In addition to his complete Beethoven sonatas on ECM are his discussions of each online through The Guardian, frequently pointing to similarities with Schubert. The piano is quite colorful, a Boesendorfer perhaps.
I think you nailed it 100% when labeled him as "gentle pianist". I would add "gentlemen pianist" as well. High spirituality, only positive attitude, immense classical repertory, a perfect sense of what music needs from him but no more, so never narcissistic, never a showman, just music to enjoy. The only downside I have with him is the lack, sometimes, of darkness and turmoil, like we find so often in Richter and Horowitz. The feeling that they fight to the death with some or another piece, and they get victorious over. With him, every thing is just fluid, not too fast, not too slow, not too loud, enjoyable and don't ask for more.
I saw Andras Schiff the last time he came to Boston's Jordan Hall. He did a blend of Mozart, Schubert, and Bach. I was very impressed with him and found him very witty also. I am going to buy this box because of all that is included. Dave, Thank you so much for your review and your opinion. Happy Holidays to you and your good family! Tom
I will say this... my top 3 pianists are Cziffra, Horowitz and Friedman - they are wild, crazy pianists. Schiff is the complete opposite - but I absolutely ADORE his playing. He takes care to sculpt and articulate phrases so beautifully. His Bach and Schubert - wonderful! So even though I'm a fan of the "super-virtuoso fireworks" guys - I also love Schiff and if people ever think he is dull or boring, I'd encourage them to listen again and listen closer. And if they fail to be convinced of his genius then... well it's their loss!
I saw Schiff live once in 2015 where he played Mozart’s K. 570 sonata, Haydn’s 61st sonata, Beethoven’s op. 110 and Schubert’s D. 959. And, as an encore, nothing less then Beethoven’s complete opus 109! Doesn’t it show how passionate and dedicated the guy is?
I have a personal connection with the Dvorak Piano Concerto disc. I purchased it from a street vendor, which was quite an unusual situation. At that time, street vendors were selling pirated CDs, not second-hand ones and not classical ones for sure. I was unfamiliar with the Concerto, but the price and the artists involved persuaded me to buy it, and it remains my sole CD of this concerto to this day.
Dave’s videos always (usually) make me smile, he’s such a great teacher. I wasn’t that familiar with Andras Schiff before but I’m fixing that now. Great stuff all around.
Hearing him play a Mozart Concerto on the car radio in my old '63 Chevy Nova on my way to work I had to pull off to the side of the road so I could listen without distraction. Ended up buying them all. His early recordings on Hungaraton hold a special place for me.
His Schubert is fantastic and his Mozart concertos with Vegh are simply some of the best ever. Imho his Bach is wonderful too. His Beethoven (he did indeed a cycle for ECM) is for me a hit and miss, but at least interesting. He did beautiful Janacek and Dohnanyi... Long story short, I love Schiff very much.
His videos on Beethoven's sonatas demonstrate that his playing involves more than just a gentle and beautiful touch-if someone had not realized it before.
He did do a Beethoven cycle for ECM. A pretty interesting one, I'd say. I agree about everything else. I guess he's become a little fussy recently, especially in his recordings on old pianos, but he's always a relevant and stimulating artist nonetheless.
@@robkeeleycomposer Agreed, the early sonata performances especially are slow and ponderous, it's as if Schiff was sight reading from the score. This is revolutionary music and under Schiff hands it's stillborn. He improves with the late sonatas but in MHO he's not a great Beethoven player.
Yes, but not for Decca, and not early on in his career. I wasn't suggesting he never played Beethoven, just that to be a major pianist at a major label, who recorded 78 CDs without doing a single Beethoven sonata, is pretty remarkable.
You are being of great service to the public at large letting us know about this box. IMHO Schiff is always interesting and can be great. Off the cuff, I think he is one of the best Bach players of all time. His Partitas, English Suites, Goldbergs & Inventions are in the Argerich, Roberts, Rousset and Schepkin class. His English Suites remain my favorite. This box will make it cost effective not to suffer Bach by the likes of Glenn Gould and some others, with great performances on the cheap. Whilst I might disagree on the Mozart Concerti, most of the public I think would find them great. A bit snoozy for me, I never the less still find them interesting and listen to them. I would concur on the rest of the box. And he is ageless. On ECM I find his Bach at least a match for the Decca stuff, but not a match sonically. Decca sound was usually the best you could get. And his Beethoven I can love - and it can be just as effectively intense as most others. He is a great artist. His Decca Well Tempered Clavier remains problematic for me and hope he redoes it for ECM. I am trying to pick up a boat load of these boxes and pass them out to members of the firm for Xmas presents this year. Thanks for calling it to our attention.
