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I don't think we discuss(ed) the subject of accompanying many times here.

But since I started exploring some vocal music (I started with Schubert's Winterreise) or Chamber music - I wonder what recordings have excellent piano playing in these works. I know accompanists tend to be out of the spotlight, but since we are pianists, you may catch yourself listening carefully to the neglected accompaniment in the background.

I remember when Bruce and Jason once were discussing the performance a Schubert song and I was subconsciously commenting on the accompanying piano.

So give us your favorites.

PS. Please discuss who are the pianists you think make exceptional accompanists?

Brendel's live Schwanengesang with Matthias Goerne. This is probably my favourite of all Brendel's recordings.

Medtner's recordings of some of his songs with various singers are fantastic, Louis Kentner's recording of the Beethoven violin sonatas with Menuhin is very good, Benjamin Britten always accompanied very well, I thought.

The ultimate accompanist in German lieder was certainly Gerald Moore, rarely equalled, but never surpassed.

His colllaboration with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and with Elizabeth Schwarzkopf is the stuff of dreams and of legends.

Regards,

I agree with Bruce, as usual. Gerald Moore could play anything, but he was an unbelievable sensitive accompanist.

Graham Johnson is also excellent in the Hyperion Schumann series, with a broad variety of singers. These are recordings worth hearing.

Bartok. His Kreutzer sonata is just unbelieveable.

Dalton Baldwin was for years the accompanist of choice for Gerard Souzay. He's in a league with Gerald Moore. Also, Jorg Demus accompanied Fischer-Dieskau, Elizabeth Schwartkopf, and Elly Ameling in recitals I attended. He was as fine as any.

Tomasino

Geoffrey Parsons has to be near the top of my list. And of the present-day ones, I particularly like Malcolm Martineau and Julius Drake.
And I certainly agree with tomasino on the Souzay/Baldwin partnership, especially in Faure.

Hmm .. strange that I have not heard his name in solo recordings. Did he specialize only in accompanying?

Absolutely, and raised the profile of the accompanist during his long career which spanned at least 50 years. You ought to read his books - Am I Too Loud?, The Unashamed Accompanist, Farewell Recital, as well as books on Schubert and Schumann Lieder (if you can find them - they're out of print). His recorded legacy is vast. He recorded, I believe, the complete Schubert songs, as well as the complete R.Strauss, with Fischer-Dieskau. His Wolf recordings with Schwarzkopf are among my favourites too.
Early in his career he would play solo but concentrated on accompanying, and in particular vocal accompanying from the 1920s on. There is however, a cute recording of him with Victoria de los Angeles, clowning around. She plays piano (very well) and he sings the Schumann song Ich grolle nicht excruciatingly.

The wonderful currawong comes through as I always expect. Geoffrey Parsons played beautifully for Jessye Norman also, and of course Malcolm Martineau has made some fine CDs with the great Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel.

Adulation of Gerald Moore is fully endorsed here... I literally learned accompaniments of the glorious Richard Strauss songs from Mr. Moore. I'll never forget it: I had worked hard on one particular Strauss song, then I heard Moore play it. A revelation.

Now let us also not forget Mstislav Rostropovich, who was a fabulous pianist. He was -of course- the favoured accompanist for his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, so by all means listen to her recording of Moussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death. IMO, you won't hear it better sung or accompanied.

Lastly, Martha is to me the greatest instrumental accompanist. I've played Prokofiev's spiffy Flute Sonata, but one listen to her recording with Galway, and I realized all I had missed in the piano part. She is such a genius.

And do try her out in Beethoven's piano & violin sonatas. Start with the Op. 12 #2...

Bassio my good mate, I order you to read at least one of those books.

Never a dull moment, Moore is a terrific writer. 'Am I Too Loud?' could possibly still be available from Amazon.co.uk -I haven't done any homework on that- but who knows about the availability of the others. I only read the first two books currawong mentions... haven't seen the others in any shops. But I shall be watching...

When I said they're out of print, I was referring to the Schubert and Schumann books. I've been after them for years. I think both Am I Too Loud? and Farewell Recital are still in print. Singer and Accompanist (also out of print) is good too, if you can find it - Moore reveals his secrets for playing Erlkönig as part of his insights into 50 songs. Great stuff!

Well this is great news... for Bassio and I. Well I must have read 'Singer and Accompanist' because I recall Moore giving some meatballs of wisdom about playing Erlkönig. (Dividing the repeated octaves between two hands?)

Ew... I try to avoid playing that song, and will only do it casually with a singer behind closed doors. But frankly -and honestly- Schubert's songs aren't a lot of fun for me. Give me Strauss, so gratifying for my hands. Strauss is so wonderful... Elektra excites me so much, then there was Covent Garden's Die Frau... oh willy, not to mention Billy Budd.

So currawong, how about we seek a festive Die Tote Stadt?

Ah, Marietta's Lied. Oh so yummy... Did you know that the tenor (with the exception of the first ten minutes) is onstage the entire opera?

Now I've recently fallen in love with the Symphonic Serenade, Op. 39. The 'Lento religioso' has a very Mahlerian gravity to it. As with the opera, Korngold (no practicing Jew at all- his home was never kosher) had quite an interesting attraction to Roman Catholicism. The original play from which Die Tote Stadt was based had a strong RC fragrance.

Gerald Moore came through Minneapolis with a lecture tour back in the 60s. He titled his lecture "the unashamed accompanist." He had some talent as a comedian as well as an accompanist. The best line I can remember was something about a nameless soprano who couldn't fit into the bend of the piano.

Tomasino

That's actually the name of an LP album of Moore's I have--it's hilarious (and very edifying, to boot).

edit: it's been transferred to cd:
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1162988/a/Gerald+Moore+-+The+Unashamed+Accompanist.htm