I often wish he played either a bit faster or a bit slower. I'm exaggerating a bit but I feel the tempo and dynamics are often a bit too samey across the board, for my taste.
I have not, however, heard Schiff perform the Beethoven sonatas, not even one in entirety.
There is live album with the sonatas played by Schiff if you have spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7FmN3GeVocp3VGmU1poJBE?si=CJiNp-AjQBKA6cx0-8uugwFor the Chopin preludes, you gotta check out Cortot. He is the undisputed master of those, in my opinion
Thanks! I don't have spotify, but one of these days I'll give Schiff's Beethoven a quick once over.I didn't know any recordings of the Préludes existed by Cortot. I certainly find his student edition of the Préludes very interesting: lots of very interesting suggestions and small technical abstractions. Maybe it's not the most up-to-date or authoritative when it comes to the actual editing of Chopin's score, but I don't care about that too much. Can always be fixed by comparison.The Schiff Préludes recording I know (the only one) is the uninterrupted recital on youtube given on a Chopin-vintage Pleyel. To me, even just playing them without pause is impressive enough (yes I know lots of people can do that in recital), but observing his mechanical work is interesting as well (since it's very different than what is appropriate for me on these pieces, but learning different tricks is worthwhile I find). Plus, the novelty (?!) of the instrument he performs on.
Here's my all-time, desert island favourite recording of the complete preludes with Cortot:
Happy to hear I could show you something you enjoyed Cortot has recorded quite a lot of Chopin (sometimes with tons of wrong notes!). Many of these recordings, for example the Ballades, rank among the all time great recordings. Maybe Cortot would be able to get you excited about Chopin again? He certainly does it for me!Seems like my Schiff thread now has turned into a Cortot thread. But I don't think Schiff would mind, I hear he likes Cortot too.
But, also on a similar level, how much touring do you think M. Schiff will be doing, especially in the next few years? I really know nothing about his personal life, except the items about his displeasure with his native country and several of the neighboring nations.
Difficult to know, have you seen indications that he may want to tour less? I heard him some two-three years ago when he came here and played the Goldberg variations. Honestly it was a bit tough for me to sit through those in a live concert but it was cool to see and hear the man play, and it was very well executed.