Re: Is this the best Schumann op. 14 on record?

On Sun, 28 Jul 2024 6:27:19 +0000, Rachmaninoff wrote:

On Sun, 28 Jul 2024 5:05:49 +0000, DeepBlue wrote:
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On Sat, 27 Jul 2024 7:05:36 +0000, Rachmaninoff wrote:
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On Fri, 26 Jul 2024 5:38:49 +0000, DeepBlue wrote:
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Ayako Uehara live recordings from
the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bthGw96jh7g
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I like it better than Horowitz and Sokolov.
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What do the piano mavens think?
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TIA

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Excellent. Revelatory, even. This sonata never
sounded to me like it was composed around the
same period as the Fantasie, until now. Other
performances make it sound more like late,
dense, dark, esoteric Schumann.

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What do you think of this one?
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Yasuko Furumi PTNA 2017
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPhXMmt58vQ
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TIA!

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Quite different from Uehara. Bolder tonal palette.

Could partially be related to recording venue
and record age. AU's performance was recorded
in 2002 at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition
in Moscow, while Yasuko Furumi was recorded
in 2017 at the PTNA competition, in clearly
better sound.

Interpretation is more old-school.

She doesn't quite project the total loss of
control AU pulls off with so much control! ;-)
AU must have had the high of her life at
the competition!
It is otherwise pretty clear that YF has
listened both to Horowitz and to AU. The
latter is nothing less than a national
hero in Japan.
YF sounds more "organized"/"structured"
and less improvisational than AU. She is
very good, but doesn't quite reach the
inspiration level and the refined detail
that is AU's hallmark. AU's phrasing is
also more fluid than YF's, or than more
other pianists' for that matter.

The playing suggests to me how I imagine
Horowitz might have played it in the early
60s without the agogics of his late 70s
performances.

Good call. As Rosenthal once said about
Paderewski, Horowitz was no Horowitz in
his later years.
Cheers!