Music Chat: Can An Artist "Own" A Musical Masterpiece?

You've heard it said before: "X's performance of work Y is so amazing that they own it!" But what does this really mean? How does an artist come to be so strongly identified with a specific work, and how long does pride of "ownership" really last? In this chat, I discuss a dozen examples of this phenomenon to see just how much of it depends on the actual music, and now much is mere puffery and hot air.

[@bloodgrss]

David, as far as being concerned about us 'hanging in', or you're going on too long. For me, who is just now sort of health confined at home, listening to a fascinating subject by an energetic and intelligent personality is a pleasure. As great conversations can be, no matter what length. Sometimes I am even sad when they end! So don't be apologetic; for many like me, I think you have become a daily addiction always looked forward too, whether I like the composer/agree with the critique or not. This one was totally fascinating. More, please!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thank you. I'm sorry to hear about your confinement and happy that I can help to make it less burdensome. I know the feeling.

[@bloodgrss]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks David! As you know, staying focused and connected outside of being 'ill person' is a key; your experiences, trenchant critiques, and informative channel subjects certainly do make my days less burdensome. I hope the ever-increasing number of us appreciative subscribers/likes/Patron's/posters helps you as well. You may not 'own' sunshine, but you certainly provide a musical ray of it each time I enjoy your chats!

[@classicalperformances8777]

Sorry to interject, I just want to say I agree with you and I feel you, as I also am currently stuck in recovery from cancer and also feel grateful for Mr. Hurwitz',s insightful reviews which force me to be more of a critical thinker when listening to other people's music. I hope you feel better by now and that you have a great new year.

[@bloodgrss]

@@classicalperformances8777 And I return that hope for your own recovery and healthy new year!

[@classicalperformances8777]

@@bloodgrss thank you!

[@lewtaratua1719]

Stokowski Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor. It’s so gorgeous. It opened the world of classical music to us ordinary people, at least to me.

[@henrygingercat]

After a disastrous performance Kna was heard saying, “If only we hadn’t had that f.cking rehearsal”.

[@user-et8mh2ki1c]

What a fascinating chat. Thank you so much, Dave. Part of what makes music "great" is that it offers a whole array of possibilities for discovery and enjoyment. The claim to ownership often sounds like a claim that no one outside of one artist can plumb all the depths and riches and pleasures of any given work of it. The greatness of the classical music world is that there are numerous performers with a multitude of insights into what makes music worthwhile. I have my favorite interpreters of a role or a piece of music, but nearly always I have lots of favorites that cannot be whittled down to just one.

[@lawrencerinkel3243]

1. The Solti Ring. Because when Rheingold came out, no one had done it complete in stereo, and each successive opera was an event. Nowadays it's ho-hum, every week another Ring. 2. The old Webern box from Robert Craft. Now I know everyone says it's been surpassed, but when I was 16 I bought the set because here was a chance to have everything (supposedly) a single composer wrote, and I have held on to it all these years because I still love many of the performances. 3. Also by Craft, the Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet. Because it's a smoker. 4. The Harnoncourt-Leinhardt Bach cantatas. I had friends who collected each LP issue religiously. 5. Lenny's Haydn Paris symphonies. 'Nuff said. 6. The Callas-di Stefano-Gobbi-Serafin Tosca. The only one I own or need to own. 7. Toscanini's Otello. I think it better than his Falstaff.

[@murraylow4523]

Hi Dave and thanks. My dad passed away this morning so your talk did cheer me up a bit :-( Fascinating examples. My offering would be Horowitz and Rachmaninov, even though he didn’t record most of Rachmaninov’s works. Not so much the third piano concerto, maybe, but the second sonata, of which in a minor way he was a sort of authorised co-composer.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

My sincere condolences.

[@murraylow4523]

@@DavesClassicalGuide thank you Dave

[@chadweirick67]

I'd like to add 2 other possibilities. The 1st one is Glenn Gould and the Goldberg variations. It seems even today you cannot record it or perform it without somewhere in the review people comparing it to Glenn Gould. The other one I would suggest is Birgit Nielsson as both brunhilda and isolde. It also seems like every review of a performance has to mention her version

[@bigg2988]

Yeah, the "Gouldberg" variations, with Glenn's iconoclastic humming to support, in two thankfully different versions book-ending his entire career - they ought to have made the list. These are all ingredients of which legends are made, regardless even of the greatness of the content. And the content was also of the "must have" category, to have a different, individual take on Bach whose music Glenn Gould recorded almost obsessively. Add my vote!

[@jdistler2]

I can give you an excellent example of "ownership" in the form of Vladimir Horowitz and the Rachmaninov Third Concerto. Horowitz's galvanic interpretation helped popularize this work and established a performing tradition that dominated for decades. Perhaps his 1951 recording (his second of three) was more of a cult among pianists than record collectors and critics, yet for decades it remained in print on LP at full price. Indeed, Horowitz was so identified with the work, that when Rachmaninov himself recorded it with Eugene Ormandy, he asked the conductor things like "What's Horowitz's tempo," or "How does Horowitz play that?" And that from the composer!

[@murraylow4523]

I had sort of the same thought, Jed, but more about sonata 2

[@Bachback]

In my early 20's, I heard Horowitz perform the Rach 3. I have held this performance close to my heart ever since.

[@hwelf11]

Speaking as a longtime devotee of Horowitz, and avid collector of his recordings since the LP era (as well as, in my early days, one of the legion of aspiring pianists who fell under his influence, to the consternation of many a teacher) , I have to say that I find all except one of his recorded performances of Rach 3 disappointing despite their manifold virtues, not only on account of the cuts. There were a couple of spots that sound somewhat scrambled (the brief cadenza before the transition to the 2nd subject in movement I and the octave descent just before the final reprise of the closing theme in the Finale) - sometimes I wonder whether he learned this concerto too quickly as a teenager and hadn't entirely fixed some of the problems. Then there is that unfortunate memory lapse/ ensemble mishap in the finale of the 1930 Coates recording. Thank goodness we have the 1941 Carnagie Hall rendition with Barbirolli, which I think gives the best idea of how electrifying he could be in live performance.

