Contrapunctus

The Concert HallCompare performers

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Recordings of the same music by different performers, matched passage by passage.

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31 comparisons76 recordings1902–⁠2017 recording years
I

Composers playing their own music

Recordings with the composer at the keyboard or conducting, beside other performances of the same music.

7 comparisons
  1. Edward Elgar

    Elgar, Cello Concerto, finale, in two recordings

    The 1919 recording with Elgar conducting and the Skidmore recording play the cello’s entry into the finale’s march, marked risoluto.

    1919Beatrice Harrison and Edward ElgarDate unknownSkidmore College Orchestra
    2 performances
  2. Edward Elgar

    Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, in three recordings

    Elgar, Stock and the United States Marine Band play the march and the broadening of its trio tune.

    1926Edward Elgar1926Frederick StockDate unknownUnited States Marine Band
    3 performances
  3. Edvard Grieg

    Wedding Day at Troldhaugen: Grieg and Vetter

    Grieg’s abridged recording of 1903 and Harald Vetter’s complete one play the wedding march.

    1903Edvard Grieg2006Harald Vetter
    2 performances
  4. Sergei Rachmaninoff

    Piano Concerto No. 2, Adagio: Rachmaninoff and Richter

    Rachmaninoff and Richter play the Adagio’s opening, where the melody passes from flute and clarinet to the piano.

    1929Rachmaninoff, Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra1959Richter, Wisłocki, Warsaw Philharmonic
    2 performances
  5. Sergei Rachmaninoff

    Piano Concerto No. 2, Moderato: Rachmaninoff and Richter

    Rachmaninoff and Richter play the opening chords, the running accompaniment beneath the first theme and the piano’s second theme in E♭ major.

    1929Rachmaninoff, Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra1959Richter, Wisłocki, Warsaw Philharmonic
    2 performances
  6. Sergei Rachmaninoff

    Rachmaninoff, Prelude Op. 3 No. 2, in four recordings

    Rachmaninoff, in three recordings, and Wörner play the three opening bass notes, the triplets and the return.

    1919Sergei Rachmaninoff1921Sergei Rachmaninoff1928Sergei Rachmaninoff2005Martin Wörner
    4 performances
  7. Maurice Ravel

    Boléro: Ravel (1930) and Fricsay

    Ravel and Fricsay each set a pulse for the crescendo from solo flute to the final brass and percussion.

    1930Maurice Ravel, Lamoureux OrchestraDate unknownFerenc Fricsay, Berlin Symphonic Orchestra
    2 performances
II

Performances across a century

The same score recorded by performers of different generations.

16 comparisons
  1. Johann Sebastian Bach

    Toccata and Fugue in D minor: Stokowski and Schenk

    Stokowski’s orchestra and Schenk’s organ play Bach’s opening flourish and the toccata passages that follow.

    1927Leopold Stokowski2017Norbert Schenk
    2 performances
  2. Ludwig van Beethoven

    Beethoven’s Fifth, first movement, in four recordings

    In each of four recordings the conductor sets how long the held notes of the opening motto last.

    1911Odeon Orchestra1913Arthur Nikisch1940Willem MengelbergDate unknownSkidmore College Orchestra
    4 performances
  3. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Étude Op. 10 No. 5: Neeman and Cortot

    Neeman and Cortot play the right hand’s black-key figuration over the detached chords and octaves of the left hand.

    Date unknownEdward Neeman1920Alfred Cortot
    2 performances
  4. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2: Lévy and Prati

    Lévy and Prati play the melody as its ornaments grow more elaborate at each return.

    2014Frank Lévy2015Patrizia Prati
    2 performances
  5. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Étude Op. 25 No. 6: Neeman and Paderewski

    Neeman and Paderewski play the right hand’s fast thirds, marked sotto voce, above the slower melody in the left hand.

    2014Edward Neeman1923Ignacy Jan Paderewski
    2 performances
  6. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Étude Op. 25 No. 5: Neeman and Goldstein

    Goldstein, on an Érard of 1851, and Neeman play the étude’s semitone clashes and its slower middle section in E major.

    2014Edward NeemanDate unknownMartha Goldstein
    2 performances
  7. Claude Debussy

    La cathédrale engloutie: Meyer and Ilić

    Meyer and Ilić, recorded in Paris fifty years apart, play the bell-like fifths and the organ-like C major chords.

    1956Marcelle Meyer2006Ivan Ilić
    2 performances
  8. George Frideric Handel

    Messiah, Hallelujah chorus, in three recordings

    Choirs recorded in 1916, 1926 and 1953 sing the chorus’s chordal acclamations and overlapping entries.

    1916Oratorio Chorus1926Malcolm Sargent, Royal Choral Society1953Hermann Scherchen, London Philharmonic Choir
    3 performances
  9. Franz Liszt

    Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, in three recordings

    One piano recording and two orchestral ones, from 1919, 1936 and 1945, play the rhapsody’s opening.