Yes, he should really focus on the Eastern European repertoire. He plays Chopin Mazurkas beautifully. And I really appreciate his recording of the Bartok Concertos.
A lot of these were released in the earlier CD era, which led to Schiff replacing Brendel as my principal Schubert interpreter. I also bought the Dvorak Concerto when it first came out, which introduced me to the piece. I'm of two minds regarding his ECM recordings. I could never see the point of rerecording the Well-Tempered Clavier, but I presume the label wanted recordings they could easily sell, like the Beethoven cycle. On the other hand, I found his recording of Schubert's B Minor sonata on a forte piano to be very interesting. At the time of his Wigmore Beethoven lectures, he was quite skeptical of the merits of performing on "original" instruments, although he took aspects of forte pianos into account in his interpretation. Perhaps the most widely known example is the use of pedal in the "Moonlight" sonata to approximate the sound of Beethoven's forte piano. If you read the liner notes, it's clear that Schiff did not use a forte piano for Schubert just for the novelty. He feels (and I'm in no position to second guess him) that it gives listeners insights into the compositions. He "kept on listening" and found that that piano sounds better for Schubert.
I have a decent percentage of this, but nice to see the box! Interesting ambivalence re Schiff you report. Twice in the last year two different pianists have done repertoire surveys for BBC Radio 3, of Bach’s Partitas and English Suites, and I recall these Schiff DECCA recordings came out on top…
He has done some very good Hungaraton recordings before. Including a Scarlatti sonatas, a Beethoven Bagatelles on a Beethoven's Broadwood Piano, and a Bach concertos with Zoltán Kocsis.
I do want this box. Especially for the Mozart stuff. But it’s so expensive and I just bought the szell and dohnanyi and muti and Klemperer opera and the Bach vocal works boxes
Agreed. It's an embarrassment of riches. This set -- while it made my lips water -- look at the horizon. Soon, Cleveland/Dohnanyi will be released and further soon, Davis/Concertgebouw, and soon after that the complete MTT. Sigh. Thank God I'm still working. This is getting to be an expensive hobby!
For someone who owns this: does the QR code actually bring up a digitized booklet? Edit: tested it. Nope. There are no digitized booklets newer than late 2022. Despite being printed in every Decca booklet.
Yes, as @mikewinter2235 already pointed out, Schiff has done a Beethoven sonata cycle, and it is wonderful. It is a 10 CD box from ECM New Series. They were recorded live in concert at the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the box includes a CD with all of the encores he played after the sonatas. The piano is indeed a Bosendorfer. For me, Schiff is the most musical pianist I can think of. It is instructive to compare two TH-cam videos of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue being performed at WQXR, one by Schiff and one by Angela Hewitt. I once spent a whole evening seeing Angela Hewitt perform the entire WTC on a huge Fazioli at the Chan Centre in Vancouver BC, and it was wonderful. However, the two renditions of the CF&F are like chalk and cheese to me -- Schiff's is just so much better. Hewitt attacks the piece like something out of the romantic period, but there is much more clarity with Schiff, who really allows the piece to breathe. Maybe it's just my taste, but there it is.
I love Schiff but not on on the forte piano. For me, the more recent ECM recordings are all you need, but the chamber and vocal discs here are very, very special. So too, is the Scarlatti disc. Something magical happened, though, when he worked with Bartoli. I'm shocked that one hasn't been selected as one of Dave's Greatest Recordings Evahhh!
I recently purchased the 5 Beethoven Concertos with Schiff and Haitink conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden. I love it. I am a huge Rudolf Serkin fan whom Schiff also likes. On TH-cam, there is a video of Schiff playing in a library in Weimar, Germany. Highly recommended - beautiful music in a wonderful setting. He plays Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.
Will you (or have you) review the 4-CD box set, "The Complete Music Of Anton Webern, Recorded 1954-56 under the direction of Robert Craft?" Its a SONY release I recently purchased. There is nothing beyond the basic information included in the packaging. No liner notes, which I personally like generally, but the trade-off was the $22 price tag. Curious to know your thoughts if you have any.
