Playing of exceptional refinement regarding dramatic impact and the varying of textures.
Barenboim's CD release presents some of the best piano sound I have heard, and also playing of exceptional refinement regarding dramatic impact and the varying of textures. The disc opens with the 1852 transcription of the Entry of the Guests on the Wartburg from Tannhauser in a rip-roaring performance that conveys orchestrally massive effects with ideal panache. Barenboim's advocacy makes a complete nonsense of Sacheverell Sitwell's disparaging remarks about these transcriptions. DG have managed to cope well with fortissimo episodes; they never pound. But then Barenboim throughout the disc reveals an extraordinary mastery over theRead more dynamic range. The Spinning Chorus transcription might strike some as a little mannered, but the dizzy humour of his performance is so individual as to win me over for one.
-- James Methuen-Campbell, Gramophone [3/1986] Read less
It's okay, but . . .May 31, 2017By gwen t. (Culver City, CA)See All My Reviews"Unfortunately, the music doesn't translate well to solo piano. One misses the broad range of sounds, nuance, and volume one hears with an orchestra; the grandeur is missing. It's well-played, but the piano alone is insufficient."Report Abuse