oh yeh, 3 then.
Neil, Lancaster and dude in Melbourne who’s name I forget.
Here’s a CD which I’ve posted before but might’ve been missed by some of you:
Edna Stern - Chopin piano works
These were recorded on an 1840s Pleyel. I personally love this disc, it’s Chopin playing after my own heart. It’s curious how some of her interpretative ideas would be repellent to me on a modern grand (for example the furious sections of the Second Ballade) but they work nicely on this period instrument. The highlight for me was the Second Sonata, where the instrument or the interpretation (or both) gave me some new insights into the work, particularly the funeral march where the effect is completely different than on the overpowering bass of a SMD.
Thanks! It’s my backlog again, but I’ll take a look at this in due course.
Yes, I’d prefer this on a modern concert grand as well, and I guess that would go for most of Chopin’s large scale works from around 1835 onwards. OTH see Brew’s impression of Sonata 2, and I thought Ablogin made Ballade 4 work wonderfully on these period instruments too. They were written on them (if maybe not necessarily for them), so you should always be able to find a path through them which feels natural.
Yay! Another session is ongoing now. They’re apparently doing this 24/7. Although it sounds like you can safely skip the bloke playing now.
Also, these instruments do NOT sound like regular fortepianos. I don’t know if it’s the way they’ve been prepared or micked but they sound more like modern pianos than any fortepianos I’ve heard or played. Usually, a fortepiano just struck me a bad piano, with no power, very uneven touch and very different sounding registers.
I know very little about this, but “fortepiano” - for me - is what was used up to mid Beethoven, before he started writing stuff for Das Grosse HAMMERKLAVIER. The Chopin Institute calls them fortepianos on their site though, so I guess there isn’t a sharp line.
For me any piano prior to the cast iron frame is a fortepiano. But I’m not particularly fussed about terminology. I’ve played fortepianos from the Mozart/Beethoven era right up to 1830s and 40s Erards and Pleyels (one allegedly owned by Chopin). They all sounded rubbish to me. Same thing when I heard Melnikov play them recently.
Yes, I think it could be since several of these (all?) are copies rather than original instruments. I don’t know much about this either, but I know Garrick Ohlsson has pressed this point strongly - that if you want to hear what Chopin/Liszt & Co heard you have to build a replica, since a 200 year old instrument will be exactly that, and not what it was when it came out of the factory.
Another one who preludes! Who are these people?? And like Ablogin this is clearly a fortepianist too, although alas a pedestrian one this time.
This is actually by far the worst playing I’ve heard yet from this competition. =) Brownie points for the intro though.
Oh well, good point to break then.
He’s not wrong. It would be interesting to hear a copy played live, to see what it sounds like.
Difficult to judge one on now… I’d hate this if she played on a Stoneweg, but she does play intimately with emphasis on colour and timbre which I rather like. I’m quite enchanted by the mellow, romantic tone of these relics.
She manages to make that piano almost sound like a (nice) harpsichord in the Bach prelude.
Naruhiko Kawaguchi (Japonia/Japan)
Heh, I know this guy. Great Schubert player.
Yeah that sound. They truly open some new avenues of interpretation these instruments.
Or old, I suppose 
The octave etude works really well on these old pianos. The short decay time makes it sound faster than any Steenweg performance could. 
I haven’t been able to watch this much during the day, but I’ll have some time to catch up on replay tonight. Which pianists would you guys recommend I watch?