# Andras Schiff



## nefigah

Since the man doesn't get mentioned as often around here as some other pianists, I figured I'd make an Andras thread 

I first heard about him thanks to *Weston*, who pointed me to his excellent series of lecture recitals on the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas. I've since seen him in documentaries about Bach and Chopin, and I think even if he weren't a great pianist, the sheer amount of good he's done in providing insight about the great masters makes him amazing.

I own a couple of his Beethoven recordings as well, which I like. I know how important it is to him to provide true-to-the-composer interpretations, and I like it when he plays something different than "the norm" due to that.

Is anyone else a fan?


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## Polednice

I very much like Andras Schiff - the first recording of his that I bought was Schubert's 'Wanderer Fantasy'. He's also the patron of a piano festival/masterclass that happens in my city every year, so he visits fairly often!


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## Weston

I sheepishly raise my hand. Yes, I think the man is humbly brilliant.

Someone pointed me in the direction of those Beethoven lectures as well as this forum when I was still trying to use Usenet. I do not know the name of that person but he / she is probably a regular on these forums. I can only pass it on by word of mouth in return. 

Having enjoyed Schiff's Beethoven sonatas it is hard to listen to other versions now, especially if the repeat is in the "wrong" place in the Pathetique. If he would do some lectures for Mozart music he might even turn me into a Mozart fan. His gentle voice and great reverence for the composers would make anything sound amazing to me.

I am looking into some of his other interpretations, but I don't know where best to start. I am thinking of his Bach Partitias - or perhaps his Schubert.


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## StlukesguildOhio

Of course. Don't miss his _Goldberg Variations_ or his Scarlatti sonatas.


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## Air

Of course I like Schiff. I'd take his Bach and his Mozart Piano Concerti to my desert island any day without complaint.


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## schubert_1797

Try something “unusual” too, like his Janáček (ECM) or Smetana Polkas (Teldec). His Schumann discs (Denon 1980s, 2 on Teldec, ECM live) are amazing too!


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## hankz

I enjoy Schiff's Schubert playing and also his Bach. Wonderful, sensitive player.


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## Polednice

hankz said:


> I enjoy Schiff's Schubert playing and also his Bach. Wonderful, sensitive player.


I haven't heard much of Schiff's Schubert - has he done the late sonatas? How do you think he compares to Uchida? I listened to Uchida on recommendation recently, and thought that parts of her playing were too fast for her own good, leading her to run over things that could otherwise be given greater weight as in Perahia's great execution of the sonatas.


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## dafnis

love Schiff's Schubert... try his Decca disc on Impromptus D.899, Moments and German Dances. I do own the oiginal CD, I see now they have included it in a 2-CD with the klavierstucke D.946 and the otehr set of impromptus pus some smaller pieces.


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## schubert_1797

He has certainly done the late sonatas! I got the 7-CD series one by one as they were coming out in the 90s. I believe they are now available in a boxed set (London/Decca). I personally love all of them, plus the Lieder with Peter Schreier (London) and trios with Miklós Perényi and Yuuko Shiokawa (Teldec). There are two live recordings of a few sonatas and symphonies with the Philharmonia in the Decca Concerts series, as well as a DVD of Schöne Müllerin with Fischer-Dieskau!


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## schubert_1797

Oh, and there’s also the Wanderer-Fantasie on ECM!


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## Artemis

schubert_1797 said:


> He has certainly done the late sonatas!


It's very nice to have another Schubert fan on board at this Forum.


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## realdealblues

I'm going to bump an old thread and try to give Andras Schiff a few more comments.

I own a lot of complete and almost complete sets of Beethoven's Sonatas. Gilels, Brendel (1, 2 & 3), Gulda, Jando, Frank, Fischer, Goode, Arrau, Barenboim (1 & 2), Lewis, O'Connor, Schiff and a few others I can't recall of the top of my head. I haven't listened to the Schiff recordings since they came out so I decided to revisit them.

I'm going back and listening to Schiff's Beethoven Sonatas along with his lectures this time. So, before I listen to each sonata I listen to his lecture and it really has made the whole experience all the more interesting.

He has such different phrasing than I am used too. Most folks go for a more lyrical, melodic quality to me where things sound more smooth and to my ear, more natural, but also more romantic. Schiff's phrasing does just the opposite. It's more jagged and it truly does make me wonder if that was more of what Beethoven intended.

I was recently listening to several Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies recordings I own and I got the same feeling from Mischa Dichter's recordings. I'm used to a smoother, more romantic style and in comes Dichter with this kind of jagged, start and stop phrasing that has this more broken up feel and I remember wondering the same thing, is this more of what Liszt intended?

