passion_chorale Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 "If you can’t make an audience laugh at the end of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op 31 No 1, you should become an organist.” (Alfred Brendel) From today's Times: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle6856909.ece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vox Humana Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Harumph! (Seems to be dated 3 Oct last though?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
passion_chorale Posted January 8, 2010 Author Share Posted January 8, 2010 Harumph! (Seems to be dated 3 Oct last though?) Ah yes true...I followed one of the 'related links' so obviously must have led me away from today's paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dulciana Posted January 8, 2010 Share Posted January 8, 2010 Can he cite an occasion on which the audience were physically laughing at his conclusion of Beethoven's sonata op 31 no 1? Incidentally, in the same article he states his lack of sympathy with the music of Rachmaninov as relating to the latter's lack of invention: this coming from a man whose performing career consisted in a large part of the piano music of Beethoven, and nothing (or very little) contemporary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjf1967 Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 Can he cite an occasion on which the audience were physically laughing at his conclusion of Beethoven's sonata op 31 no 1? Incidentally, in the same article he states his lack of sympathy with the music of Rachmaninov as relating to the latter's lack of invention: this coming from a man whose performing career consisted in a large part of the piano music of Beethoven, and nothing (or very little) contemporary. Well, I don't know about Op 31 but there is certainly a film (on youtube last time I looked) of Brendel making an audience laugh out loud in a Haydn Sonata movement - and anyway, I suspect his remark about organists was made tongue in cheek (he's an amusing as well as a profoundly intellectual man, as those who have read his poetry will know). And although he is now mainly associated with the Viennese classics, as a younger pianist Brendel was in command of a vast repertoire - including the then rarely played Schoenberg Concerto. Stravinsky Petrushka and much else (even some Rachmaninov I think, so at least he tried!). The series of recordings he made on the Vox label in the 1960s and 1970s bears this out. I don't have a problem with any performer deciding they have a particular affinity with a small area of repertoire if they play it as well as Brendel does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusingMuso Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 "If you can’t make an audience laugh at the end of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op 31 No 1, you should become an organist.” (Alfred Brendel) From today's Times: http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle6856909.ece =========================== That's a wonderfully wry joke from Brendel. Still, I suppose if you can't play Bach, it's best to stick to the piano!!!!!! MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Bennett Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 =========================== That's a wonderfully wry joke from Brendel. Still, I suppose if you can't play Bach, it's best to stick to the piano!!!!!! MM Wicked - but hilarious! Brendel is quoted as saying he is responsible to the composer and to the piece, whereas it seems to me that organists (uniquely?) often see their responsibility as being towards the instrument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusingMuso Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Wicked - but hilarious! Brendel is quoted as saying he is responsible to the composer and to the piece, whereas it seems to me that organists (uniquely?) often see their responsibility as being towards the instrument. ========================= Well, how could he claim that an play Bach on a Steinway? Tut,tut..... Organists do have their little joke endings, and I have a few of mine own; especially for that Bolero by Lefebrue-Wely (Sp?), where I end with a jazz chord which seems so....erm...appropriate. Then we have the Pietro Yon "Toccatina" One of the funniest things I ever heard was Nicholas Kynaston playing the Leipziger Gigue by Mozart....easy to understand why Mozart got thrown out of a church for taking the p*** at the organ. It would be a dull world without the Austrians. I don't believe I just wrote that...... MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbarber49 Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 One of the funniest things I ever heard was Nicholas Kynaston playing the Leipziger Gigue by Mozart....easy to understand why Mozart got thrown out of a church for taking the p*** at the organ. Although it was a piano piece, wasn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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