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发表于 2024-1-21 18:19:52
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A couple of interesting things about Rachmaninoff. He was the first composer to fully understand the importance of being recorded playing his own music. In fact he recorded much of his own piano music, as well as the music of many other important composers for RCA in the 20s and 30s. Before this, composers thought of recording as some sort of a gimmick and they did not understand the real value for future generations. As far as the sound quality and interpretations go, even though the Rachmaninoff's recordings were done in the electrical era there were still serious limitations on the sound quality and that must be kept in mind when you judge the sound and playing.
This also means we can be certain we aren't hearing the full tone and expressiveness of Rachmaninoff's playing. This is especially true with respect to dynamic range - the difference in volume between the loudest passages and the softest ones. Because of the limitations in recording technology at this time, recording engineers had to engage in the process of gain riding. This means turning the record level up and down during the recording process so that the loud passages would not distort on the finished recording and so that the soft passages would be audible as well. At best this was not an exact science.
Here is why I mention this. Rachmaninoff was widely regarded as the greatest living pianist in the period between the two world wars, in a time filled with great giants. This included pianists like Josef Hoffmann, Josef Lehvinne, Leopold Godowsky, Ignaz Freidman, Moritz Rosenthal, Benno Moisevitch and others, not to mention young lions such Rubinstein and Horowitz. In this time Rachmaninoff was said to have, by most critics and these other giants of the keyboard, the most beautiful tone and the widest possible control of phrasing and dynamic range. This is more audible on some of his solo recordings as compared to those with orchestra. Listen to his 1929 recording of Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith Suite and you can hear a control of dynamic range not duplicated by any pianist then or since. Recording with orchestra during this period was a bear and it inevitably involved artistic compromises that were not made during live performances.
Pianists of this time, Rachmaninoff included, never played anything the same way twice, so no one recording can be said to be a definitive. Rachmaninoff himself was quoted as saying that his goal in these recordings was simply to provide a record of his own playing in these pieces for future generations. He did not say that any one recording of his was definitive. The wonderful pianist Arthur Schnabel was fond of saying that great compositions were finer than they could ever be played, making it clear that even a recording by the composer cannot be considered the last word. And this without even getting into to the debate about how performance styles evolve over the years.
Last comment about Rachmaninoff's playing for the moment. If he were recording and playing today, it is my personal belief, based on everything I have heard and read, that the playing would be bolder, more dynamic and more tonally rich than the playing of any contemporary pianist, but that is just my subjective two cents worth! Thanks for listening and please let me know what you think.
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发表于 2024-1-21 18:16:45