Because no one listened to this works the same way after his interpretation. At least on the modern piano Schiff found that sweet spot between being highly expressive and pianistic while incorporating all the musicological knowledge and performance practice that was coming from the period instrument movement. There might be other outstanding recordings, Koroliov for example, but the popularity that Schiff's interpretation achieved was unprecedented, especially his 2010 life Leipzig recording which is the most viewed on TH-cam. I personally grew up on it, yes I'm 25. In sume, in the French Suites Schiff integrated organically the "tear dropping" expressiveness of the romantic Bach tradition with the best of what can be learned from the period performance practice people making the most popular recording of this works to this day. Excuse my English, it's not my first language.
Your English is great. It's your claim to know how "everyone" thinks and feels about these performances (which I like very much) that I question. Thank you, though, for explaining how they appear to YOU. I'd stick with that approach.
Dear Dave, thank you for your response I much appreciate it. I just want to clarify that my initial claim was not to "know" but to "think" that everybody would agree with my view, that being that Schiff's French Suites are the Reference Recording for this particular work, I apologise if this wasn't clearly expressed in my comment, I'll be more careful in my further interactions. Keep on sharing with us your infinete knowledge and love for classical music. Best wishes from Spain!
In addition to his complete Beethoven sonatas on ECM are his discussions of each online through The Guardian, frequently pointing to similarities with Schubert. The piano is quite colorful, a Boesendorfer perhaps.
I think you nailed it 100% when labeled him as "gentle pianist". I would add "gentlemen pianist" as well. High spirituality, only positive attitude, immense classical repertory, a perfect sense of what music needs from him but no more, so never narcissistic, never a showman, just music to enjoy.
The only downside I have with him is the lack, sometimes, of darkness and turmoil, like we find so often in Richter and Horowitz. The feeling that they fight to the death with some or another piece, and they get victorious over. With him, every thing is just fluid, not too fast, not too slow, not too loud, enjoyable and don't ask for more.
I saw Andras Schiff the last time he came to Boston's Jordan Hall. He did a blend of Mozart, Schubert, and Bach. I was very impressed with him and found him very witty also. I am going to buy this box because of all that is included. Dave, Thank you so much for your review and your opinion. Happy Holidays to you and your good family! Tom
His 32 lecture-recitals on Beethovens sonatas which are available online are both educational and entertaining!
I add a wholehearted endorsement. There are links at the Wigmore Hall and Guardian websites, and on TH-cam.
I can't stand his playing, but I absolutely love those lectures. He has great insight into the music but he's just a boring pianist.
@@iago7456he’s a boring pianist as much as you’re a lacking audience, you probably don’t understand Bach and just get excited by virtuosic show men
I will say this... my top 3 pianists are Cziffra, Horowitz and Friedman - they are wild, crazy pianists.
Schiff is the complete opposite - but I absolutely ADORE his playing. He takes care to sculpt and articulate phrases so beautifully.
His Bach and Schubert - wonderful! So even though I'm a fan of the "super-virtuoso fireworks" guys - I also love Schiff and if people ever think he is dull or boring, I'd encourage them to listen again and listen closer. And if they fail to be convinced of his genius then... well it's their loss!
His Schumann is really marvellous too
I saw Schiff live once in 2015 where he played Mozart’s K. 570 sonata, Haydn’s 61st sonata, Beethoven’s op. 110 and Schubert’s D. 959.
And, as an encore, nothing less then Beethoven’s complete opus 109! Doesn’t it show how passionate and dedicated the guy is?
I have a personal connection with the Dvorak Piano Concerto disc. I purchased it from a street vendor, which was quite an unusual situation. At that time, street vendors were selling pirated CDs, not second-hand ones and not classical ones for sure. I was unfamiliar with the Concerto, but the price and the artists involved persuaded me to buy it, and it remains my sole CD of this concerto to this day.
Dave’s videos always (usually) make me smile, he’s such a great teacher. I wasn’t that familiar with Andras Schiff before but I’m fixing that now. Great stuff all around.
Hearing him play a Mozart Concerto on the car radio in my old '63 Chevy Nova on my way to work I had to pull off to the side of the road so I could listen without distraction. Ended up buying them all. His early recordings on Hungaraton hold a special place for me.
His Schubert is fantastic and his Mozart concertos with Vegh are simply some of the best ever. Imho his Bach is wonderful too. His Beethoven (he did indeed a cycle for ECM) is for me a hit and miss, but at least interesting. He did beautiful Janacek and Dohnanyi... Long story short, I love Schiff very much.
Fantastic review! Made me want this.
