Rudolf Serkin : Yay, nay or meh..?

1.) Yea, and Yay!

Rudolph Serkin was a tremendous musician and one very fine pianist, from Bartok to Beethoven, and much else. You might listen to his take of the Apassionata - I think you would not fail to be more than favorably impressed with the playing and the musicianship.

I would take just about any Rudolph Serkin recording to be seriously good, musical and intelligent playing. I might even blaspheme against another dusty archival idol like Wilhelm Kempf - and without 'dissing' Willy, say that Rudolph Serkin was as good or better.

2.) Nay, and, uh, Nay.

I'm feeling so alone in the following opinion

http://www.thewambulance.com/

The Hammerklavier - I think it is one of Beethoven's most massive fails, and though 'ugly' in Beethoven does not discount beauty or greatness, this sonata is truly 'ugly' and without the redeeming factors.

I think people go indiscriminately bonkers over anyone who writes a fugue along the lines of 18th century counterpoint ala ye ole Saxon Master, and are blinded to the fact that all of Beethoven's such attempts are also fails, a basic conflict of being a harmonist in struggle with a horizontal contrapuntal mechanism - unlike so many of his other interesting struggles, these fugal struggles are all losers.

Often struggle within a work of Beethoven, that you hear the poor man was wrestling with his musical materials like a sculptor using all his muscle to hew the finished object out of a block of marble, is, I think, one part of why he appeals to so many.

So to me the Hammerklavier is, initially, both tremendous, in-your-face audacious (makes me laugh, but the laugh is at an arrogant sophomoric punk mentality - the theater here more of a cheap carnival sort than high art) and therefore trite, I think a bad cliche even when it was fresh. So I think it hammer over your head overly obvious, and in that last fugue, well, Luigi, back to the drafting board and maybe ditch that last effort.

Beethoven's only real high summit of masterly contrapuntual 'display' is in the Missa Solemnis, where he sat down and studied Palestrina et alia, and used modal (not tonal / 18th century) counterpoint - and it is for symphonic and vocal forces, freed from constraints of needing to fit under two hands at a keyboard. And a very high summit that piece is.

Best regards.

I became familiar with Rudolf Serkin when I was 12 years old when I joined the Columbia Record Club. He had an album featuring the Moonligh, Pathetique & Appassionata Sonatas of Beethoven. Later I purchased the Brahms Piano Concertos with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

A few years ago I read an article published in the Music Teachers Association of California concerning his legacy. This person who wrote the article did not have very many nice things to say about him however, I can say that none of us play perfectly all the time and overall I have always been very pleased with his performances and he did give us Cecile Licad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdy400hNHuM

I will say that his son Peter has not impressed me much.

I will give Mr. Serkin a big thumbs up. Yay

As far as the Hammerklavier goes all I can say is "it sure is long"

Yay.......Yay.......and YAY !!!!!!!

IMHO he yanks right alongside the other GREATEST instrumentalist of the 20th century: Artur Rubinstein/Jasha Heifetz/Dinu Lipatti/etc.

And if you aren't already familiar with him, you might also like to check out some recordings of the great French pianist, Robert Casadesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kD8af-LC70&feature...

Alberich