Thread: Beethoven's Choral Fantasy

This is a wonderful work. Anyone else have this high on their list of choral works?

I have two:

Alfred Brendel with Haitink leading the London Philharmonic and

Yefim Bronfman with David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich

Both are very nice.

I also have couple of version of this work.

I really can't think off my head now which one is bad......

Some work is hard to make it bad.....

The Choral Fantasy may be the 'exception that proves the rule' for Yudina. She actually seems to be playing it with a smile. The chorus is sung in Russian, and they also seem happy to be there.

Who is Yudina? Do you have a link to a video or something.

Originally Posted by TallPaul

Who is Yudina? Do you have a link to a video or something.

Who is Yudina? Maria Yudina was a distinctive Russian pianist. I'm sure that Wikipedia has her bio, and YouTube must have some of her recordings. She was strong willed, and her God was strong willed too. The Soviet authorities leaned on her hard, but couldn't break her. Richter claimed to be afraid of her.

Most of her recordings of major works seem to reflect her personality - listen to her interpretation of Mussorgsky's "Pictures". Her playing in the Choral Fantasy seems an aberration, it's so cheerful.

Not sure I would like the Choral Fantasy in Russian, but her Pictures ought to be fantastic.

Originally Posted by TallPaul

Not sure I would like the Choral Fantasy in Russian, but her Pictures ought to be fantastic.

Amazon.com lists one new copy of the Classound release. The CD contains both the Mussorgsky and the Beethoven. I hope there are other sources for the CD, it's a fascinating sample of Yudina's playing.

BTW she also recorded most of the WTC. There is also a Russian Piano School CD out there, with a Krenek piece on it.

There´s quite a bit of Yudina Beethoven, much of it unfortunately in poor sound quality - including a handful of sonatas (very fine 29 and 32, among others), the Eroica Variations, the 4th + 5th Concerto etc.

All in all probably 15-20 Yudina hours of music on record (I´ve got around 12 or so).

A dissenter here. It's one of my LvB dislikes, having tried Pollini, Brendel, Bronfman, and others.

I think this work is marvellous. I have the Katchen recording on decca. I also heard it at the royal concert hall in Nottingham a few years ago and it was great - such beautiful choral parts.

Originally Posted by joen_cph

There´s quite a bit of Yudina Beethoven, much of it unfortunately in poor sound quality - including a handful of sonatas (very fine 29 and 32, among others), the Eroica Variations, the 4th + 5th Concerto etc.

All in all probably 15-20 Yudina hours of music on record (I´ve got around 12 or so).

There is (or was) quite a lot of Yudina's piano music on tape. My 'man in Kiev' sent me 2-3 CDs he made of some of it. Maybe I can make a 'sampler' from them, and upload it for the members. (The 'man in Kiev' may object, in which case I won't.)

Argh, you have a personal Kiev hotline ? Lucky you ... As regards classical CD issues, the Ukraine is far behind Russia and most other countries, in spite of that their archives must be of the utmost interest.

Returning to the "Choral Fantasia", I´ve got a couple of Brendels and a Serkin/Bernstein, but so far I have been preferring the two Beethoven masses.

Gauk also made a recording of Beethoven´s 9th sung in Russian. As far as I remember, it was a quite exciting performance, and I really regret disposing of it many years ago.