Track Listing

1. Pastorale for piano in E minor (after Scarlatti)
2. Gavotte for piano in A major (after Gluck: Iphigenie en Aulide), Anh. 1a/2
3. Turkish March, for piano in B flat major (after Beethoven's 'The Ruins of Athens')
4. Melodies (2) for piano, Op. 3: Melody in F, Op 03 No.1
5. Nocturne (Complaint) 'Mignonettes': Nocturne
6. Prelude for piano No.1 in C sharp minor ('The Bells of Moscow'), Op. 3/2
7. Prelude for piano No.6 in G minor, Op. 23/5
8. Paraphrase for piano of the Magic Fire Music from Wagner's 'Die Walk�re'
9. Scherzo for piano No. 1 in B minor, Op. 20, CT. 197
10. Nocturne for piano No. 5 in F sharp major, Op. 15/2, CT. 112
11. Waltz for piano No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64/2, CT. 213
12. Polonaise for piano No. 3 in A major ('Military'), Op. 40/1, CT. 152
13. Mes Joies, transcription for piano (after Chopin Op. 74/12), S. 480/5bis: My Joys
14. Waldesrauschen (Forest Murmurs), for piano (Zwei Konzertetuden No. 1), S. 145/1 (LW A218/1): Concert Study No 1, "Walderauschen"
15. La Campanella II, etude for piano in G sharp minor (Grand Paganini �tude No. 3), S. 141/3 (LW A173/3): No 03 in A flat minor, "La cam
16. Hungarian Rhapsody, for piano No. 12 in C sharp minor (aka 'No. 2'), S. 244/12 (LW A132/12)
17. Hungarian Rhapsody, for piano No. 12 in C sharp minor (aka 'No. 2'), S. 244/12 (LW A132/12): Abbreviated Version

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274255 in Music
• Released on: 1995-06-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Customer Reviews

Josef Hofmann: Wonderful playing, a little surface noise
Volume 4 is a single CD containing recordings of Josef Hofmann from 1922-23 known as the Acoustic Brunswicks. The surface noise is much better than Volume 3, but these are still a little noisy. This is Hofmann in his prime, about age 46. The playing is delectable, as always with Hofmann. It is again Hofmann in the shorter pieces -- a nice selection without much duplication. My assumption is that anyone interested in Hofmann will start by getting Volumes 1 & 2 -- the Chopin Concertos and the 1937 Golden Jubilee Recital. Beyond that, in choosing among Volumes 3 to 6, Volume 4 probably the best choice, if you can take a little surface noise. (Otherwise, Volume 5 would be my suggestion.)

Which Hofmann?
Hofmann - particularly late Hofmann - may be an acquired taste.
Despite having been the protégé of Anton Rubinstein, "the wonderful boy" was recognized from quite an early age as the exemplar of a modern style of playing - textually faithful, eschewing swooning or bombast. (See, for example, the references to Hofmann in Henry Lahee's wonderful survey from 1900, Famous Pianists of Today and Yesterday.)
Still, a number of younger colleagues expressed ambivalence. Horowitz was floored by Hofmann's keyboard command - everyone was - but he, Artur Rubinstein and Arrau, to name just three - seem not to have been terribly moved by Hofmann's musicianship.
But which Hofmann are we considering? His playing for the gramophone - as early as 1903 and as late as 1935 - was as disciplined as it was imaginative and dazzling. The late Harold Schonberg called it "perfection plus."
However, as Gregor Benko makes clear in his essays for the Marston reissues, Hofmann switched on what the pianist called a "spectacular" style for many public performances. This may sound cynical. Often it sounds terribly cynical. Hofmann was not speaking merely of the need to project in a large concert hall. In public performance - at least those performances we have from the late `30s and early `40s - the aristocrat often becomes a mountebank, lurching from the softest pianissimos to explosive fortissimos, rattling off passages or entire pieces even faster than Simon Barere boasted he could do.
Schonberg - and Hofmann's friend and admirer Rachmaninoff - reminded us that during this period Hofmann had many personal troubles, including a severe drinking problem. We must believe that at his greatest Hofmann played as scrupulously and with as much refined feeling in public as he did on many of his studio recordings, though his manner may have differed somewhat. And there are some marvelous live performances. The Rubinstein 4th from his Golden Jubilee concert beggars description.
So where does that leave us? As an introduction to Hofmann, I would recommend the early Columbia recordings, those he made somewhat later for Brunswick, and the American and British test pressings from 1935 - perhaps his greatest recorded playing. These are Volumes 3, 4 and 5 of the complete Hofmann series. Serious listeners will also want the ups and downs of the Golden Jubilee (Volume 2). The Chopin concertos in Volume 1 have some splendid moments, but the superlative (not spectacular; superlative) performance there is a fragment of the first movement of the E minor concerto performed in London -- far more poised and committed than its counterpart from New York. (I wonder if Hofmann played differently in America than he did in Europe? Some musicians - for instance, Mahler, Toscanini, Bernstein - for varying reasons apparently did.)
Having said all this, the entire Hofmann series is priceless. Heartfelt thanks to Gregor Benko and Ward Marston for making it available in superb transfers with fascinating notes.

Supplement to my earlier review of Hofmann's Brunswick recor
Since my last review, I went to see my piano teacher once again (on April 14, 2000). She was amazed at the further dramatic improvement in my technique.

The only occasion that I saw and heard Hofmann perform was when I was a teenager: the Schumann concerto, at Lewissohn Stadium in Queens, New York City. What impressed me most was his wrist motions, jumping away from the piano keys. In my opinion, therein lies one of the secrets of his tone quality, which I now can imitate only very, very approximately. My piano teacher does much better, although she does it naturally and without understanding the physical principles involved.

I presently believe that another one of the secrets of Hofmann's playing was his good touch -- partly attributable to his wrist motions, partly to his finger relaxation. In this way he avoided banging, for banging on the keys produce harsh tone quality. I can prove all this on physical grounds.

When I worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories and told my colleagues, both engineers and physicists, that I could control the tone quality by the way in which I would push the keys, they all doubted it very vigorously. They rightfully believed that when the hammer strikes the key the hammer is in what physicists call "free fall" -- that is, not under the control of the pianist. But they wrongfully believed that therefore the tone quality is independent of the pianist's touch. When I explained to them my theory, based upon a combination of advanced and elementary physics, they all agreed.

Apparently Josef Hofmann, a genius in his own right with many patents to his name, either instinctively or by a combination of instinct and listening, discovered how to control the tone. On the other hand, as I recall from watching a child prodigy when I was a teenager, it seemed to me that he had also mastered the art of controlling the tone.

At any rate, I would urge you to listen to the Brunswick recording, and to do so before listening to the Casimir unless you enjoy hypermodern music or enjoy Hofmann no matter what he plays.