Rare classical music

Двадцать девятая соната Бетховена – произведение неимоверно трудное для исполнения и понимания. Такое впечатление, что пианисты просто не знают, что с ней делать. Если вспомнить о зоологической их природе, открытой нам Сен-Сансом, то можно сказать, что они в основном ходят вокруг да около, рычат, лают и мяукают. Кемпф, при всей гениальности его тончайшего исполнения, мяукает. Бакхауз, при всех его достоинствах, лает. О Юдиной был соблазн написать, что она рычит, что было бы отчасти правдой, но она настолько не вмещается в понятие «пианист», что, конечно, ее надо исключить из этого зоологического сообщества. Эпизодами возникает впечатление, что ее исполнение ближе всего к бетховенскому замыслу (насколько я в состоянии его понять), но ей катастрофически не хватает пианистического ресурса для его претворения в физическую реальность. Трагедия Юдиной, на мой взгляд, в том, что, будучи духовным существом громадного масштаба, она осталась как бы недовоплощенной, не сумела кенотически втиснуть себя в жестокие рамки материальной, предметной реальности. Но в этой трагедии, если взглянуть на нее эстетически, есть необыкновенная катартическая красота...

О Феликсе фон Вейнгартнере см. например http://raritetclassic.com/load/4-1-0-143

О Марии Вениаминовне Юдиной см. например

http://raritetclassic.com/publ/14-1-0-1

Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (November 25, 1895 – May 23, 1991) was a world-renowned German pianist and composer. Although his repertory included Bach, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well-known for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, both of whose complete sonatas he recorded at least once.

Kempff was born in Jüterbog, Brandenburg, in 1895. He grew up in nearby Potsdam where his father was a royal music director and organist at St. Nicolai Church. His grandfather was also an organist and his brother Georg became director of church music at the University of Erlangen. Kempff studied music at first at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik at the age of nine after receiving lessons from his father at a younger age. Whilst there he studied composition with Robert Kahn and piano with Karl Heinrich Barth (with whom Arthur Rubinstein also studied). In 1914 Kempff moved on to study at the Viktoria gymnasium in Potsdam before returning to Berlin to finish his training.

In 1917, Kempff made his first major recital, consisting of predominantly major works, including Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata and Brahms Variations on a theme of Paganini. Kempff toured very widely in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Between 1936 and 1979 he performed ten times in Japan (a small Japanese island was named Kenpu-san in his honor). Kempff made his first London appearance in 1951 and in New York in 1964. He gave his last public performance in Paris in 1981, and then retired for health reasons (Parkinson's Disease). He died in Positano, Italy at the age of 95. He is survived by five children.

Wilhelm Kempff recorded over a period of some sixty years. He is celebrated today for his recordings of Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, Bach, Liszt, Chopin and particularly, of Beethoven.

He was among the first to record the complete sonatas of Franz Schubert, long before these works became popular. He also recorded two sets of the complete Beethoven sonatas (and one early, almost complete set on shellac 1926-1945), one in mono (1951-1956) and the other in stereo (1964-1965). He recorded the complete Beethoven piano concertos twice as well, both with the Berlin Philharmonic; the first from the early 1950s in mono with Paul van Kempen, and the later in stereo from the early 1960s with Ferdinand Leitner. Kempff also recorded chamber music with Yehudi Menuhin, Pierre Fournier, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Paul Grümmer, and Henryk Szeryng, among others.

The pianist Alfred Brendel has written that Kempff "played on impulse... it depended on whether the right breeze, as with an aeolian harp, was blowing. You then would take something home that you never heard elsewhere." (in Brendel's book, The Veil of Order). He regards Kempff as the "most rhythmical" of his colleagues. Brendel helped choose the selections for IMG's "Great Pianist" issue of Kempff recordings, and wrote in the notes that he regarded Kempff "achieves things that are beyond him" in his "unsurpassable" recording of Liszt's first Legende, "St. Francis Preaching to the Birds."

When pianist Artur Schnabel undertook his pioneering complete recording of the Beethoven sonatas in the 1930s, he told EMI that if he didn't complete the cycle, they should have Kempff complete the remainder - even though the two pianists took noticeably different approaches to the composer (for example, Schnabel preferred extremely fast or slow tempos, while Kempff preferred moderate ones). Later, when Kempff was in Finland, the composer Jean Sibelius asked him to play the slow movement of Beethoven's 29th Sonata, the Hammerklavier; after Kempff finished, Sibelius told him, "You did not play that as a pianist but rather as a human being."

As a performer he stressed lyricism, charm, and spontaneity in music, particularly effective in intimate pieces or passages. He always strove for a singing, lyrical quality, occasionally slipping into a slight degree of affectation in his phrasing. He avoided extreme tempos and display for its own sake. He left recordings of most of his repertory, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven and Schubert. He performed to an advanced age, often concertizing past his eightieth birthday. He appeared in 1979 with the Berlin Philharmonic, marking an association with them that spanned over sixty years.

