Is this a recording of Ervin Nyiregyhazi?

[michael_sayers]

Hi Everyone,

I think it is Ervin Nyiregyhazi even though there isn't a documented source of which I am aware for him having been recorded in this particular repertoire selection.

Mvh,
Michael

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Curious. The gestures (particularly the dim at 0.20, agogic delay at 0.42, and accel through the dominant seventh arpeggio at 0.49) sounded very familiar to me (to the extent that I predicted they would happen before hearing them happen). I've played this piece (Liszt Norma fantasy) and have multitudinous CD recordings of it, but no alternative source springs to mind.

[michael_sayers]

Hi Ronde_des_sylphes,

The recording of the 2nd Liszt Legende by Nyiregyhazi as linked below - but as heard on the T.V. broadcast - sounds, on the T.V. broadcast, a lot like the same combination of piano, stage and acoustics, which is part of why I think it it is E.N.  I think this Reminiscences de Norma recording might be from an old, circulated tape copy of him performing at the same location, but which was recorded from a location in the audience closer to the stage.

Mvh,
Michael

[michael_sayers]

Hi Ronde_des_sylphes,

Someone in the comments wrote today that it is Hamelin.  I've heard Hamelin live and without hearing as big a sound as what is on the purported Nyiregyhazi clip, so I am skeptical that it is Hamelin unless there is a recording of Hamelin in this repertoire which is similar and of which we can know reasonably that Hamelin is the pianist.


Mvh,
Michael

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Hi, that did actually flit through my mind, because there is (was?) a live clip on YT of MAH playing Norma (in poor, possibly bootleg audio). I meant to compare them but didn't get round to it, partly because the ff bass sounded similar in places to EN - the recording is also quite unclean, technically, and furthermore because I remember criticising MAH's recording and I liked several things about this recording. I'll have to check later, it's worrying if I've evaluated the same recording significantly differently albeit many years apart!

[michael_sayers]

Hi Ronde_des_sylphes,

There is a hoard of M.A.H. Norma recordings on YouTube.  I can't spare the time right now sample them in that section of the music - I'm having to redo a big part of a music editing project with 15 lines of errors that now might have me in the red for getting it done [normally in proofreading I only find two or three errors, and usually no errors, but this score is massively complicated and after the corrections everything in the effected measures will have to be fine tuned again].


Mvh,
Michael

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I'm also busy just now, but at least I know which one I'm looking for! I'll try to check and compare this evening.

[michael_sayers]

I'm also busy just now, but at least I know which one I'm looking for! I'll try to check and compare this evening.

If it is M.A.H. then someone is going to need to update the title of a YouTube video, and reload it without the E.N. image.


Mvh,
Michael

[michael_sayers]

p.s. - If it is M.A.H., I wonder if he would be flattered by the comparison to E.N.?

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Hamelin, Roque d'Antheron 2006. 

[michael_sayers]

 

Thanks for finding it!


Mvh,
Michael

[stevensk]

It sounds completely awful 

[michael_sayers]

What I find interesting is the description the uploader gives in the comments:

This is the "arpeggiando con grandezza" from "Réminiscences de Norma" by Liszt, a minute from an April 13, 2007 Hungarian TV broadcast about Nyíregyházi.

April 13, 2007, is very specific - that date had to come from somewhere.  I wonder if a hoaxster or hoaxsters are distributing recordings misattributed to E.N.


Mvh,
Michael

[ronde_des_sylphes]

It wouldn't surprise me if the documentary (assuming it exists) wasn't shown on then. However I don't feel like searching Hungarian sites for possible archived TV listings on that date.

In passing, as my curiosity was piqued by this a while back, would you care to comment on this abomination/wilful eccentricity?

I had always assumed it was recorded when Nyiregyhazi was improvising in a phase of drunkenness. There's a very curious comment on the video though, suggesting a possible alternative attribution. 

[michael_sayers]

It wouldn't surprise me if the documentary (assuming it exists) wasn't shown on then. However I don't feel like searching Hungarian sites for possible archived TV listings on that date.

In passing, as my curiosity was piqued by this a while back, would you care to comment on this abomination/wilful eccentricity?

I had always assumed it was recorded when Nyiregyhazi was improvising in a phase of drunkenness. There's a very curious comment on the video though, suggesting a possible alternative attribution.  

Hi Ronde_des_sylphes,

 

Though I am delighted at having an E.N. recording attributed to me, I think this Wagner recording is listed in Kevin Bazzana's Nyiregyhazi biography as having been recorded for a young [very young, compared to E.N.!] soprano in N.Y.C. who admired and wanted to meet E.N., and with whom E.N. fell in love, and that it was recorded for her on a visit to the Ford Foundation.  He even proposed marriage, assuming that I recall all of this information correctly.

It makes me curious who this "bruno paris" is - and, even more so, who his "authoritative source" is.

If you discover other misattributions of E.N. recordings to yours truly, please don't hesitate to send me a little message with a link to let me know.


Mvh,
Michael

[ronde_des_sylphes]

I'm certainly not especially familiar with his discography, so that is interesting to hear. I will let you know if I learn of any similar claims of attribution elsewhere

[michael_sayers]

I checked the bio., but the section which discusses E.N. and the soprano doesn't mention the Wagner recording.  Somewhere here I have a complete list of the E.N. discography which I think lists it for 1978.


Mvh,
Michael

[michael_sayers]

I located the source of the Wagner rec. and posted a correction to the comment of "bruno paris".  I still would like to know who his "authoritative source" is.

In the side bar this l.h. arrangement of the music came up.  I think it is good for a pianist to have at least 1 hr. 50 min. l.h. repertoire plus one l.h. encore in her or his repertoire in case there is an unexpected issue with the right hand.

I don't recommend this item, however, for various reasons . . . [the same reasons for which I would never perform or record the music of Wagner] . . . it is interesting, though, to hear.

Mvh,
Michael