# Hearing It Again For The First Time



## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Have you ever had the experience of having heard a classical work many times by many artists over the years and then come across a performance that makes it feel like this is the first time you have_ really_ heard it the way it was meant to be performed. That was my experience on recently hearing Helene Grimaud's performance of Beethoven's Piano Sonata #31, Op110, particularly the opening movement.

Anybody else had that experience?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

No, but I've heard pieces in concert I've really been taken with that, when I've obtained recordings later, made me wonder why I even thought it was music.


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## AfterHours (Mar 27, 2017)

DaveM said:


> Have you ever had the experience of having heard a classical work many times by many artists over the years and then come across a performance that makes it feel like this is the first time you have_ really_ heard it the way it was meant to be performed. That was my experience on recently hearing Helene Grimaud's performance of Beethoven's Piano Sonata #31, Op110, particularly the opening movement.
> 
> Anybody else had that experience?


Yes, I love experiences like this! Pretty much everything I've added to this list here: https://www.besteveralbums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15098&start=0 ... ... has produced such epiphanies to greater or lesser degree, especially anything rated 10 in "Performance Quality" (but also for those I give a 9.5, just to a somewhat lesser extent).


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## jegreenwood (Dec 25, 2015)

The Quartetto Italiano playing Schubert's Quartet No. 15. I never "got" that work until I heard their version.

Another example of finally "getting" a work is Paul Paray's recording of "Symphonie Fantastique."


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I have had such experiences. One such involves hearing, on CD, one of Furtwangler's interpretations of Beethoven's Ninth. It was like hearing the work for the first time, or at least in a time when just everything clicked "just right". I cherish such moments in my music listening experiences.

Helene Grimaud has long been a favorite artist of mine. I probably have every disc she's recorded, but I've only heard her once in concert live. My favorite Grimaud interpretation is that of Brahms's Klavierstücke op. 118 - II. Intermezzo. In the "B" section of that beautiful, lyrical piece Grimaud takes the repeat with emphasis now on the left hand melody after her first run through with emphasis on the right hand melody. Hers was the first such reading I encountered and I found it sublime compared to all other versions of the piece I had ever heard.

I recall some years later tuning into one of Bill McGlaughlin's broadcasts on which he interviewed concert pianist Lang Lang. After playing Lang Lang's performance of the Brahms Intermezzo 2 from Op. 118, McGlaughlin raved over the way Lang Lang handled that "B" section, remarking something to the effect that he found it ingenious how the pianist emphasized the left hand melody in his repeat. I remember sending off an email to the radio host suggesting he listen to Helene Grimaud's rendering of that same piece, on a recording made in 1992 ... when Lang Lang was a lad of 10 years in China and had just recently been expelled from his piano tutor's studio for "lack of talent". I have always suspected that Lang Lang had an opportunity to hear Ms. Grimaud's Brahms recording prior to exploring the composer on his own. In any case, I never did not hear back from Bill McGlaughlin, so I have no idea if he took up my suggestion or not. Though I hope he did. Helene Grimaud deserves to be heard, and I'm sure she will provide many a "Aha!" moment for listeners of piano music.


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## poodlebites (Apr 5, 2016)

I saw her last October in Rotterdam playing Bartok's third piano concerto with the Rotterdams Philarmonisch Orkest and even though I'm not much of a piano expert, it was amazing to see and to hear her playing. That piano concerto went from being my less favorite to my favorite Bartok piano concerto and now I would say it's the one I listen to the most from the three Bartok composed.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I had ordered the Warner set of Wilhelm Furtwangler Beethoven Symphonies and having played through it the last two nights it was like falling in love again


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Richter, Beethoven Sonatas.


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