    1919Sergei Rachmaninoff1936Leopold Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra1945Walter Goehr, National Symphony Orchestra of London
    3 performances
  10. Gustav Mahler

    Mahler, Symphony No. 5, Adagietto, in two recordings

    Mengelberg in 1926 and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra play the Adagietto’s violin melody over the harp.

    Date unknownPeabody Symphony Orchestra1926Willem Mengelberg, Concertgebouw Orchestra
    2 performances
  11. Camille Saint-⁠Saëns

    Le Cygne: Bokor (1925) and Weilerstein (2009)

    Bokor plays the cello melody with a pianist; Weilerstein plays it with a marimba player.

    1925Judith Bokor2009Alisa Weilerstein, Jason Yoder
    2 performances
  12. Erik Satie

    Satie, Gymnopédie No. 1: Alciatore and Laucke

    Alciatore and Laucke play the first Gymnopédie, on piano and on guitar.

    Date unknownRobin AlciatoreDate unknownMichael Laucke
    2 performances
  13. Nikolai Rimsky-⁠Korsakov

    Scheherazade, III, opening: Stokowski and Monteux

    Stokowski in 1934 and Monteux in 1942 conduct the violin melody that opens the lovers’ movement.

    1934Leopold Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra1942Pierre Monteux, San Francisco Symphony
    2 performances
  14. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    “Pathétique” finale: Furtwängler and the Musopen Symphony

    Furtwängler and the Musopen Symphony play the slow finale from its divided opening theme to the quiet low strings at the end.

    1938Wilhelm Furtwängler, Berlin PhilharmonicDate unknownMusopen Symphony
    2 performances
  15. Antonio Vivaldi

    Vivaldi, Spring, first movement, in two recordings

    Two ensembles play the orchestral ritornello and the solo violin’s birdsong and storm passages.

    2000John Harrison, Wichita State University Chamber Players, Robert TurizzianiDate unknownModena Chamber Orchestra
    2 performances
  16. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Waltz of the Flowers, in three recordings

    Stokowski, Robinson and a concert band play the harp flourish, the horn tune and the waltz that follows.

    1934Leopold Stokowski, Philadelphia Orchestra1945Stanford Robinson, National Symphony Orchestra1996United States Air Force Band
    3 performances
III

Singers: acoustic and electrical recordings

Voices and phrasing recorded before and after the introduction of the microphone.

3 comparisons
  1. Ruggero Leoncavallo

    Vesti la giubba: Caruso, 1902 and 1907

    Caruso sings the aria with piano in 1902 and with orchestra in 1907.

    1902Enrico Caruso, Salvatore Cottone1907Enrico Caruso with orchestra
    2 performances
  2. Nikolai Rimsky-⁠Korsakov

    The Prophet, Op. 49 No. 2: Chaliapin, 1921 and 1927

    Chaliapin sings the song from the traveller’s quiet story to God’s final command, in 1921 and in 1927.

    1921Fyodor Chaliapin, Percy Pitt1927Fyodor Chaliapin, Albert Coates
    2 performances
  3. Russian folk song

    Song of the Volga Boatmen: Chaliapin, 1922 and 1927

    Chaliapin sings the boatmen’s repeated call in an acoustic recording of 1922 and an electrical one of 1927.

    1922Fyodor Chaliapin, George W. Byng1927Fyodor Chaliapin, Albert Coates
    2 performances
IV

Pianists of the Golden Age

Pianists of the early twentieth century beside later performances of the same pieces, compared phrase by phrase.

5 comparisons
  1. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Étude Op. 25 No. 9, in three recordings

    D’Albert, Cortot and Neeman play the étude’s four-note figure as it moves through new keys and registers.

    1913Eugen d’Albert1920Alfred Cortot2014Edward Neeman
    3 performances
  2. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Waltz Op. 64 No. 1, in three recordings

    Three pianists, Rachmaninoff among them, play the circling opening figure and the slower sostenuto middle section.

    1923Sergei Rachmaninoff2014Olga Gurevich2007Muriel Nguyen Xuan
    3 performances
  3. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Nocturne Op. 15 No. 2, in five recordings

    Five recordings, two of them by Paderewski, play the ornamented melody, the faster middle section and the return.

    1916Eugen d’Albert1917Ignacy Jan Paderewski1937Ignacy Jan PaderewskiDate unknownLuke Faulkner2015Patrizia Prati
    5 performances
  4. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Nocturne Op. 27 No. 2: Pachmann and Lévy

    Pachmann and Lévy each play two voices with one hand.

    1925Vladimir de Pachmann2014Frank Lévy
    2 performances
  5. Frédéric Chopin

    Chopin, Waltz Op. 64 No. 2, in four recordings

    Paderewski, Pachmann, Rummel and Gurevich play the circling quaver refrain between the slower C♯ minor and D♭ major melodies.

    1917Ignacy Jan Paderewski1925Vladimir de Pachmann1943Walter Morse Rummel2014Olga Gurevich
    4 performances
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