Post by Fugue June 21, 2009 (671 of 1375)
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bissie said:
You're right, they won't, but the good news is that Volume 2, with Etudes 26-43 (out of 100), will reach us within the next 2-3 weeks! BIS-CD-1533. Amazing music, mind-boggling that anyone has the brains, coupled with the hands, to play them at all! They make Ligeti or Liszt sound like warm-up exercises for lower teen-agers.
Robert
Thanks so much--I will keep a sharp eye out for it. Most of his music could be described as such--I just love it! Too bad he isn't making a DVD to accompany the audio CD, as it would be great fun to watch negotiate them. I believe one of the last ones is nearly an hour long--now THAT'S an etude! :-) Thank you for taking on a project that is not likely to be a commercial success.
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Post by bissie June 21, 2009 (672 of 1375)
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Fugue said:
Thanks so much--I will keep a sharp eye out for it. Most of his music could be described as such--I just love it! Too bad he isn't making a DVD to accompany the audio CD, as it would be great fun to watch negotiate them. I believe one of the last ones is nearly an hour long--now THAT'S an etude! :-) Thank you for taking on a project that is not likely to be a commercial success.
Don't say that, actually, Sorabji does have his followers, as does Fredrik Ullén. The first CD sold quite well, considering the repertoire, and keeps selling (not enough to break even yet, but much better than I thought). I believe the second CD will help the previous one. And - we'll have the market to ourselves - I honestly don't think there is a second person on this planet that can play these Etudes, anyway, not this way. You need a razor-sharp mind just to dissect them and a technique as yet unknown to man to play them. Or if there is, he/she will not devote the time necessary to learn them.
You're right, the last 2 Etudes are well over 40 minutes, maybe an hour each. Noone has ever played them, so it's hard to know. The whole 100 Transcendental Etudes will probably clock in at between 7 and 8 hours.
And it could be interesting to know that Fredrik Ullén isn't even a full-time pianist: his main job is to be a full Professor and researcher of the brain at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (the institution that chooses the Nobel Prize winner in medicin). He has an IQ of one in a million and headed up a very special kind of Super-Mensa and has just turned 40. He has recorded the complete solo piano music by Ligeti in a way that dropped Ligeti's jaw in awe and bewilderment ("who is that man", György asked me at a concert in Stockholm - "I have never heard my Etudes played that well by anyone!!"), the impossible-to-play "Trinity" of George Flynn and some more albums for BIS. He is a member of the Royal Musical Academy in Sweden. Some guy, that...
Best - Robert
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Post by canonical June 21, 2009 (673 of 1375)
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Fugue said:
I imagine they won't be issued in SACD format, but when will the Fredrick Ullen Sorabji Transcendental Etude project be continued?
I just listened to a bit of the Sorabji 100 Etudes CD on jpc ... sounds wonderful. I think I'll get a copy, even if it's on CD. [That's going to change my SACD/CD purchase ratio over the last year from 52:1 to 35:1.]
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Post by bissie June 30, 2009 (674 of 1375)
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canonical said:
I just listened to a bit of the Sorabji 100 Etudes CD on jpc ... sounds wonderful. I think I'll get a copy, even if it's on CD. [That's going to change my SACD/CD purchase ratio over the last year from 52:1 to 35:1.]
And let me use this once-a-month allowance to hawk our new wares:
BIS-SACD-1612 van Beethoven Piano Solo 7, including the Hammerklavier. Frankly, while many customers have picked up on this series, I must personally say that I am astounded that such playing (on an instrument, for which it was composed, at that) hasn't completely swept the market. What Ronald Brautigam does, on the purely musical/technical level, is UNBELIEVABLE and I am so incredibly proud that he has chosen BIS as the outlet for a talent only to be compared to the composer himself. Sales blurb? Yes, definitely. Hyperbole? No, not in this case. Do I believe in what I write? Oh, yes, but my problem is that I cannot find words that truly reflect the sensation I am feeling while listening to an SACD like this.
