Customer Reviews

Chopin

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD is a truly wonderful recording of Josef Hofmann at his very best. This was recorded recently, based on a reproducing piano paper roll. Josef Hofmann was a major proponent of this unique recording method, an enormous improvement on the player piano, which was able to reproduce the exact touch and intensity of the real performance. This reproducing piano version was supervised and approved by HOFMANN HIMSELF, and I would like to say that if he was satisfied with it, then EVERYONE should be satisfied with it. When I play this CD, I feel as if Hofmann is right there, the emotion is so intense, and the technique so brilliant. An absolute must for any Hofmann enthusiast.

Joseph Hoffman was one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. His authentic playing, even after his peak years in the 1920's, was astonishing.

But if you hear a real high fidelity or even stereo recording claiming to be of Hoffman's playing, don't believe it; he was never recorded in modern sound.

What you hear on this recording was probably done on piano rolls on a fancy reproducing piano. On occasion this material has been recorded convincingly (if not necessarily authentically), but not this time.

Hoffman was above all known for dramatic/explosive playing, flexibility of tempo, and a wonderful singing touch. What we have here is lumpy, wooden playing, no discernable variation of touch, and no sign of temperament at all.

Real Hoffman recordings have rather archaic sound, but are available and extremely rewarding. Ignore this and get the real item, such as his 50th anniversary album.

22 May 2010

I've had a listen or three to Chopin's Scherzo op. 20 in b minor as recorded by:

-- Arthur Rubinstein in 1932 (Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 6),
-- Vladimir Horowitz in 1962 (Vladimir Horowitz, Complete Masterworks Recordings 1962-1973, Vol. I: The Studio Recordings 1962-63), and
-- Josef Hofmann on this Nimbus CD, performed sometime after 1918 as the notes say Hofmann recorded a great deal for the reproducing piano starting then: no more precise date is indicated.

The first recording I would describe as "noble." The recording techniques of 1932 and an MP3 download presumably muddy the sound and dampen Rubinstein's original dynamic contrasts, but it seems likely nonetheless that Rubinstein's intent was to smooth the impact this difficult piece makes, particularly in its somewhat raucous declamations, heard first after the opening chords.

The second recording was the only one made in the hifi era, with editing presumably more available: even the sound of an MP3 download seems bright and clear. Horowitz's concept I would describe as "symphonic." He drives passages from big chord to big chord and uses more percussive effects than does Rubinstein's recording, closing with a modification of the score that also appears intended to build out the scherzo's sonic scope to a larger genre. Horowitz, like Rubinstein, searches for rubatos that work in the slow sections, without in my view improving on the music as written.

I'm listening to Hofmann's recording on CD. As a recording using a modern reconstruction of the Reproducing Pianos of the 1920s, it has the clarity of a live studio performance.

I don't have one descriptor for Hofmann's version. Perhaps the leading characteristic is "clarity": each note is a little pearl of its own. Nothing is smoothed, or glossed over on the way to a climax. The rising-scale declamations are slightly more manic yet also more controlled than in the other two recordings. (Sorry if that seems internally contradictory. I think of it as revelatory.) Hofmann's big chords, rather than being percussive, are uncannily choral in color. The slow sections are perhaps more classical than Rubinstein's and Horowitz's, but with the balance altered to show the left hand more prominently. I don't miss Horowitz's alternating octaves when I hear Hofmann's closing scale.

On top of everything else, Hofmann occasionally injects a willfulness into his playing that I might call juvenile if it weren't so intriguing. I'm drawn to think about what he's up to.

To sum up competitively on a scale of 0 to 10, Rubinstein's and Horowitz's renditions are both 10s. (Look, I'm not even a piano player -- did you expect criticism??) Hofmann is "a strange visitor from another planet," to use an American "cultural" reference. A revelation.

P.S. There are eleven other tracks on the CD. If you dare.