Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann :: Schumann: Carnaval; Brahms: "Paganini" Variations; Bach-Busoni: Chaconne

Genial and infuriating.

Plaza Marcelino | Caracas Venezuela | 12/25/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"To me, the real "Great Recordings" here are the Chaconne and the Paganini Variations, dating from 1948. Full of energy, impeccable, nuanced, the pianist caught in the geniality of his youth, who at the time was just resuming what would in the end result a brilliant career, interrupted at its beginnings by the war after his 1939 triumphs in Brussels. What the listener will encounter here is not only the rationality of Bach's conception clearly exposed as in very few other recordings, but also Busoni's masterly arrangement of it; I mean, you can hardly make your choice on whom to admire more, the composer or the arranger, so genially is Benedetti-Michelangeli's playing and exposition of the work. The Brahms is yet another example of a musician fully grasping the composer's so often overlooked romantic facet, nowadays consciously played down in favour of his "intelectual rigour" that in the end makes him dour if not boring. Expositions of Brahms's music such as this one, strong, vigorous, vivacious and full of feeling whilst preserving the composer's structures and form, will always be preferable to those who adopt slow speeds for their own sake and eschew the music's utter feeling because Brahms was a "serious" composer. Bravo here for Benedetti-Michelangeli.



I always found this particular, 1975 recording of Schumann's Carnaval a classic example of Benedetti-Michelangeli's capacity to both infuriate the listener and inspire admiration at the same time that characterises his life's later stages: as he grew older he became quirky and idiosyncratic, sometimes arbitrary, and this recording shows all that in coexistance with his consistently flawless playing and impeccable musicianship. The piano's sound as recorded is also somewhat "plummy" and artificial, with bass notes that don't at all sound lifelike, very much like was also present in the 1977 LP's. So, if the Bach-Busoni and the Brahms fully justify their inclusion in a "Great Recordings of the Century" series, let us say that the Schumann, particularly "Carnaval" rather qualify for a "Very Good Recordings of the Century" series.



Towards his final years, audiences the world over had got used to this behaviour, which not only showed in the treatment of the scores he played, his fastidiousness with his choice of pianos and their tuning, but also in the particular attitude he had in honouring his concert commitments, cancellations being more the rule than the exception. So at the time one had to rely more on his recordings than in his otherwise spectacular live presentations, which none the less always ran a high risk of cancellation. But then in the studio his idiosyncracies tended to win the day and producers seem to have let him got away with it ..."

Very Fine Brahms, but an Oft Dirge-like Schumann Carnaval

Doug - Haydn Fan | California | 07/24/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Michelangeli remains to this day a frustrating pianist. Here he can be heard in a good performance of Brahms' showy Paganini Variations. But, perverse as always, he mixes up the order! But why EMI chose to attach this fine performance to such dreadful Schumann amazes me. At times Michelangeli all but comes to a halt in some of the Carnaval episodes; for perfectly straightforward music the great pianist choses to adopt the most perverse slow motion. What this has to do with the music escapes me. The three Album pieces don't fare any better.



A perfect example of why everyone should be skeptical of these pumped-up titles, such as Recordings of the Century! Hit and miss doesn't begin to decribe what we have here - more like Beauty and the Beast!



If you want the Brahms then go ahead - just don't even consider buying this for the Schumann."