Dubravka Tomsic, Helena Schubert, MP3 ghost
A. Haakman
and a ghost pianist playing 23 Scarlatti sonatas on the web (MP3)?
I collect almost all recordings of Scarlatti sonatas, on piano as well as
on harpsichord.
In 1993 I bought a very cheap (about $2,50) Scarlatti CD containing 13
sonatas, payed by a certain Helena Schubert, I never heard of. The label was
called `Symphony'. I liked the performance very much, and got a suspicion
that Helena Schubert was an alias of some celebrity.
A couple of months later I found another very cheap Scarlatti CD, played by
a certain Dubravka Tomsic. Label: `Point'. It contained exactly the same
performance of the same sonatas.
Now I found on the web a collection of 23 Scarlatti sonatas, performed by
an ananymous pianist. You guess it, half of those were exactly the same as
the ones on the Schubert & Tomsic CD's.
I found the name of Dubravka Tomsic on the web, in a review of a recital
'The Yougoslav pianist Dubravka Tomsic' gave in 1992 in Boston. So she
exists somewhere.
Does anyone know why this outstanding pianist remains hidden in anonymous
MP3's and aliases. Who is she really?
Anton Haakman
HankM219
>MP3's and aliases. Who is she really?
I do know that she is scheduled to give a piano recital in Philadelphia in
March, 2000. I intend to go and find out!
Henry Maurer, Cherry Hill, NJ, USA
hank...@aol.com or hsma...@worldnet.att.net
Samuel Broda
I saw Tomsic perform a recital in San Francisco, 2 or 3 years ago. She was
great!
Happy Listening,
Sam
************************
Samuel Broda, CA Attorney at Law
Alexandria, VA
"Dumping trash along the Information Superhighway since 1983."
Thomas Bergeron
>
> Does anyone know why this outstanding pianist remains hidden in anonymous
>MP3's and aliases. Who is she really?
>
I don't know though I own some of her recordings on very cheap labels
(Brahms 1st piano concerto, some well-known Beethoven sonatas, etc.).
I think that recordings belong the "public domain" or something like
that.
Thomas C. Bergeron
Pharmacy student at ULaval
aai...@agora.ulaval.ca
A. Haakman
ftp://mpeg3c:mpe...@194.226.56.60/Scarlatti%20(1685-1757)/Piano%20Sonatas/
Anton Haakman
A. Haakman <haa...@wish.net> wrote in message
news:7i8n5f$9...@news3.euro.net...
> Who is able to solve the mystery of pianist Dubravka Tomsic, Helena
Schubert
> and a ghost pianist playing 23 Scarlatti sonatas on the web (MP3)?
> I collect almost all recordings of Scarlatti sonatas, on piano as well as
> on harpsichord.
> In 1993 I bought a very cheap (about $2,50) Scarlatti CD containing 13
> sonatas, payed by a certain Helena Schubert, I never heard of. The label
was
> called `Symphony'. I liked the performance very much, and got a suspicion
> that Helena Schubert was an alias of some celebrity.
> A couple of months later I found another very cheap Scarlatti CD, played
by
> a certain Dubravka Tomsic. Label: `Point'. It contained exactly the same
> performance of the same sonatas.
> Now I found on the web a collection of 23 Scarlatti sonatas, performed by
> an ananymous pianist. You guess it, half of those were exactly the same as
> the ones on the Schubert & Tomsic CD's.
> I found the name of Dubravka Tomsic on the web, in a review of a recital
> 'The Yougoslav pianist Dubravka Tomsic' gave in 1992 in Boston. So she
> exists somewhere.
> Does anyone know why this outstanding pianist remains hidden in anonymous
> MP3's and aliases. Who is she really?
>
> Anton Haakman
>
>
Peter M. Barach, Ph.D.
news:7i8n5f$9...@news3.euro.net...
> Who is able to solve the mystery of pianist Dubravka Tomsic,
There's no mystery. She is a marvelous musician. I own all of the
cheap-label CD's I could find of her performances. Of the solo discs, the
most outstanding to me is one containing the Chopin Impromptus and several
nocturnes. I also like Beethoven Sonata 8 and 14, a CD of Debussy, and the
Scarlatti performances you have already run across. I have heard a disk of
short Brahms pieces that I also liked. There is a cheap disk of Bach
performances that I'm not so thrilled with. The sound quality on all of
these disks is excellent.
I own a number of concerto recordings by her, all of which are with the
Ljubljana Symphony conducted by Nanut; the orchestral playing is mediocre
and the sound is often below-par; her piano is usually captured with a hard
edge that does not typify her playing elsewhere on disk, or live. I received
an email message from the producer of some of her American recordings who
said that Tomsic's name appears on several concerto recordings by other
pianists (I think he mentioned the Schumann as one of them).
I heard her play live in concert here in Cleveland (Severance Hall)
several years ago. She has a business-like platform demeanor that does not
match the passion and fire in her playing. One of the outstanding traits in
everything she played was clarity. But nothing was desiccated, dry, or
mechanical; there was a lyrical feel to everything she played. Technically,
the playing was outstanding--but all in service to the music. She is a
pianist with ideas of her own, but again they are in service to the music
rather than a need to draw attention to herself.
The only time she displayed a smile was when she was given a large
bouquet of flowers by several audience members dressed in the costumes of
her homeland.
Peter M. Barach, Ph.D.
Althair
performances but subdued style of performing. She studied with Rubenstein for
a few years and one or two of her budget cd's quote him on the excellence of
her playing. She chose a local career, only recording primarily for the small
east block companies. In addition to those listed I have a Piano
Favorites type cd of hers. Quite a marvellous artist overall and available
cheap all over if you look.