I don't know what is correct. Lots of these pianists have studied these scores and come to their own conclusions of what they think is correct and I like the contrast, but I admit it's really different for me to listen too and I wonder if my penchant for a more lyrical, melodic, flowing style is just because I'm used to hearing music being played that way throughout my lifetime or if it's just inherently wired into my brain?

Anyway, I've only just finished listening through the first volume (Sonatas 1-4) but his tone and touch on the recording is also really nice so if nothing else, I really like the way it sounds and am still looking forward to revisiting this sonata cycle.

Anyone else have any thoughts on Schiff's Beethoven Sonatas?


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## ptr

realdealblues said:


> Anyone else have any thoughts on Schiff's Beethoven Sonatas?


Of modern recordings I like Schiff the best, his more unromantic stance penetrates the music better in my ears! Thanks for Your thoughts, I will have to pull out the discs again and listen!
Have You heard his lectures on Beethoven that was published by the Guardian?, well worth the bother if they are still available!

/ptr


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## realdealblues

ptr said:


> Of modern recordings I like Schiff the best, his more unromantic stance penetrates the music better in my ears! Thanks for Your thoughts, I will have to pull out the discs again and listen!
> Have You heard his lectures on Beethoven that was published by the Guardian?, well worth the bother if they are still available!
> 
> /ptr


Yeah, I've been listening to each Lecture before listening to each Piano Sonata. I'd listened to the lectures before as well but never right before listening to each Piano Sonata. It seems like a logical thing I can't believe I didn't do it years ago.

I'd really like to hear him do the same thing with Mozat's Piano Sonatas. Do lectures on each and record (well re-record) them "live" like he did the Beethoven sonatas. I'd be curious to see how much his interpretations might have changed since he recorded the Mozart Piano Sonatas so long ago.


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## KenOC

realdealblues said:


> Anyone else have any thoughts on Schiff's Beethoven Sonatas?


Just that I agree totally with what you write! Schiff's set is outstanding but is somewhat scattered and expensive right now. His lectures are simply amazing -- no matter how familiar you are with the sonatas, there is a lot of surprising and fascinating new information here, links among the sonatas, and so forth. I like to play a lecture or two followed by the entire sonatas when out on weekend drives with the wife.


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## Turangalîla

I have not heard all his Beethoven sonatas, but his lectures on them are excellent. I have the highest respect for his commitment to accurate historical interpretation—his playing is often criticized for being dry, but really, it is because it has no trace of the Romantic idiom that listeners are accustomed to. He did a fabulous job of editing Bach scores for the Henle urtext edition.


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## Couac Addict

Bach's English suites are top-notch ...courtesy of _The Schiff_


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## KenOC

BTW Schiff's new recordings of the Diabelli Variations were released two weeks ago. Plural, because this is a two disc release with two versions of the Diabellis, one on a century-old Bechstein grand and the other on a Beethoven-era fortepiano. The first disc also has the Op. 111 piano sonata, and the second has the Bagatelles Op. 126.

This may sound very strange, and maybe a bit too much of a good thing! But I'm enjoying these discs very much.


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## SanAntone

I've started watching a master class with *András Schiff* on the last three *Beethoven* sonatas. This has rekindled my interest in his recordings of the Beethoven sonatas as well as the *Bach* _Well-Tempered Clavier_.

So I created four playlists:

1. the Beethoven sonatas and the _Diabelli Variations_, 
2. the Bach _WTC_ and _Goldberg Variations_, 
3. then a playlist of his *Schubert* recordings 
4. and another of his *Schumann* recordings.

This is some of the greatest music for solo piano, or keyboard (Bach), ever written played by a master pianist. He is a very good teacher as well.

*András Schiff teaches Beethoven: The Late Piano Sonatas*










András Schiff looks at Beethoven's three late Piano Sonatas, and explains with passion his interpretation of these exceptional works.

Very familiar with Beethoven's work, he chronologically recorded in 2004 the 32 Piano Sonatas, with the help of the original manuscript scores, or very old editions. This very single attention paid to the composer's instructions allow genuine performances.

In this masterclass, the pianist focuses on Beethoven's last three sonatas, marking the end of the very famous 32 piano sonatas cycle.


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## John Zito

In my mental files Schiff is stored under "Artists You Can Trust." I feel like you can randomly select anything from his discography and be confident that it will at least be very good. You remind me that I really ought to make some time for his Schubert, which I'm sure I will enjoy.

