Tonight’s rips were a 5 CD ‘Original Masters’ DG collection of Wilhelm Kempff recordings from the 1950s. I love Kempff’s playing, and this set is nicely done (from mostly mono recordings, they sound superb). Most of the set consists of Schumann and Brahms, but the last disc contains three Beethoven sonatas and a smattering of transcriptions (including some Bach, Couperin and Rameau). His playing in these earlier 50s recordings is a bit more forceful (especially his Schumann Symphonic Etudes… they are amazing). The set also brought me another recording of the late Brahms piano pieces, probably my favorite music that Brahms wrote. Like late Beethoven, there is quite a bit of room for a great interpreter. I have a later recording of these works by Kempff as well, and the differences can be pretty astounding. Just little touches here and there bring different voices to light, or make the piano resonate a little differently (which counts for quite a bit in many of these pieces where harmonies are broken apart and even smeared across the changes of bass and probably harmony). These pieces certainly share some of the tonal break down that Wagner had been experimenting with, and the tonal ambiguity at times looks ahead to Stravinsky in some ways.

The end of the 11th ‘Symphonic Etude’ by Schumann just played, and I had to back it up. The last couple of notes in the melody were some of the saddest I think I have ever heard. Not quite gasping, or resigned. It just seemed to quietly give up and almost fall apart. The dynamic Kempff plays at the end is a physical one. It sounds like he is pressing the keys so lightly that the note may not even sound. He slows down unevenly, and it is beautiful. The perfect lead into the more youthful, almost heroic beginning to the last etude.