Carl Tait
Peter M. Barach, Ph.D. <pba...@sprynet.com> wrote:
>
>[Tomsic] has a business-like platform demeanor that does not
>match the passion and fire in her playing.
True, but to me, this is an attribute that makes her playing
even more impressive: extreme economy of motion. She just sits
there like a lump and the music rolls out.
>One of the outstanding traits in
>everything she played was clarity. But nothing was desiccated, dry, or
>mechanical; there was a lyrical feel to everything she played. Technically,
>the playing was outstanding--but all in service to the music.
I agree with all of this. Any pianist who can get me interested in
Debussy's "Cloches a travers les feuilles" must be *really* good....
--
Carl Tait IBM T. J. Watson Research Center
cdt...@us.ibm.com Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
Jeffrey Friedman
hank...@aol.com (HankM219) wrote:
>>Does anyone know why this outstanding pianist remains hidden in anonymous
>>MP3's and aliases. Who is she really?
>
>I do know that she is scheduled to give a piano recital in Philadelphia in
>March, 2000. I intend to go and find out!
>
She has played at the Newport Music Festival, and is scheduled to be there
again this summer. She is giving the closing recital July 25, doing some
Brahms and a two-piano version of the Saint-Saens Concerto #2 with Piers
Lane.
Jeffrey F. Friedman
je...@friedman.com
j...@ix.netcom.co
Stig Are M. Botterli
>
>The sound quality on all of these disks is excellent.
I've found the previously mentioned Scarlatti sonatas on Point nigh
unlistenable on headphones due to the distorted sound of the piano, not
unlike the sound of the piano on Ashkenazy's Chopin on Decca. The
performances oth are, to my ears, top-notch.
--
Stig Are M. Botterli
st...@himolde.no
Laurentiu
"A. Haakman" <haa...@wish.net> wrote:
> Who is able to solve the mystery of pianist Dubravka Tomsic, Helena
Schubert
As other posters said Tomsic is alive and playing.
> and a ghost pianist playing 23 Scarlatti sonatas on the web (MP3)?
> I collect almost all recordings of Scarlatti sonatas, on piano as
well as
> on harpsichord.
> In 1993 I bought a very cheap (about $2,50) Scarlatti CD containing
13
> sonatas, payed by a certain Helena Schubert, I never heard of. The
label was
> called `Symphony'. I liked the performance very much, and got a
suspicion
> that Helena Schubert was an alias of some celebrity.
The "Symphony" label was/is a pretty dubious label issuing
cd's of varying quality, some with good sound, others with pretty
bad sound. I noticed at the time I purchased half a dozen of them
with 1$/piece that some of them contained similar tracks with other
cd's issued by other labels but with different artist names. My guess
is that they were so cheap that they copied cd's and placed bogus
artists names on the cover so that they wouldn't pay anything for
the recordings. I think I had this Scarlatti cd, but the one I really
liked was a Bach recital on piano containing the "Italian Concerto",
the best interpretation I heard so far. I don't remember well but
I think that the recording that I found duplicated on one of their
cd's was that of a Chopin recital (waltzes maybe) identical to
that issued on a PILZ disc. The interpreter on Pilz was Peter
Schmalfus (sounds bogus but I've seen several recordings by him),
on Symphony they put the name of a woman, something like Schubert.
I checked the timings and the succession of the pieces and it was
identical for both cd's so this lead me to the conclusion that
something was weird, I bought only the Pilz so I didn't end up
actually listening to both. I've seen this cds about four years
ago so I don't remember very well.
> A couple of months later I found another very cheap Scarlatti CD,
played by
> a certain Dubravka Tomsic. Label: `Point'. It contained exactly the
same
> performance of the same sonatas.
Point Classics is another label that stinks, I bought a couple
out of curiosity, ended up throwing them away, the sound was
distorted and I couldn't stand it.
Pilz seems to me to be the "original" label that issued these
recordings (featuring Nanut, Schmalfus, Tomsic, Andrea Giulini,
Jacottet, Alberto Lizzio, etc) that I later saw on other labels
like Symphony, Point Classics, Classica (an Italian label).
These recordings might probably come from radios in East Europe
that selled the rights for them cheap. Some of the artists like
Jacottet and Sylvia Capek recorded for Eterna (East German) and
Opus (Czech) and I saw them both on Pilz cds.
--
Laurentiu
laur...@my-dejanews.com
--== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==--
---Share what you know. Learn what you don't.---
Andrys D Basten
> Now I found on the web a collection of 23 Scarlatti sonatas, performed by
>an ananymous pianist. You guess it, half of those were exactly the same as
>the ones on the Schubert & Tomsic CD's.
> I found the name of Dubravka Tomsic on the web, in a review of a recital
>'The Yougoslav pianist Dubravka Tomsic' gave in 1992 in Boston. So she
>exists somewhere.
> Does anyone know why this outstanding pianist remains hidden in anonymous
>MP3's and aliases. Who is she really?
Tomsic. A few of us saw her and had been looking forward to it
too, about 3 years ago here (San Francisco). Her Ravel was
wonderful. However, she played all 4 Chopin Ballades and to every
single one of us (5 people) the pieces sounded as if they were being
run over by a mack truck.
Her forte's Scarlatti and, that night, Ravel, and I think she did a
Villa Lobos encore - whatever it was it was enchanting. She's
capable of some very beautiful playing which flows and has strength,
but that Chopin (!)
The Ballades were very painful. Harsh, heavy-handed.
- A
--
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