Glorious!!! I can't imagine a finer combination of Beethovenian performers than Backhaus & Ronald. The music-making is bright, direct, sincere & wonderfully fresh-sounding. Thank you very much, VS! 😊
@@vintagesounds3878 Ronald's musical character is superbly suited, as it seems to combine so many of the very Beethovenian qualities such as vigour, decisiveness, enthusiasm, clear thought & I think considerble good-natured straightforwardness. You simply could not have chosen a nicer upload.
As a longtime Backhaus devotee, I already was familiar with this great recording. Your transfer is the best I've heard. Thanks very much. Incidentally, the first movement photo of Backhaus is usually dated to 1911 due to the autograph, at age 27, though the precise date is not known. The third movement photo dates to October 30, 1927, the year of this recording, when he was 43.
I listened to this before work and was consequently half an hour late of 9 am, but I worked over and it was serious pruning so the time lag made no difference. I was astonished to the point of speechlessness. After work I attended a meeting in my capacity as Parish Councillor, which went on and on. Now back here, and more collected. Goodness why can we not have this sort of gruff direct but truly gracious Beethoven playing any more? A comparably direct performance, I have only encountered once before, being Claudio Arraw in 1957 live in the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia [With Klemperer certainly in the school of Ronald style wise] on Testament, and that Emperor Concerto is worth the asking price quite apart from the fact that the other disc contains the Third and Fourth Concertos that reveal more about the music [both gentle and stern] than any other recorded performance that I have ever heard . [None of these performance give any hint of the genial, but that is fine. It is not really genial music, and I do love genial music! But this kind of music is much more difficult to make sense of]. This as a studio recording is is just as a staggeringly direct and honest. No perfume or artificial grace. There is grace aplenty, but it comes in the tension and release straight from the the music itself, and not some cologne applied. I'd put this beside the 1926 Beethoven Fifth Symphony in terms of Landon Ronald's conducting of the band, but Backhaus mananges the trick of being so mentally strong, and yet managing the poetry in an almost painfully apparently simple way. Of course it far from simple. To be so brusk without ever being brutal, and yet being so tender without exaggerating anything - such as by forced tempo changes - is the kind of miracle that artists of the calibre of Clara Haskil and Rudolf Serkin achieved seemingly effortlessly. It was not not effortless, but searching out [at serious cost in thought] of how to integrate such disparate expressive intentions and binding them into an implacable forward moving moment that never falls into mundane routine. Not just a bullseye, but one of the top bullseyes of the last few years. Reminds me a bit of that great great recording of Hjelminsky play Bussoni's transcription of Bach Chaccone from the Second Violin Partita. We need not expect a repeat performance in our lifetimes. I suspect that it could not be bettered by any current pianist, or conductor from the crop of the day. Thank so much and best wishes from George
@@georgejohnson1498 Fascinating. Thanks for sharing those thoughts. I described this performance yesterday as having a maximum of gusto AND grace, and I see in your comment that you felt that strongly too. I think that to play Beethoven's music this well surely demands a complete commitment of the spirit. It is bold music, yet also frequently has much tenderness & actually I do find it genial in its own way because I feel that Beethoven is so well meaning. Every ounce of forcefulness has a corresponding measure of humanity. There is no way through to this sincerity via artifice. It is full assent to Beethoven's uncompromisingly honourable commands - via being, via living it in the moment - or not at all. This is music that challenges the modern world, and rightly so. It is, I think, an offering of truth to musicians & listeners. May it continue to inspire us to raise ourselves to the best that we can be!
@@The-Organised-Pianist Beautifully said. Backhaus is so honest with his bringing out of the natural character that it's mind boggling, and almost painful. Like you fear for him. I was at first speechless, and strangely the performances - now listened to three times in the last few days - becomes even more marvellous each time! Best wishes from George
@@georgejohnson1498 Thank you very much, George. So glad to have shared hearing this, despite the miles, with you & VS! Yes, Backhaus holds nothing back! His technique is superb, yet it's wonderful how he is always serving the music faithfully, never indulging in those self-preoccupied histrionics that can entice some soloists astray with their own taste for the grandiose. And whilst there is some real gentleness, the beauty is never over-sweetened, just thoroughly real. The whole thing - from first to last notes - seems like a process of trust, in full freedom yet somehow marvellously inevitable. I was very moved when reading your first comment when you spoke of an "implacable forward moving moment". Yes: free-flowing, unhindered & just so natural. It is an astonishing sympathy of timing between soloist & conductor, which seems based on solid (shared) insight & good taste. A collaboration of equals who seem to have nothing else in mind but the fullest realisation of the music. Beethoven deserves nothing less. Only then are we offered a chance to reach the heights of what his music is & what it means. It's such a privilege to hear! 😊
Glorious!!! I can't imagine a finer combination of Beethovenian performers than Backhaus & Ronald. The music-making is bright, direct, sincere & wonderfully fresh-sounding. Thank you very much, VS! 😊
@The-Organised-Pianist Yes impressive indeed. As fir the accompaniment, it only reinforces Ronald's Beethoven credentials.
