- Purchase a product from the Music Store sold by Amazon.co.uk and receive £1 to use on an album download in our MP3 Store. Here's how (terms and conditions apply)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s
Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or
view the MP3 Album.
|
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
At music parties, piano duets are usually a thing to do rather than listen to, enthusiastic performances generally met with fixed smiles that wear a bit thin after a while. But in the right hands, the gems of the piano duet repertoire come alive, and you could not ask for two safer pairs of hands than those of Sviatoslav Richter and Benjamin Britten. The extraordinary thing about these performances is the sense of intimacy--you get the notion that the two players would have been just as happy making music with no audience whatsoever. But this sheer enjoyment of the act of music making communicates through performances that sparkle throughout. The recordings were made in the mid-sixties, and the sound is not so close as you would expect from a modern recording. But if you value musicality over audio brilliance, this is the recording to have. The best-known piece is the Fantasy in F minor, written in the year of Schubert's death. The opening is one of Schubert's most hauntingly beautiful melodies, his trademark major/minor shift used to full effect. --Keith Clarke
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vintage Aldeburgh magic,
By
This review is from: Schubert: Fantasy in F minor for piano duet; Grand Duo Sonata in C etc. (Audio CD)
This is a wonderful recording, with two maestros at their zenith. There is a real feeling for the music as well as a clear empathy between the performers. Not to be missed.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Something Special,
By
This review is from: Schubert: Fantasy in F minor for piano duet; Grand Duo Sonata in C etc. (Audio CD)
Having read negative reviews on Amazon.com, I'd been hesitant to add this CD to my Richter collection, but now I'm very glad that I bought it, encouraged by listening to the other Richter/Britten duo DECCA CD of Mozart and Debussy's piano music (sadly out of print).
The stereo sound quality is not as bad as I feared; Grand Duo in C suffers from muddy acoustics, especially the lower registers, but Fantasie and Variations benefit from relatively good recording quality. After repeated playbacks, my ears soon adjusted and it's never ceased to give me delight and new discoveries ever since. There are more technically polished, more faithful-to-score-markings, and certainly better recorded performances around. However, the sheer artistry of the two great musical minds and their infectious affection for Schubert's music make these performances something very special.
7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
GOOD NOT GREAT,
By DAVID BRYSON (Glossop Derbyshire England) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Schubert: Fantasy in F minor for piano duet; Grand Duo Sonata in C etc. (Audio CD)
From such a duo I suspect I was looking for great things on a mid-price label. What I have got is bargain-label-quality recorded sound and good rather than great things. We are not told who is playing primo and who secondo in any of these 3 live performances. I thought I ought to have been able to recognise Richter, but in honesty I'm not sure, at least yet. The variations may be new to me, and I like the performance without having anything to compare it with. The other two works are among Schubert's greatest, and I have slightly mixed feelings. In the F minor fantasy their tempo for the main refrain is faster than I am used to but it didn't take me long to adapt -- it is after all an allegro albeit heavily qualified. In the scherzo of the Grand Duo I shall find adaptation harder. It is a bit deliberate for ears used to the superb schwung and impetus of Brendel and Evelyne Crochet. Their speed in the last movement I doubt I shall ever accept -- it's way too fast. This movement manifestly inspired the final allegro non troppo of Brahms's piano quintet, and any sense of rush in either if them sets my teeth on edge. I'm years out of date with the arguments regarding the identification of the lost Gastein symphony. It was once, maybe still is, thought to have been in C major, and Tovey argued that the Grand Duo was it. Tovey's normally reliable judgment was affected by his loyalty to Joachim, who had dressed it up in an excruciatingly dull Schumannesque orchestration. Anyone looking for a perfectly obvious symphony in piano score can find one easily in the so-called Reliquie sonata, which is in C major too. I don't know what the arguments against this are, but if dates and other considerations fit, surely a few genuine scholars must have made the equation before now.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
![Double Decca [8]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RlBacLgjL._AA60_.jpg)
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