[@murraylow4523]

@@hwelf11 hmm don’t you think you’re just being a little perfectionist here?

[@danlo5]

@@murraylow4523 I felt the same until I heard Kocsis' recording. To Dave's point, it's only definitive until someone else comes along and "redefinitivizes" it!

[@masahiromihara1481]

Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations. He started his recording career with this piece. His debut recording surprised everyone and made this piece extremely famous.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

I absolutely LOATHE Gould’s recordings of Bach. He just sucks the life out of the music with his anal retentiveness and total lack of tone. It just sounds sterile.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

On piano, Perahia sounds much more musical. But in the end, I rather prefer the Goldbergs on harpsichord…where Trevor Pinnock reigns supreme.

[@episodesglow]

Kempff and Arrau recorded equally fabulous versions around the same time as Gould (not saying any one of these are better or worse than the other), Columbia just had brilliant marketing to push the "quirky young genius" to make it one of the best selling classical albums

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

@@episodesglow I’ve read all the accolades about Gould and finally heard both recordings. I can take the first but the second was absolutely stultifying!!!! No soul. Absolutely sterile.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

@@episodesglow I own both Gould recordings, purchased on the basis of reputation. I prefer almost anyone else to Gould. His painstaking dissection of the texture quite simply removes the soul of the music.

[@GastonBulbous]

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore “own” the Schubert song cycles. I also have Souzay’s in my collection and cherish it because I am a Souzay cultist, but DFD’s outsized personality and clipped diction, combined with Moore’s propulsive rhythmic drive, put such a stamp on these works that they eclipse all others. I can’t imagine owning any other set ahead of these.

[@djquinn4212]

Ooooooh I don’t know about that. I think if you polled people, Wunderlich would be the definitive Die Schöne Müllerin over DFD. Winterreise, maybe, Schwanesgesang, I’m more convinced.

[@brokkur7629]

For Winterreise, my vote goes to Schreier live with Richter! That's the perfect one for me. I love FiDi, but he's too "happy" in Winterreise. Schreier is not.

[@bbailey7818]

@@djquinn4212 For Winterreise, I'll take Hotter on EMI, rewarding as F-D is at his best.

[@marknewkirk4322]

Heifetz absolutely changed the expectations for all violinists. This was so much the case that there were certain pieces that almost nobody else would play during his heyday. I think an example of this is Bruch's Scottish Fantasy. The piece is very difficult technically - in some places really ungrateful. Heifetz made a speciality of it, and other violinists simply steered clear of it. They had to face being compared with Heifetz enough without challenging him on his "territory".

[@adityabhattacharyya8302]

The first thing that came on my mind when thinking abt an artist owning a particular piece of music was Rudolf Firkusny and the Dvorak Piano Concerto. I mean, there are several recordings of the piece today and i guess the Kleiber-Richter version is the most popular among listeners (even though i don't like it that much). However, Firkusny continued to champion this piece throughout the mid and late 20th century when almost everyone else dismissed it. And his recordings with Szell and Neumann still remain reference recordings in my opinion. In short, Firkusny owned (and still owns IMO) the Dvorak PIano Concerto

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

That's a very good pick, I think.

[@bigg2988]

@@alanhowe1455 Well this instance does justify the claim historically, as well as musically. Some cases, as David rightly underlined, are more figments of our collective (wishful) thinking, or extra-musical motives, or just plain old promotion that turned out successful. But here, the extra-musical argument (him being a Czech emigre) is not the main pillar, he was very dedicated to the music, and the name of Firkusny was associated with the piece for better part of 40 years, with no real competition. I believe the man recorded the piece 4 times, and each one added to the legend! Interesting bit is, only the last "homecoming" recording actually used the original setting by Dvorak, thus bringing the "ownage" full circle. :)))

[@pierrevigna]

Great talk. Thanks Dave. Here are some suggestions : Claudio Arrau : Beethoven Waldstein sonata for its opening and Op.111 for its ending Glenn Gould : Goldberg variations. Because one can endlessly discuss the merits of the 1955 vs the 1981 version Arthur Rubinstein : Chopin polonaises. Because Rubinstein is associated with Chopin and because I believe he is the first pianist to have recorded all polonaises (in the 30´s) Alfred Cortot in Chopin préludes or études recorded in the 30’s, because of Cortot’s rubato Hans Hotter as Wotan, because of the 12 millions fabulous versions we have from him Max Lorenz as Siegried, because even though he was adored by the nazis in the role, he was gay, and a had a jewish wife that he loved and saved from the holocaust Kirsten Flagstad and Lauritz Melchior in Tristan and Isolde, because they are legendary and because we don’t have them together in the Furtwangler recording Charles Munch in the Symphonie Fantastique and in Roussel Bacchus & Arianne bacchanale. Because no one whips an orchestra the way Munch does it in this pieces Yevgeny Mravinsky in Tchaikovsky 4th because of the frantic pace in the finale Carlo Maria Giulini in Ravel Ma Mère l’Oye. You mentionned it in a video Tito Gobbi in Scarpia (with Callas of course). Because he really is the bad guy Gerald Moore as the pianist of choice in any schubert lieder recital and many more…

[@zdl1965]

Shostakovich's 24 Preludes & Fugues Op.87 were for the longest time owned by pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva and her three sets of recordings. DSCH wrote these for her after she won the 1950 Leipzig Bach Piano Competition. There may be better new recordings, but nobody knew them like she did.

[@davidb.4374]

Spontaneously, I thought "the Vaughan-Williams symphonies by Adrian Boult (EMI/Warner, the stereo ones)"-especially because for a very long time, here in France, critics only swore by these versions, to the detriment of most of the others, which were either systematically denigrated or downplayed. Certainly, they are undeniably very beautiful, emotionally dense and very committed interpretatively. And one cannot question the conductor's long relationship with the composer and his work - but Previn ? Andrew Davis ? Bryden Thomson ? Doesn't each of these versions shed light on our relationship to the work differently ? Thank you Mr. Hurwitz for this necessary clarification, and for all the wonderful work accomplished over so many years !

