Talk:Wilhelm Backhaus

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The section on Backhaus' recordings seems an uneasy blend of the useful and objectionable. The notable recordings and a general description of the characteristics of Backhaus' playing seem worthy of inclusion, but personal reviews of his recordings, without any sort of substantiation, do not. I don't want to purge the section ruthlessly; does anyone have any critical reviews that would be of use in salvaging this section? Alexrexpvt (talk) 21:51, 11 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Some webpages mention that he had a heart attack on stage during that last recital in Ossiach, and that's why he stopped Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18 and played only three miniatures as a farewell to his public. Isn't that true? Can we verify it with impartial sources? Because it's a great story. --Leonardo T. Oliveira (talk) 23:18, 10 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The, or a, Backhaus recording of the Brahms Op39 waltzes (he recorded a number of individual waltzes at different times) is said by Arych Oron (who gives a date of 1939 on the Bach Cantatas website) to run for 17 not 13 minutes. The Music and Arts transfer of the the EMI 1936 recoding does, according to the notes, run for 13 mins and 10 seconds. But surely this information is irrelevant. What might be more relevant is that Backhaus was, in two groups of sessions in 1932 and 1936, the first pianist to record as a connected project, a series of selected smaller Brahms piano works to form a rounded picture of the composer's work in the genre, a recording format not originated in the decade, but previously employed almost exclusively for the works of Beethoven in his centenary year of 1927.

Delahays (talk) 18:23, 13 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Delahays, I agree that it is peculiar to mention the duration of a recording. I added some of the context you provided. Not finding a source for the unusual format of his early Brahms recital-like recordings, I just entered the simple fact that they were made. David Couch (talk) 23:49, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]