# Michael Korstick aprecciation post



## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

Title. Such an underrated pianist.

Especially, his beethoven cycle is sublime all along. 

Top among the greats contemporarys technically.

Sensibility, idioyincrasy, originality, just to name a few pros.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

The D 960/i is rubato free. Same for the E flat major trio in the first movement. 
The op 106/iii lasts nearly half an hour
His Debussy Etudes, according to the booklet essay, are a totally literal rendition of the score. 


These are challenging performances which I think are well worth hearing.


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## ECraigR (Jun 25, 2019)

Thanks for this thread! I hadn’t heard of him, but will get started now!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Mandryka said:


> The op 106/iii [Beetoven's Hammerklavier, 3rd movement, Adagio] lasts nearly half an hour
> 
> These are challenging performances which I think are well worth hearing.


This aroused my curiosity. I've been unacquainted with Korstick up to now.

The Hammerklavier's adagio is difficult to bring off; it's a variation movement, but its theme is not very distinctive, and Beethoven is off doing odd, improvisatory-sounding things almost before it's really registered. It's a challenge for the pianist to maintain a sense of a clear progression and shape.

I've just listened to Korstick, and in the adagio Korstick has apparently decided not to worry about the problrm of cohesion. He takes the movement at a crawl, drawing out seventeen or eighteen minutes' worth of music to almost twenty-nine minutes. There isn't the remotest possibility of it hanging together at this pace, and - sure enough - it doesn't; it sounds constantly as if Beethoven is searching for ideas and doesn't really know what to do next, and the effect is static and soporific. The puzzling thing is that Korstick didn't have to slow it down so radically to secure contrast with the surrounding movements, which are quite fast and invigorating.

I'm impressed with Korstick's digital dexterity and uninhibited way with Beethoven - he doesn't underplay the fierce accents and dynamic contrasts - and feel disappointed that his otherwise excellent performance of this sonata is disfigured by such an eccentric tempo choice.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Does anyone have the booklet essay for the op 106 recording? I believe he discusses his tempos in the opening and third movement, explains his choices.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> it sounds constantly as if Beethoven is searching for ideas and doesn't really know what to do next,


This is true, as if he's groping in the dark. And quite a difference from the very vigorous and directional first movement. It's as if in the centre of the Hammerklavier Korstick has found a dream.

One thing I can say is this: Korstick can drive a concert grand! He can produce colour, vary attack etc.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

I found Korstick's Hammerklavier slow movement pretty disappointing and dull, and I'm speaking from the perspective of someone whose favorite HK Adagio is the 1975 Sokolov, which clocks in at 23:43. 

But where I hear Sokolov playing it very slowly in order to give the astonishingly beautiful middle sections room to breathe and really sing in a way that nobody else's ever does, I mostly hear Korstick just meandering aimlessly. Very disappointing. I thought the rest of the performance relatively unremarkable, beyond thinking that perhaps he thinks he has better technical ability than he actually has. This one is pretty low in my collection of Hammerklavier recordings.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I listened closely to several of Korstick's sonatas a few years back, comparing them with Buchbinder's. My impression was, overall, Korstick lacked spontaneity. It sounded as if he might play a sonata several times and it would be identical, at a microscopic level, each time. In that sense, Buchbinder was far more satisfying.

Of course, such a judgment is totally subjective and another listener might hear things quite differently!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

I listened to his Diabelli Variations and his Debussy Etudes for the first time. What impressed me most was their unremitting seriousness.

It's a shame that the guy who started this discussion has disappeared because it would be nice to have some examples of his



444mil said:


> Sensibility


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

KenOC said:


> I listened closely to several of Korstick's sonatas a few years back, comparing them with Buchbinder's. My impression was, overall, Korstick lacked spontaneity. *It sounded as if he might play a sonata several times and it would be identical, at a microscopic level, each time.* In that sense, Buchbinder was far more satisfying.
> 
> Of course, such a judgment is totally subjective and another listener might hear things quite differently!


a very well trained musician then - a true pro who leaves nothing to chance


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

stomanek said:


> a very well trained musician then - a true pro who leaves nothing to chance


and very reliable for birthdays, weddings and bar mitzvahs.