[@christianstark2381]

I'd definitely mention Mackerras and Janacek operas at least in the Western hemisphere. He was our guide through all the tremendous musical treasures and sublime dramaturgic instinct of these works and also proved that non-Czech ensembles could do the music justice. Munch with Berlioz Fantastique is another strong contender even if he didn't exactly pioneer the work. An unsung hero is Karl Böhm regarding his "ownership" of Berg's Wozzeck and the two finished Lulu acts in the 50s and 60s - and he did them really well!

[@albertpianist]

The Tallis Scholars' Miserere, and to a certain extent the Marcelli Mass, which has been the go-to version for many, not to mention with 3 different recordings to choose from.

[@stephenmccarthy3072]

Thank you very much Dave for another wonderful and very interesting talk! As a saxophonist, it is quite an insular, but very interesting, field still - and a very young one. The person who immediately springs to mind as the 'owner' of much of the repertoire is probably Marcel Mule, but it is interesting because the pedigree point made in the video essentially began with him. Mule came to prominence in and around the 1920s and 1930s, and died in 2001, some could say essentially having built the solo saxophone repertoire from the ground up (and having recorded, well, at least most of the French stuff), working with the best composers all the way. It is definitely a quickly changing field though, with plenty of composers and performers from non-European countries (especially the U.S. and Japan) challenging the French dominance of the scene. I think that it will make for interesting viewing from afar in the future. Many thanks again.

[@GICM]

one that springs to my mind quite distinctly is Cyprien Katsaris playing the Liszt Transcriptions of the Beethoven Symphonies. there are only a few other recordings especially for the full set, but you can quite easily hear how Katsaris is just technically and musically so far supreme compared to all of them, and i think even looking ahead its going to be difficult for people to beat it

[@hwelf11]

Fritz Wunderlich as Tamino in the Magic Flute. I don't think anyone since has matched his combination of smoothness, elegance, together with richness and beauty of tone.

[@DrGeoffLindsey]

Reginald Allbad "owned zippo". Dave, I love you. You've no idea how the cult of that buffoon blighted my early listening years. Just imagine if Mackerras had been given the whole Ring and not just that CfP Götterdämmerung highlights disc... But oh no, Saint Reggie owned it all.

[@saraband2004]

Other examples of ownership: 1. Glenn Gould's Bach Goldberg Variations (and Bach keyboard music in general). 2. Grumiaux's mozart 3. Starker's Kodaly cello sonata 4. Boulez's Webern orchestral music 5. Pollini's Chopin Etudes

[@rsmickeymooproductions4877]

This subject does opens the mind and evaluates what a niche genre of music we listen to. If we were to ask who owns Grieg's Piano Concerto, a lot in this forum would say Radu Lapu, Stephen Kovacevich etc.. Ask the general public, they would say something like Grieg or Eric Morecambe.

[@FranzKaernBiederstedt]

And now for something competely different: Julian Bream playing Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal after Dowland", a wonderful, intelligent and delicate (and, as guitarists point out: extremely intricate and difficult) composition for guitar solo. Britten dedicated it to Bream, and rightfully so, because it's incredible which beautiful sounds and rich colors Bream is able to elicit this intimate instrument.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Never being wholly satisfied with any one interpretation of anything cures me of the "ownership" notion. On the other hand, this constitutes another form of the collecting illness that many will know all too well.

[@whistlerfred6579]

Just caught up with this video and I'm glad I did. I first thought of Casals' Bach Suites and Gould's Goldberg, but since both are covered in the comments below I'll content myself with "liking" the posts. But this got me thinking about having a talk concerning performances that put little known works "on the map" and that, if not (or are no longer) definitive versions, they opened the door for the works' popularity and subsequent recordings. I think both the Casals and Gould performances may fall into this category, and perhaps Gieseking's Debussy as well, not to mention a certain Canon!

[@MichaelGilman489]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Mitsuko Uchida's Mozart sonatas yet. That was first to pop into my mind. I don't have the historical musical knowledge most commentators here have - I just love to listen - so I can't give a full dissertation on why this should be. All I know is, Uchida's has been considered the landmark recofding for decades. Can a musician claim "ownership" of an instrument rather than a work? If so, I submit Dennis Brain's horn. Like du Pre, he's another musician who died young, which seems to be a powerful criteria for obtaining the immortal mystique. (As someone who loves rock and roll, I can think of plenty of examples of this.) And can one own a piece that barely gets played and is barely thought of? If so, then there's Louis Kentner and Balakirev's Piano Sonata in B-Flat Minor. For whatever it's worth, this mono performance is the one all others are compared to. Finally, a prediction: when Alkan finally emerges into the standard repertoire 50 years from now, there will be retroactive claims that Marc-Andre Hamelin owned these pieces all along.

[@bigg2988]

I like the pick of Uchida in Mozart, but maybe the sheer multitude of recordings of Amadeus' works weighs negatively against any one nomination. Regarding M.-A. Hamelin, I was going to put in a joke that in 50 years he would be considered a second coming of Alkan, and the "owner" of whatever he recorded... Being a "hot commodity" as a cool virtuoso can influence contemporary public perception to great lengths. Nevertheless, to benefit from a perspective, I guess we have to wait 50 years to see if the joke turned out serious after all. :)

[@Chiewkovsky]

You put a smile on my face when you acknowledge the superior musicality of the late Dinu Lipatti, for me he owns the Chopin's 3rd Piano Sonata as well.

