Thursdays at 8 pm on SCPR Classical Stations. 90.1 Greenville and parts of North Carolina and Georgia. 89. 3 Charleston. 91.3 Columbia. Find the live playlist and listen live online here: https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/show/on-the-keys
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major
On this Thursday's show I will explore the sound world of E-flat Major. The most obvious choice is the Emperor Concerto by Beethoven. I just love this recording with Maurizio Pollini and the RAI Symphony of Rome. This is the best of Pollini's young recordings: https://www.discogs.com/release/17572762-Maurizio-Pollini-Ludwig-van-Beethoven-Igor-Stravinsky-Sergei-Prokofiev-The-Young-Maurizio-Pollini-Lu
Bach Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major, BWV 552, "St. Anne"
This is a work that I have always wanted to play on the pipe organ. I don't have an instrument available to me to practice (or the time) at the moment, but a few years ago I enjoyed sight reading it the best I could. This is the version for piano by Feruccio Busoni. For some reason this was always off my radar. I knew about BWV 532 in D major and have featured Emil Gilels' performance of it on my show. You can actually find a video of me playing it on the organ here a number of years ago. At the time it was one of the most difficult pieces I had learned on the king of instruments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOx8pxGcDC4&ab_channel=OrganHunters
In any case you'll hear an early recording on Naxos Historical featuring Edwin Fischer: https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.111119
Schubert Impromptu in E-flat Major, Op. 90, no. 2
This is a special recording, an encore that Kempff played in 1955 after a concerto in Caracas. The audience LOVED it. We modern listeners might be off-put by the messiness of the performance but this is Kempff playing Schubert with a Latin American feel: https://ml.naxos.jp/album/IDIS6481-82
What are your favorite works in the noble and heroic key of E-flat Major for the piano? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. Have a musical week.
-David
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