Juz… tru. 'Nuff said.
I come back to every one of his fantastic recordings and enjoy the sheer tonal variety, imaginative voicings.
He is brash one second, silky smooth the next.
Damn, currently my favorite pianist.
I think, probably the hugest variety of rhythmic inflection, tone color of all tym tru.
I wonder what his Brahms sounded like.
Dayum.
Randomly, he made a huge number of lost radio recordings. Even some things like a 1931 Berlin broadcast.
Take a look at the discography, a fucking huge amount of studio session time starting from 1923, but bizarrely, recording Grieg concerto twice (first attempt lost) and Brotha Emperor. Like, wtf. He never programmed those concerto at the time, although he constantly played the Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Pimp n Brahms d minor.
Friedman is one of my very favourite pianists too. I LOVE most of his recordings, but even some of his Piano Rolls too. The Tannhauser has simply never been equaled, and his Don Juan Fantasy is ridiculously good. Same with the Erlkonig and the couple of Schumann works. I would do anything to hear a few complete concert broadcasts.
I re-read the Allan Evans biography frequently, and often browse the Friedman Concertography and daydream about hearing those concerts.
Here’s the Allan Evans book in EPUB: LINK
And here’s the concert listing which was on the Arbiter recordings website, but has since disappeared. Luckily I copied it while it was around. LINK
I would love to go back to 1920 and go to this series of concerts:
1920
Apr 6 Madrid:
Bach-Busoni: Chaconne,
Chopin: Etudes, Valses, Ballade,
Schumann: Carnaval,
Wagner-Liszt: Tannhauser,
Scriabin: Etudes for left hand.
Apr 9 Madrid:
Chopin: Fantasie,
Nocturne op. 9,
Ballade op. 23,
Mazurka 33#4,
Scherzo op. 31,
Sonata op. 58,
Impromptu op. 36,
Polonaise op. 53.
Apr 13 Madrid:
Mozart-Friedman: Larghetto,
Bach-Friedman: Prelude, Chorale,
Hummel: Rondo,
Schumann: Etudes Symphoniques,
Chopin: Barcarolle,
Polonaise in Bb,
Valse, Prelude,
Friedman: Wiener Tanz (2),
Liszt: Erlkönig, Campanella,
Wagner-Brassin: Magic Fire.
Apr 19 Madrid:
Gluck-Friedman: Ballet,
Mozart: Rondo K. 511,
Beethoven: Bagatelle b,
Schumann: Fantasie,
Chopin: Sonata op. 35,
Valse, Etude,
Friedman: Minuetto Vecchio,
Elle Danse, Barcarolle, Etude,
Godowsky: Fledermaus,
Liszt: Campanella.
Apr 24 Madrid:
Beethoven: Sonata op. 111,
Sonata op. 57,
Chopin: Berceuse,
Andante Spianato & Polonaise,
Mazurka c#, Scherzo op. 39,
Liszt: Liebestraume,
Don Juan.
Apr 26 Madrid:
Liszt: Sonata,
Chopin: Mazurka,
Fantasie, Impromptu op66,
Beethoven: Sonata op. 57.
Goddamn, those are epic!
How soft are pianists these days to tour one whole year with the same programme?!
Amen!
I find it completely bizarre that the wife broke all those Australian discs.
Just inexplicable, they went through all the trouble to record his whole rep at that time.
I mean, she was of the opinion that they are sheeyat, but how bad was it?
Well, they usually have like 10 concerti, look at Trifonov and Berezovsky.
But yeah, not much of a market out there to play different solo programs.
I think Chris is secretly sitting on Friedman’s broadcast Liszt sonata 
ahahaha pozz da friedmofo juz
a maztah of da
lazt min prog change trick 
Trifonov is still young but for da whale 10 concerti is not particularly impressive.
Consider for example Arrau playing the entire Bach keyboard works in Berlin in 1935-36 or Hofmann playing 21 straight recitals in St Petersburg without repeating a piece.
Whereas most pianists these days will only play one recital in each city per season, so they can be lazy and tour one programme.
It’s sad if there is less demand for recitals, personally I would choose seeing a recital over a concerto anyday.
Tru, and da young Ho 11 concert rectals in da St Speedyburgah in 1924-1925
I think nowadays there is also an emphasis on CD like precision in a live settting, hence the shrinking rep.
There simply isn’t a market for it, unless you are playing another complete Beethoven cycle
Hahaha, da Friedman kept all his huge balls rep in shape until like 1943, except for da DJ which he retired in like 1922, right aftah he did da piano roll.
Da Berlin 1931 broadcast MUST be somewhere tho…
if a mofo cummah to ma town aftah juz givin rectalz conziztin of da complete chopetz, pimp TE, brapagetz, gazfart, iziz fantazy, DJ norma tanhauzah n da complete ZIFF tranzz
n hiz advertized prog iz da PIMPZON + KANCERTO
i wud go c it
if twuz free
n wizin walkin diztance
howevah
if da COMMME cummah to ma town to zoulfully rape thru hiz OCEAN ETUDE
i wud pay to c it
n pozz even buy a cd aftahwardz
Hahahaha Basically da ZEPP wud only go to a FREE slit-nazi rectal
n TRU, da comme commands rezpek. He has sum dating a fitness advice tru?8)
I would go to dat lecture randomly and even pay for it
Randomly da Evans has more EISENBERGER recordings like his BRAHMS first conc. Hopefully will be released soon.
I’m also a huge fan of Mark Hambourg’s acoustic recordings, I managed to track down every single of his Recs up to 1923. They start out legendary and get less wikid every year. By the time you get into the electric era, they get pretty sloppy.
I had the choice of a free slit recital or leonskaya a couple of years back, chose leonskaya. 
And wtf da comme giving dating advice? Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore. 
One pianist I liked was Eduard Erdmann. Unfortunately his recs were way too expensive so I didn’t get them.
According to Evans, the following Eisenberger still exists. You heard the amazing Chopin 2nd, tru?
BEETHOVEN: Concertos #2, #3, #4, #5, Choral Fantasy (opening piano solo truncated as the engineer thought the piece began with the tutti!)
BRAHMS: Concerto #1
MOZART: Concertos #20 (K.466) and #24 (K.491) with parts missing
SAINT-SAENS: Variations on a theme of Beethoven for 2 Pianos (incomplete)
SCHUMANN: Concerto
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Trio
That’s alot of unissued recordings, I wonder what the hold up is in releasing them?
It’s been a long time since I heard his F minor concerto, I mainly remember the orchestra being lousy.
I’m not sure. Evans was planning to release some of them in a download format… still hasn’t happened.
I spoke to Ward Marston on the phone a while back, asked him a bunch of stuff. No, he hasn’t found any new Hofmann except for the few alternate takes. The only time that Hofmann mentioned the Argentina recital of 1936 was in a random letter, when he talked about hearing it on the radio. Acetates have not turned up.
He’s also not hopeful regarding any new Friedman or Horowitz from the 30’s, he said that most of his big finds over the years were of broadcasts that he definitely knew existed at some point… he said that nothing just randomly pops up.
Download format is an excellent idea.
I think Marston should do the same for their volumes if they don’t already (particularly the sold out ones).
I waited for volume 9 of the Hofmann series for like 10 years.
Now I’ve lost interest in it, especially since it’s only alternate takes (which would only appeal to completists).