Thankfully he's back after his recent accident & enjoying wonderful reviews over the last few days (Vienna). In London next week 😊
His videos on Beethoven's sonatas demonstrate that his playing involves more than just a gentle and beautiful touch-if someone had not realized it before.
I have his complete solo Bach recordings, was waiting for this though
Those recordings probably made his name.
He did do a Beethoven cycle for ECM. A pretty interesting one, I'd say. I agree about everything else. I guess he's become a little fussy recently, especially in his recordings on old pianos, but he's always a relevant and stimulating artist nonetheless.
I find his Beethoven very fussy as well.
@@robkeeleycomposer Agreed, the early sonata performances especially are slow and ponderous, it's as if Schiff was sight reading from the score. This is revolutionary music and under Schiff hands it's stillborn. He improves with the late sonatas but in MHO he's not a great Beethoven player.
And he did the 5 Piano Concertos with Haitink in Dresden on Teldec also, and the complete Cello Sonatas with Perényi on ECM
Yes, but not for Decca, and not early on in his career. I wasn't suggesting he never played Beethoven, just that to be a major pianist at a major label, who recorded 78 CDs without doing a single Beethoven sonata, is pretty remarkable.
You are being of great service to the public at large letting us know about this box. IMHO Schiff is always interesting and can be great. Off the cuff, I think he is one of the best Bach players of all time. His Partitas, English Suites, Goldbergs & Inventions are in the Argerich, Roberts, Rousset and Schepkin class. His English Suites remain my favorite.
This box will make it cost effective not to suffer Bach by the likes of Glenn Gould and some others, with great performances on the cheap.
Whilst I might disagree on the Mozart Concerti, most of the public I think would find them great. A bit snoozy for me, I never the less still find them interesting and listen to them.
I would concur on the rest of the box.
And he is ageless. On ECM I find his Bach at least a match for the Decca stuff, but not a match sonically. Decca sound was usually the best you could get. And his Beethoven I can love - and it can be just as effectively intense as most others. He is a great artist. His Decca Well Tempered Clavier remains problematic for me and hope he redoes it for ECM.
I am trying to pick up a boat load of these boxes and pass them out to members of the firm for Xmas presents this year. Thanks for calling it to our attention.
Yes, he should really focus on the Eastern European repertoire. He plays Chopin Mazurkas beautifully. And I really appreciate his recording of the Bartok Concertos.
A lot of these were released in the earlier CD era, which led to Schiff replacing Brendel as my principal Schubert interpreter. I also bought the Dvorak Concerto when it first came out, which introduced me to the piece.
I'm of two minds regarding his ECM recordings. I could never see the point of rerecording the Well-Tempered Clavier, but I presume the label wanted recordings they could easily sell, like the Beethoven cycle. On the other hand, I found his recording of Schubert's B Minor sonata on a forte piano to be very interesting. At the time of his Wigmore Beethoven lectures, he was quite skeptical of the merits of performing on "original" instruments, although he took aspects of forte pianos into account in his interpretation. Perhaps the most widely known example is the use of pedal in the "Moonlight" sonata to approximate the sound of Beethoven's forte piano.
If you read the liner notes, it's clear that Schiff did not use a forte piano for Schubert just for the novelty. He feels (and I'm in no position to second guess him) that it gives listeners insights into the compositions. He "kept on listening" and found that that piano sounds better for Schubert.
Schiff’s Schubert is simply phenomenal. Period.
Compare D.894 with Arcadi Volodos
I think Thibaudet’s Mendelssohn concertos were done with Blomstedt in Leipzig.
You're right.
The hat makes him look a bit like Doctor Who from the 70s.
I have a decent percentage of this, but nice to see the box! Interesting ambivalence re Schiff you report. Twice in the last year two different pianists have done repertoire surveys for BBC Radio 3, of Bach’s Partitas and English Suites, and I recall these Schiff DECCA recordings came out on top…
He has done some very good Hungaraton recordings before. Including a Scarlatti sonatas, a Beethoven Bagatelles on a Beethoven's Broadwood Piano, and a Bach concertos with Zoltán Kocsis.
I do want this box. Especially for the Mozart stuff. But it’s so expensive and I just bought the szell and dohnanyi and muti and Klemperer opera and the Bach vocal works boxes
Agreed. It's an embarrassment of riches. This set -- while it made my lips water -- look at the horizon. Soon, Cleveland/Dohnanyi will be released and further soon, Davis/Concertgebouw, and soon after that the complete MTT. Sigh. Thank God I'm still working. This is getting to be an expensive hobby!
