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AustraliaRiveting
It’s extremely rare, great instrumentalists also turn out to be great musicians. The large bevy of today’s international prize-winners merely have brilliant fingers; what they know about music has largely been taught them, so in attending their concerts, it quickly becomes apparent the music is purely a vehicle for their astonishing instrumental endowments. Such gifts can be equated with the circus or a sporting event, where prevailing physical perfection is top of the menu, akin to a Lang Lang concert! However, over and above technical supremacy must lie the ultimate and most immediate goal – music! ART is altogether another level again! above instrumental (or sporting) perfection, but so few achieve this, partly because the notes are often already hard enough! It is so difficult addressing sufficient thought to the music’s needs whilst negotiating all those millions of notes, getting them in exactly the right order. Alas and alack, this is where the story ends for 99% of today’s performers! The most gifted are not only able to achieve this, but can transform their clear vision into what the music is either saying, or how the music interprets itself through the performer. Cortot, Rubenstein, Heifetz, Toscanini, Gilels, Callas, Schnabel, Schwarzkopf, Josef Hofmann et al are amongst the greatest of these, possessing “truly!” singular technical abilities, whilst the luster of their miraculous and convincing visions and resolute command of the music’s meaning and purport shines at the core. Though not quite of the same ilk, and some might argue, his musical penetration not quite as deep, I nevertheless regard Byron Janis as a musician who always places “music” front and centre, and this recording of Prokofiev’s 3rd Piano Concerto is a candescent performance, and a radiant example. Sadly for me, the shine on Mussorgsky’s Pictures in ANY arrangement has tarnished, and is virtually unsalvageable, so I purchased this download for the Prokofiev alone. Nonetheless Janis gives an extremely convincing and ignited reading, so I can happily recommend it, and indeed would recommend it over and above many other more recent recordings.
IsraelWonderful
Excellent playing. Fresh sound
Description:
Title: Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 In C Major, Opus 26
Modest Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition (For The Piano)
Artist(s): Prokofiev: Byron Janis, piano
Conductor – Kiril Kondrashin Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Mussorgsky Byron Janis, piano
Recording Info: Transferred from a 15ips 2 track tape
Producer and Recording Director: Wilma Cozart
Co-Engineer – Robert W. Eberenz
Engineer, Recording Supervisor – C. Robert Fine
Prokofiev: Recorded at Bolshoi Hall, Moscow Conservatory, Moscow: 1961
by Mercury Records using 35mm Magnetic Film Recording
Mussorgsky: Recorded at Fine Recording for Mercury Records, NYC 1961
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 In C Major, Opus 26 26:49
1 Andante - Allegro 8:56
2 Tema Con Variazione 8:56
3 Allegro Ma Non Troppo 8:57
Mussorgsky Pictures At An Exhibition (For The Piano)
4 Promenade 1:29
5 Gnomus 2:25
6 Promenade 55
7 Il Vecchio Castle 4:25
8 Promenade :28
9 Tuileries 1:00
10 Bydlo 2:49
11 Promenade :43
12 Ballet Of The Chicks In Their Shells 1:13
13 Two Polish Jews, One Rich, The Other Poor 1:51
14 Limoges, The Market Place 1:20
15 Catacombe (Sepulcrum Romanum) 1:47
16 Cum Mortuis In Lingua Mortua 2:00
17 The Hut On Fowl's Legs (Baba-Yaga) 2:59
18 The Great Gates Of Kiev 4:11
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