David Hurwitz on: Reicha's L'Art de Varier, Op.57 (Ivan Ilić)

[4candles]

I don't normally watch Hurwitz's videos, but I did enjoy his brief take on this disk of superb music by Antoine Reicha. As a taster for the album, it worked on me!

Review: Ivan Ilić Dazzles in Reicha's "The Art of Variation"

4c

[Alan Howe]

It's crazy stuff. I'm not sure I'd ever listen to this more than once, so I won't be buying the CD.

[TerraEpon]

It's a very enjoyable CD, though it's a very weird one -- the physical release has a mere 9 tracks, whereas the digital one has a single track for each variation.

[Ilja]

Okay, if I may just raise a point here: whatever we think of Hurwitz, we have acknowledge that his is a YouTube channel that consistently draws attention to the unsungs, more often than not with great enthusiasm. 12,000+ subscribers may not be that much in YT land, but it's probably more than most other classical music channel. And while I may not always agree with him, that's something I'm genuinely grateful for.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, agreed. But this music's just not for me - nothing to do with Hurwitz.

[Mark Thomas]

I've really enjoyed this set, but you can't approach it as if it was a single piece of music - a conventional set of variations. I don't know what Reicha's intention was, but it's akin to those seemingly endless sets of exercises which Czerny churned out which were never intended to be performed as a whole. Just dip into it, take in a few variations at a time and the sheer cleverness, imagination and, quite often, foresight of Reicha is dazzling. Taken as a whole they're way too much, I agree, but the six to twelve minute long tracks into which the CD is divided are ideal segments. By the way, I see that Reicha produced a second set of 57 variations later in his career....

[adriano]

There are also other recordings of Reicha's "L'Art de Varier", as, for example:

http://www.klassik-heute.com/4daction/www_medien_einzeln?id=12005
This CD was published in 1999

https://toccataclassics.com/product/antoine-reicha-piano-music-two/
This one in 2017

Here some info for those who do not know what this piece is about:
https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-5995/
https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/ajm-2020-0001.

Reicha was not onyl a great composer but also a great teacher. Among his pupils figured Berlioz, Franck, Gounod and Listz.

The work is being juged as "a visionary pre-form of Beethovens' Diabelli Variations".

In other words, another reviewer did already consider this subject on Hurwitz's same Channel "Classics Today".

[Gareth Vaughan]

It should be pointed out that the set of variations recorded on Toccata Classics is the Op. 102 set of 57, NOT the Op. 57 set.
What is interesting is that Mauro Masala takes 75 minutes over the Op. 57, whereas Ilic takes 86 minutes, which strikes me as quite a big difference. I wonder if Masala perhaps ignores some repeats. Without listening to both, and without a copy of the music, one can't tell, of course. Incidentally, the Op. 102 set takes about 40 minutes on Toccata.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks very much Gareth. I have the first of Henrik Löwenmark's Reicha CDs on Toccata, but hadn't kept up with the series and didn't realise that there were three more volumes, or that the Op.102 Variations was amongst the pieces he plays on them.

[adriano]

h dear, sorry about my mixup, Gareth.
I better give up positing in here...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Please don't  stop posting, Adriano. We all make mistakes, and you less than most people. We value your knowledge,  experience and musical judgement.

[Alan Howe]

Not to worry, Adriano. Keep posting! We need you!

[adriano]

Thanks, Allan and Gareth, will try keeping on :-)
Presently I am  - as you all I suppose - in shock because of the Russian invasion.
Already in 2014 I had decided not to travel to Russia again:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/db80myd8elq1nka/ADRIANO_-_Farewell_to_Moscow.pdf/file

[Alan Howe]

We're all in terrible shock here too, Adriano.

[Mark Thomas]

It's an appalling reversion to the age of the dictators. Utterly reprehensible.