Thank you Mark Ainley! Mark is THE go to guy when it comes to historical piano recordings. His knowledge and appreciation for the great artists of the past (and present) is top notch. This episode is special. Consider listening with a pen and paper so you can write down names and note the recordings that are mentioned here. It'll absolutely increase your appreciation and love for great piano music.
Here are some recordings for you to reference:
Ilona Eibenschütz talks and plays: Reminiscences of Brahms (1952)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLGIRHCPqN4
Carl Friedberg teaches and plays Brahms Ballade in G Minor Op.118 No.3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLW-rO8fPuU
Ignaz Friedman Mazurka, Op. 7,3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpmWQ6t5iTM
Jan Smeterlin plays Chopin 3 Mazurkas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pu9QUiGupA
Josef Hofmann, piano - Beethoven - Sonata in C# minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ('Moonlight') (1936 - complete)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0xMzbfy_1g
Solomon plays Beethoven Moonlight Sonata (1945 recording)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK__kS2R3-w
Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff: Newly Discovered Recording
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Xp2Djqh3s
Listen to a lecture given by Mark here (includes recording clips):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKo6zBtg9QM
Subscribe to his Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/ThePianoFilesWithMarkAinley/
His website is here:
https://www.thepianofiles.com/
Mark Ainley is an internationally recognized authority on the art of piano playing and historical recordings of great pianists. His clear insights provide important details about the mastery of the pianists of the past and present through his magazine articles, blog and social media pages, CD productions and liner notes, and lecture-demonstrations.
Mark’s work in the field of historical recordings began in his late teens, when his pre-university writing and research on this topic won the admiration of Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times music critic Harold Schonberg. His first CD liner notes, for VAI’s release ‘Liszt: The 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies Played by 19 Great Pianists’, were co-authored in his early 20s with International Piano Archives founding president Gregor Benko, coinciding with Mark’s pioneering work in discovering previously unpublished recordings of the legendary pianist Dinu Lipatti. His internationally acclaimed efforts led to the world premiere award-winning release of over two hours of ‘unknown’ performances by Lipatti, among them piano concertos by Liszt and Bartok.
Mark’s articles about Lipatti for International Piano Quarterly, International Piano, and Classical Record Collector magazines, as well as liner notes for the labels APR, archiphon, and Opus Kura, have debunked myths surrounding the life and art of this legendary musician, and he has received support for his work from some of the Rumanian biographers, diplomats, and producers who have worked for decades in publicizing this musician’s legacy. Mark has also written in both International Piano and Classic Record Collector magazines about the great French pianist Marcelle Meyer, the muse of Le Groupe des Six in 1920s Paris who additionally worked with Ravel, Debussy, and Stravinsky.
Mark has given lectures at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, the Leschetitzky Society in Tokyo, and the San Francisco Conservatory, speaking about Great Historical Recordings in general and about Dinu Lipatti specifically, and was featured on WNYC radio in New York City in 1992 for the premiere broadcast of some rare Lipatti recordings. In September 2010, Mark co-chaired the panel discussion after the screening of a documentary about Dinu Lipatti at the Besancon International Music Festival, and the following month he opened the 2010 Great Romantics Festival with a presentation entitled “Schumann—The Poet of the Piano” for the bicentennial of Schumann’s birth. In 2016 the Romanian Cultural Institute in Bucharest sponsored a trip for Ma
