Honestly I’m more curious about Schiff, because I have a good idea what I’m likely to get from Berezovsky, unless he decides to knock it out of the park (which he can still do occasionally).
In his programme I’m mostly interested in the Scribets, which are great music that don’t get played enough but I’m not certain that he’ll play the entire set.
I’ve seen Prokofiev 8th just a few weeks ago and Rachmaninoff 2nd (one of my favourite Russian sonatas too) earlier this year.
Schiff’s programme has the Mendelssohn which is a favourite piece of mine (Grinberg!) and one I worked on a number of years ago.
I haven’t heard that one live since Perahia in like 2012 or 2013?
And I’ve never heard op 78 or that Bach English Suite live.
If you wouldn’t mind sending or posting the Berezovsky, I’d be very interested in hearing it!
In fact, having looked in to this more carefully I would be most interested in this if you do attend since the Brahms are as far as I know new rep for Schiff - entirely - and it looks like he’s already replaced them by the next concert he gives that is likely to be recorded (Carnegie in April). That said, he works by planetary alignments and I can’t promise you he’ll be great - and even if I think he is, I can’t promise you’ll agree.
I’ll post the BB next week, I’ll be out of town now Sat-Tues.
I mean I could end up recording both, I’m looking for a backup recorder to pair with my soon-to-be backup mics.
If I decide to give away a ticket I’ll ask the person to whom I give it to record for me.
I’m sure Berezovsky doesn’t play any of it as well as I hope, but that’s the strange thing about him. When he’s on, he’s one of the most impressive pianists around (IE Liszt Sonata disc, Medtner Night wind 2004).
Imagine that you play the whole first book of Bach’s WTC from memory in a large hall with cameras - and then be able to totally immerse yourself in the music and play extremely well. This is what Schiff did some months ago…‘massif respec’!
I’ve never been a fan of Boris Bear-is-off-his-key, so I’d choose Schiff. independent.co.uk/arts-enter … 40151.html
It is mightily impressive, but yet I’ve never been able to make up my mind what I think about this - or his Bach in general actually. I note it is completely unique to him and playing of high quality, and I did follow his Bach Project a few years ago with great interest, but for my taste at least in baroque music I’m not sure Bach is a composer who survives this amount of prettification - and the complete lack of drama (in everything he plays) is also ill suited to Bach’s music IMO. The DWK in particular here needs a bit of theatre and dramatic tension to work, and in several cases I think Bach has even integrated it in to the music itself. Note how Schiff ignores the invitation for a dramatic pause towards the end of the C minor fugue for instance (7:41 in the vid above), and instead skips over it as a musical comma of sorts. It works I guess, but it’s the very climax of the fugue - Rachmaninoff’s “point”, as it were - which is lost by playing it this way.
In the Suites I think you can get away with this kind of playing better however, and the big exception confirming the rule for me is his Goldberg Variations, where I think he’s outstanding. Not because he plays it any differently, but simply because the rosy approach feels so appropriate there. The seed of it is a cute slumber song after all, which expands in wondrous flights of imagination in the variations which Schiff brings to life inimitably with all colors in his playing - and without ever losing that underlying sweetness and airiness from where it all stems. But for the most part in the rest… I would have liked a bit more masculine, German robustness in place of all dolls, pink dresses etc he puts in his Bach. For me at least he’s a more natural choice in Mozart/Haydn/Beethoven.
Yes, I think you’re right that in certain P & Fs it lacks drama and a sort of Richterian robustness. Still, I think it’s quite an achievement to toss it off like that live, in those circumstances. One thing is sure, I like his Bach more than his Brahms or in fact any other Romantic composer he plays.
Yes, romantic music really isn’t his forte - and I think he knows it too since he’s played relatively little of it after all. One good thing you can say about his Bach is at least that it’s very… hm, “listenable”. Everything is very clear, and you’re never in doubt about what he’s doing or what’s happening in the music.