# Oddball Versions



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Goebel's_ Brandenburgs: _he tried to squeeze the six concertos into one CD.

Erwin Nyiregyhazi's _Liszt and Chopin_. Very odd.

Horowitz's Chopin _Mazurkas, _
Tureck's earliest _Goldbergs and Keyboard Partitas, _
Richter's _Schubert sonatas_ and some of his _Well Tempered Clavier (like B minor Book 1), _
Pletnev's _Scarlatti, _
Pogorelich's _Haydn sonata 19 _and his Chopin _Preludes _and his Brahms (in fact, everything by Pogorelich except his Beethoven and Schumann is oddball), 
Schnabel's _Mozart Concerto #27, _
Gould's _Hammerklavier, _
Gould's _Mozart Sonatas_ (some of them), 
Harnoncourt's _Haydn Paris Symphonies and Handel Concerti, _
Schnabel's _Hammerclavier, _
Boulez _Mahler 6, _
Gilels _Beethoven Pastoral Sonata...
_
Roger Norrington's _Beethoven symphonies _with The London Classical Players.

Pletnev's Beethoven cycle in fast tempi.

Rubinstein: Albeniz "Navarra"

Moiseiwitsch: Chopin preludes: No. 16 in B flat minor, suddenly pausing on the top note before dive-bombing into the abyss.

Cortot: Chopin preludes, live 1955 in Munich.

Gidon Kremer: Beethoven Violin Concerto/Neville Marriner, where Kremer plays cadenzas by Schnittke

Anatol Ugorski playing Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze. Odd, but I like. I like his Messiaen as well.

Valery Afanassiev--Denon Schubert recordings.

Celibidache--Debussy Nocturnes 1st movement - Nuages - slow, slow, slow, like molasses, and Ravel's _Pavane for a dead Princess,_ dead slow.

Bernstein: his DG Tchaikovsky 6th is almost an hour long... his Philips 'Tristan' is over forty five minutes longer than my next longest complete recording.


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## apricissimus (May 15, 2013)

Gould's Appassionata is also really weird:


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Wasn't he an odd bunny?

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention Otto Klemperer's Beethoven cycle on EMI with Barenboim On the concertos: S—l—o—w.....


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## Yardrax (Apr 29, 2013)

With regards to Gould, I remember reading that at least some of the oddities in his tempo choices were down to his opinion of the music. He played the pieces he didn't like at higher than usual tempo's so he could get them over and done with quickly, whereas the one's he did like are at much slower tempo's to allow himself and the listener to contemplate the music more.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Yardrax said:


> With regards to Gould, I remember reading that at least some of the oddities in his tempo choices were down to his opinion of the music. He played the pieces he didn't like at higher than usual tempo's so he could get them over and done with quickly, whereas the one's he did like are at much slower tempo's to allow himself and the listener to contemplate the music more.


Yeah, I can see that, but I think it's a little more detailed than that description. The super-fast ones are usually the ones that are "decorative" sounding, with no harmonic surprises or twists; so Gould played them fast not so he could "get through them faster," but to compensate, with his flawless technique, for their inherent lack of "profundity." Not that I see them as actually lacking; I think Bach used "grey" like any artist, to provide contrast. He did this a lot in the French Suites, and English Suites, works which are, to a degree, Bach in "automatic" mode. Git'er done!

On other occasions, like in the "Italian" Bach CD released posthumously, some of it just sounds better faster, and he's the man to do it.

On the other hand, every version of the Sinfonia No. 9 in F minor has been "too fast," or, rather, the players just "walk through it" like it was reading out loud for the class. Gould slows it down a bit, and "lingers" on the meaningful phrases; he definitely saw something in this piece which all others missed. Ahhhh, the darkness!


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

It is sometimes said that there is a point where the ridiculous and the sublime meet. I have seen that point, and it is Glenn Gould playing Liszt's transcription of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Apart from pretty much ballsing up the final movement of the 9th and one or two other tempi oddities I wouldn't say Norrington's Beethoven is oddball as such - more love it/hate it when set against perceived wisdom as to how Beethoven should generally sound. I haven't dared go near his Mahler recordings, though.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Apart from pretty much ballsing up the final movement of the 9th and one or two other tempi oddities I wouldn't say Norrington's Beethoven is oddball as such...


Then show me "new weird." Normalising my choices is counter-productive.

Pletnev's Fifth?


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

millionrainbows said:


> Then show me "new weird." Normalising my choices is counter-productive.
> 
> Pletnev's Fifth?


Well, if YOU think it strange, then fair enough - I was merely opining that it just doesn't seem that much so to me. If you haven't heard it then try and listen to Colin Davis's Bruckner 6 when you find time - again, maybe it isn't oddball but to me it sounds markedly different to any other 6th I've got.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Herbert von Karajan's live recording of Haydn's The Creation (DG, 1982) is so slow, it sounds more like The Evolution.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

As strange as all the oddball performances you mention (that I've heard) are, it's amazing how many of them work so well. Some of Richter's versions of Bach's WTC & Schubert sonatas (esp. the G Major) make it hard for me to listen to anyone else playing them, and I'm persuaded by Boulez's Mahler 6 (picking gems out of his set has been a source of joy after an initial period of bafflement). I'd listen to Tureck's Goldberg's more if I could ever find the time! 

Other slow performances that work well for me are Solomon's Hammerklavier and Petrushanski's Shostakovich op.87 (though he misses some notes, I like the approach). 

I like Gould's Brahms Piano Concerto #1 despite Bernstein's disavowing it. 

Thanks for all the mentions, even if they're not recommendations!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> Herbert von Karajan's live recording of Haydn's The Creation (DG, 1982) is so slow, it sounds more like The Evolution.


:lol:



millionrainbows said:


> Goebel's_ Brandenburgs: _he tried to squeeze the six concertos into one CD.


Now don't knock it. His handling of the moto perpetuo in the slow movements is top notch... :angel:


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Celibidache doing Bach's B minor mass:









Take the opening Kyrie. Any slower, and they'd be playing it backwards!


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Celloman said:


> Celibidache doing Bach's B minor mass: Take the opening Kyrie. Any slower, and they'd be playing it backwards!


Before that happens, they'd be playing LaMont Young! :lol:

Celibidache supposedly bases his tempos on the reverberation time of whatever hall he's in. That means no gigs in caves, unless you want super-slow...and no gigs in anechoic chambers, unless you want super-fast.

_Celibidache Live in Concert at the Grand Canyon,_ a 10-disc box set of Mozart's Symphony No. 40 (only)


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