Josef Hofmann plays Moszkowski Caprice Espagnol, op. 37

[wesmusic56]

How did he manage such breathtaking speed? And he made it sound so effortless! He must have been relaxed at the stage. What a maestro!

[ReturnOfTheStienway]

what would this sound like without time constraints?

[BalticJesuits]

too fast, starts losing character at this speed

[jiggsuhhh]

@BalticJesuits I agree, sounds a bit dittyish at this speed. But still very exciting and technically superb performance.

[pghagen]

Indeed a great interpretation of this piece. I knew it from a record of Hoffmann's star-

pupil: Shura Cherkassky. Now i can hear that Shura learned a lot of his teacher. Shura was a one of the greates pianists of the 20th century, but unfortunately he was not a household name, although his repertoire was tremendously large, and he performed for more than 75 years on the concert stage. His tone and legato were insurpassed. One one of his Decca records he plays this Caprice Espanol

[greenmillhd]

Lang Lang's hot, but it'll take a lot more than hair gel and some flashy stage mannerisms before you can even think about putting him in the same category as Hoffman, Bolet, Horowitz, Arrau, and the other truly great pianists.

[AntipovSvyatoslav]

Thank you so much for an upload!

[davidrds]

For non-French speakers: the title of the piece is Caprice Espagnol, not Caprice EspagnolE.

Best, David

[truecrypt]

@davidrds

Thank you for noticing that!

[1fattyfatman]

You know, with the exception of possibly argerich this fella had the worlds fastest repeated notes..

[sukangeong]

@1fattyfatman I really don't think Argerich beats this.

[1fattyfatman]

@sukangeong Pretty sure your right now that I compare the even more pop out and high you clarity of the 1916 Tarantella repeated notes .. !

[demosj]

Is there a relationship between this piece and the sonata by Scarlatti that sounds sort of similar?

[bersa888]

@demosj : I guess the both share a definite "spanishness'... yup.

[AntipovSvyatoslav]

@demosj That's very interesting

[PiaNonuTT]

He had quite the prodigious technique; I wouldn't dare cavil the sound quality seeing as the performance itself, the interpretation, is excellent and not the kind of ostentatious performances that sometimes this piece receives. I think the score cuts are venial; I couldn't care for that.

[lovesGenet]

Hofmann is uncanny .He knew so much and he had such stle.more elegance than Sauer more terror than Rachmaninoff and fancy and imagination. We r so lucky to have so much left of him live playing. How come there r no Rach radio no Lhevinne. well cant have it all.Lipatti on radio but no Rach ,pity.

[juufa72]

I wish I could sport a 'stache like Moszkowski

[GoldenLionMusic]

The only problem with this recording is that Hofmann doesn't play some of the music. He omits 33 bars from 99-131 and 32 more from 274-305. He's famous for saying that he never plays a piece twice the same way. Of course, just leave out a few measures! Actually I love his interpretations from both jubilees and the fantastic articulation at such a fast tempo. Also because he was a successful engineer. Also he was a friend of my teacher, Elvin Schmitt.

[ProfessorSuckMah]

woaaaaah!!!!

[camaysar222]

What a sense of rhythm and agogics! Those accents! Always a strong beat, no matter how complex the passagework. The clarity! And only Hofmann could be so forceful, expressive, and "patrician" at the same time, without going all schmaltzy on us. We always get the sense that no matter what he does, he places the music before himself, even at his most inventive. Great post, and a personal favorite.

[otto6891]

Wonderful recording! Only Rachmaninoff himself comes close....

[music4sherry]

i think stephen houghs version on virgin has more flair, but he could learn somethingfrom the clarity of the playing here. Amazing.

[AlC92575]

Moszkowski must have been the man.

[OrnishMathe]

Backhaus, too, is judged by pianistic pundits: he did not "grow" as he aged, he was simplistic and brutish in Beethoven, his Chopin etudes were more about technical finesse than about "musical" playing, and so on ad nauseam. Why do some so dismiss such titans of the keyboard? Lhevinne, Godowsky, Rachmaninoff, and Hofmann have all been bludgeoned and accused of being somehow "cold" and overly "objective". Yet Lang Lang gets rave reviews from the witless! Let us value and cherish our titans, all.

[katkula]

It is true, these above mentioned players are titans but you shouldn't dismiss Lang Lang, he has wit, technique and distinctive chinese charisma which allows him to play some pieces with the same creativeness as these old masters...

[nextren]

Only LL's playing of Liszt's Don Juan Fantasy makes this somewhat plausible. (The version on YT where he's wearing a hot pink shirt....)

[aewanko300]

Google:

Did you mean hot pink skirt?

[1fattyfatman]

More of a clown costume..

[coolchampagne]

Lang Lang has nothing on Hofmann

[llwayneio]

not many do, which i love because he has tiny hands like me. gives me hope and makes me feel less inadequate

[MrRicksStudio]

@coolchampagne No one "has nothing" on Hofmann. On the other hand, it might be argued that Lang Lang has nothing on... Liberace.

[palcsi]

Hofmann's playing is always amazing.

If my memory serves me well, Hofmann studied with Moszkowski. Thus this interpretation is pretty close to the fire.

[RabidCh]

Only for a short time.

[Noshirm]

@palcsi Correct. Hofmann studied with Moszkowski - not for 'only for a short time', but for a period of two years. This was followed by two more years of study with Anton Rubinstein. Before this, of course, he had studied with his father, Casimir, who had drilled him relentlessly in the practice of scales, among other branches of technique - Hofmann remained grateful for this his entire life.

[volodya75]

outstanding technique but I prefer the Stephen Hough version.

[allegrissimo]

It's a bit more than only outstanding technique. It's fresh, elegant, featherlight, perfect in timing and full of fantasy. But then again, I guess that a live version of this by Hofmann would be much more original, as he detested studio recordings.

[RabidCh]

I have the Golden Jubilee version of this piece... much more flamboyant than this version here.

[marliben]

Upload it?

[RabidCh]

Already on YT, search for it.

[marliben]

Good work. My brother has all the CDs but I didn't get MP3 versions of them (this is before all that stuff came out it was so long ago hehe).

[aardvaark069]

There were two Golden Jubilee concerts. One in New York and the other in Philadelphia. This piece and the Chopi n Andante Spianato Are both best in the Philadelphis concert. The Chopin is the benchmark for the piece as is this Caprice .

[paulostroff99]

Absolutely astounding! Cannot be played any better,or even as good for that matter

for that mater.

Bravo! TY.

[gerardbedecarter]

I remember the old 78 by Wilhelm Backhaus. I don't have this now; I imagine it has been put onto CD. Josef Hofmann's playing is perfect, or course, but there is not much in the way of warmth, emotion, mood.

[kasyapa]

the astonishing one triumphs again.