Alexis Weissenberg & David Dubal, 4/24/81

Рет қаралды 11,769

11 жыл бұрын

One in a series of radio programs titled "For the Love of Music," hosted by David Dubal on WNCN-FM, New York. Guest is pianist Alexis Weissenberg. This program was originally broadcast on April 24, 1981. Please note that two musical selections were removed from the original program to meet copyright restrictions.
David Dubal can be contacted at daviddubalsociety [at] gmail
A book titled ‘Selected Paintings and Drawings of David Dubal’ is available for sale at Amazon:
www.amazon.com/Selected-Paint...
To access David Dubal's Wikipedia page, please click on the link below: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_D...
Recordings of piano performances by David Dubal and Stanley Waldoff, released on the ArkivCD label, can be purchased from ArkivMusic at:
www.arkivmusic.com/Catalog/Pr...
David Dubal hosts "The Piano Matters," a program devoted to piano music, which can be heard at wwfm.org on Wednesdays at 10 PM and Sundays at noon. Archived programs of "The Piano Matters" are accessible as webcasts at:
www.wwfm.org/programs/piano-m...
For more information on WNCN-FM and photographs of its staff, please visit the WNCN-FM website www.wncn.org/

Пікірлер: 20

@vova47 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot, I love Maestro Weissenberg, what a loss!

@user-kt5bg6zr3p Жыл бұрын

大好きな若い頃のワイセンベルクさんの声を聞ける事は本当に幸せです❤ ありがとうございます!

@noochinator Жыл бұрын

Google Translate sez: "I'm so happy to hear the voice of Mr. Weissenberg whom I love so ❤ much, thank you!" You're welcome!

@vova47 11 жыл бұрын

We appreciate your work all the more for it! What you're doing is extremely important (for me anyway) and I, for one, am very thankful. Good luck to you!

@eleanorhoward9464 3 жыл бұрын

Heartbreaking that this was shortly before he was diagnosed with Parkinsn’s.

@opusposthumous 6 ай бұрын

Very tragic indeed. I didn't know he'd lived with it for so long - do you happen to know when was he diagnosed?

@bachopinbee5991 4 жыл бұрын

I just love your channel, its my best hobby to hear David Dubal

@miltonmoore8369 2 жыл бұрын

I WAS SHOCKED THAT RACHMANINOFF WAS NOT MENTIONED WITHIN THE OPENING THREE MINUTES. PERHAPS HE DID LATER, BUT STILL.... WILL COME BACK TO LISTEN TO THE REST OF THIS LATER, BUT ALEXIS LEAVING "THE MASTER OF MELANCHOLY AND BARD OF INTIMATE MOODS" OUT OF HIS INTRODUCTION WAS A HUGE AND AND UNEXPECTED DISAPPOINTMENT, PARTICULARLY SINCE HE RECORDED SO MANY OF HIS MASTERPIECES.

@ggannuch 11 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for uploading these Dubal radio programs. They are fascinating. I've always wanted to hear them. This series with Weissenberg is especially riveting. Where are you in your uploading process? Are there many more to go?

@johnschlesinger2009 3 жыл бұрын

A hugely stimulating talk. I cannot agree with what he says about Beethoven's piano writing. Beethoven advanced pianistic writing in so many ways; he wasn't interested in whether his music was comfortable for the instrumentalist. Remember what he said to the violinist who asked for changes to the concerto: "what do I care about your fiddle" - or words to that effect. The Petrushka is astonishing!

@FittyNiner 10 жыл бұрын

I have to disagree with Weissenberg about the reason that Beethoven, Brahms, and others mentioned here wrote difficult piano works. Surely it's not due to a lack of understanding or ability on their part, but rather because these composers, in implementing an artistic vision, were more or less indifferent to the concerns of the performer.

@pamos1949 8 жыл бұрын

And I have to agree with you. It struck me that Weissenberg contradicts himself. He names first composers who were great keyboard artists and, he says, consequently wrote well for the instrument. But Beethoven and Brahms were also fine pianists. Schumann also surely had a thorough command of the piano, though the damage he did to his hand prevented his pursuing a concert career. So, Weissenberg's explanation for the difficulty of their works doesn't hold. I think your hypothesis does hold, bearing in mind that Beethoven and Brahms performed their own works in concerts. Schumann, the archetypal Romantic composer, was idiosyncratic in his conceptions and sometimes tested Clara's patience, but any problems technically are for the pianist to work on, not denigrate.

@lockjiang 7 жыл бұрын

perhaps it also has something to do with the German way of thinking, this line of composers starting from Bach, they allow musical thoughts to dominate their composition and refuse to subjugate them to technical considerations. for them what's more important is the ideas, incl. the harmonic progression, the necessary sonata form, fugue ideas, etc. for these greater purposes that makes great music, must technicality bow their heads before them. and so we have to practice so hard to overcome some passages that look so illogical technically at sight reading but turns out rewarding musicallyin in works like the Appassionata, or op.111

@eleanorhoward9464 3 жыл бұрын

I think he means difficult to play because not compatible with anatomy or neurology.

@echorrhea 6 жыл бұрын

Interesting to hear Weissenberg talk. Revelatory, in fact. Very articulate man. Clearly he was an artist who considered his art very carefully. Even when he says things that are simply wrong, his rationale for believing them is fascinating. That said, I’m not a fan of his playing. Much too percussive, unyielding, and anti-sensualist. Anything approaching tenderness or sentiment is banished. Nevertheless, after hearing him talk (and play) here I’ve come away with a begrudging admiration of his work. Thank you for uploading this.

@echorrhea 5 жыл бұрын

Coming back to this a year later, I now find myself head over heels in love with Weissenberg’s art. How wrong I had been about his musicianship.

@jackatherton0111 3 жыл бұрын

Marvelous. Can’t help thinking that Weissenberg thinks, feels and of course performs on a plane I can only glimpse. Nevertheless, I’ve always been puzzled by the attitude he shared with Glenn Gould that a performer must be original. Can’t artists also seek whatever they perceive to be the “truth” of a work? For some at some times that may mean performing in an original way (e.g. playing faster or slower than traditionally to make, say, the Hammerklavier or the Eroica as shocking as they were in Beethoven’s time) or, on the other hand, seeking a more historically informed approach - or, on a third hand, polishing a more “perfect” (Karajan-like) performance. Originality does not necessarily determine the worth, I think.

@pianoredux7516 Жыл бұрын

While I dutifully esteem Weissenberg's remarkable pianistic achievements (especially the Falcke Petrouchka film, and his earlier playing as Sigi), I find much of what he says in this interview gaseous artsy-fartsy nonsense. If you slow down his breakneck delivery and actually examine the substance of his remarks, there isn't much beef there: there are a few cogent, down-to-earth observations but there's also a lot of empty doubletalk. And I agree with the other commenters in this thread who have called out his ridiculous assessment of the alleged unpianistic qualities of certain canonical composers as some kind of failing. Obviously a very gifted man, but coherent discourse was not one of his gifts.

@delmaengde 3 жыл бұрын

Strange view he has. Beethoven couldn't care less whether comfortable to play or not. In some way his style of talking is very unmusical, maybe he is nervours.

@The1976spirit 2 жыл бұрын

Perhaps music of Bartok, Debussy, Chopin is unmusical because it is "nervous"?