Charles Rosen on Josef Hofmann (Interviews)
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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Reminiscence by Charles Rosen on Josef Hofmann (Interviews).
These interviews were recorded in 1999 and on September 2002.
Please consider buying this CD, it is really amazing and a must for Hofmann admirers : www.marstonrec...
From Marston Records liner notes of the Complete Josef Hofmann Vol. 9
"Charles Rosen (1927-2012) The first two sentences spoken by Rosen stem from a 1999 broadcast from New Zealand, where he was interviewed by Tim Dodd; the remainder from an interview with Gregor Benko in New York City in September 2002. The universally respected pianist/scholar/polymath thought Hofmann was the greatest pianist he ever heard. On 3 March 1940, teenaged Rosen had witnessed an amusing event involving Rachmaninoff, that took place at a Hofmann Carnegie Hall concert.
That recital ended with Liszt’s “Don Juan Fantasy,” after which came Hofmann’s usual “second recital” of eleven encores. Rosen described Hofmann’s performance of the “Don Juan Fantasy” to an interviewer for the Guardian newspaper (April 9, 2011): “… I had heard Josef Hofmann play [it] when I was 13. It was the greatest performance of anything I’d ever heard.”
Just after that Hofmann played a trick on his friend Rachmaninoff, who went to congratulate Hofmann in the greenroom after the recital proper, but before Hofmann came out to start his usual chain of encores. Rachmaninoff asked him for a promise: “… Dear Hofmann, if you have any intention of playing the Prelude, please let me get out of the house first …” Hofmann kept his promise, but also succeeded in tweaking his friend, when he “… went out to start his encores with a twinkle in his eye and mischief in his mind …” Hofmann played encore after encore.
When he got to the tenth one, he started with the notes A, G sharp and C sharp-the famous opening of “The Prelude.” The audience sighed with delight and anticipation at hearing the piece, while Rachmaninoff squirmed lower into his seat. Hofmann used those first notes, not to start Rachmaninoff’s Prelude as everyone thought, but as an improvised, launching gesture into Chopin’s “Fantasie-Impromptu.”
“… I’m told that the scolding he received from Rachmaninoff afterwards was tempered with a musician’s appreciation of a good joke on himself. …” (quotes from the “Mephisto” column in Musical America March 1940.)
The last, eleventh encore was the Strauss-Godowsky “Fledermaus.” This incident is one often told, but often told wrong. Another Hofmann recital at Carnegie Hall that particularly impressed Rosen took place exactly one year later, on 3 March 1941, when Rosen was accompanied by his teachers Moriz Rosenthal and Rosenthal’s wife Hedwig Kanner; next to them sat Joseph Lhevinne. Rosen tells of how Lhevinne and Rosenthal reacted to Hofmann’s performance of a Beethoven sonata, each contradicting the other."
BIOGRAPHY
Josef Hofmann, the pianist, teacher, composer and inventor, born on 20th January 1876 in Krakow. He came from the family of musicians. When Josef was three years old he began to learn playing the piano. The boy’s outstanding gift, his father’s pedagogical care and also the artistic atmosphere in his family contributed to his continuous progress. When he was eight he appeared in Warsaw, where he played the Mozart’s Concert D-Minor conducted by his father. Two years later, he had his first European tournée. In 1887 he went to the United States, where he made a great success performing in the Metropolitan Opera House. He was engaged for a few dozen concerts. Despite his great success he achieved and the admiration for his mature performances, after 10 weeks during which he gave 52 concerts, the tournée was cancelled at the request of New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Alfred Coming Clark funded him a scholarship, under the condition, however, that the boy would not perform in public before his 18th birthday. The scholarship helped him to complete music studies in Berlin in 1888-1894. He was taught by Moszkowski (piano), Urban (composition), and by Anton Rubinstein. After this success, he began the real career as a pianist performing in many European countries, where he enjoyed great popularity, especially in Petersburg (1913). Apart from performances in Europe he gave annual concerts in United States, which became his second homeland. In 1926, he received American citizenship. In 1926-1938 he was the Principal of the music school Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. On 28th November 1937, on the 50th anniversary of his American debut the jubilee concert was held in Metropolitan Opera House. He died in Los Angeles on 16th February 1957.
Delightful to hear this. I admire Hofmann enormously. He recorded the first movement of the Chopin B minor sonata: it is perfect: such a pity he didn't record the rest of it. The fourth ballade, from a live concert is also stupendous.
Agreed. It is unsurpassed in its colour , rhythmic control, poetry and structural command. Also in the d flat nocturne Opus 27.
Agreed; the b minor Chopin sonata is Hofmann “the aristocrat” (peerless) - the 4th Ballade is Hofmann “the unleashed tiger”
...he can’t play it any faster😂😂😂
2:35 Sooo is this a picture with a microphone or a camera? If it is a camera, that means there is undiscovered footage of Hofmannn????!!!
What treasures these interviews are! Great insights into rubato, supreme artistry.
See also George Bolet on Hofmann.
His 4th Ballade ,his Kreisleriana ,I think we have his Schumann concerto too . Both of the Chopin concerti (I don't know what he's doing) and his Beeth4 . My gawd JosefLhevinne and Moritz Rosenthal Mr.Rosen knew!!! these men.Can you imagine ? Rosen actually heard the greatest student of Liszt .Did he hear Saur who made the best recordings !
I would LOVE to know what tempi Hofmann took for the Hammerklavier Sonata...
Very interesting! Thanks for posting 🙏🏻
What a TREAT! 👏🏻
Josef Hofmann
Rosen is incorrect; Hofmann didn’t play Rach3 because he felt it had a deficient form (he was correct)
Hofmann's exact quote of the Rach 3 was: 'A short melody which is constantly interrupted with difficult passages; more a
fantaisie than a concerto. Not enough form.'
@@philipau3847where did you get this quote?
@@kakoou3362 Barrie Martyn, Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor
@@philipau3847 Doesn't sound right. For one thing it's not a short melody; quite the opposite. I don't believe Hofmann said that, as such, unless it was tongue in cheek. Frankly, I doubt Hofmann played the Rachmaninoff concertos at all. He left that repertoire to the composer and to Moiseivitch. Later, Horowitz. These concertos more or less replaced the Rubinstein concertos, his teacher's, which he continued to champion into the 1940's. (He played the Scriabin concerto early in his career.)