The other afternoon, I was working in my Jean Jean office and suddenly there was Beethoven playing outside! It turns out that the neighbor across the street (who I met very briefly last fall) plays and teaches piano. Well, lucky for me he had his windows and front door open and I got a private concert of Sonata #23, Appassionata. My favorite recording of the Beethoven sonatas are by Claudio Arrau. I like his recordings because sometimes you can hear him breathing on the track, like an athlete during a workout!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
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4 comments:
That was amazing. Thanks! I'm a big fan of Beethoven and have listened to this sonata many times but never watched anyone play it. His intensity and precision are breathtaking. This makes me really ache to play piano again. I don't have room for one right now, but I have been thinking about a keyboard.
How lovely :)
My next door neighbours do late night karaoke sessions in vietnamese... it's just not quite the same...
Gosh, thank you for sharing this. I love listening to classical music while I write or sew!
The community is hotly divided on performers who breathe/hum through their recordings. Me, I find it charming.
Glenn Gould is famous for humming; in his earlier recordings it is the most prominent because they couldn't figure out how to record his music without getting his humming, as well. Here is a clip of when he was older; they've managed to not get the humming as much but you can see how much he is singing when he plays :)
http://youtu.be/buq-p8vSCLQ
If you want to hear the action, try his Goldberg Variations, or the Preludes and Fugues.
Walter Gieseking was a breather, too, and you can hear Richter on his Scriabin recordings. There is also Lion Smith the jazz pianist, who apparently was a notorious hummer. Have fun!
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