So what's one more?? 😅
For someone who owns this: does the QR code actually bring up a digitized booklet?
Edit: tested it. Nope. There are no digitized booklets newer than late 2022. Despite being printed in every Decca booklet.
Thanks for reminding me to check out WTC 😊
Yes, as @mikewinter2235 already pointed out, Schiff has done a Beethoven sonata cycle, and it is wonderful. It is a 10 CD box from ECM New Series. They were recorded live in concert at the Tonhalle in Zurich, and the box includes a CD with all of the encores he played after the sonatas. The piano is indeed a Bosendorfer.
For me, Schiff is the most musical pianist I can think of. It is instructive to compare two TH-cam videos of Bach's Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue being performed at WQXR, one by Schiff and one by Angela Hewitt. I once spent a whole evening seeing Angela Hewitt perform the entire WTC on a huge Fazioli at the Chan Centre in Vancouver BC, and it was wonderful. However, the two renditions of the CF&F are like chalk and cheese to me -- Schiff's is just so much better. Hewitt attacks the piece like something out of the romantic period, but there is much more clarity with Schiff, who really allows the piece to breathe. Maybe it's just my taste, but there it is.
I know. I have it. I was talking about his career on Decca.
If DECCA can get something as simple as box design wrong, no wonder everything else falls apart.
I love Schiff but not on on the forte piano. For me, the more recent ECM recordings are all you need, but the chamber and vocal discs here are very, very special. So too, is the Scarlatti disc. Something magical happened, though, when he worked with Bartoli. I'm shocked that one hasn't been selected as one of Dave's Greatest Recordings Evahhh!
Give it time.
Who needs the box? I put the disks and booklets on the shelf and put the boxes in storage.
A double waste of space.
He did do a complete Beethoven cycle, a very nice one.
Yes, but not for Decca.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Yes, but you were not talking about Decca, but about him - that´s why many people comment about it.
I recently purchased the 5 Beethoven Concertos with Schiff and Haitink conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden. I love it. I am a huge Rudolf Serkin fan whom Schiff also likes. On TH-cam, there is a video of Schiff playing in a library in Weimar, Germany. Highly recommended - beautiful music in a wonderful setting. He plays Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.
Will you (or have you) review the 4-CD box set, "The Complete Music Of Anton Webern, Recorded 1954-56 under the direction of Robert Craft?" Its a SONY release I recently purchased. There is nothing beyond the basic information included in the packaging. No liner notes, which I personally like generally, but the trade-off was the $22 price tag. Curious to know your thoughts if you have any.
Mr Hurwitz has reviewed " Robert Craft the complete Columbia album collection ". 44 Cd.
@@fred6904 I seem to recall he also reviewed this specific Webern box.
Where do you get this from do you have idea of cost for this I did quick search and only found it in Euros.
Presto Classical in the UK
$458 Canadian on Amazon. Damn!!!😢
I think everyone will agree that his French Suites deserve to be in the Reference Recording section of this channel:)
Why?
Because no one listened to this works the same way after his interpretation. At least on the modern piano Schiff found that sweet spot between being highly expressive and pianistic while incorporating all the musicological knowledge and performance practice that was coming from the period instrument movement. There might be other outstanding recordings, Koroliov for example, but the popularity that Schiff's interpretation achieved was unprecedented, especially his 2010 life Leipzig recording which is the most viewed on TH-cam. I personally grew up on it, yes I'm 25.
In sume, in the French Suites Schiff integrated organically the "tear dropping" expressiveness of the romantic Bach tradition with the best of what can be learned from the period performance practice people making the most popular recording of this works to this day.
Excuse my English, it's not my first language.
Your English is great. It's your claim to know how "everyone" thinks and feels about these performances (which I like very much) that I question. Thank you, though, for explaining how they appear to YOU. I'd stick with that approach.
Dear Dave, thank you for your response I much appreciate it. I just want to clarify that my initial claim was not to "know" but to "think" that everybody would agree with my view, that being that Schiff's French Suites are the Reference Recording for this particular work, I apologise if this wasn't clearly expressed in my comment, I'll be more careful in my further interactions. Keep on sharing with us your infinete knowledge and love for classical music. Best wishes from Spain!
the packaging is atrocious 😂 “Decca is proud to announce the release of the Schiff *bucket*” 🪣