historicals

[Prihoda]

I'm fan of historical recordings, from 1899/1949, but only on violin or cello, chamber ensambles and some piano. Many rarities now forgotten.  Do you like those?

[smittims]

I am a great fan of historic recordings, and  some of my favourite artists include Albert Sammons, Fritz Kreisler, Jaques Thibaud, Georg Kulenkampff, Pablo Casals, and quartets such as the Capet, Budapest and Busch quartets.

[John Cummins]

I grew up on my father's Josef Hofmann recordings.  
They're still my reference standard for piano playing.  

There's an anecdote about Vladimir Horowitz trying out concert grands in the Steinway basement in Manhattan.  When told that a certain piano was Hofmann's, Horowitz said, "Please, can I just touch it?"  As a boy, Horowitz sneaked in Hofmann (in Kiev?) during one of Hofmann's Russian Empire tours before WWI.  

[Prihoda]

Glad to know there are fellows lovers of histerical...sorry, historical recordings. I've a lot
from old ensambles, like those named, the Primrose, Pascal, Pro-Arte, Schneider, Amar-Hindemith and others. Also a lot of old violinists today forgotten and some by pianists. Of my rarest is a Condon CD with Horowitz's recordings on mechanical piano, from the 30s., the complete Liszt's Rhapsodies by Alexander Borowsky, (great Russian almost nobody knows) and others. Also cellists (an extremely rare Bach's sonata by John Barbirolli playing the cello with piano). If you want to, we can go on discussing historicals.

[Tony Watson]

I wish there were more recordings of Prokofiev playing his own piano works or arrangements for piano. Apparently he was reluctant because he did not like the sound quality. I've got some recordings of piano rolls he made and they are disappointing. I put it down to the mechanism in the pianola.

[smittims]

I was listening to Josef Hoffmann yesterday, the recent Naxos disc. Utterly enchanting playing. I could have gone on listening all evening; his style is so clear and natural. 

[Roehre]

I do have quite a lot of historical recordings, and do listen regularly listen to them, but with just a few exceptions I prefer the present way of music-making.
IMO there is hardly a difference in the artistic qualities of earlier generations and the recent or present ones.

the main reason why I listen to great performers of the past is that they belong to the tradition to which many of the later generations also undoubtedly belong, and which enables you to hear/explain what you are actually hearing specifically in their performances what differs from other interpretors' ones.

Historic performances don't touch me more than present-day ones.
There are only two kinds of performances, good and emotionally affecting ones, and lesser so, which leave the listeners emotionally cold.

[John Cummins]

I was listening to Josef Hoffmann yesterday, the recent Naxos disc. Utterly enchanting playing. I could have gone on listening all evening; his style is so clear and natural. 

I mistyped, "As a boy, Horowitz sneaked in Hofmann (in Kiev?) ..." should have been "As a boy, Horowitz sneaked into Hofmann's performances (in Kiev?)..."

They played differently back then, with more awareness of underlying structure--maybe simply more feeling for it?--enabling to declaim, if you will, large sections more coherently than players in the 2nd 1/2 of the 20th C onwards.  Maybe this is a decent illustration of how they might have played, and heard, way back,

Francis Plante,