Complete Josef Hofmann 5

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Like the origin of playing cards, the origin of solitaire is largely unknown as there are no historical records to help it. There is much conjecture and controversy in regards to the history of Solitaire as to where it in truth began. However the primary written documentation of solitaire doesn’t show up until the end of the 16th century and since then Solitaire has had a long history and at one time had a less than stellar reputation.

Around the 12th century the game “Al-qirq” (the mill, in Arabic), which later became the game of “Alquerque”, was the most prevalent game until around the end of the 12th century in Europe. Playing cards were firstborn introduced in Italy in the 1300s. During that time they also became frequent in Northern Europe. There is a card game called Tarok that was produced around that time that is still played to this day. It is also believed that solitaire games were original played with tarot cards, which would indicate that solitaire most likely preceded conventional multi-player card games.

The French engraving of Princess de Soubise showing her playing a card game, dates from 1697. Legend says that Solitaire was produced by Pelisson, a French mathematician, to entertain Louis XIV – known as “Roi Soleil” (Sun King). Another legend says that a unfortunate French nobleman, while imprisoned in the Bastille, formulated the game using a Fox & Geese Board (the Fox & Geese Board has been applied for a potpourri of board games in Northern Europe since the Vikings). There is doubt with regards to these legends, since Ovide wrote regarding the game and described it in his book “Ars Amatoria”.

The end of the sixteenth century was an active amount of time for the invention of respective card games. This was when the ace basi appeared as high rather of low in the rankings of the cards. Several new card games were formulated for the duration of this time and new variations were added, so this is likely a time when solitaire games were invented and named as well.

The primary known solitaire game rules were recorded for the duration of the Napoleonic era. The author of War and Peace, Tolstoy, enjoyed playing solitaire and brought up it in a scene from his famous novel. Tolstoy on occasion used cards to make conclusions for him in a somewhat superstitious way. Most early creative writing of recognized artisti value mentioning forbearance is of French origin. Even the very word ‘solitaire’ is of a French origin, and it means ‘patience’. The names of most early solitaire games are French names as well, with the most well known being La Belle Lucie. When Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena in 1816 he used to play Patience to pass the time. Deported to the island lost in the ocean, knew what confinement felt like fully; he also knew how cards could console one sentenced to solitude. During his exile at St Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte played goodnatured tolerance in his spare time. Some solitaire games were named after him, such as Napoleon at St. Helena, Napoleon’s Square, etc. It is not known whether Napoleon produced any of these solitaire games or somebody else around that same time period.

Publications in regards to solitaire begun to appear in the late nineteenth century. Lady Adelaide Cadogan is believed to have written the basi book on the rules of solitaire and goodnatured tolerance games called “Illustrated Games of Patience” just after the Civil War (1870) containing 25 games. It is still reprinted now and then even today. Other non English compilations on solitaire may have been written before that, however. Before this, other than as supposed or expected there was no creative writing of recognized artisti value when it comes to solitaire, not even in such books as Charles Cotton’s The Compleat Gamester (1674), Abbé Bellecour’s Academie des Jeux (1674), and Bohn’s Handbook of Games (1850), all of which are applied as reference on card games.In England “Cadogan” is a household word for solitaire in the same manner that “Hoyle” is for card games.

Lady Cadogan’s book spawned other collections by other writers such as E.D.Chaney, Annie B. Henshaw, Dick and Fitzgerald, H. E. Jones (a.k.a. Cavendish), Angelo Lewis (a.k.a. Professor Hoffman), Basil Dalton, and Ernest Bergholt. E.D. Chaney wrote a book on solitaire games called “Patience” and Annie B. Henshaw wrote a book with an interesting title “Amusements for Invalids”. Several years later Dick and Fitzgerald in New York published “Dick’s Games of Patience” in 1883, followed by a second edition that was published in 1898. Author, Henry Jones, wrote a somewhat authenti book on solitaire called “Patience Games”. Another Jones, not affiliated to Henry, Miss Mary Whitmore Jones wrote 5 volumes of solitaire books over a twenty year amount of time around the the 1890′s. Several other publishers of respective game books likewise added solitaire to their long lists of games in their titles. One of the most finish solitaire books was written by Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith. Their latest edition holds rules to over 225 solitaire games and was used in this writing.

Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” mentions a scene that took place in 1808 where the characters were playing patience. Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” mentions solitaire in it is story. In Evelyn Waugh’s “A Handful of Dust”, a reputation plays goodnatured tolerance while waiting for news of a death to reach London.

In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel [The Brothers Karamazov], the reputation Grushenka played a solitaire game called “Fools”, a Russian equivalent of “Idiot’s Delight”, to get through times of crisis. A very usual solitaire game, spider solitaire, was played by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Somerset Maugham’s “The Gentleman in the Parlour” mentions Spider solitaire and quotes playing solitaire as “a flippant disposition. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of [Mice and Men], protagonist George Milton often plays Solitaire on the road and on the farm. In “Peter Duck”, one of the books in Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, Captain Flint keeps himself occupied by playing Miss Milligan.

