tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post112490818832632843..comments2024-03-26T15:57:13.443+00:00Comments on On An Overgrown Path: The real 'Piano Man'Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1125080194813594202005-08-26T19:16:00.000+01:002005-08-26T19:16:00.000+01:00To open up a new overgrown path I should have prov...To open up a new <I>overgrown path</I> I should have provided a link to Jonathan Lloyd in my comment above.<BR/><BR/>To repair that omission <A HREF="http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2816 " REL="nofollow">here it is</A>.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1125063881066764832005-08-26T14:44:00.000+01:002005-08-26T14:44:00.000+01:00So much wonderful music, and so much little knownI...<I>So much wonderful music, and so much little known</I><BR/><BR/>I know. I know.... I actually own a second-hand copy of, and listened to years ago, the George Lloyd CD with the Scapegoat Piano Concerto (and also perhaps one other GL Symphony recording)but,like you, I can't much recall it. It is even hazier in my mind than the Peter Dickinson piano and organ concertos, which you must recall since I think that they were (first) on EMI. (I have a much stronger knowledge of most of Birtwistle's works, though I don't yet own Theseus Games, as the DGG is not yet available in the States, and I am still saving for the score. And the last CDs on my player, two weeks ago, were several of the Maxwell-Davies Symphonies, as well as Alexander Goehr's The Death of Moses, which I am growing to like and admire after having been less impressed after a single listen some years back. It certainly pays to revisit works.)<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the Jonathan Lloyd recommendation. While I have most of the all but most recent NMC recordings, I don't have his Fourth Symphony, nor can I recall hearing any of his music. I must do so. I must also give some of the other more recent NMC CDs of British orchestral works (by Butler, Payne, Finnissy and several others -- mostly with the BBC Symphony, I think) another look and listen. I'm glad to have the Jonathan Lloyd recommendation.<BR/><BR/>And I must also find a late summer perfect moment to relisten to Havergal Brian's Gothic Symphony, my second-hand copy of which I got back from a friend from Indian who absolutely loved it -- his wife borrowed from me my copy of Philip Glass's Symphony #5 - his oratorio/symphony. (It won't be this weekend, as we are finally off to the mountains.)Garth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1125038410012825622005-08-26T07:40:00.000+01:002005-08-26T07:40:00.000+01:00Garth, fascinating paths to explore.George Lloyd w...Garth, fascinating <I>paths</I> to explore.<BR/><BR/>George Lloyd was a post-Vaughan Williams phase I went through. Fine tonal workmanship (a bit like a Cornish Hovhaness). But I have to confess I can't really recall a note, which is why I was somewhat surprised at Ogdon's advocacy. (He is not to be confused with the <B>Jonathan</B> Lloyd, an altogether more sinewy contemporary British composer whose 4th Symphony recorded on NMC I recommend to you.<BR/><BR/>For me the real 'nugget' within Ogdon's advocacy is the Frenchman Charles-Valentin Alkan who was admired as a composer by Liszt and Busoni. He does have a justified reputation for bombast. But some of his writing is exquisite. I do recommend his last cycle of miniatures, the appropriately named <I>Esquisses</I> Op. 63 (fine recording by the wonderful Steven Osborne on Hyperion), and his 25 Preludes, Op. 1 (which again played by Osborne come coupled with the Shostakovich Preludes on Decca).<BR/><BR/>So much wonderful music, and so much little known...Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1125003268134155462005-08-25T21:54:00.000+01:002005-08-25T21:54:00.000+01:00Berend, that's a trick question! I deliberately us...Berend, that's a trick question! I deliberately used the words <I>stunning interpretations</I> and not <I>definitive interpretations</I>. <BR/><BR/>My view is that Ogdon was an extraordinarily powerful, and moving, player. But there are many other pianists whose playing was closer to the letter of the composer's intentions, but not necessarily closer to the heart of the composer.<BR/><BR/>That's my view. Here are some random critics writing about his recorded interpretations of Rachmaninov....<BR/><BR/> <I> these recordings... show Ogdon in the repertory he loved best.... cutting through the torrents of notes to find the structural core... the sovereign command of the playing is never in doubt." <BR/><BR/>[Andrew Clements, The Guardian 23/8/02] <BR/><BR/><BR/>"... a three-disc set that testifies to Ogdon's remarkable affinity with Rachmaninov's musical idiom... He is in commanding form." <BR/><BR/>[Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph 31/8/02] <BR/><BR/>" what shines through is a breathtaking mastery of the idiom and compelling musical imagination to keep you ont the edge of your seat. Ogdon exalts in the turbulent Etudes Tableaux as never before. An unmissable set.' <BR/><BR/>[Julian Haylock, Classic FM Magazine, October 02. Rated by Classic FM Magazine as Best Buy Instrumental CD October 2002 ] <BR/><BR/>"... these are deeply satisfying performances, poetic as well as virtuosic, especially in the Preludes where the changes of mood are superbly captured and manipulated.... he is in dazzling form... Both the sonatas are grandly performed .... No student of pianism will want to be without these discs." <BR/><BR/>[Michale Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph 15/09/02]</I><BR/><BR/>Hope that helps.Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1125002000971453282005-08-25T21:33:00.000+01:002005-08-25T21:33:00.000+01:00umm... "In 1962 [John Ogdon] was joint winner, wit...umm... "In 1962 [John Ogdon] was joint winner, with his friend Vladimir Ashkenazy, of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition. He wowed the Moscow audiences with his performances of Rachmaninov, Balakirev and Scriabin, as well as the Tchaikovsky 1st Piano Concerto which became his signature piece."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1125000632865270612005-08-25T21:10:00.000+01:002005-08-25T21:10:00.000+01:00Pliable, you wrote: "stunning interpretations of t...Pliable, you wrote: <I>"stunning interpretations of the Russian romantic repertoire"</I><BR/><BR/>Is it really that good? How does it compare to the best?Berend de Boerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11433622686361556089noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1124975492809362692005-08-25T14:11:00.000+01:002005-08-25T14:11:00.000+01:00My ignorance of modern music is stunning! ... For...My ignorance of modern music is stunning! ... For years I have "known" about the Manchester school of British composers and interpreters -- usually referring to Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, Elgar Horwarth, and John Ogdon -- but I never knew this story about Mr Ogdon and his triumphs and severe illnesses. pliable, you have cited almost a dozen, largely British, composers who I would like now to listen to, or relisten to -- including Kaikhosru Sorabji, George Lloyd, and Charles Alkan.<BR/><BR/>Having just watched -- with my spouse this past Sunday night -- the generally acceptable and strong Hollywood treatment of New York Times writer Sylvia Nasar's story of American mathematics and economics Nobel laureate John Nash, "A Beatiful Mind", I can only say that this short "on an overgrown path" posting affected me just as deeply. (I had read the Nasar book years before seeing the movie.) I will trust that Mr Ogdon's sketches for his Melville Symphony are in safe and responsible hands.Garth Trinklhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11084463787729969177noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8060605.post-1124971975079821682005-08-25T13:12:00.000+01:002005-08-25T13:12:00.000+01:00And see this linkAnd see <A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4182926.stm" REL="nofollow">this link</A>Pliablehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10616598845886342325noreply@blogger.com