The early recording of Lili Kraus - it’s the most satisfying I ever heard. Kraus before WWII was truly magnificent.
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Great recommendations thanks, I’ll explore these.
A work I love that seems to be rather neglected is Brahms’ Op4.
I’ve loved the Katchen rec ever since I bought his Decca set, but I’ve not explored many other recs.
Recommendations?
Zimerman!
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Agree with xsdc, Zimerman is the best for Brahms op. 4. Giltburg told me few years ago that he will play it in the future (as well as Brahms sonatas) but we have to wait for it… That could be good as well.
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I don’t love the Zimerman rec. I prefer Backhaus.
Kovacevich’s rec is also great.
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Arrau
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Rezpec, I’ll check them out if I can find them.
For a while I never liked Chopin’s op46 but after persisting with it, I’ve come to really enjoy it.
Very interesting info about it here, especially that Chopin himself was proud of the work - which is what convinced me to persevere with it despite not initially liking it much and understanding it’s neglect.
Do you guys have favourite recordings of it?
Arrau is the best I’ve heard so far, Mei-Ting Sun is good actually.
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Cool, I don’t really know the piece to be quite honest. I will listen to the Arrau recording to night when I get home from work
It’s such an odd piece… I don’t know it either, but I don’t have good memories of it, which is just about unique with Chopin’s works with an opus number higher than 5. I remember Neuhaus of all people used to play it.
Gosh! I really need to finish Walker’s Chopin bio. I had no clue this was (more than likely) the first movement of his 3rd PC.
Listening to Garrick Ohlsson now, who pounds the piano to splinters with it.
Playing this with such conviction in the Chopcomp really impressed me. Also how refreshing for the jury to hear something like this!
Can someone recommend me a few top performances of Liszt’s Don Juan and Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude? Thanks!
For me in the DJ, it’s Barere, Hamelin and Ginzburg. The bénédiction maybe Arrau. Hamelin does it fine too. I used to like Ernst Levy like 10+ years ago but I reckon I probably wouldn’t like it anymore.
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Thanks! Yes, Ginzburg’s DJ is really impressive. I have not listened to Barere for a while and I shall revisited his Liszt. Cannot remember Levy’s Liszt. Has his benediction been issued on CD?
For the Benediction my favourite is… Bolet! I sampled every recording I could get my hands of with him in the piece ten years ago or so, but in the end I actually liked his studio recording best.
Aside from that I’m also very fond of Arrau, and I also remember a performance a friend recorded with Garrick Ohlsson a few years ago I found impressive (though I’m not normally a fan of him).
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Bolet is a good choice in the DJ as well incidentally. There’s an awesome tape of him in it from Avery Fisher 1975.
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I like Barere’s Don Juan best as well as Earl Wild. I also like Friedman’s piano roll. For Benediction, I really like Kentner, Villa, and Bolet.
And Tru, the live Bolet DJ is very good.
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Is that the one in Marston’s set? 9 November 1975 is the date
Thumbs up! That’s a favourite here as well (his early Columbia).