Why didn´t Hofmann record the hardest pieces?

[sevencircles]

You get the impression that the works he is playing is to easy for him when you listen to recordings of Josef Hofmann in his prime.

You can hear that he could play them a lot faster if he wanted to but choose not to since it wouldn´t be very musical.

I wonder why he never recorded Come La Vent by Alkan as well as the Chopin trancriptions by Godowsky.

That would be more of a challenge for him , don´t you think?

Godowsky was alive at the time and that may be the reason that Hofmann didn´t wanna record his works but why did he never record Alkan?

Could his bad sightreading skills be the reason?

He never recorded Brahms 2 or Busoni´s concerto  either.

They actually made a piano with especially narrow keys that would make it possible for him  to reach intervalls wider then an octave.

Even an octave was a painfull stretch for his tiny hands with a regular keyboard.

[xvimbi]

Perhaps, he was more interested in making music than in setting records.

[sevencircles]

Perhaps, he was more interested in making music than in setting records.

Maybe so. You don´t get the that impression when you listen to his later recordings unfortunately.

What pianist at the time (pre. 1925)  did perform Alkan´s hardest pieces by the way?

[stevie]

hardly anyone, busoni played a few of his pieces, but not the very hardest, noone played the very hardest until petri did, petri was busoni's student i think.

[stevie]

also - rachmaninov played comme le vent on his 1st american tour

[sevencircles]

also - rachmaninov played comme le vent on his 1st american tour

Too bad he didn´t record it.

Many people who heard Rachmaninov live claimed that  the recordings he did wasn´t even close to capture the greatness of Rach. live.

I assume that he got frightened when the performance was recorded.

[stevie]

well of course recordings dont capture subtle nuances of sound, not even todays modern recording are as awesome as hearing the sound as in person.

my favourite rachmaninov recording is the 1st concerto, particularly the 1st movement, playing of that tension, drama, and emotion is very rare.

one thing is for sure though, you really can tell the technical abilities of the pianists from these old recordings, they didnt 'hold back', in fact - they stressed extremes more, because the recording equipment wasnt as dynamically sensetive.

[sevencircles]

Stevie: Can you hear why many people think that Rachmaninov is the greatest pianist of the 20: th century by listening to his recordings?

 I can´t.

[pianowelsh]

Maybe he didnt like them!

[brewtality]

Maybe he didnt like them!

This is definitely a possibility. The thing about Hofmann is that he didn't make many recordings period. Its well known that he distrusted the recording process, and constantly worked in his leisure time to help improve the recording quality (he was an inventor as I'm sure you're aware). Thus, his commercial and test recordings are entirely comprised of minatures, which allowed him to not waste his effort recording more serious music only for the nuances to be lost due to the primitive recording technology.

The majority of his recordings that make up his complete discography are live broadcasts, where the formula was to play maybe one movement of a concerto and some familiar minatures (usually Chopin), apparently the feeling was that the audience couldn't handle an entire sonata or concerto perfomance. I think that this goes a long way towards explaining why he didn't record alkan or the chop-gods (but then again, did Godowsky even record them?). His sightreading has nothing to do with it, since he had the even more valuable skill of total aural recall (in fact this is probably the reason for his poor sightreading).   In the case of comme le vent he probably didn't like it (I know I don't) and wasn't interested in a speed race.

Maybe so. You don´t get the that impression when you listen to his later recordings unfortunately

I didn't get that impression at all, would you kindly clarify this statement by listing the relevant recordings?
I find his later recordings to be often more agreeable musically than the earlier ones, even though alcoholism had taken its effect on his technique.

[da jake]

Good analysis, Brew.

Comme Le Vent is a pretty crappy start to the Opus 39, admittedly.

Big shame that Erwin Nyiregyhazi never got a chance to record the AlKanCerto. He played part of it for Lewenthal, which caused the latter to claim it was with the most remarkable tone he had ever heard (and this included Cortot!)

[mrchops10]

AlKanCerto

[thierry13]

Comme Le Vent is a pretty crappy start to the Opus 39, admittedly.

please, Comme le vent is an amazing piece, and the middle theme is very catchy. The piece is awesome.

[stevie]

please, Comme le vent is an amazing piece, and the middle theme is very catchy. The piece is awesome.

hahaha, hilarious,. i can see both of your points, comme is a great piece, but its possibly musically the weakest of all 12 etudes, that isnt to degrade the great piece though, just gives you an idea of how AWESOME the rest is.

Stevie: Can you hear why many people think that Rachmaninov is the greatest pianist of the 20: th century by listening to his recordings?

 I can´t.

yes, i can.

he isnt my favourite, nor do i think he is the greatest, but certain things he did in his concerto recordings are unmatched, in terms of musical tension and climax.

[sevencircles]

Stevie. Some examples of Rach.s playing please. Can they be found on that Russian site, often linked here?

[stevie]

https://classic.manual.ru/Rachmaninov-performer/Rach-1.html

the performance of his 1st concerto is unmatched IMO.

check out the cadenza of the 1st movement....

[etudes]

Why didn´t Hofmann record the hardest pieces?  because he recorded normal piece and make it hardest!!

[bernhard]

He may not have the final word on what to record. Probably the recording company producer's decided on it in regards to what the paying public would be willing to buy. Horowitz wanted to record a lot of Clementi but his recording company would have none of it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[ted]

That has a ring of truth to it. Waller played a lot of Bach privately and, according to reliable sources, made recordings of it for RCA which were rejected out of hand lest they interfere with sales and his public image.

[da jake]

Fats Waller recorded Bach? That would have been pretty cool to hear. Shame about the producers. 

[ted]

Yes, he actually played a lot of classical in private. The excellent little book, "They All Played Ragtime" discusses this RCA business. Rumours still persist about it but nobody has ever found the recordings. He used to play Bach straight first and then improvise swinging variations, so in those days they could have suppressed it for fear of offending the long-hairs I suppose.