I Seem To Be Retumbling A Lot Of Broken Pianos. But I'll Make Up For It, I Promise. This Brewster, Btw,

I seem to be retumbling a lot of broken pianos. But I'll make up for it, I promise. This Brewster, btw, looks like it was composed of reused pine from some pauper's coffin. I think we can safely say the tone here would have been inappropriate for anything save something extraordinarily percussive and minimal.

I first saw this recording a long time ago, this actual sleeve design, in a bookstore on Broadway, the Gryphon perhaps, a year or so after I first performed the Berg op. 1 myself. I wasn't crazy about the performance then but of course I am so now, and all the others (live) out there. The work is such a masterpiece. Hard to believe Schoenberg found it amateurish, or whatever his word was, I can't recall just now, but it had something to do with being a student production. But Schoenberg was so great himself, so capable, he was either 1) jealous, or 2) simply past such rich post-romantic, pre-atonal sonic vocabulary.

atonalitydotnet:

Glenn Gould, piano

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/no/album/berg-sonata-for-piano-op-1/id261347394

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/3h78EwEuvW0cbemFJToyaT

Berg: Sonata for Piano, Op. 1 - Schoenberg: Three Piano Pieces - Krenek: Piano Sonata No. 3

I think it depends what one means by "ballet". I, for example, do not care for story ballet at all (with the exception of Giselle). But I love abstract classical ballet of all kinds, especially Balanchine, Robbins, Forsythe, Parsons, et al.

likeaprimaballerina:

I don’t understand how people can not like ballet!

Suite for Toy Piano by John Cage. Performed by Steve Butters.

I am not a fan of this work, but I love this performance by Cziffra. The playing is so clean, contained, and of a piece. This marvelous performance could turn me into a fan of the player, if not the work. Many thanks to @mhsteger also for the detail on the wristband.

mhsteger:

Georges Cziffra (born 5 November, 1921; died 15 January, 1994), here performing the Valse-Impromptu, composed some time between 1842 and 1852 by Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

I believe that this performance was recorded in the early 1960s.  One can easily see in this footage the leather wristband that Cziffra wore, as a remembrance of his time in labor camp, from 1950 to 1953, as punishment for trying to leave Hungary.

Every bookstore should have a piano. Even if hidden.

reading-is-fun:

booklover:

submitted by knoxwords

Shakespeare & Co in Paris.