A paean to Ponti

[Alan Howe]

...which shows how careful we must all be in describing works as 'cut' or 'uncut'.

[Alan Howe]

I'm really sorry: I have yet to find a Ponti recording which I prefer to all others. I find him technically superb, but too often unsubtle and 'in your face'. Frankly, I don't wish to feel so 'assaulted' - as I do with his Hiller PC2, for example, which seems to me to be quite wrong for a work of that era/style. Hiller is not Liszt!

Perhaps his Rach 3 would change my mind, but I can't find any reference to it anywhere...

[eschiss1]

Maybe this? Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev concertos 3, conducted by Heribert Beissel. Dante CD PSG 9871.

[Revilod]

I've got that Dante C.D. It was made in November 1997, the last of four concerto recordings Ponti made at the time and probably the last disc he made before his stroke.  The other discs were remakes of earlier concerto recordings...Raff, Moszowski, Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rubinstein, Reinecke, Hiller and Henselt. The Rachmaninoff receives a fine performance...not particularly "in your face", in the first movement at least. In fact, Ponti's statement of the opening theme is almost self-effacing. He plays an effective conflation of the two cadenzas Rachmaninoff left. The slow movement is a little heavy-handed sometimes but not in the fast central section where Ponti's virtuosity is jaw-dropping... as it is in much of the finale. The "galloping" music is taken quickly and the ensuing lyrical melody very sensitively played. The orchestra plays well. I've heard more resplendent accounts of the final pages, though. The recording is good though not outstanding. The piano sound is a bit clattery....the instrument itself not in top condition.

[Alan Howe]

I've unearthed this info:

Michael Ponti 1: Rachmaninoff, Scriabine
un-edited live performance
Description matérielle : 1 disque compact (1 h 18 min 32 s) : DDD
Description : Note : Enregistrements publics
Vanves : prod. Dante Production, P 1995
Note sur l'enregistrement : Munich. - de. - Herkulessaal
Édition : Vanves : Dante ; Vanves : distrib. Dante , 1996 (DL)
Enregistrement : Allemagne - Munich - Herkulessaal
Piano : Michael Ponti
Producteur de phonogrammes : Dante Production
Distributeur : Dante (Firme)
Éditeur commercial : Dante (Firme)
https://data.bnf.fr/fr/documents-by-rdt/13955769/3160/page1

...and:

Rachmaninoff, S : Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, op.30
    Beissel, H / Halle State Phil. / 1997.11.25, 28
Prokofiev, S : Piano Concerto No.3 in C major, op.26
    Beissel, H / Halle State Phil. / 1997.11.25, 28
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~hippo/musik/label/dante.html

[Alan Howe]

...however, I think the chances of picking up a copy somewhere are virtually nil.

Here's the CD:

[Revilod]

Here it is. £9.99 You'll have to be quick .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Prokofiev-Rachmaninov-Piano-Concertos-Ponti/173811138587?hash=item2877f3801b:g:qEQAAOSwgmJXxema:rk:41:pf:0

[Alan Howe]

Very good of you to alert me! I'd already spotted it myself - and snapped it up! Greatly looking forward to listening to it. Many thanks again for your kindness.

[Revilod]

Oh...not at all, Alan.

[Alan Howe]

...and the CD arrived this morning. It's a fine performance and recording, althought ideally one would have wanted a more resplendent-sounding orchestra. And Rachmaninov/ff can take Ponti's barnstorming playing in a way that earlier composers cannot - although there's plenty of subtlety here too. What a pity that he wasn't afforded this sort of support from engineers and orchestras earlier in his career.

A fine momento indeed. Thanks in particular to Revilod for pointing me in its direction.

[semloh]

I am indebted to Ponti for introducing me to so many neglected works via the Vox-Turnabout series. I think it's generally unfair to criticize the performances and recordings of the past according to the standards of today, but I agree that Ponti's playing can be idiosyncratic and that he was often badly served by the engineers and orchestras, something of which he was clearly aware. Had he been playing with a top flight orchestra under the baton of one of the big names, recording for Decca or DGG, say, I wonder if his pianistic style would have changed accordingly. How much influence does the conductor have on the performance of a soloist?

No wonder he played quickly if he's giving the Hammerklavier as an encore, and recording the complete Rach., complete Scriabin, and loads of unfamiliar concertos for Vox. I expect he did have a home to go to! 

[adriano]

Right, semloh! Yesterday I just visited a German classical music forum to contribute a comment on the late Michael Gielen - and there was somebody writing that Gielen did perhaps not have become famous enough because he did not record for "leading" (he used the German term "federführend", which I hate) labels like Decca and DGG - or did not work with the Berliner and Wiener Philharmoniker! Some music lovers have strange ideas!

[eschiss1]

-Factually- wrong too... (If a quick search "Gielen Decca" etc. shows anything...) Anyway.

[adriano]

That's what I am saying, eschiss1!
There is also a Testament CD of Mahler's Seventh Symphony, which still could prove that Gielen did indeed occasionally agree to work with a "federführendes" Orchestra :-) But that one too is a Berliner Rundfunk production, having nothing to do with the Berliner's usual contracts with "federführenden" Labels.
And some of the Vox-Turnabout LPs were licensed for Decca (thanks God, better pressings!), like the Brendel-Liszt piano-and orchestra works with the Vienna Symphony.

[eschiss1]

Ah, sorry!!!!!