[@johnoconnor683]

Some examples: 1. Klemperer - Fidelio: did a great early recording, but not my favourite Klemperer Beethoven (which I generally love) or my favourite Fidelio: it's too heavy for the work in my view, but it was the LP that brought a neglected opera to many. 2. Tatiana Nikoleyva - Shostakovich preludes and fugues: helped make them famous and were written with her in mind, but the earliest set is not in great sound. Others (e.g. Levit have done great versions); 3. Sviatoslav Richter - Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition - Sofia 1950's concert terrific, but sound not great. I have never hear these pieces done better, but the sound is an issue. 4. Busch Quartet Beethoven Late Quartets - frankly, the BQ was as great as any string quartet that has ever existed. They helped get the late Beethoven known and also performed them so that the adagios were really slow. They did not avoid depth. They merit their fame.

[@leeturner1202]

If you mention the Liszt 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, who comes immediately to mind? Bugs Bunny.

[@MilsteinRulez]

Fritz Wunderlich owns Die schöne Müllerin.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Owned.

[@josecarmona9168]

There are some "ownerships" that I especially like: Rysanek's Kaiserin in Die Frau ohne Schatten and Della Casa's Arabella. I think they are just gorgeous.

[@tom6693]

Couldn't agree more. I think it's probably fair to say that della Casa owned Arabella until the torch was passed to Te Kanawa, who pretty much owned it until Fleming arrived.

[@martinhochbaum8936]

My nominations are Martha Argerich in: Tchaikovsky 1 (with Dutoit) and the Rachmaninov 3 (Chailly) primarily due to the combination of her dynamic musicality and sheer power of personality...

[@michaelmurray8742]

Gorecki symphony no. 3 with Zimbabwean/upshaw as it was played to death on the radio when it came out and put the composer and the work on the map.

[@CaptFitzbattleaxe]

Everybody says you need Joan Sutherland in Lucia di Lammermoor (I tend to agree). Marc-André Hamelin and Alkan’s Concerto for Solo Piano also get lumped together in many people’s minds.

[@aquariantrader]

For me its Emil Gilels rendering of Beethoven's sonata number 30 in E major Opus 109. Combined with sonata 31 in A flat major, it was his last commercial recording on DG before he died. Although some of his tempos variate from what is considered the norm for that sonata, from start to finish every note and phrase is purposeful and takes the listener somewhere. I always come away with the feeling I have had an experience as opposed to have just listened to a great artist play Beethoven. He has an insight to the work I have not heard from other artists.

[@sansumida]

Fascinating talk I would like to add Vernon Handley advocacy of the Bax symphonies and tone poems. I grew up in Guildford, England and saw him conduct many British works, especially Nympholept and his Spring Fire. Nobody else performed his works to such an extent, really marvellous clear strong boned interpretations. 2. Peter Pears the tenor surely owned Britten's operas and vocal works. They were written for him and he often gave the first performances. 3. For the Vivaldi 4 Seasons Nigel Kennedy became ubiquitous, almost to the point of hating him!

[@jg5861]

Gould's Bach. I totally understand the whys but the truth is I dislike it terribly. And life gets somehow difficult socially when you're a composition specialist and pianist and you have no patience for Gould's Bach!

[@djquinn4212]

As an opera person, I can say that Callas and Traviata is the operatic equivalent of Leonardo of the last supper. The REAL work she does own is Tosca! The 1953 recording has been the reference performance since the day it came out, AND it’s in good sound! And the only extended clip we have to see of her on stage is Act 2 from Covent Garden, which backs up everything we knew from the earlier recording. A more recent operatic example: Renee Fleming and Rusalka, specifically the song to the moon. You had a few people who sang that aria (Benackova and Popp most famously) but when she won the Met finals with that aria and started doing the opera, and when she recorded the role with Mackerras, everyone was compared to her. Along those same lines, Pavarotti and the Ah Mes Amis aria.

[@GastonBulbous]

Callas also owns Norma.

[@djquinn4212]

@@GastonBulbous Gonna disagree on that one. You’ve got the Sutherland camp as well who will argue for her being the definitive Norma. Nilsson and Turandot is a better example.

[@matthewbbenton]

While we’re talking about Callas, I’d include her Lady Macbeth. She recorded the arias in the studio, but otherwise her “ownership” rests on a single (dim) live recording. The fact that she was supposed to sing it at the Met before she was fired adds to the mystique.

[@carteri6296]

Rumanian conductor George Georgescu really owns the interpretation of his compatriot Michail Andricu's Sixth Symphony, there's that! 😀

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Obviously.

[@RichardGreen422]

I think Dorati owned the complete Haydn Symphonies. When I think of them, I immediately think of him.

[@robertcurry7664]

As always, a joy to listen to your thoughts and incredibly astute observations. You’re so so right about the non-musical elements which so often supersede the musical strengths, in explaining the justifications of “ownership”. I’m thinking now of works which, although well served by many recordings, have one performance/performer which stands above and beyond the rest…for my ears, these few come to mind… Zoltan Kocsis’s Rachmaninov 2nd sonata…for me it’s one of the greatest piano recordings ever made, of anything. There isn’t a single bar without magic…for years I loved Lugansky’s offering, but after discovering Kocsis, it seamed rather pedestrian, by comparison. (Apropos of which, would you consider making a post devoted to your picks for greatest recordings of anything in the piano solo repertoire? I’d be so excited to hear your choices and observations on that topic!) Leontyne Price Aida…for me, even more so than the nomination of Callas, this was a marriage made in opera heaven…thinking of operatic roles, Price/Aida is the one at the head of the queue. Samson François’s Left hand Ravel concerto….as with ZK’s Rach, it seems to have a sprinkling of magic that I’ve not felt in any other recording. These few picks were the ones that jumped out, with very little brain straining….ooh, this very moment Shirley Verrett’s Eboli jumps into the list…has any other Eboli ever been as electric or sexy?…come to think of it, her Lady Macbeth is pretty unmatched too…

[@robertcurry7664]

….Jon Vickers Peter Grimes???

