On Saturday evening listened to Michelangeli playing Beethoven (Op 26) and Ravel (Gaspard de la Nuit). Bliss! There is something about Michelangeli’s playing that has you hanging on to every note. Maybe it’s not the greatest-ever Beethoven playing or the greatest-ever Ravel? But it sounds like it while you listen. On Sunday evening listened again to Michelangeli playing the Beethoven Op 7 E flat major sonata. I simply do not like this sonata. Noisy, unmemorable. A bit of a Beethoven caricature. I'm sure Michelangeli plays it well; but to no avail, as far as I am concerned.

Recorded Ilya Gringolts playing the first Shostakovich violin concerto. I really think this concerto is one of the three greatest (with Beethoven, and Brahms). Gringolts played it well. Bit of E string trouble towards the end of the first movement resulted in some shaky intonation (flat? broke?) which may have accounted for the long pause between the first and second movements during the broadcast. Gringolts is certainly more involved than was Hilary Hahn when I heard her play it in Portsmouth last year. His playing sounds a bit “young” for the work, and I prefer Repin’s maturity. But it was good to listen to. The transfer gave me enormous problems: it transpires that Nero does not like to record sequential tracks where there is neither silence nor absence of sound between the tracks. So my effort to put the third and fourth movements on to separate tracks came to nought, and I had to recombine the tracks into one before Nero would burn happily. Used seven CDs in the process.
A great pity Gringolts stamps and jumps during the cadenza; this sort-of ruins the performance for subsequent listenings. His teacher should have taught him to keep still rather than indulge in gymnastics while playing.