In 1957 Kempff began to give an annual Beethoven interpretation course in his villa in Positano. Six years after his death, Kempff's friend and former student John O'Connor took over the course. Other noted pianists to have studied with Kempff include Norman Shetler, Mitsuko Uchida, Angela Hewitt, Peter Schmalfuss, Idil Biret, Carmen Piazzini, and Gerhard Oppitz.

A lesser-known activity of Kempff was composing. He composed for almost every genre and used his own cadenzas for Beethoven's Piano Concertos 1-4. His student Idil Biret has recorded a CD of his piano works. His second symphony premiered in 1929 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus by Wilhelm Furtwängler. He also prepared a number of Bach transcriptions, including the Siciliano from the Flute Sonata in E, that have been recorded by Kempff and others.

Wilhelm Backhaus ('Bachaus' on some record labels) (March 26, 1884 – July 5, 1969) was a German pianist and pedagogue.

Born in Leipzig, Backhaus studied at the conservatoire in Leipzig with Alois Reckendorf until 1899, later taking private lessons with Eugen d'Albert in Frankfurt am Main. He made his first concert tour at the age of sixteen. In 1905 he won the Anton Rubinstein Competition with Béla Bartók taking second place. He toured widely throughout his life - in 1921 he gave seventeen concerts in Buenos Aires in less than three weeks. Backhaus made his U.S. debut on January 5, 1912, as soloist in Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra. In 1930 he moved to Lugano and became a citizen of Switzerland. He died in Villach in Austria where he was to play in a concert.

Backhaus was particularly well known for his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven and romantic music such as that by Johannes Brahms. He was also much admired as a chamber musician.

According to some critics, Backhaus was one of the first modern artists of the keyboard (see Alfred Cortot for his antithesis) and played with a clean, spare, and objective style. In spite of this analytic approach, his performances are full of feeling. One of the first pianists to leave recordings, he had a long career on the concert stage and in the studio and left us a great legacy. He recorded virtually the complete works of Beethoven and a large quantity of Mozart and Brahms, and he was also the first to record the Chopin etudes, in 1928; this is still widely regarded as one of the best recordings (Pearl 9902 and others). Backhaus plays them smoothly and softly, overcoming their technical challenges without apparent effort. A live recording from 1953 includes seven of the Etudes, Op. 25 and shows the changes that occurred in his playing style over the years (Aura 119). His technical command is the same, but he is more relaxed and confident and more willing to let the music speak for itself.

His 1939 recording of Brahms' Waltzes, Op. 39, runs just over thirteen minutes; it is difficult to imagine anyone actually dancing to this version, but it is exhilarating nevertheless (EMI 66425). His studio recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas, made in the 1960s, display exceptional technique for a man in his seventies (Decca 433882), as do the two Brahms concertos from about the same time (Decca 433895). His live Beethoven recordings are in some ways even better, freer and more vivid (Orfeo 300921).

His chamber music recordings include Brahms's cello sonatas, with Pierre Fournier, and Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet with the International Quartet and Claude Hobday.

The London Times praised Backhaus in its 1969 obituary for having upheld the classical German music tradition of the Leipzig Conservatory. His phenomenal transposing powers spawned many anecdotes: finding the piano a semitone too low at a rehearsal of Grieg’s A minor Concerto, he simply played in B flat minor — and then in A minor at the concert, after the instrument had been correctly tuned.

Backhaus was quick to recognize the importance of the gramophone. His 1913 recording of the Grieg Concerto was the first ever. Later, in 1928, he made the first complete set of recordings of the Chopin Etudes. At his death, Backhaus was just completing his second complete Beethoven sonata cycle. All that was missing was the Hammerklavier — when, according the Beethoven specialist Stephen Kovacevich, Wilhelm Backhaus was the only pianist to have really understood it. (Excerpts from the book/guide to the "Great Pianists of the 20th Century”, published and © in 1998 by the Philips Music Group.)

(Source: Wikipedia)

L. van Beethoven.

Sonata No. 29 in B flat Major, op. 106 "Hammerklavier" (orchestration by F. von Weingartner):

1. Allegro

2. Scherzo: assai vivace

3. Adagio sostenuto

4. Largo - Allegro risoluto

I. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor: Felix von Weingartner

Rec. March 26, 27, 28 & 31, 1930; Central Hall, London

II. Wilhelm Kempff, piano

Rec. 1936

III. Wilhelm Backhaus, piano

Rec. 1952

IV. Maria Yudina, piano

Rec. 1952

(Ноты фортепианной сонаты прилагаю; партитуру Вейнгартнера не достал. Если кто-нибудь ее добавит, буду благодарен и рад)