[@grantparsons6205]

Now that's a topic! All marketing puffery methinks. The music we love invites--demnds, even--the wide range of interpretative approaches which it is the privilege of we collectors to enjoy. Musical interpretation is surely an extension of the personality of the artist & reflects character, life experience etc. Approaches also change over time (eg, the relative emphasis given to pure technical accuracy or facility), as do the "sound" of orchestras & instruments like the piano. I'd suggest that we collect recoded performances or works & spend vast amounts of our time in concert halls precisely because no one ever "owns" a work...imagine having only one recording of, say, the Waldstein sonata, or of La Mer? I listen to both regularly drawing on a large number of recordings from the 1930s onwards. Wonderfully satisfying & informative differences of approach within, let alone across, those many decades.

[@grantparsons6205]

Apologies for the typos!

[@vdtv]

There were four that sprang immediately to mind - three have been mentioned but not (unless I inadvertently missed it): Kempe in the Richard Strauss orchestral works. Is he the last word in everything? Of course he's not. Maybe even in nothing. But the quality of all the individual items combined is a lot greater than the sum of the parts, and that's why I'd happily argue for his ownership of it. Wouter van Doorn

[@Mason-ze6ri]

Hi David, thanks for your great videos. I am not a "opera guy" but I have heard many times that Jussi Björling and Robert Merill own Pearl fishers duet (Au fond du temple saint) from Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de perles. While I agree that it is fine a performance and I don't think is terribly special and many good one have been recorded since

[@willr3891]

This is a really fascinating video.

[@jaykauffman4775]

Kna and Parsifal. If anyone conducted this so luminously either live or studio I have yet to hear it

[@bbailey7818]

I would say ownership of the Ninth was actually Toscanini's. A recording of it was awaited eagerly for years based on his live performances and broadcasts. When it finally appeared in 1952 I think it was the classical best seller of its decade (Gould's first Goldbergs disc may rival it.) His first mvt was controversial, perhaps not so much now given the period versions out there, but no one has made the work as a whole into a solid unity and focused vision from first note to last and especially held the finale together like no one else out of the fifty or so I know. Surely Bernstein owned the Shostakovich 7th. He kept it alive when nobody else was playing it after the initial hoohah over it during WW2 and made two indispensable recordings of it, despite iconoclastic slower tempi in the first section. Bruno Walter made six recordings of the Siegfried Idyll, a work some of us love, across five decades, and the greatest of all is probably the last. The pickup LA orchestra glows under his baton and every bar is his almost as much as Wagner's. Nobody else has done ut better.

[@armandine2]

Nowadays, ownership to a piece isn't likely going to be for long. The current owner for me of Brahms' Handel Variations is Lars Vogt - this came to me as pairing with the second piano concerto, in a download last week. Listening to the pieces they have gotten something extra without losing the familiar tunes. Something that wasn't quite in all the others. A new version of a piece reminds of Menahem Pressler's version of the Schubert's last piano sonata. Where Menahem steals a lovely version for us, that doesn't pretend to own it.

[@jeremylee9235]

If an artist can also mean an ensemble or orchestra, it's the Czech Philharmonic owning Ma Vlast.

[@tom6693]

In a way similar to de Larrocha owning the big Granados and Albeniz piano works, I'd say that for the length of her concertizing career, Victoria de los Angeles owned the major vocal works of Granados (the "Canciones Amatorias" and "Tonadillas") and de Falla's "Siete Canciones Populares." Nor was anyone else so associated with Spanish song generally, since for decades the last half of her recital programs was largely drawn from that repertoire: Mompou, Nin, Obradors, Rodrigo, Montsalvage. Others programmed and recorded this material, of course (Berganza, Lorengar, Caballe, Verrett) but somewhat later and couldn't have been said to "own" it in the same way.

[@poturbg8698]

The KZbin transcript for this video mentions the Taco Bell cannon and that Olympic senior citizen Vaulter Geezer King.

[@danlo5]

I only feel compelled to use the word "owned" when an artist's rendition leaves me dazzled like no other artist's rendition has. Sviatoslav Richter "owns" several, IMO, just because he's such an overwhelming force of nature in so many of his recordings. A few examples include Rachmaninov's prelude op. 23 no. 5, Prokofiev's 7th sonata (especially the 3rd movement), and Beethoven's Appassionata sonata. Marc-Andre Hamelin has the same effect on me. I feel like he owns Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2.

[@geraldparker8125]

One example that hops to mind is this: Riccardo Muti OWNS the largescale choral works of Luigi Cherubini. Apart from Markevitch, Muti's recordings of the works have been the best, most dramatic, and well conceived and performed. Anyway, he justly deserves the title of King of Cherubini, but for how long?

[@carmel1629]

Very interesting. Sure Kleiber's Beethoven 5th is good but give me Markevitch with the Lamoureux Orchestra of Paris anytime. Just listening to the Finale with those blazing french horns is amazing. If anybody really owns this work it's good old Igor !!

[@danlo5]

That 3rd movement under Markevitch is absolutely thrilling. It's the recording I turn to as well when I want to hear the 5th symphony.

[@carmel1629]

@@danlo5 Right on ! Yes it's like hearing the canons of the French Revolution roar

[@jm960]

Nobody owns anything, but I would tend to think Janet Baker owns Ravel Scheherazade, Berlioz Nuits, and Mahler Lied von der Erde(Kubelik live 1970).

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not with Christa Ludwig and Regine Crespin around.

[@jm960]

@@DavesClassicalGuide I agree, we are so lucky to have a choice of owners.

[@MilsteinRulez]

Ben van Oosten owns all of the French romantic organ repertoire, with the exception of Franck, where there is no one right way (though Jeanne Demessieux still has some posthumous ownership on him). With Widor, Vierne, Saint-Saens, Dupré, there apparently is. You know when you listen. Scott Ross owned Couperin's harpsichord works, Christophe Rousset took up the legacy quite competently. Georges Delvallée owns all of Tournmire's organ music. (Thus concludes the niche comment.)

[@davidsolomon7101]

Dave, I love your work consistently - but this one was possibly my favorite so far. As far as additions go, nothing seems to me to be more qualified for this than Gould's pair recordings of the Goldbergs. Gould and that work are inseparable to me and I think to most of the classical record-buying public. I think Argerich's Liszt Sonata qualifies here as well. There have been other classic recordings since, but the Argerich is inescapable.

