How sensitive are you to performance nuances?

milltone blabbitmilltone blabbit
edited May 2008 in Classical
So, given multiple recordings of a piece with different performers **but the same recording quality**, how sensitive are you to performance nuances?

So far, I've only tested this with the Well-Tempered Clavier, and it seems that I fail. I have the Aldwell, Feltsman, and Hewitt recordings of Book II. When I bought the Hewitt I decided to put all three into my classical mix, and I'm not very good at distinguishing Aldwell from Hewitt. (Feltsman's pretty easy - if it sounds like the pianist has his head up his ass, it's Feltsman. I've since traded it away on lala.com.) But I've had much less success with Aldwell vs. Hewitt.

I'd expect that SoNot, being a pianist, would pick up on lots more technical things that I really just don't listen for. But I'm curious if anybody else has done this sort of "taste test."

Comments

  • RonanMRonanM
    edited August 2009
    I remember Steven Isserlis giving a masterclass and saying "Some people look at the score and think Now what have I got to say about this piece?. If you don't mind, I don't care what you have to say; I want to hear what Beethoven had to say."

    I think that the best performers make you think again about the music, make you hear it anew. You don't necessarily hear them, or see you the trick is done, but you know it's happening. The best players seem unimportant.

    Rubinstein went to hear Gilels when the latter first appeared in concert in the US. He was asked afterwards what he thought. He said "I noticed two things. The first was that there didn't seem to be anything remarkable about the playing. And the second was that I was crying."

    Maybe that's the trick.
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    bklynd - you jumbo-sized chicken chaser!!! where the hell you been???

    where's my big production!!!

    clink.
  • mommiomommio
    He posted that on May 18th...
    2008


    Just had to say that. (Sitting here giggling)
  • brittlebloodbrittleblood
    damn. now i'm gonna have to go "off site" to vent...mumbles + leaves.
  • fdunihofduniho
    Although I haven't tested myself by putting multiple performances of a piece on shuffle, I can say that I do prefer some performances over others. For example, I prefer Pnina Becher's performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations over Glenn Gould's. For the Well-Tempered Clavier, I am very happy with Frank French's performance, though I haven't yet compared it with any other piano performances.
  • RonanMRonanM
    Pnina Becher? Never heard this one. Went to CDBaby (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/pninabbecher) and listened, and the playing sounds awfully wooden - dry and rigid. Does it really sound like this, or is it just the samples on the website?
  • BigD-BluezBigD-Bluez
    All I can say is that when I hear Von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic doing Beethoven's Ninth or Mozart's 41th I can always tell it's them. Something about their style. Just for the record I have Beethoven's Sixth by Otto Kempler and the Vienna Symphony and it's a rare instance where there's a rendition I prefer to the V.K./B.P. box, it has a more lush quality that befits the Pastoral.
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