Re: RIP Gyorgy Sandor
tomdeacon
EM wrote:
> Hungarian pianist György Sandor died at age 93 in New York, so I read
> here:
> http://www.klassik.com/aktuell/news/teaser.cfm?ID=4281&CFID=443112&CFTOKEN=91546033
> (German)
>
> Eltjo M.
Sad.
Nice man, actually. I interviewed him for a Bartok documentary I once
produced with Robert C Marsh for the Bartok centenary(?) in the late
1970s, I think.
He gave me a copy of a photo taken with him and Bartok. He was very
proud of that connection.
Unfortunately I never found him to be an interesting pianist. But there
you go. He certainly was an earnest one.
TD
Raymond Hall
news:jgo2q1lclp5dp5j3g...@4ax.com...
> Hungarian pianist György Sandor died at age 93 in New York, so I read
> here:
> http://www.klassik.com/aktuell/news/teaser.cfm?ID=4281&CFID=443112&CFTOKEN=91546033
> (German)
Sorry to hear that piece of sad news. Fortunately I acquired his Bartok solo
piano set on Vox not so long ago. I'll give some items a spin over the
weekend. He was playing actively, and touring, for nearly all of his 93
years.
Ray H
Taree
SG
I never thought of Sandor being a genius. (How many geniuses are there,
anyway?) An extremely accomplished talent, perhaps the most *musical*
available choice in a *complete* piano Bartok set, he certainly was. He
also was a terrific teacher, an old-world genuine gentleman, a charming
raconteur, and a generous judge and advocate of fellow pianists. A
luminous human presence also he was.
RIP indeed.
regards,
SG
alanwa...@aol.com
> available choice in a *complete* piano Bartok set, he certainly was. He
> also was a terrific teacher, an old-world genuine gentleman, a charming
> raconteur, and a generous judge and advocate of fellow pianists. A
> luminous human presence also he was.
>
> RIP indeed.
>
> regards,
> SG
That's him done for then:):) I have not heard him for years but I
thought when his Bartok came out on Vox it was generally well regarded,
at the time. Probably things have moved on for all I know.
RIP.
Kind regards,
Alan M. Watkins
rkhalona
teenager, was played by Sandor (IIRC, he was accompanied by the SWF
Orch. cond. by one Rolf Kleinert -- it was part of that Funk & Wagnalls
classical music collection on LP). It was enough to get me hooked on
the piece, so I have him to thank for it, although I suspect I would
have loved the music anyway.
I have enjoyed some of his Bartok performances as well.
RK
SG
alanwa...@aol.com wrote:
> I have not heard him for years but I
> thought when his Bartok came out on Vox it was generally well regarded,
> at the time. Probably things have moved on for all I know.
"Things" *never* "move on". New values are being added on the top of
the old values, at best, but what is genuine never dies nor is it being
"moved on" upon.
Kind regards,
SG
alanwa...@aol.com
alanwa...@aol.com wrote:
> An extremely accomplished talent, perhaps the most *musical*
> > available choice in a *complete* piano Bartok set, he certainly was. He
> > also was a terrific teacher, an old-world genuine gentleman, a charming
> > raconteur, and a generous judge and advocate of fellow pianists. A
> > luminous human presence also he was.
> >
> > RIP indeed.
> >
> > regards,
> > SG
PS: Come to think of it, that's not a bad obituary for ANY musician.
I'd be happy with just a couple of those, particularly teaching and
judging.
Dontait...@aol.com
It's sad to learn of Sandor's passing. I heard that Brahms concerto
recording when it was on a Vox LP years ago and thought it was
excellent. All of my friends praised it too at the time. I didn't buy
it and haven't heard it for decades, however.
By a coincidence I recently bought the Vox CD reissue of Sandor's
Bartok solo piano music too, like Ray H (another message, above).
Don Tait
Paul Ilechko
> By a coincidence I recently bought the Vox CD reissue of Sandor's
> Bartok solo piano music too, like Ray H (another message, above).
Ditto. Great value.
JohnGavin
I passed him and spoke with him in the hallway when I worked on a
Masters at the University of Michigan. He chaired the piano department
there at the time and had many talented Doctoral students. He always
seemed very kind, in an old-European sort of way - often saying things
like "bon apetit" when one was off to lunch. Students sought him out
from around the globe. I remember a very nice performance with him of
the Beethoven Emperor with Menuhin conducting at U of M's huge Hill
Auditorium. Sandor was a long-time acquaintance of Menuhin and he
worked with the violinist on a piano transcription of Bartok's Sonata
for Unaccompanied Violin. Sandor also arranged and recorded a
solo-piano version of the Concerto for Orchestra.
As I remember, his discography actually started on pre-stereo
Columbias, and one such recording was the Chopin PC#1 with Ormandy.
Also, there is an early disc of Bach transcriptions. I believe that
Sandor surfaced at an opportune time, (mid 40s). I don't know if he
was quite of the calibre to survive the intensity of competition that
was soon to come. He will be missed by dozens of his students, many of
whom teach in schools around the world.
rkhalona
JohnGavin wrote:
> Sandor also arranged and recorded a
> solo-piano version of the Concerto for Orchestra.
