BaL 20.10.12 - Schumann's Etudes symphoniques

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30 a.m.
Harriet Smith with a personal recommendation from recordings of Schumann's Etudes symphoniques

Available versions:

Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Louis Demetrius Alvanis
Géza Anda - BBC Legends BBCL41352
Géza Anda (other versions)
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Daniel Blanch
Peter Bradley-Fulgoni
Alfred Brendel
Rudolf Buchbinder
Jean-Philippe Collard
Finghin Collins
Alfred Cortot
Sergei Edelmann
Pavel Egorov
Emre Elivar
Sergio Fiorentino
Malcolm Frager
Walter Gieseking
Emil Gilels (DVD)
Bernd Glemser
Percy Grainger (2 versions including piano roll)
Fabio Grasso
Naum Grubert
Werner Haas
Erika Haase
Marc-André Hamelin
Dina Joffe
Alina Kabanova
Julius Katchen
Andrea Kauten
Nina Kavtaradze
Wilhelm Kempff
Evgeny Kissin
Eric Le Sage
Michaël Levinas
Josef Lhévinne
Nikolai Lugansky
Jean-Pierre Marty
Alexander Mndoyants
Barbara Moser
Hando Nahkur
Adam Nieman
Alberto Nosè
Guiomar Novaes
Lev Oborin
Murray Perahia
Vlado Perlemuter
Ivo Pogorelich
Maurizio Pollini
Sviatoslav Richter
Alexander Romanovsky (download)
Peter Rösel
András Schiff (DVD)
Ragna Schirmer
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy
Edna Stern
Mark Swartzenruber
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Michiko Tsuda
Jan Vermeulen (fortepiano)
Stefan Vladar
Earl Wild
Roman Zaslavsky (Blu-ray Audio + CD)

[Alison]

The Nimbus CD featuring Shura Cherkassky has long suited me.

[amateur51]

The Nimbus CD featuring Shura Cherkassky has long suited me.

me too, Alison but he'll not suit these milk sops

[Don Petter]

I think Nikita Magaloff (on Eloquence) and Nelson Freire (on Ina) are still available on Amazon.

[gurnemanz]

Having listened carefully to all 60 versions listed above I only have one word to say - Pollini.

[jayne lee wilson]

Shining star hidden away in the eastern sky - Vladimir Sofronitsky, brilliant, volatile, subtle and tender...
Availability god knows, here on Japanese Denon, may be/have been on Vista Vera too...

Love Richter too, but I've not collected many versions...

[Don Petter]

Shining star hidden away in the eastern sky - Vladimir Sofronitsky, brilliant, volatile, subtle and tender...
Availability god knows, here on Japanese Denon, may be/have been on Vista Vera too...

Agree about Sofronitsky - I have him on Arlecchino (ARL 39, Volume 6 of his Schumann), but long since nla, I'm sure.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I only have Walter Gieseking on 78s - and nothing to play them on.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Having listened carefully to all 60 versions listed above ...

[silvestrione]

Having listened carefully to all 60 versions listed above I only have one word to say - Pollini.

I would have a few more words - Pollini, yes, agreed, but with Richter in reserve (the BBC live version), for when I can 'take' something so intense, and, at the end overwhelmingly manic.

I also occasionally get out Cortot and Grainger.

Cortot not in list...unavailable?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Cortot does not seem to be available, except on YouTube.

[John Shelton]

There's a big Cortot box due November 5th http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anniversary-...0142579&sr=1-1 so I guess there it will be.

Of course that leaves 39 and a half other CDs.

I like the Frager recording (on a C19 piano) and best of all Edna Stern on Zigzag http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/sea...stern+schumann (in addition to Pollini).

[amateur51]

There's a big Cortot box due November 5th http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anniversary-...0142579&sr=1-1 so I guess there it will be.

Contents are here http://www.crotchet.co.uk/7049072.html

I wonder what 'original recording remastered' really means and who has done it?

Cheapest current price appears to be amazon.de http://www.amazon.de/Cortot-Annivers...SIN=B008V1IR4Q

but this fluctuates a lot for some reason

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thank you. I'll add the Cortot.

[verismissimo]

I seem to have two: Bruno-Leonardo Gelber from 1968 and Adelina de Lara from 1951.

De Lara's recording is boxy, but fascinating because she was a pupil of Clara Schumann. This is her memory of one lesson:

"I had just finished playing part of Brahms's Scherzo in E flat minor, op 4, when the door opened and in walked a short stout man. He wore a beard and his hair was long, swept back from a magnificent brow...

"The unususl intrusion into one of my teacher's lessons caused me to glance at her. Would she be annoyed? But to my surprise she was smiling at the intruder, a smile I had rarely seen before. Without greeting him she told me to repeat what I had already played. By then the visitor was standing behind me and I began to play.

"Then, as I finished the opening phrase I heard his voice: 'No, no, it is too fast - you must draw it out like this.' His hands were already on the keyboard, and Clara Schumann was saying, 'Let Dr Brahms show you, Adelina.'"