Brahms: Paganini Varations. Your favorite recording - interpreter?

[arpeggiosnake]

Probably hte most difficult piano stuff ever written, so id like to know your choice.

Of those i mentioned my favorite is Cherkassky. I must confess i havent heard Earl Wild´s recording 

[thracozaag]

 Katchen, Merzhanov, Michelangeli, and MT.

koji

[joell12068]

Katchen also ?

BTW, has anyone heard the Backhaus recording from 1929 ?  I've read that it's superb.

[apion]

Katchen for both the Paganini Vars and the Var's and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. 

[steinwayguy]

If you want absolutely ridiculously fast . . . Kissin. My God I haven't heard anything more mechanically impressive than that in a long time . . .

[Jake]

I was very disappointed by Michelangeli's Paganini Variations. Wonderful pianist, but overrated recording, in my opinion. Maybe it's the muddy sound quality, but it sounds strangely heavy-handed to me.

I do like Katchen's. 

[upright]

I would recommend Michelangeli for superior technique and artistry. I think he did a few recordings not complete or in order for that matter. That might bug some ppl.

Richter and Anievas bring out the musical qualities very well. I have read that even though Richter liked Rachmaninov's Rhapsody he thought Brahms Variations were better. His admiration certainly shows in his performance.

Katchen plays with lots of drive and energy as he usually does.

Kissin is astounding technically. He has a full touch and sometimes overdoes it with the force, so not as musical as some of the others.

IPQ put Michelangeli (1940s) at the top of its survey along with some other like Kentner. It regarded Kissin and Nojima recordings as stunts but what did they expect, it is a piano showpiece after all.

I have not heard Cherkassky, Harasiewicz.

[espresso]

Just saw Libetta play that on DVD, so um.. effortless..

[ajw400]

The most impressive performance of this happened at the Van Cliburn competition - Alexander Kobrin (the eventual winner) played it in the first round and I was in shock and disbelief - it was incredibly musical and so technically polished, and I think it will be released on the Harmonia Mundi label but i'm not sure....

[steinwaymodeld]

I was very disappointed by Michelangeli's Paganini Variations. Wonderful pianist, but overrated recording, in my opinion. Maybe it's the muddy sound quality, but it sounds strangely heavy-handed to me.

I do like Katchen's. 

I can't believe da Jake dissing 'DA MACHINE' in the Brahms Paganini
Did u get the one on the EMI live Michelangeli?
That is supposingly THE WORST Michelangeli Brahms Paganini recording ever made, but sadly it's also the mostly distributed recording too.
(EMI has a thing to put out recording of sucky performance of great pianists, for eg, they picked the studio recording of the Totentanz by Cziffra instead of the live one, same goes for the Tch1 and Grieg. Also a lot of of other great performance etc etc.)

here are the performance list and the CD they issued on of Brahms Paganin by Michelangeli:

London 26 October 1948 - EMI Références CDH 7 64490 2, EMI Italiana CDM 7 69241 2, EMI (Japan) TOCE 8248/50, EMI Italiana 7243 5 67041 2, EMI 5627402, EMI 62757-2, Musical Heritage Society 513996F, Nota Blu 93.5110 3/4, Philips 456 904-2, Piano Library PL 272, The 50s THE50-15
Arezzo 12 February 1952 - Archipel Records ARPCD 0054, Arkadia GI 903.1, Hunt CD 903
Warsaw 13 March 1955 - Cetra CDO525, Classico PTC 2018, Melodram CD 28019, Polskie Nagrania PNCD 328
Lugano 21 May 1973 - Aura Music/La Repubblica AUR 224-2, Music and Arts CD-817
Bregenz 15 January 1988 - Aura Music AUR 206-2


the EMI 1948 one is clerly not very good, plain and muddy playing
Arezzo is supposingly the best, but it's also the hardest to find one (i have purchased this online, waiting for it to come in)
Lugano and Bregenz are easier to get. Very very clean performance, cold-hard fury, so far my favorite. And it's also live too.

You guys want bad Paganini Var? Try Richter on the 'Authorized recording' on the Phillips label, absolutely horrifying. (Just like some other RIchter performance too)

For live performance i would still pick Michelangeli
For studio it would be either Katchen/Backhaus or Cziffra(i adore his interpretation of this piece, so fresh and yet elegant.)

Kobrin on Cliburn competition is rather tame, not much excitment, not enough color. He was treating this piece as 2 books of etudes (in some sense he might be right, but i look for more subtance in music that that.)

Libetta is quite interesting, but he has some weird weird phrasing which i found hard to understand.

Cherkassky is good, didn't last too long in my head.

Mei ting's recording is also very fresh and crisp, quite the way I would like to hear. (And I think it's unedited too.)

Kissin..... No comment, good finger work though.

-SMD, here is my $0.02

[thracozaag]

  The Arezzo performance is definitely the top ABM rendition, imo.

koji

[Waldszenen]

Michelangeli's my favourite

Mei-Ting's one is pretty good