[@FranzKaernBiederstedt]

I would add Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Marschallin in Strauss's 'Rosenkavalier'. She for a long time has simply been, not only played this role. Her monologue about the passing of time had such a depth and melancoly. Her somewhat odd vowel colors gave her voice a strange sophistication and nobless, which suited the Marschallin so well and made her sound philosophical, erotic, wise. Oh by the way: She - for me - also owns a complete other role in a totally different genre (and please, don't crucify me for that, but that's a secret love of mine...), that is Hannah Glawari in Lehar's 'Merry Widow' in the up to now unmatched 1963 reference recording with Eberhard Waechter and the young Nicolai Gedda with Lovro von Matacic conducting. No-one sang 'Lippen schweigen' with more intimacy and fragility than she.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Why would I crucify you? It's a great work and a great performance of it.

[@FranzKaernBiederstedt]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Oh, I'm glad to hear you say this! I wasn't sure how you feel about the so called light genre operetta (which was my first love before I discovered Mahler and Britten and Shostakovich and so many others).

[@Vikingvideos50]

Two ideas: Ignaz Friedman and the Chopin Mazurkas. Also Murray Perahia and the Mozart Piano Concertos.

[@jeffreylevy1108]

I read many times that after Heifetz recorded the Sibelius concerto, other violinists would not record the work for many years.......I assume the 1930's recording......

[@TheScottishoats]

Ausgezeichnet! Gut gemacht.

[@tonytaylor3476]

I’d have to go for Netania Davrath and Canteloube’s Auvergne. Never heard them better, and doubt they will be equalled. Beautiful youthful singing, absolutely stunning vocally. Maybe it’s just me 😂 Love it!!

[@tom6693]

It's not just you. That Vanguard recording is a classic. As a huge de los Angeles fan, I can't help putting Victoria on the top of my Canteloube favorites (along with Moffo and Stokowski). But Devreth, yes, beautiful and wonderfully idiomatic singing, and I think many folks would say she owns this repertoire.

[@jfddoc]

Verdi's Falstaff was pretty much owned by Toscanini...at least the orchestral part. He knew the composer and championed the work his whole life.

[@djquinn4212]

As much as Toscanini does absolutely conduct a masterful performance of the work, there are two other recordings of Falstaff, Karajan and Bernstein, that people mention in the same breath as Toscanini for the better sound. I think in opera, apart from Knappertsbusch, it’s based on singers, and there are enough people out there who learned the piece from the other two recordings that Toscanini’s stamp on the piece is as exclusive as you would think.

[@stephenkeen2404]

I'll start with my unserious comment: Doesn't the Boston Symphony own Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra? They commissioned it. Scanning through my collection, I found a couple of suggestions that surprised me: Rene Jacobs: Pergolesi Seven Last Words of Christ, etc. So far as I can tell, he's the only one to have ever recorded it. Borodin Quartet: Shostakovich String Quartets and Piano Quintet. Notwithstanding Fitzwilliam's cycle, for a long time these were the only available versions worth listening to. Now, hardly a month goes by without another ensemble releasing their take, in better sound and more exact playing. But I still love these recordings. Arrau: Chopin Nocturnes. I got Hough, but Claudio is still the one I want to hear play these.

[@geraldparker8125]

I love Maria Callas' recordings and so many of them are among the greatest ever made of the works that she recorded that I almost feel sheepish to say that Victoria de los Angeles OWNS the role of Violetta Valéry on record. Her way with the role eclipses even Callas' more famous one.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Oy. Opera people!

[@marknewkirk4322]

There was a time when Yvonne and Jeanne Loriot owned Messiaen on piano and ondes Martenot respectively. These days, lots of people have mastered Messiaen, and he has more or less entered the standard repertoire.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, they were the Laurel and Hardy of the musical avant-garde.

[@bbailey7818]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Speaking of which, I heard the Naxos Wit Turangalila for the first time having bought it based on your reviews. Thank you! It is now THE version here out of the five or so others I have because I have never heard all of the textures and myriad colors so well balanced and with the Ondes integrated into the whole instead of glaringly sticking out. Wit seems to know where the main line is every moment. So much so followng with score was actually easy, something I'd never experienced before. Pacing, tempi perfect. Impactful recording. I had to encore mvt 5. I guess Wit owns Turangalila now.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@bbailey7818 So glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for listening!

[@moviedave2001]

My father had that Pachelbel album.... I had forgotten.

[@winslowrogers2026]

The only other disc I know of that consists a multitude of performances of a single short work, like Pachelbel's Greatest Hit, is the Samuel Barber CD originally on RCA. Canadian Brass, James Galway, a Clarinet choir, organ, etc.

[@christopherjohnson2422]

RCA put out a multiple Bolero CD. I own a copy of the RCA Pachelbel all-Canon CD. It’s got some fun items on it, including a pioneering version by Arthur Fiedler and his Sinfonietta-pretty much like Paillard, but in a crappy transfer from shellac.

[@winslowrogers2026]

Thanks for the reminder. A couple of tracks that didn't make it: harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielemans played Bolero in a concert and was petrified to learn that Ravel had been in the audience. He never heard from Ravel and feared the worst. But his manager later showed him a letter from Ravel allowing Toots to play Bolero whenever he wanted without any performance fee. Today, there's a performance on youtube of four cellists playing Bolero on one cello (no that's not a misprint)

[@stddisclaimer8020]

This idea could be extended to conductors (or other artists) said to "own" not only a certain piece, but a composer's _oeuvre_ . Examples: Beecham owns Delius, or Loriod owns Messiaen. Or how conductors "owned" orchestras: Reiner with the CSO, Karajan with BPO etc.

