Alfred Brendel and Rachmaninoff

[pytheamateur]

I remember vaguely reading somewhere a long time ago that Brendel described Rachmaninoff's music as vulgar.  Does anyone know more details about this?  If you have the relevant quotes that would be great.

Apart from Brendel, do you know of other famous pianists that do not like Rachmaninoff?

[birba]

That's the first time I've heard that.  come to think of it, I don't think he's ever made any recordings of rachmaninov.  I remember once when I was in a competition, I made friends with a turkish girl (who won the competition) and when she asked what etude I was playing, I said a Rachmaninov etude-tableaux.  She made a face and said she couldn't stand Rachmaninov.  That was the first time I ever heard anyone say that!
At any rate, pianists say lots of stupid things.  gould said the appassionata was a vulgar piece of work.  Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

[stoudemirestat]

I believe the quote is something like "There is not enough time in life for bad wine, and Rachmaninoff."

And yeah, everyone is entitled to their opinion - great men included! I know heaps of people who dislike Rachmaninoff, in fact on other classical music forums I go on he's generally, overall, considered a top 20-30 composer with a few admirers, and a few guys that downright can't stand him. Many of his pieces are often pointed to as being overly sentimental and sweet, predictable - the concerti particularly - and often rehash of other stuff he wrote . Of course I disagree with all this, as he's one of my favourites.

[pytheamateur]

That's the first time I've heard that.  come to think of it, I don't think he's ever made any recordings of rachmaninov.  I remember once when I was in a competition, I made friends with a turkish girl (who won the competition) and when she asked what etude I was playing, I said a Rachmaninov etude-tableaux.  She made a face and said she couldn't stand Rachmaninov.  That was the first time I ever heard anyone say that!
At any rate, pianists say lots of stupid things.  gould said the appassionata was a vulgar piece of work.  Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

Although Brendel never made any recording of Rachmaninov, he did apparently make a recording early in his career of Balakirev's Islamey!

[birba]

YUCK!  And he says he doesn't like Rachmaninov?!?

[49410enrique]

That's the first time I've heard that.  come to think of it, I don't think he's ever made any recordings of rachmaninov.  I remember once when I was in a competition, I made friends with a turkish girl (who won the competition) and when she asked what etude I was playing, I said a Rachmaninov etude-tableaux.  She made a face and said she couldn't stand Rachmaninov.  That was the first time I ever heard anyone say that!
At any rate, pianists say lots of stupid things.  gould said the appassionata was a vulgar piece of work.  Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

yeah and he thought vienna corrupted mozart as well i believe.  i think it's one of the reasons behind his 'creative' interpretations many of the mozart sonatas, they're interesting to listen to but i would certainly not use them as a reference on interpreting of how to go about playing them, i think he purposely buthcered parts of them

"...Gould had a pronounced aversion to what he termed a "hedonistic" approach to the piano repertoire, performance, and music generally. For Gould, "hedonism" in this sense denoted a superficial theatricality, something to which he felt Mozart

, for example, became increasingly susceptible later in his career. He associated this drift towards hedonism with the emergence of a cult of showmanship and gratuitous virtuosity on the concert platform in the 19th century and later. The institution of the public concert, he felt, degenerated into the "blood sport" with which he struggled, and which he ultimately rejected...."

[revanyoda777]

That's the first time I've heard that.  come to think of it, I don't think he's ever made any recordings of rachmaninov.  I remember once when I was in a competition, I made friends with a turkish girl (who won the competition) and when she asked what etude I was playing, I said a Rachmaninov etude-tableaux.  She made a face and said she couldn't stand Rachmaninov.  That was the first time I ever heard anyone say that!
At any rate, pianists say lots of stupid things.  gould said the appassionata was a vulgar piece of work.  Put THAT in your pipe and smoke it!

Gould also hated Chopin and Liszt, so its no surprise he would say something like that. He basically disliked anything that wasn't contrapuntal enough for his taste, and even said the later half of Mozart's sonatas were terrible.