Hello

[Rod]

If forgot to mention that the 24 year old Handel had his duel with Domenico Scarlatti, not the elder. Apparently the observers gave Scarlatti the prize with the harpsichord, but Handel won on the organ.

Back to music, here is the music I had originally planned to post earlier. Guess the piano Frankli!

But everyone enjoy. Some of you may have heard this before so don't say anything yet other than 'yes Beethoven is THE KING OF THE PIANO!!'...
http://www.mysharefile.com/v/7634919...ack_4.wma.html

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Frankli]

Originally posted by Rod:
If forgot to mention that the 24 year old Handel had his duel with Domenico Scarlatti, not the elder. Apparently the observers gave Scarlatti the prize with the harpsichord, but Handel won on the organ.

Wasn't there a movie where the duel is shown? In which they play a variation on a chaconne one by one?

Back to music, here is the music I had originally planned to post earlier. Guess the piano Frankli!

Fascinating stuff. It sounds like the very first pianoforte I ever heard, some 30 years ago - I was a kid then. Musically one of the most magical moments in my life, it instantly triggered my love for old pianos, which has never left me since then. It also somehow made me realize that this was more like Beethoven wished to be heard than when performed om a modern grand. It all made sense to me.

I haven't heard that record since then, but the pianist was Jörg Demus and he played on Beethoven's own Graf, which at that time had been really badly restored. It was an lp with op. 110 (so, just like this), and some Bagatelles - not sure.
I know that the piano has been restored again, and since in my memory the instrument on the old record sounded worse than this one, more like a bar piano, I say: it's the same old Graf, but after the new restauration.
Despite its shortcomings I find the sound really ravishing, so I hope that I am right.
But guessing the performer is much more difficult.
Thanks for this Rod, I really enjoyed it!

[Rod]

Originally posted by Frankli:
Fascinating stuff. It sounds like the very first pianoforte I ever heard, some 30 years ago - I was a kid then. Musically one of the most magical moments in my life, it instantly triggered my love for old pianos, which has never left me since then. It also somehow made me realize that this was more like Beethoven wished to be heard than when performed om a modern grand. It all made sense to me.

I haven't heard that record since then, but the pianist was Jörg Demus and he played on Beethoven's own Graf, which at that time had been really badly restored. It was an lp with op. 110 (so, just like this), and some Bagatelles - not sure.
I know that the piano has been restored again, and since in my memory the instrument on the old record sounded worse than this one, more like a bar piano, I say: it's the same old Graf, but after the new restauration.
Despite its shortcomings I find the sound really ravishing, so I hope that I am right.
But guessing the performer is much more difficult.
Thanks for this Rod, I really enjoyed it!

I don't know about the duel scene sorry. Regarding the music it occured to me that I don't really have anything that sounds out of the ordinary like the Fritz did, so I just went for this novelty track...using Beethoven's Graf performed by Georg Demus! The piano clearly sounds like a Graf but it is in bad condition here, you can hear that, however even in this state it has a colour and energy impossible to find on the modern piano. The CD is a recording is from the 60s and is damaged in some places, it has not been remastered. It is the LP you heard long ago, it includes the bagatelles Op126.

See I've taken you back to your childhood, perhaps I was reading your mind. But Beethoven has no equal with this instrument - Beethoven IS the piano.


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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin


[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 09-21-2006).]

[Frankli]

Originally posted by Rod:
I don't know about the duel scene sorry. Regarding the music it occured to me that I don't really have anything that sounds out of the ordinary like the Fritz did, so I just went for this novelty track...using Beethoven's Graf performed by Georg Demus! The piano clearly sounds like a Graf but it is in bad condition here, you can hear that, however even in this state it has a colour and energy impossible to find on the modern piano. The CD is a recording is from the 60s and is damaged in some places, it has not been remastered. It is the LP you heard long ago, it includes the bagatelles Op126.

So it *is* the old one! My lp was from the public library and there were scratches all over.. No wonder that I had vague associations with a piano in a saloon; that's actually how most people perceive it when hearing an old instrument for the first time. It's a really great instrument full of character, and somehow its shortcomings add to that, just like the wrinkles on the face of your beloved can.