[@Don-md6wn]

Other than the Janet Baker Sea Pictures mentioned already, the closest I can think of to somebody "owning" a particular repertory in recordings would be Mackerras in the late Janacek operas with a lot of contributing factors - Mackerras had spent years studying and performing Janacek's music which had been pretty obscure outside of Czechoslovakia, the music has a pretty unique style, Mackerras had a great orchestra and some great singers in a language that is very difficult for singers, and he recorded them in the studio late enough (late 70's, early 80's) with a record label that put them out in great sound. While Janacek operas have become more popular, they're still not as popular as Verdi, Mozart, Puccini, Wagner, etc. and the economics of recording non baroque operas that require a large orchestra are terrible.

[@james.t.herman]

I wonder how much of this idea of one performer “owning” a piece came out of a time early in the history of high fidelity recordings, when there weren’t more than a few choices of recordings of a given work. How long did that era in record collecting last? I think of high fidelity recording beginning after WWII, with Reiner’s Chicago records of the Strauss tone poems being some of the very first examples. So by, say, 1970, were there still only a few options of recordings for most repertoire?

[@scottvanderbilt1279]

You could say that Gilbert Kaplan owned Mahler's Second, since he literally owned the autograph score. But that's probably not what you meant. :-)

[@ggb6303]

Has nobody mentioned Dorati’s 1812 with Minneapolis on Mercury Living Presence? Although I prefer a choral version of the piece that performance was in the record cabinet of every boomer’s dad in the 1950s. I listened to it for the first time in about 50 years last week, and it remains a sensational performance in vivid sound.

[@jgesselberty]

Maybe not ownership, but, at least for a good while Munch was the go-to for the Symphonie Fantastique; Previn was the go-to for the Walton 1st; Solti for The Ring.

[@rugerthedog396]

I'm a little late on this, but I always though Pierre Monteux owned the Franck Symphony in D with his performance with the Chicago Symphony. OK, I "imprinted" on this when my father brought it home when I was 9, but I never have subsequently heard a version I thought got the the essence of the piece with the same sure touch. When I was working at the classical music radio station KDB-FM in the 70's and early 80's I tried to get hold of every available version, and nothing could change my mind. Seems like Classics Today has liked this version too, over the years, and with the surprising fall of the popularity of this former war-horse, Monteux's is the last-best-performance standing for all time for many of us. Or is this just me?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, you're in good company.

[@nealkurz6503]

Talking about the former ubiquity of Pachelbel Canon during NPR pledge drives (sounds like you would have pledged for them to STOP playing it!), I remember in the 70s Philadelphia's WUHY trying a kind of reverse psychology. They played some of the infamous "Portsmouth Sinfonia Plays The Popular Classics" LP. They threatened to play more of the album until they reached a certain level of pledges! The DuPre Elgar has another layer of ownership among the young cellist population, and this has been the case for decades now. The vast majority of them emulate her approach to a great degree, and many cite this recording as what made them want to become a cellist. Just one example, you will rarely hear anyone student play the downward glissando in the first phrase without her very slow slide to the low E. In MY case, it was Fournier's Dvorak Concerto w/ Szell/BPO that captivated me as to the sound of the cello, which I DID take up, until the piano took over my life. Certainly Horowitz "owned" most of us budding pianists, and as Jed mentions, his Rachmaninoff 3rd was omnipresent for those of us coming of age in the 1970s. I would add Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations, despite many alternate approaches (and the fact that Wanda Landowska actually put the work on the map). I don't think there's much doubt that Pablo Casals Bach Suite put those works on the map, from out of nowhere, and had few challengers for many years.

[@AlexMadorsky]

I humbly submit Kirill Kondrashin and Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony, which he premiered.

[@dennischiapello3879]

I assure you I'm not an opera crazy: you've got to admit the case of Leontyne Price and "Aida." Certainly she was great in it. With that voice of hers, of course, anything she used it on sounded glorious. But the other factor had to do with what she herself called "the Ethiopian thing." While she was breaking the color barrier in opera, and audiences perhaps congratulated themselves in accepting her in any role she chose, Aida seemed like a match made in heaven, since she looked "authentically" Ethiopian. So there was a bit of a cultural/social/political moment.

[@petekohn]

A music critic I admire wrote that Philadelphia under Ormandy owns Prokofiev’s “Classical” symphony, and after listening to dozens of others I tend to agree

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I wonder who that was?

[@freddiepieter5820]

What if one musician declares another to be the "owner"? Bernstein did this in the case of Karl Böhm. When he conducted Tristan in 1981, Böhm was skeptical - but then thrilled! -- Bernstein remembered: "It was HIS opera. It would be as if HE had composed it. I felt like Wagner himself had descended and agreed."

[@ggannuch]

I wasn't around for it but I've always had the impression that there was a period of time when Arthur Rubinstein owned Chopin for the general Public, yes?

[@christopherpickles7541]

Regarding Jacqueline du Pre's 'ownership' of the Elgar Cello Concerto - how much of this is down to Janet Baker's performance of Sea Pictures on the other side of the LP? I never met anyone who knew this who didn't love it and no other performance I've heard comes close. I always felt that it was Baker's disc, not du Pre's

[@belpit66]

I agree that it's Baker's disc. I've always said that the poems are lousy but Elgar's music is better than the poems and Baker's performance is better than the music.

[@tom6693]

For me, Barbirolli is what makes each performance as great as it is. Baker and du Pre each performed these Elgar works with other conductors (Handley and Barenboim) but not with the same kind of powerful emotional impact.

[@secondbanana2]

Not sure this qualifies as a masterpiece, but Simon Barere playing Islamey.

[@petterw5318]

What about a group of artists? I think the New Bayreuth gang of the 1950s and 1960s still own their Wagner roles, especially in the Ring: Windgassen as Siegfried, Hotter as Wotan, Neidlinger as Alberich, Varnay or Nilsson in Bünnhilde, King and Rysanek as the twins... Since then there have been individual talents, but you couldn't cast today a Ring with so many great voices and personalities.

[@joseperla9806]

Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations! And when he re-recorded it, the entire United Nations General Assembly adjourned to rush out and buy it. Later I discovered Murray Perahia and I ditched my Gould recordings on the spot.

