Cortot plays Liszt Legierezza (1919)

English 78 rpm record.
His Master's Voice, recording 8 January 1919, Camden, New Jersey, Church Building.
Alfred Cortot, piano.
D.B. 643 / 2-035500 / 74589 / A22506 - Caprice poétique (La leggerezza) (Liszt)
-transferred from the original 78 rpm records at 78 rpm with a standard USB turntable (DJ Tech Vinyl USB 10 with Audio Technica AT-91 system) equipped with special needle ATN-78 (65µm). Turntable speed adjusted to correct pitch.
-analog RIAA compensation and equalisation with Behringer FBQ800: 63 Hz/-1 dB, 125 Hz/+1 dB, 250 Hz/+2 dB, 500 Hz/-3 dB, 1 kHz/0 dB, 2 kHz/+3 dB, 4 kHz/+7 dB, 8 kHz/+8 dB, 16 kHz/-7 dB
-digital mono conversion
-declicking/decrackling with ClickRepair (Wavelet, 100%, 100%, all)
-Audacity:
-normalisation to -1 dB
-48 db high pass filter below 20 Hz
-normalisation to 0 dB
-48 dB low pass filter above 14000 Hz (2 times applied)
-normalisation to 0 dB
-Reaper EQ:
-Type Band, Freq. 144 Hz, Gain 5.1 dB, Bandwidth 2.9 oct
-Type High Shelf, Freq. 3368 Hz, Gain 2.2 dB, Bandwidth 0.8 oct
-Type High Shelf, Freq. 11670 Hz, Gain -inf dB, Bandwidth 0.9 oct
-Type Band, Freq. 1561 Hz, Gain -3.6 dB, Bandwidth 2.6 oct

[@purpleAiPEy]

Thank you. I wish I had these

[@katebloggs]

Astounding Liszt playing. Thank you, Martin. Do you have any idea if Arrau ever had anything to say about Cortot? I feel that they are very close here, both sharing incredible virtuosity always at the service of the deeper poetry, both with such incredible grasp of and ability to communicate architecture from macro to micro in a totally integrated, completely flowing way. Again, thank you!

[@martinadler73]

Many thanks for your comment! Arrau "adored" (his words) Cortot, but mostly in his Chopin playing. He disliked his interpretations of German composers ("too sweet"). I could not find anything about Liszt, though.

[@katebloggs]

@@martinadler73 Wow! Such happy news for me. Thank you for that glimpse. I have too many favorites to play the Desert Island Disc game, so I converted it to: if I had to be stuck on a desert island, but I could take a pianist and their piano, who would it be? My first thought is Cortot but then I find the brakes get thrown quickly and the back of my brain says “Arrau, if he was willing to play Fauré. Any idea if Arrau adored (!) Fauré? His Debussy makes me burn with curiosity and desire to hear him play Fauré, too.

[@scherrer4715]

One of video in KZbin, "Arrau's favorite pianists". He adored Cortot's Chopin yeah.

[@katebloggs]

@@scherrer4715 Wow! Thank you so much. I am really looking forward to diving into that!

[@martinadler73]

@katebloggs8243 Unfortunately, in the same book we find that after the fifties Arrau did not play (many) pieces of Granados, Fauré, and some others.