@@vintagesounds3878 Ronald's musical character is superbly suited, as it seems to combine so many of the very Beethovenian qualities such as vigour, decisiveness, enthusiasm, clear thought & I think considerble good-natured straightforwardness. You simply could not have chosen a nicer upload.
As a longtime Backhaus devotee, I already was familiar with this great recording. Your transfer is the best I've heard. Thanks very much. Incidentally, the first movement photo of Backhaus is usually dated to 1911 due to the autograph, at age 27, though the precise date is not known. The third movement photo dates to October 30, 1927, the year of this recording, when he was 43.
@leestamm3187 Thanks so much for your remarks on the transfer
Truly a wonderful recording!
I listened to this before work and was consequently half an hour late of 9 am, but I worked over and it was serious pruning so the time lag made no difference. I was astonished to the point of speechlessness. After work I attended a meeting in my capacity as Parish Councillor, which went on and on. Now back here, and more collected.
Goodness why can we not have this sort of gruff direct but truly gracious Beethoven playing any more?
A comparably direct performance, I have only encountered once before, being Claudio Arraw in 1957 live in the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia [With Klemperer certainly in the school of Ronald style wise] on Testament, and that Emperor Concerto is worth the asking price quite apart from the fact that the other disc contains the Third and Fourth Concertos that reveal more about the music [both gentle and stern] than any other recorded performance that I have ever heard . [None of these performance give any hint of the genial, but that is fine. It is not really genial music, and I do love genial music! But this kind of music is much more difficult to make sense of].
This as a studio recording is is just as a staggeringly direct and honest. No perfume or artificial grace. There is grace aplenty, but it comes in the tension and release straight from the the music itself, and not some cologne applied.
I'd put this beside the 1926 Beethoven Fifth Symphony in terms of Landon Ronald's conducting of the band, but Backhaus mananges the trick of being so mentally strong, and yet managing the poetry in an almost painfully apparently simple way. Of course it far from simple. To be so brusk without ever being brutal, and yet being so tender without exaggerating anything - such as by forced tempo changes - is the kind of miracle that artists of the calibre of Clara Haskil and Rudolf Serkin achieved seemingly effortlessly. It was not not effortless, but searching out [at serious cost in thought] of how to integrate such disparate expressive intentions and binding them into an implacable forward moving moment that never falls into mundane routine.
Not just a bullseye, but one of the top bullseyes of the last few years.
Reminds me a bit of that great great recording of Hjelminsky play Bussoni's transcription of Bach Chaccone from the Second Violin Partita. We need not expect a repeat performance in our lifetimes. I suspect that it could not be bettered by any current pianist, or conductor from the crop of the day.
Thank so much and best wishes from George
@@georgejohnson1498 My goodness, what a review! Thanks so much, George, and I'm so glad you enjoyed this truly monumental performance!
@@georgejohnson1498 Fascinating. Thanks for sharing those thoughts. I described this performance yesterday as having a maximum of gusto AND grace, and I see in your comment that you felt that strongly too. I think that to play Beethoven's music this well surely demands a complete commitment of the spirit. It is bold music, yet also frequently has much tenderness & actually I do find it genial in its own way because I feel that Beethoven is so well meaning. Every ounce of forcefulness has a corresponding measure of humanity. There is no way through to this sincerity via artifice. It is full assent to Beethoven's uncompromisingly honourable commands - via being, via living it in the moment - or not at all. This is music that challenges the modern world, and rightly so. It is, I think, an offering of truth to musicians & listeners. May it continue to inspire us to raise ourselves to the best that we can be!
@@The-Organised-Pianist Beautifully said.
Backhaus is so honest with his bringing out of the natural character that it's mind boggling, and almost painful. Like you fear for him.
I was at first speechless, and strangely the performances - now listened to three times in the last few days - becomes even more marvellous each time!
Best wishes from George
@@georgejohnson1498 Thank you very much, George. So glad to have shared hearing this, despite the miles, with you & VS!
Yes, Backhaus holds nothing back! His technique is superb, yet it's wonderful how he is always serving the music faithfully, never indulging in those self-preoccupied histrionics that can entice some soloists astray with their own taste for the grandiose. And whilst there is some real gentleness, the beauty is never over-sweetened, just thoroughly real.
The whole thing - from first to last notes - seems like a process of trust, in full freedom yet somehow marvellously inevitable.
I was very moved when reading your first comment when you spoke of an "implacable forward moving moment". Yes: free-flowing, unhindered & just so natural. It is an astonishing sympathy of timing between soloist & conductor, which seems based on solid (shared) insight & good taste. A collaboration of equals who seem to have nothing else in mind but the fullest realisation of the music.
Beethoven deserves nothing less. Only then are we offered a chance to reach the heights of what his music is & what it means. It's such a privilege to hear! 😊
제가 처음 피아노를 배우기 시작했을때, 피아노 위에 Backhaus 와 Beethoven 의 사진 액자가 걸려있던 생각이 나요. 어떻게 거기 걸려있었는지는 잊어버렸지만, 아직도 선명하게 그들의 모습이 떠오르네요. 반세기가 지난 옛날인데요. 덕분에 추억에 잠깁니다.
Thanks!
Well, THAT is a Beethoven!
@@gradpigodemosviedaff Certainly is!