So I thought the world had exhausted all convincing interpretations of Chopin's excellent Op 48 no 1, until earlier today. Eduardus Halim plays with a patient sadness and a weird mixture of ringing clarity and rawness that is entirely his own, He doesn't go for much contrast between sections, which in itself makes it a rather unique reading; the usually fiery doppio movimento is played with the same slow anguish as the first section.
Rediscovered Beethoven's C minor variations on Wednesday via a wonderfully clear recording by Anatoly Vedernikov (whom I'd never heard of before). Did a bit of digging, and found him a pianist capable of an almost intimidatingly muscular sound, bordering but never guilty of harshness, as evidenced in his recording of the Schumann Symphonic Etudes (below).
also discovered the wonderful Italian film Ladri di biciclette, which elevates the simple theft of a bicycle to a heartbreaking tragedy about poverty and morality. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the patient unravelling peculiar to many arthouse films. Highly recommend the movie. Started watching to improve my Italian, but it seems to be doused in Roman dialect, so while I understood fragments, to follow it wholly with my knowledge of standard Italian was hard.
Comments