>
Yes! I stumbled upon this while shopping in Vancouver many years ago
(a CBS disc) and picked it up. I confess to being skeptical about a
transcription of this piece for piano. After all,
it's a concerto for *orchestra*. But Sandor did a good job, and there
are a number of things that you hear in the piano version that prompted
me to go back to the orchestral version
to listen with new ears.
One more thing I am grateful to him for.
RK
alanwa...@aol.com
There are lot's of things you hear in the four hands transcriptions of
both sets of Slavonic Dances by Dvorak, as against the orchestra.
Depends upon who is conducting the orchestra, of course.
Ward Hardman
>
> The first recording of Brahms 2nd piano concerto I ever heard,
> as a teenager, was played by Sandor (IIRC, he was accompanied
> by the SWF Orch. cond. by one Rolf Kleinert
The first recording of Rachmaninoff's 2nd piano concerto that I ever
heard was by Sandor and Rodzinski/NYP, circa the mid-40s. It was one
of two 78 rpm albums my family possessed (in addition to my Stoky
"Peter and the Wolf"). The other album was Rubinstein's Grieg
concerto. I don't know how Sandor's album would stack up with my
collection's Rach 2 performances, since it's been over 50 years since I
last heard it, but it certainly created a love for the piece.
--Ward Hardman
"The older I get, the more I admire and crave competence, just
simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology."
- H.L. Mencken
Ward Hardman
James VI" to aggrandize his delusions of grandeur, wrote:
>
> it's almost touching [snip]
Ahhhh, the "King James (per)Version."
I wasn't try to entertain *you*, Jamie Boy, but if I made you cry, then
I'm satisfied.
Handel8
for Sony in a cd box set.This came out in the early 1990s, I think. It
was one less cd than the Vox set IIRC, so I'm not sure it was as
complete. Have not compared the two. The second no doubt had better
sound. The Vox cd set stupidly did not have track markings for each
movement of the 4 or 5 parts of the Mikrokosmos so that after a little
while one had no idea where one was in the piece.
Sandoe also did a complete Prokofiev paino set for Vox, on LP and cd,
but this does not hold up well to other recordings.
Alan Prichard
The Historian
Agreed. It's a wonderful set.
Peter Lemken
The Brahms Second was recorded as an afterthought. They were scheduled to
record the Third Bartok concerto and finished early with time to spare in
that session. The Brahms you hear on this recording is virtually an
unrehearsed all-in-one take.
Peter Lemken
Berlin
--
Paul Lincke ist dem Zille sein Milhaud.
(Harry Rowohlt)
Henry Maurer
Peter Lemken wrote:
> The Brahms Second was recorded as an afterthought. They were scheduled to
> record the Third Bartok concerto and finished early with time to spare in
> that session. The Brahms you hear on this recording is virtually an
> unrehearsed all-in-one take.
Some piece to record as an "afterthrought!"
Sandor also recorded the complete piano music of Prokofiev for Vox on
LP, and I have the second box of this set. I haven't listened to it in
a long time, but I will play at least one of the records in his memory.
tomdeacon
Try not to get too sentimental.
Most of it sounds like competent but unimaginative sight-reading.
Try the early "etude" and then listen to Kissin.
That should clear the tears from your eyes.
TD
Matthew B. Tepper
following letters to be typed in
news:1134733172....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
> Peter Lemken wrote:
>> The Brahms Second was recorded as an afterthought. They were scheduled
>> to record the Third Bartok concerto and finished early with time to
>> spare in that session. The Brahms you hear on this recording is
>> virtually an unrehearsed all-in-one take.
>
> Some piece to record as an "afterthrought!"
James Levine recorded Brahms' 1st Symphony in Chicago for RCA, in session
time left over from the Mahler 3rd. It was a superb reading, and somehow
the label was smart enough to make it the start of a cycle. Those smarts
have since run out, of course, 'cause it's still not integrally on CD.
> Sandor also recorded the complete piano music of Prokofiev for Vox on
> LP, and I have the second box of this set. I haven't listened to it in
> a long time, but I will play at least one of the records in his memory.
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. ~ FDR (attrib.)
Allen
rkhalona wrote:
Many years ago, when I was much younger and (I hope) much more foolish,
I had never been able to really get interested in Bartok. Then I heard
Sandor playing the PC 1 on a public library Vox disc. In spite of the
horrible sound quality, mostly attributable to the many previous
listenings, I realized "This is what Bartok is all about!" Sandor
opened the door to many, many hours of listening to Bartok since then.
Bless him!
Allen
SG
Henry Maurer wrote:
> > The Brahms Second was recorded as an afterthought. They were scheduled to
> > record the Third Bartok concerto and finished early with time to spare in
> > that session. The Brahms you hear on this recording is virtually an
> > unrehearsed all-in-one take.
>
> Some piece to record as an "afterthrought!"
Somehow I am reminded of the story (can't remember whether authentic or
not) of Serkin playing Bach's Goldberg Variations as an encore -
apparently he didn't have time to prepare anything else... (-:
regards,
SG
Hank
Hank
"rkhalona" <rkha...@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:1134686740....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...