In the 1962 movie “The Manchurian Candidate”, Raymond Shaw is compelled to carry out specific actions through a brainwashing trigger, which often times includes a game of established solitaire and finding the queen of diamonds. In the Finnish TV-series “Hovimäki” Aunt Victoria is very fond of playing solitaire.

Several solitaire games have gained fame through creative writing of recognized artisti value and other avenues. Some solitaire games were produced in unexpected places. A noteworthy inventor of solitaire games was Bill Beers. He was in a mental asylum when he invented a variation of Cribbage Solitaire. Prisoners had a great deal of time to play solitaire, but were unable to use established cards because they could be used as an edged weapon. They were forced to use thicker tiles for cards that were bulky and hard to handle.

A widely known and esteemed casino is responsible for the invention of a very ordinary solitaire game. Mr. Canfield, who owned a casino in Saratoga, devised a game where one would buy a deck of cards for $52 and obtain $5 for each card played to the foundations. He gained an intermediate of $25 per game, however, each game required a merchandiser of sorts to watch the player, so the earnings was not as high as one might think. The actual name of this general game was Klondike, but the name Canfield has stuck and is closely as ordinarily employed as the word patience. Due to it is difficultness to win, the time necessitated to play and the lack of selections along the way, Klondike has lost numerous popularity to other standard solitaire games. Today most people refer to Klondike as merely Solitaire.

Both solitaires and reasons why persons take delight in playing with these patchworks of cards have, of course, changed since the old times the solitaires appeared. In the contemporary world, we now and then need a break from an every day hustle and tedious treadmill. Solving solitaires is not only a way of time-killing distraction; it is likewise a sure way to relax after work. Long winter nights, it helped Jack London’s characters to amuse their leisure. A great musician, Nicolo Paganini was also in favor of solving solitaires; his best-liked solitaire was later called after his name.

A good solitaire not only helps you relax and kill time; it is a great mental gymnastic as well. This is why solitaires were likeable to mathematicians like Martin Gardner and Donald Knut. As his contemporaries witnessed, Prince Metternich, an eminent 19-century diplomat, used to sit and ponder over knotty solitaires before starting most difficult negotiations.

Today most humans refer to Klondike as merely ‘Solitaire’. Due to it is difficultness to win, the time necessitated to play and the lack of selections along the way, Klondike has lost a lot of popularity to other ordinary solitaire games.

When we think of solitaire games today, galore humans would without delay think of the digital versions for computers, for example solitaire for mac and solitaire games for PC, however, there are still millions of humans that play the “old-fashion way” with a general deck of cards, perhaps much like the deck of cards Napoleon played with almost 200 years ago.


Complete Josef Hofmann 5

Complete Josef Hofmann 5 Picture

Complete Josef Hofmann 5

Complete Josef Hofmann 5 Image

Complete Josef Hofmann 5

Complete Josef Hofmann 5 Image

Complete Josef Hofmann 5

Complete Josef Hofmann 5 Photo

Complete Josef Hofmann 5

Complete Josef Hofmann 5 Image

Complete Josef Hofmann 5

Complete Josef Hofmann 5 Pic


Most helpful customer reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful.
5Staggering Performances!
By A
These two CDs are real treasures for piano recording lovers! After somewhat business-like performance of Brahms’ “Academic Overture”, conducted by Fritz Reiner, the magic begins. Hofmann’s recording of Rubinstein No.4 is beyond description. He makes this somewhat old-fashioned showpiece into a concerto comparable to Rachmaninoff concertos. The way he thunders his entrance of the first movement will make one jump up from his seat. At the same time, more lyrical sections are played with utmost delicacy and elegance. The middle movement is played with winsome simplicity. The last movement has almost terrifying power and intensity. The orchestra seems to have been inspired by Hofmann. The voltage of performance picks up considerably. The shorter works are played with plenty of personality and dashing elegance. Chopin’s first ballade is demonic, with curiously cool lyrical sections. Polonaise is dazzlingly colorful. His own “Chromaticon” is an interesting piece. It sounds like a bit like Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff mixed together. Perhaps the most incredible short piece in the CD is Mozskowski’s “Caprice Espagnole.” This piece shows Hofmann at his very best. His repeated notes are simply astonishing. The piece displays Hofmann’s imcomparable elegance, fire and tremendous control. The ending is hair-raising. The sound overall is quite listenable for its age. But it is the quality of performance that really counts here. Never mind the sound, just listen!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
4Which Hofmann?
By John Atherton
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.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
5The Place to Start
By Richard Mathisen
If you’re not familiar with Josef Hofmann, this album is the place to start. And, if you are already familiar with him, well — this is still the place to start. Contains a recording of Hofmann’s 50th Anniversary “Golden Jubilee” recital of 1937, one of the few recordings that catches Hofmann at his best and also contains a wide selection of his repertoire. Pianists should start with the Chopin Minute Waltz, which will astonish you with its velocity and sensitivity. Then go to the Chopin G Minor Ballade and Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, both considered the greatest performances of these works ever put on disk. Most observers consider Hofmann the greatest pianist of the century. Horowitz, for example, was in awe of Hofmann. This album is one of the few legacies left to us. See for yourself!

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