Classical Music Criticism

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Not a Krystian Zimerman fanboy

I am not a Krystian Zimerman fanboy. That isn't to say that I don't like Krystian Zimerman - just that I have the ability - so rare among classical music lovers - to be able to sometimes criticize an artist I like. For instance, I am no fan of Krystian Zimerman's famous video recordings of Chopin's four Ballades (plus the second Scherzo thrown into the mix, as though it had been the only one he had felt technically confident enough to attempt). It may partly owe to poor acoustics in the ornate chateau he appeared to be performing in. But I'm sure his sluggish tempi, lack of dynamic range, rubati without rhyme or reason, and epileptic spasms at the piano were not all the result of poor acoustics. To put it plainly, I am no fan of Zimerman's Chopin. I don't have to like his Chopin. The fact that he won first place at the International Chopin Competition in 1975 is irrelevant. (See? I am no fanboy. I can say things like this and still retain my composure.) His...

Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13

The story of Rachmaninoff's D minor symphony is one of both tragedy and triumph. The disastrous premiere is known only too well to lovers of Rachmaninoff's music. It must have been truly jarring to the young Rachmaninoff - only twenty-four years old in 1897 - to witness firsthand the enormous gulf between the numinous piece that originated inside his head and its unworthy reproduction under the baton of a far lesser artist - the drunkard Glazunov. The trauma was so great the world very nearly lost Rachmaninoff the composer. Fortunately, Rachmaninoff saw his way to dispelling the dark cloud of depression that hung over him and emerged a greater composer than ever before. So in a way, it was this early tragedy that forged him into the truly Olympian composer he later became. A happy outcome doesn't absolve the critics of Rachmaninoff's D minor symphony, however. We must sweep away the golems of the past - mediocre one-hit wonders like Glazunov and Cesar Cui (zero-hit, i...

Heaven's Antechamber - A List

If I were religious, I might imagine the following pieces being played in Heaven's antechamber. These are not necessarily the most beautiful pieces in the repertoire, though they are all beautiful beyond description; they are simply beautiful without being dark or neurotic - are stately and dignified - , and a person who was in charge of putting together the playlist that greets people waiting to enter Heaven might think these uniquely suitable for the setting. The Andante from Brahms's Concerto for Violin and Cello, Op. 102 The Andante from Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata, Op. 19

Religion in Music

As an atheist I don't much care for religion in music. Stories and concepts that may move a religious person to tears are to me deeply unimpressive. Nevertheless, I think that there is a place in music and art for the religious temperament , because the impulse to religion, the losing oneself in something vast, and the yen for something more than this life are things that transcend the incoherent narratives and philosophical pretensions of religion itself. I think Bach's chorales and his chorale partitas are masterpieces of human emotion, which might strike someone used only to Mozart or to the Romantics as a strange assertion. As far as art is concerned, the religious elements of Bach's music are of secondary importance. His emotions when he extols Christ can be analyzed and appreciated without having to subscribe to the beliefs that kindled them. The same applies to Michelangelo's artwork. The great atheist prophet Richard Dawkins once said, "If history had wor...

Valentina Lisitsa Doing What She Does Best

My readers will recall how moved I was several months ago after listening to Valentina Lisitsa's rendition of Chopin's Ballade No. 1. It started off plain and unpretentious, like a drunk walking home in the street at night, running into lamp posts along the way, falling into pot holes, stepping on tails of cats. Then it became such a mess of choppy epileptic spasms hoping to pass for rubati that the poor audio quality was a blessing. The coda was executed with such a profound lack of feeling that the listener unfamiliar with Lisitsa's work would have been pardoned for believing it was a MIDI recording. So several months after that highway accident posing as art, Lisitsa felt inspired to record Chopin's Ballade No. 4 - a piece so far above her emotional capacity that it ought to be considered criminal for her even to essay it. But of course, she did essay it, because her fans, who are as deaf as they are taken with her frilly dresses and general appearance of being a me...

Eileen Joyce Playing de Schlozer

It is safe to say that Eileen Joyce, one of the finest pianists of the last century, whose untimely departure from the concert stage and the recording studio sadly deprived her of the enduring fame and recognition that other pianists of the same caliber reaped in copious amounts, rose to prominence because of her studio recording of Paul de Schlozer's Etude in A-flat, about which I've already written at length on this blog. The story goes that Eileen Joyce, then not a professional musician, walked into the recording studio and recorded the de Schlozer etude, simply because she wanted to see how she sounded. She was signed on the spot. The famous recording of the de Schlozer etude was made in one take and went on to become the most celebrated recording of the piece. However, true to today's fashion of deprecating art and exalting pure technical accuracy, it is not uncommon to see people claim that Joyce's playing of the etude is "labored" compared to Geoffrey...