BIS-SACD-1791 Bach Cantatas 44. More of the same. But, obviously, on a world-class level, nowadays being the norm, against which all other cycles are compared.
Some have been complaining that our Villa-Lobos series isn't on SACD. I agree. Bad mistake, given the music-making and the sound in that fantastic Russell Johnson hall in Sao Paulo. Now, anyway, we have boxed the Complete Bachianas Brasileiras and Choros together and thrown in the Complete Guitar Music as well, making 7 RBCD:s at the price of 3 - BIS-CD-1830/32.
This month we're looking at 3 new SACD:s. More later, when they're in stock.
Best - Robert
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Post by Cilea June 30, 2009 (675 of 1375)
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bissie said:
This month we're looking at 3 new SACD:s. More later, when they're in stock.
Maybe a Mahler Ninth?
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Post by zeus July 1, 2009 (676 of 1375)
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Post by Cilea July 1, 2009 (677 of 1375)
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Post by bissie July 1, 2009 (678 of 1375)
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Post by tream July 1, 2009 (679 of 1375)
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bissie said:
And let me use this once-a-month allowance to hawk our new wares:
BIS-SACD-1612 van Beethoven Piano Solo 7, including the Hammerklavier. Frankly, while many customers have picked up on this series, I must personally say that I am astounded that such playing (on an instrument, for which it was composed, at that) hasn't completely swept the market. What Ronald Brautigam does, on the purely musical/technical level, is UNBELIEVABLE and I am so incredibly proud that he has chosen BIS as the outlet for a talent only to be compared to the composer himself. Sales blurb? Yes, definitely. Hyperbole? No, not in this case. Do I believe in what I write? Oh, yes, but my problem is that I cannot find words that truly reflect the sensation I am feeling while listening to an SACD like this.
BIS-SACD-1791 Bach Cantatas 44. More of the same. But, obviously, on a world-class level, nowadays being the norm, against which all other cycles are compared.
Some have been complaining that our Villa-Lobos series isn't on SACD. I agree. Bad mistake, given the music-making and the sound in that fantastic Russell Johnson hall in Sao Paulo. Now, anyway, we have boxed the Complete Bachianas Brasileiras and Choros together and thrown in the Complete Guitar Music as well, making 7 RBCD:s at the price of 3 - BIS-CD-1830/32.
This month we're looking at 3 new SACD:s. More later, when they're in stock.
Best - Robert
Really looking forward to Beethoven vol 7. The Brautigam series represents Beethoven playing on a high level and also is the first time I have been convinced by the use of historical instruments, which adds an additional layer of interest.
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Post by wehecht July 1, 2009 (680 of 1375)
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bissie said:
And let me use this once-a-month allowance to hawk our new wares:
BIS-SACD-1612 van Beethoven Piano Solo 7, including the Hammerklavier. Frankly, while many customers have picked up on this series, I must personally say that I am astounded that such playing (on an instrument, for which it was composed, at that) hasn't completely swept the market. What Ronald Brautigam does, on the purely musical/technical level, is UNBELIEVABLE and I am so incredibly proud that he has chosen BIS as the outlet for a talent only to be compared to the composer himself. Sales blurb? Yes, definitely. Hyperbole? No, not in this case. Do I believe in what I write? Oh, yes, but my problem is that I cannot find words that truly reflect the sensation I am feeling while listening to an SACD like this.
Hi Robert,
Couldn't agree more, this whole series is superb, but volume 6 is simply overwhelming. I'm looking forward to volume 7 with great anticipation.
On the subject of Mr. Brautigam, the new issue of Fanfare contains an article about another label, ARS Produktion, at the end of which a spokesman for that label mentions that a conductor they've worked with, Michael Alexander Willens, and his band, the Cologne Academy, "along with Dutch fortepianist Ronald Brautigam...have begun recording a cycle of Mozart piano concertos for the Swedish label BIS." Whatever the aural equivalent of mouth watering is, that's what I'm experiencing.
Are you able to share any specifics at this time? Thank you.
Bill
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