[@stephenkeen2404]

This seems like a good place to leave this comment: for quite a while Gould owned the Goldberg Variations on piano. But I think the important fact is that he made recordings like Perahia's (my go to for Bach on the piano) possible. I'm not sure that, before Gould, there was an answer to "why should we do another Goldberg recording?" He showed there were depth to plumb. (For the record, I (and more importantly my wife) do like Gould's second recording, humming and all.)

[@vdtv]

Theer are some good (or at least interesting) things by Gould. He played the Sibelius sontatinas (and Kylikki) when nobody else did, and some (R) Strauss piano works as - I believe - his very last record. But I think what would really make him immortal is a Tinnitus Classics recording where David Hurwitz hums along with him. Working title: "Who Cares What Key?"

[@richardwilliams473]

Despite Joan Sutherland s bad diction when singing she owned the version of Coming Home by Dvorak I believe. You mentioned you worked at Tower Records ,David. I used to frequent that store in San Francisco in the early 70s. I might have bought a vinyl record from you?

[@carteri6296]

I was hanging there (the big one on Market Street) in the mid-90s, good times. Also the one in Berkeley (it changed locations several times) where I was a student.

[@halbrooks7517]

Rosalyn Tureck, “the high priestess of Bach” can’t really be said to “own” Bach keyboard works, but she devoted much of her life to them and is inextricably associated with them. Association, I realize, isn’t the same as owning, but it is an adjacent idea, and perhaps more realistic. Fun talk!

[@tom6693]

Tureck may not have owned Bach, but I'm pretty sure she thought she did. Her famous address to Landowska ("You play it your way; I play it Bach's way") suggests she thought she was the go-to performer of his keyboard works. And for many folks, Gould notwithstanding, she was.

[@rsmickeymooproductions4877]

Ask Joe Public who knows nothing or very little about classical music who owns Nessun dorma? What do you think they will say? It will not be Zubin Mehta. Of course, is it anything to do with music or the greater phenomena of Football or as you Americans say Soccer.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I was agonizing over whether to include that one and hoping that someone would, so thank you!

[@tritemotifs4198]

If I understand the spirit of this talk properly, I think that for 20th century listeners and record buyers at least, you'd have to include Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau's claim on all 600-odd songs by Franz Schubert. To this day, if you Google "Schubert lieder," like as not you'll come up with more than one image of DF-D. He recorded them all more than once, I'm pretty sure, even with many accompanists who weren't Gerald Moore. Contemporaneous reviews would say bitchy things like "This week's Winterreise from Hr. Fischer-Dieskau..." and I get the idea that if you were a singer at the time who wasn't a totally different fach or a woman, you'd feel a little self-conscious approaching this catalogue. Am I remembering right that the Penguin Guide had a special section for DF-D's Schubert? Sounds like ownership to me. The thing about this case (David Hurwitz may disagree, because I don't think he likes lieder very much) is that the interpretations (all the ones that I've heard) are of such consistent beauty and probity, while justifying the innumerable reexplorations he spoke so compellingly about, that the claim is pretty legit, and it is meet that this portion of the literature had to wait for subsequent generations to have room made for their interpretations by Fischer-Dieskau's absence.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I disagree about giving him the rights to all of the songs--the late song cycles, I would agree with you. He owned them, for a time.

[@curseofmillhaven1057]

Wasn't it the perception that Bruno Walter owned Mahler's 9th basically because of that bad VPO 'Anschluss' recording? History usurping musicality

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, that is true. It was a joke, and Walter knew it (and said so).

[@curseofmillhaven1057]

And amazingly it still gets held up as some sort of touchstone; a recent BBC comparative review of the 9th cited it heavily, and then criminally failed to mention such remarkable recordings as Chaily's on Decca, or Gilbert's on BIS. The coup de grâce however was naming - wait for it - Simon Rattle's BPO recording as the definitive modern choice!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

@@curseofmillhaven1057 Sigh...

[@woongcho7709]

Alkan's piano music/Hamelin - Nobody else dare to play it. Bartok's piano music/Kocsis - No one will ever dare to record them all. Beethoven Symphony cycle/Gardiner - Like it or not, he seems to have conquered the HIP Beethoven territory. Brahms Violin Concerto/Oistrakh - All of his recordings are on its all-time Top Ten list. Czech violin music/Suk - I wouldn't be surprised if he literally owned it. Mahler Symphony 1/Kubelik - Maybe this is the only area in Mahler's world with no conflict. Oboe music/Holliger - Oboe God! Tosca/Callas - She owned it this time because she sang it. LOL Turandot/Pavarotti - His Nessun Dorma owns this opera. Vaughn Williams/Boult - Boult's box set says it all. I am not so sure about the ownership criteria, but I find it fun to make a list of it. Thank you, Dave

[@djquinn4212]

The only Gardiner owns about Beethoven symphonies is how to make them sound like crap Corelli is more definitive than Pavarotti in the role of Calaf. I agree 100% on Boult/RVW.

[@gregorystanton6150]

Pablo Casals and the Bach 'cello suites. Which he makes sound like Schumann. I will never, ever understand the Callas phenomenon. Supposedly she was a great actress. I can't hear it in any of her recordings (is this something that is even detectable without the visual to accompany it?). What I can hear are intonation problems, taking breaths whenever she runs out of it, questionable technique, and an abrasive tone. And so much of it was badly recorded. That 1954 (52?) Norma which was supposedly a revelation? It's unlistenable.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Callas definitely had a voice that was, er, distinctive, but I don't think any singer of the period was more sensitive to the expressive meaning of the text, and more willing to make the voice reflect that. If I may make a suggestion, just listen to her sing "In questa reggia" from her complete Turandot, and follow it with the words. She's not in best voice, and it wasn't one of her "great" roles, but she makes something astounding out of that long narration at the beginning. It's truly special. You may never like her (sometimes I do and sometimes I don't), but that's a very different thing than understanding what she did so well.

[@gregorystanton6150]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thank you for the suggestion - I will. I admit, so often I listen to music while I am doing something else, and in those situations it is difficult to get past the non-musical aspects of a performance.