See I've taken you back to your childhood, perhaps I was reading your mind. But Beethoven has no equal with this instrument - Beethoven IS the piano.

Well said, and I'll see if the cd still is available somewhere.

[Rod]

Originally posted by Frankli:
Well said, and I'll see if the cd still is available somewhere.

I still think the English-style fortepianos sound like bar-room models you see in old Westerns. I agree with what you say about B's Graf.

The CD is available on the Beethoven Haus label - Ars Musici. If you can't find it locally you can order it from the Beethoven Haus website.

PS I forgot about your last track. Have downloaded, will listen tonight.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin



[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 09-22-2006).]

[Rod]

I've listened to your track by C.Wood. Surely the most wooden performance of Handel I have heard, though I have head performances approaching this. It is bad enough that so much Beethoven is performed at half tempo, but Handel, for decades, maybe centuries, has been performed by idiots at quarter tempo. Why has it taken musicians 250 years to realise that?

All the music in this chain but nobody here has much to say. Usual scenario at the Beethoven forum...

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 09-22-2006).]

[Nightklavier]

Well all I can say is "thank you" for posting these files for our listening pleasure... Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) as a fledgeling amateur, I can't contribute much to this topic. But regardless, I've been listening to the music and reading every post here with enthusiasm.

[Rutradelusasa]

Todos os brasileiros que aqui apareceram, sumiram misteriosamente , com exceção de mim \o/.

Bem-vindo!

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"Wer ein holdes weib errugen..."

[Frankli]

Originally posted by Rod:

The CD is available on the Beethoven Haus label - Ars Musici. If you can't find it locally you can order it from the Beethoven Haus website.

Lazy as I am I ordered it from the Bonn website. 15 bucks is not much for an original Beethoven piano. I wonder though how the piano would sound now.

Still busy trying to find out in which movie there is the harpsichord duel between two gentlemen, who play this great Passacaglia (from the Suite in g):
http://www.mysharefile.com/v/2895311...aglia.mp3.html

One improvises a variation, and the other one tries to imitate it. I've seen iut once, but where? The only movie that I know of with Handel as one of the main characters, is Farinelli, but it's not that one, so if anyone has suggestions?

[Frankli]

Originally posted by Rod:
I've listened to your track by C.Wood. Surely the most wooden performance of Handel I have heard, though I have head performances approaching this. It is bad enough that so much Beethoven is performed at half tempo, but Handel, for decades, maybe centuries, has been performed by idiots at quarter tempo. Why has it taken musicians 250 years to realise that?

It's amazing, isn't it? Wood was considered as a great Handel performer once; I now use him when I cannot sleep.
Now and then I secretly (curtains closed, headphones) listen to Thomas Beecham's reorcastrations of Handel works. It's great fun. Somehow I like it.

[PDG]

Originally posted by Frankli:

Now and then I secretly (curtains closed, headphones) listen to Thomas Beecham's reorcastrations of Handel works.

Ouch!

[Rod]

Originally posted by Frankli:

...Now and then I secretly (curtains closed, headphones) listen to Thomas Beecham's reorcastrations of Handel works. It's great fun. Somehow I like it.

You're a true musical masochist Frank. I bet you video youself while you do it.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Frankli]

Originally posted by Rod:
You're a true musical masochist Frank. I bet you video youself while you do it.

You watch Youtube too much, Rod! Anyway, Beecham's interpretations make you forget Handel altogether. I didn't recognize the source of more than half of the tracks on this recording.

[Rod]

Originally posted by Frankli:
You watch Youtube too much, Rod! Anyway, Beecham's interpretations make you forget Handel altogether. I didn't recognize the source of more than half of the tracks on this recording.

Not me, I never watch Youtube. I was wondering how much of Beethoven's piano music do you have recorded using the fortepiano?

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[Frankli]

Originally posted by Rod:
Not me, I never watch Youtube. I was wondering how much of Beethoven's piano music do you have recorded using the fortepiano?

Virtually every note in 1 to 5 different interpretations. The three biggest omissions, are, I think, op. 134, the reworking of the violin concerto, and the early piano quartets. Do you have those played on the fp, or are you aware of any existing recordings?