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## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

Mandryka said:


> I listened to his Diabelli Variations and his Debussy Etudes for the first time. What impressed me most was their unremitting seriousness.
> 
> It's a shame that the guy who started this discussion has disappeared because it would be nice to have some examples of his


to name a few, his sublime op 31 2, n° 17 tempest sonata mov 2. 
his fieriness in op 111, mov 1
his op 109

i wanted to hear your opinions. thx everyone


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## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

eveyone ended up talking about his op 106, i'd have to listen many times again, but it's his most controversial recording probably. i can't argue atm


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

I generally like his Beethoven set a lot. Considered the Debussy set on offer from jpc.de, but felt that the samples I heard lacked ~magic.
He has recorded some unusual repertoire, such as Koechlin, Kabalevsky and Milhaud too, for example.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

444mil said:


> to name a few, his sublime op 31 2, n° 17 tempest sonata mov 2.
> his fieriness in op 111, mov 1
> his op 109
> 
> i wanted to hear your opinions. thx everyone


I thought the variations movement in op 109 was really outstanding, thanks for pointing it out.

His seriousness makes me want to hear him play Hindemith.


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## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

his waldstein, idk, there is a lot. worth a hearing


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Yes the op 53 has some imaginative ideas in the final movement and I'd say is very successful. You're convincing me!


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## ECraigR (Jun 25, 2019)

I agree that the slow movement of the Hammerklavier is quite eccentric. I’ll have to listen to it a few more times before I’m comfortable enough to make a judgment. I enjoy his playing, however. It’s definitely serious, but it also has a great deal of power behind it. The seriousness translates into a kind of strength, to my ear.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The slow movement of the hammer is, IMO, one of Beethoven's finest achievements. Oddly, this is one Beethoven work that Glenn Gould aces!


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

ECraigR said:


> I agree that the slow movement of the Hammerklavier is quite eccentric. I'll have to listen to it a few more times before I'm comfortable enough to make a judgment. I enjoy his playing, however. It's definitely serious, but it also has a great deal of power behind it. The seriousness translates into a kind of strength, to my ear.


The odd thing about what I've heard of Korstick's playing is that he makes unusual choices, but they don't sound eccentric as such--they sound kind of arbitrary. Like with some eccentric performances--Gould's Hammerklavier that Ken mentioned or Pogorelich in the op 111--the unusual choices sound completely sincere and grounded in how they hear the music, think it should be heard, and feel it. These are committed, sincere, *eccentric* choices.

Whereas with Korstick, I can't help but feel like he settles on unusual choices for musicological or other reasons, and certainly executes them well enough, but I don't get the sense that he really feels them. It feels like he thinks "this is the correct way, so this is how I'll do it." Like, his musical choices are very deliberated and pre-determined. Does he actually want to hear the HK with a super fast first movement and a ponderous, aimless third? I don't know, it just feels like he set the tempo and then did it because he thought that was right, but not because that's what he feels musically.

I'm sure I'm expressing this badly because I'm not sure how to describe it. Perhaps it's similar to what Ken was saying about how he feels less spontaneous compared to Buchbinder.


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## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

lol. you all end talking about his hammerklavier, the work i have less times heard from him, and wich may be his most cuestionable: just hear his rushed 1st movement, and the duration of the 3rd.

:lol:

for the op 111, my favorite is pletnev: live at carnegie hall. (eccentric idiosyncratic choice)

would like to hear your opinions about this last one recording


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

444mil said:


> lol. you all end talking about his hammerklavier, the work i have less times heard from him, and wich may be his most cuestionable: just hear his rushed 1st movement, and the duration of the 3rd.


