Gieseking Plays Schumann
Product ID: 6268588
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Product description International products have separate terms, are sold from abroad and may differ from local products, including fit, age ratings, and language of product, labeling or instructions. .com Walter Gieseking was like a musical water faucet. You turned the knob, and out came the complete standard piano repertoire. When he was inspired, or truly engaged in a work, he was one of the foremost pianists of the 20th century. There are moments in this 1951 German Radio broadcast (the Sonata dates from wartime) that brush with genius, but the results sound like a great pianist either sightreading or playing without having practiced. One can understand errors made in the heat of passion and risk taking, such as the unbridled, messy, and absolutely thrilling Schumann First Sonata. But the casual mistakes in the Etudes Symphoniques stick out like sore thumbs. Gieseking archivists, however, will welcome these greatly improved transfers from a previous M&A issue. --Jed Distler
M**Y
I am not going to dissect his playing as some of our learned critics enjoy doing--of course we have not heard them play so ...
Gieseking is not quirky as one arm chair critic wrote-- he is a patrician and one of the supreme greats on the piano. I am not going to dissect his playing as some of our learned critics enjoy doing--of course we have not heard them play so we can substantiate their analysis. Schuman as Weick's student ( father of Clara) was a virtuosi pianist of a high Euro order----(Mitchell's book is quite educational). He was also among one of the most cultured musicians in Europe in many ways more cultured than many of the greats. A brilliant man no doubt, a virtuoso of the first rank, and a composer of substance. Marvelous to here G at his stage in life negotiate the passionate romantic of Schuman. Also remember G taught Haas, perhaps one of the most underrated pianist of this century--listen to his Ravel and Debussy (Etudes bk 2).Schuman is popular among pianist-- esp high velocity pianists ( read Mitchell's sage comments on that)-- I think his songs are superior to his solo piano music.--essentially impulsive vehicles to demonstrate technique.Gieseking is among the best of the best- a lil different than the 20th century remnants of extreme high velocity Rubenstein school of pianism these days. Shame supreme Chopin did not have a school of pianistic exponents-- God's wn angels sang through his fingers and nobody played him better than Artur Rubinstein. Beside digital prowess, there was a musical essence in Gieseking's playing - an essence long gone from the music world. Listen to Haas if you want to here a later version of Gieseking.
O**E
Five Stars
Beautiful performances.
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