for me who isn’t interested in a serious performance anyway - but be warned that you will be laughing at him as often as with him. For more proper attempts, beyond Rachmaninoff and Michelangeli, Gilels is a rock solid choice. Chris will be more up to date on his various recordings, but the one I used to listen to was UCLA 1979. Francois and Solomon have recs which are highly praised in some quarters too. I don’t remember Solomon, but Francois’ is an excellent, bright and high spirited recording. Two others which are rarely mentioned but which I think are really good are Cziffra and Moiseiwitsch. The latter’s entirely unpopular Deccas are really like with present day Avdeeva - exciting and interesting might not be adjectives which belong next to them, but his musicianship is altogether thorough and sound and the piano playing is exemplary.
A lesser performance than these admittedly, but one I like which I’m almost sure you would as well is Hough’s visit to it around the turn of the century (I know he made a studio recording a few years ago, which I’m not familiar with). It’s in the Rach/Mich vein of playing, and as so often is the case with Hough his intelligence and eloquence at the piano makes it both an entertaining and enlightening listen. That is certainly true for Pletnev’s remarkable performances as well, but they are something of a lost opportunity. He never recorded the work commercially, and to the best of my knowledge no broadcasts exist either, so what we’re stuck with is a set of audience tapes from a previous millennium - in various degrees of shoddiness. The situation is even worse with Berezovsky who played it brilliantly early in his career, but where the only rec known to me is a near unlistenable audience tape. Finally (for this post!) Sofronitsky, Rubinstein and Gieseking have all left good and entertaining performances, and two I don’t remember but which I can imagine are worth looking in to as well are the early studio recordings by Cortot and Kissin.
I’m sure more names will appear below since there is no shortage of quality recordings of it. If you’d like to take a look at any of the above and it proves difficult to find I’d be happy to help, but no sooner than two weeks from now.
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Yes, I think that recently reissued studio carnaval from c 1961 is fun to hear once
I would LOVE to hear the Friedman piano roll
Another very nice Carnaval is Szreter!
Barere live in Carnegie is ballsy but really raw and spontaneous
The 1923 and 1928 Cortot recs are really interesting to hear too
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1947 Softporno
Btw I don’t worship Sofronitsky by any means and far prefer Feinberg in Scriabin.
I really love some of Sofro’s early recs. He’s a hit or miss, and many recs are a miss IMHO. Undoubtedly a GENSUI mofo but… more CULT den anything else
@vladspeedster don’t kill me
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Thinking about this the inevitable conclusion is really that it’s an “easy” work to interpret. The formula for finding something good in it really isn’t any more difficult than 1) Think of some pianists you like 2) Check who played the Carnaval --> and there’s your rec. I’m sure there are others but the only GPs I can think of who’ve messed it up are Serkin and Sokolov. Serkin is too stiff, and Sokolov just feels misplaced.
I think Szreter’s rec is a bit sloppy and slapdash, which costs him when there is such fine and extensive competition, but true I love that guy and so naturally this as well.
I just think he’s ¯_(ツ)_/¯
There are some notable exceptions, his Scrib 59 recital in particular, but more often than not I just fail to see how you can go bananas over him.
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I admire some of his recs but for the most part, he strikes me as extremely spontaneous and his unplanned and erratic interpretations are often a miss for me.
I’m also not a fan of his exceedingly hard tone on many recordings (made worse by the condition of Soviet pianos and recording techniques).
Certain early recordings 1937-1945 are outstanding.
His op 111 interns and the Liszt Sonata (1948 and 1960) in particular - were not to my taste whatsoever.
His heavy-handed approach is not the best exponent for rep like the 4th and 5th Scriabin Sonatas IMHO.
Ok, go ahead, rape me for voicing my opinion.
CJ pretty much covered it . I would also add the junkie Horowitz performances from 1983. He was a mess, perhaps lucid for about 60% of the piece, but he says more in those portions than most others combined. It is probably closest to my ideal conception of the piece. I wish Sony would have provided an edited version of all the existing stereo tapes that they have (including Japan), rather than just the two raw performances (one of which is missing half the mastertape and contains instead an audience recording of the missing part).
Another I’d add is the late Cortot rec. I know this goes against the grain, but I really like late Cortot, despite his eroded technique. There is an exceptional amount of imagination and abandon in those performances. The erroneous GPOC Schumann disc that mistakenly contained the later performances rather than the well known early ones was a revelation to me.
Among the more recent pianists out there, I’ll put in word for Freddy Kempf’s version. Very fresh sounding, though he doesn’t do anything particularly odd with it. Freddy doesn’t get talked about much anymore after all the post-competition hype, but he is an exceptional musician, and to his credit has done more chamber music than most of his peers.
That’s what comes to mind at the moment.
I’ve probably listened to most of the mainstream Sofronitsky recordings at one point or another. But never did a comprehensive survey. I wish there were a proper box set. He is hit or miss, but the hits are exalted. His studio Barcarolle might be one of the greatest Chopin recordings ever.