As to Anton Rubinstein's 4th Concerto, it's not great music but the claim that Levant played "the definitive" version of it is rather stupid as the composer was considered one of the greatest pianists of all time, if he considered any performance of it "definitive" - and the composer is the only person in the universe who has the ability to determine that about his own music - is doubtful. Unless the composer designated someone else as giving such a "definitive" account of it, the logical assumption would be that if the composer also is one of the greatest of all pianists, they are the only candidate for having produced such a performance. I think "definitive performance" is a bullshit term created by rather inept and stupid music critics who are a minor appendage of the advertising-publicity industry. It's an advertising slogan, musically, next to meaningless.
There was a famous recording of it played by one of Anton Rubinstein's few pupils, the great and tragic Josef Hofmann with the very great Fritz Reiner conducting The Curtis Institute Student Orchestra. Hofmann's playing hadn't, so far as I can hear, been damaged by the alcoholism that would destroy him. The imperfect recording technology, though, doesn't disguise the fact that he was an incredibly fine pianist, I've never studied his recordings but listening to this now I am absolutely floored by his technique and the clarity and range of color he got and which comes through, as well. I would be surprised if he hadn't studied the piece with the composer whose intentions and playing he knew as intimately as a student does their own teacher. I don't know about Fritz Reiner's association if any with Rubinstein but I have never heard a recording of his conducting which wasn't anything but faithful to the composer's intentions as notated. I would imagine he learned something about it from Hofmann, as well. It is an incredibly great performance of a merely good concerto.
There is a good possibility that there are at least two recordings of Anton Rubinstein's playing, accompanying a tenor, Vasily Samus.
If the Hofmann recording above is technically less than perfect, the 1890 recording of this performance is many times removed from that level. But I'd agree with the person who wrote the notes that whoever the pianist is, they were extremely good. One of the points in favor of it being Anton Rubinstein is that the second of the songs is by him, "Longing" and the pianist takes an improvisational approach to the performance.
I will give you the link so you can read the notes at the Youtube posting. Much of what is said is taken from one of the greatest of all recording technicians, one of the greatest at getting the most out of acoustic era recordings and transferring them to modern media, the unreservedly great Ward Marston. The notes give this quote from Hofmann about Anton Rubinstein's playing.
”I’m very sorry for you that you never heard my master. Why… I’m a child – all of us put together are infants – compared to his titanic force.”
So, the idea that anyone else would give "the definitive performance" of any of his own works is beyond silly.
Still pretending you don't lurk over at Eschaton? HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd god, you're an idiot. I've had the Hofmann version of the Rubinstein 4th (which, BTW, is a better than good concerto) since it first came out on CD in the early 90s, so I'm well aware of what a terrific performance it is. But when I wrote that Levant did the definitive version, I obviously meant in the modern LP era. Levant's record had the advantages of much better sound than Hoffman's live version from 1937, and in the New York Philharmonic, a much better orchestra.
Have I mentioned that you're an idiot?
We've been over that before, Stupy, "the definitive" version of anything can only occur once, it is the definition against which all others is held for comparison, there can't be more than one "definitive" performance of a piece - leaving aside that "the definitive performance" is definable as a category of bullshit created by people who scribble "criticism" such as yourself. It can only exist in a composition by the word of the composer, all other claims of such definition made by others is bullshit. Your entire career is comprised of such bullshit.
DeleteHofmann was, actually, the only real private student that Anton Rubinstein ever taught, he is the only one that Rubinstein passed on his legacy to in that way and even he, I doubt, would have claimed to be able to produce "the definitive" performance of any of his music. Hofmann might have produced such a performance of his own music but not that of his teacher. Oscar Levant, bless his tragic, science blighted life, was a very good piano player, he was no where near the same status as Hofmann or, by legend, Rubinstein. There's a reason he was recorded playing the Rubinstein 4th, which has pretty much the status of a pops piece instead of a much greater example of the concerto literature, it's because it was a lesser piece played by a lesser artist. His status would seem to be confirmed by the available recordings featuring his playing. The only first-rank composer of classical music on it is Aaron Copland and when you look to see what is listed, it's on a compilation album on which Levant played the piano reduction of several sequences from Billy The Kid, hardly one of Copland's more cerebral pieces. Given his technical abilities, if I'd been reduced to that kind of pops literature, I'd probably have made the mistake of going into analysis and getting hooked on pills, too. You'd think he'd have learned from Gershwin's mistake - it's entirely likely that his seeking the help of a shrink instead of a real doctor ended up killing him.
I never worry about about someone as stupid as you calling me an idiot. Idiots aren't any more qualified to define idiocy than idiotic critics are to define a performance as definitive. As I pointed out the last time we went through your use of the term, using the word with an indefinite construction is stupid and contradictory. There can't be more than one definitive version of anything.
The definitive recorded performance, obviously. Good lord, English really is a second language for you.
ReplyDeleteSo says the "professional writer" who started off with a sentence that contains no verb and so doesn't have either a subject nor an object, either. And a guy who thinks that there can be more than one "the definitive" performance of a piece of music even with why that can't be being explained to him more than once. Your mother tongue is Stupidlish.
Delete"I never worry about about someone as stupid as you calling me an idiot. "
ReplyDeleteSays the idiot who claims we have no way of knowing how many people Phil Spector may have killed. :-)
Tell me how you know how many people Phil Spector may have killed. I asked you that at least twice before and you still haven't told me. I never claimed to know what that number was, you have. Back it up.
DeleteIt's like arguing with soup.
ReplyDelete:-)
Simps, I hate to be the one to break it to you but that ugly face you see talking at you in your Campbell's Scotch Broth is you.
Delete"So says the "professional writer" who started off with a sentence that contains no verb and so doesn't have either a subject nor an object, either."
ReplyDeleteDid I say it's like arguing with soup? I meant garden slugs. I regret the error. :-)
Do you use those refrigerator magnets with words on them to come up with what you're going to say? Or do you just take piece-of-shit Borscht Belt routines that got on 60s TV and recycle randomly recalled strings of words from them in the same way, appending an emoji to them to update them with 12-year-olds' online conventions so the other geezers in your set will think they're kew-el?
DeleteYou are mentally deficient, Simps. I don't think it's genetics, I think it's a lazy choice because you're a TV-movie-pop-music addled, voluntarily retarded anticipation of what's going to happen as the young people brought up on the internet are as stupid if not stupider than you are. The kind of people who stuck with Eschaton. If you had it all to do again, Simps, would you opt to be stupid, again?