I don't know how I have missed her

I am listening to Helene Grimaud for the first time.

http://youtu.be/g3Uzi0Vndbo

It has bothered me that all the pianists I admire--Serkin, Pollini, Argerich, Ashkenazy, Richter, Brendal, Gould, Perahia, Schiff --are all either, well, order than I am or dead. Helen Grimaud changes that.

Karajan

I have the same problem with Karajan as a musician that many others do: he thought all rough edges need to be sanded down to something smooth. But damn his Berlin Philharmonic was great.

Pollini as a young man

Playing the Emperor with Abbado in 1967.  Best left hand in the east, west, or anywhere else.

Hardest Symphony to Start?

For the first time in some time, I put the Carlos Kleiber recording of Beethoven's 5th on the turntable thing morning; while listening, I was reminded of a Georg Solti comment about how difficult it is to start the symphony (I tried finding a direct quote, but to no avail).

If one looks at the score, one can see why:

Three problems.  The piece is very fast (Allegro con brio); the piece starts off the beat; and it is easy to turn those straight eighth-notes (or quavers, as they say in England) into triplets.  It would help to beat a silent measure before beginning, but I am sure that is not a cool thing for a professional conductor to do.

Why Einstein was wrong about being wrong

Why Einstein was wrong about being wrong

h/t Mark Thoma. The piece is a lot of fun.

Favorite Symphonies not composed by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms or Mahler

Schubert 9
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Bruckner 7
Mendelssohn 3
Tchaikovsky 1
Shostakovich 10
Haydn 98
Haydn 104
Prokofiev 1
Sibelius 5

Mozart C-minor Fantasy, K 475

I have been playing the piece since I was about 15, and it never ceases to amaze me.  It is not just that it is chromatic, it also shifts keys violently and seemlessly.  Sometimes, when people don't know Mozart very well, they will say that he is "pretty," but not as "profound" or "modern" as Bach and Beethoven.  The K475 all by itself refutes the point.