Étiquette : Historical Recordings
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Brillant Classics gives a vibrant tribute to the art of Sergio Fiorentino
‘He is the only other pianist’, said Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. This April 2025, Brillant Classics is devoting an extremely exhaustive edition – 26 CDs – to the legacy of one of the greatest Italian pianists of the twentieth century. Having devoted most of his career to teaching, Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998) was recorded mainly at the…
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Wagnerian musical drama in the orchestra, the virtues of lightness
It is true, Wagner past his conductor life a to make the adversary of Mendelssohn, apostle of an approach all in vivacity and light tempi. No, Wagner was not an advocate of fast tempi, any more than he was an advocate of lightness. But what Wagner wanted above all was to place singing at the…
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Two theoretical approaches (and a number of problems)
Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin, Les Attributs de la musique (1765), Paris, Musée du Louvre Table of content Introduction Theoretical errors and the (attempted) historical situation of these approaches About the composition itslef Perception is primarily sensible: the contingent nature of interpretation (and the dangers of a dogmatic approach) When an interpreter takes an interest in…
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Furtwangler conducts Brahms
The original podcast (narration in French, English and German subtitles) A little over a year ago, in June 2023, I took part in a series of short programmes on the Wilhelm Furtwangler Society’s YouTube channel called ‘The recording that made an impression on me’. I chose to present the legendary recording of Brahms’s 3rd Symphony,…
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The art of Clara Haskil
Clara Haskil is an artist who is not to be missed. She is one of those personalities who have left their mark on the history of performance and who have had a considerable impact on the pianists who have followed them. Haskil was a highly inspired pianist from an early age: as a child prodigy…
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Arrau speaks
Claudio Arrau, photography by Allan Warren Between May 1980 and July 1981, Arrau gave a series of interviews to Joseph Horowitz, who published the collection in 1982. In them, Claudio Arrau talks about his practice of the instrument, his ideas about music and interpretation, and his own experience of the great historical movements of the…
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A legendary recording: Mitropoulos conducts Mahler’s Tragic Symphony
The career of Mitropoulos, the great conductor of the prestigious New York Philharmonic, took a tragic turn when, in 1957, he was attacked by the press for his private life – he was homosexual. He was forced to resign and was replaced by his protégé Leonard Bernstein, and his recordings gradually fell into oblivion. Yet…
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The art of Dinu Lipatti
Liveliness is an essential characteristic of Lipatti’s playing. With the Romanian pianist, time never seems to stand still. At first, there is something calmer, without being frozen – which would be in contradiction with the moving and temporal character of the music. Some performers place their interpretations in a moment as if out of time…
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A few words about a historical approach to historic recordings
Emile Berliner with his recording gramophone. The sound identity is part of the record. Certain technical constraints, such as the medium and its limitations, microphone placement and the sound spectrum, shape and modulate this sonic identity. And the performer is obliged to adapt to them. But these conditions have changed considerably over the course of…
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