Well, the Hammerklavier is my favorite Beethoven work, and is the first one I purchase from any prospective series. In Korstick's case, the cd with HK doesn't have much else to gauge his abilities--the op 129 Rondo, 126 Bagatelles, some filler, so there's not much that has prompted me to get any of the rest of the series.

I'd also say it's kind of a bad sign if you put yourself out there as a Beethoven specialist and your HK is iffy.

The Pletnev op 111 is good but I wouldn't call it one of my favorites. I also don't think it's particularly eccentric. Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying eccentric=good, I'm saying there's something a little odd about how Korstick's oddities don't actually sound eccentric, they actually sound to me more like musicological arguments rather than musical eccentricities.


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## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

howlingfantods said:


> Well, the Hammerklavier is my favorite Beethoven work, and is the first one I purchase from any prospective series. In Korstick's case, the cd with HK doesn't have much else to gauge his abilities--the op 129 Rondo, 126 Bagatelles, some filler, so there's not much that has prompted me to get any of the rest of the series.
> 
> I'd also say it's kind of a bad sign if you put yourself out there as a Beethoven specialist and your HK is iffy.
> 
> The Pletnev op 111 is good but I wouldn't call it one of my favorites. I also don't think it's particularly eccentric. Also, just to be clear, I'm not saying eccentric=good, I'm saying there's something a little odd about how Korstick's oddities don't actually sound eccentric, they actually sound to me more like musicological arguments rather than musical eccentricities.


english is not my native language. i meant eccentric as "odd" , "original", "rare".

i didn't say korstick was a beethoven specialist.

the post was originally about: HEY, korstick is like never mentioned in forums, and is underrated, he is pretty good (or even better).


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

howlingfantods said:


> iffy.


The mm of the first movement is 92 for the 8th note.

The slow movement is marked _adagio sostenuto_, and it's not clear what consequences that has for tempo and fluidity, especially on a modern piano where there's a good deal of sustain. I enjoy what he does with that movement the more I listen to it.

His op 106/iv is outstanding.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Korstick recorded some Beethoven for a label called Ars Musici. Has anyone heard them?


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## Iota (Jun 20, 2018)

The only thing I've heard Korstick play is Koechlin's _Paysages et Marines_, and it's playing of a remarkably pristine beauty, I think. And he's quite the mesmerist in this repertoire, not a hint over-thinking or unnaturally applied musical decisions to my ears.

It's probably about time I risked sullying my ears with some of his controversial Beethoven.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> Korstick recorded some Beethoven for a label called Ars Musici. Has anyone heard them?
> 
> View attachment 122606


I do not know this, but there is a CD with op. 2 no. 3 and the Hammerklavier. Don't ask me if it is the same Hammerklavier recording.

Also this, which I don't know:

https://www.amazon.de/Beethoven-Kla...tick+beethoven&qid=1566158923&s=music&sr=1-22


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

premont said:


> I do not know this, but there is a CD with op. 2 no. 3 and the Hammerklavier. Don't ask me if it is the same Hammerklavier recording.
> 
> Also this, which I don't know:
> 
> https://www.amazon.de/Beethoven-Kla...tick+beethoven&qid=1566158923&s=music&sr=1-22


Someone let me have the one with the Waldstein and Hammerklavier and the one with op 109-111, I've not had a chance to listen to anything but the first movement of op 109, and it seems rather fine to me.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> Someone let me have the one with the Waldstein and Hammerklavier and the one with op 109-111, I've not had a chance to listen to anything but the first movement of op 109, and it seems rather fine to me.


I have searched for the CD with op.2/3 and op. 106 all over the net without finding it. Seems to have disappeared without a trace. But I am sure, that I have it somewhere. Haven't seen it since I moved three years ago though. Must try to find it.


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## 444mil (May 27, 2018)

I was talking about these.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I have the Korstick Beethoven cycle on Oehms Classics. The executive producer is given as Dieter Oehms. Coincidence? I think not!


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