These are probably my favorite Schiff recordings, and also my favorite recordings of the respective repertoire:


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## mollig

I find Schiff extremely solid and reliable. He doesn't take risks, but everything he does is in good taste and thoroughly thought through. As a result, I know that I will almost never come out of a concert feeling it was one of the best concerts I ever attended nor hear a recording that will be an absoilute favourite, but I also know I will never be disappointed.


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## Mandryka

There were three Hungarian pianists who kind of all arrived on the scene at the same time - Deszo Ranki, Andras Schiff and Zoltak Kocsis. Presumably they have a similar conservatory background. I guess they can all play piano to a high standard. I used to be very keen on Ranki, and I very much enjoyed Kocsis in Mozart concertos and in Beethoven sonatas. Schiff hasn’t ever really caught my imagination - that’s a statement about me, not a reflection on what Schiff does. I have a recording of all three of them playing together in fact - in a Mozart concerto for three pianos (I forget the number)


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## wkasimer

Mandryka said:


> There were three Hungarian pianists who kind of all arrived on the scene at the same time - Deszo Ranki, Andras Schiff and Zoltak Kocsis. Presumably they have a similar conservatory background. I guess they can all play piano to a high standard.


I don't know Ranki well at all - I think that the only thing I've heard are Beethoven cello sonatas with Perenyi. Do you have any specific recommendations?

Schiff obviously has the largest discography of the three, and is reliably good in what I've heard (most of his Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert, and some other odds and ends), but Kocsis is among my favorite pianists, based mostly on his Mozart concerti (on various labels), his single Beethoven sonata disc, and his Rachmaninov concerti with de Waart.


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## Monsalvat

I think Schiff and Kocsis were classmates under Ferenc Rados. Not familiar with Ránki myself, either. Schiff and Kocsis collaborated in the recording studio in at least one instance:









And actually, I see here an album listing Schiff, Kocsis, AND Ránki:


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## Kreisler jr

Ranki had the least visible recording career, being mostly restricted to hungaroton (there is some Bartok and Mozart on Telefunken/Teldec), Schiff by far the largest catalogue. (I am not sure why Kocsis recorded so little and switched to conducting). I also know little Ranki (what I have heard is good but sometimes straightforward to a fault). Kocsis is a great favorite but unfortunately I don't care so much about a lot of the music he recorded (Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Debussy, solo Bartok). 

I first encountered Schiff with some of the Mozart concertos with Vegh and they remain favorites but mostly for the conducting and orchestral contribution. His Haydn sonatas (and trios) are also very good, maybe my favorites of his recordings (as far as I have heard it). Bach English suites good but not enough to seek out more. When he did the lectures on Beethoven sonatas that could be seen on the internet ca. 15 years ago, I was very impressed. So I bought two discs of the then still ongoing ECM Beethoven but was a bit disappointed. He was more interesting talking about the music and playing bits than in the complete interpretations, so I stopped buying them (and basically stopped buying Schiff which might be a bit unfair towards the more recent Bach and Beethoven and Schubert? recordings but I was also experiencing collector's saturation).


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## Mandryka

wkasimer said:


> I don't know Ranki well at all - I think that the only thing I've heard are Beethoven cello sonatas with Perenyi. Do you have any specific recommendations?
> 
> Schiff obviously has the largest discography of the three, and is reliably good in what I've heard (most of his Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Schubert, and some other odds and ends), but Kocsis is among my favorite pianists, based mostly on his Mozart concerti (on various labels), his single Beethoven sonata disc, and his Rachmaninov concerti with de Waart.


Mikrokosmos 5 and 6, Haydn sonatas, Brahms horn trio. The Haydn sonatas were really formative for me, they developed my appreciation of what Haydn's sound world could be like on a modern piano, more than any other performer. It is a shame that Ranki didn't record more Mozart solo sonata.


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## SanAntone

*Deszo Ranki *recorded a very good performance of the Liszt _B Minor Sonata_.


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## Mandryka

I listened to some of Ranki’s Haydn again, and to some solo Mozart recordings. He makes me think of Kocsis, they shared an aesthetic of energy and intensity, both remind me very much of Edward Fischer in fact. Schiff is rather a different type of musician I think.


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## bigfatchords

Schiff's recording of the mighty Reger Bach Variations shows not only his great intellect, but also his strength and formidable technique (lesser known facets of this pianist).


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## Mandryka

bigfatchords said:


> Schiff's recording of the mighty Reger Bach Variations shows not only his great intellect, but also his strength and formidable technique (lesser known facets of this pianist).


Just listening to it for the first time now, thanks for pointing it out.


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## CnC Bartok

No Schiif in this one, so apologies for hijacking the thread, but this is my Go-to recording of this Bartok masterpiece:


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