The composer, the good pianist and the bad pianist

Skybird · 12-27-12, 06:08 PM

Rachmaninov again, Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 inG-minor. In his preludes there are quite some gems to be discovered.

The best first. Valentina Lisitsa was a nobody for me when I first heard of her some months ago. I soon learned that she was not just an internet celebrity, but is a heck of a good piano player for sure and has earned quite some fame in concert halls by now. She plays Rachmaninov like many of his pieces must be played, for my taste: with furor. Though she now rates as one of the fastest pianists in the world of classic, speed is not a purpose in itself, and she nevertheless shows subtle changes in mood, nuances you would not expect to hear when listening to her speed - this is Russian piano school at its finest: very skilled, disciplined, and technically brutally perfect. Russian piano players get not trained, they get drilled. And it pays of in gifted players like this one. Lisitsa now ranks as one of my most favourite classical piano player there are.

The same piece, this time by the Andre Rieu of piano: Lang-Lang. A man with an enormous ego and so much cheesy cheese in his pathos that the whole room smells of it. Like one feedbacker wrote on the site: he should be banned from performing this. Terrible. I never heared him performing anything well. But in this clip, he led his tastelessness to new downs that previously had been unknown to me. Why he is so much celebrated, I cannot imagine.

And finally, the composer himself. This is the way Rachmaninov was recorded to play it. I read that he often was surprised by what piano players coming after him made of his pieces (in a positive meaning), and how much emotion and depth they managed to work out of it. So, while one could conclude that the composer of a piece can interprete his creation best to show what he wanted to show with it, this must not be always true. Rachmaninov sometimes admitted that he thinks others do it better than he did himself.

Isn't it fascinating that in the old days, there were no ways to record music and there was no opportunity to easily assemble an orchestra "on the fly", so most burgoise people would listen to live music only, and on very rare occasions only in their lives. But the same is true for many composers: just imagine that they put all there music together - but often without ever having heard it in complete arrangement, never having heard the many voices of the partition, and still being able to put together some of the most complex works of human beauty and art! Mahler was one such guy, I think. Many of what he has written he has never heard being performed. I hope I do not mistake him on that. Or Beethoven, almost deaf - and still having created those piano concertos and symphonies (like them or not, it remain impressive that he nevertheless was able to write them).

On Lisitsa again, as a closing word. This clip is what caught my attention, and when I jumped my seat - before she was totally unknown to me. Liszt's Totentanz. Jawdropping.

I hope she earns more fame and praise over the coming years. She definitely deserves it and is an outstanding performer of her generation of pianists. You can discover her yourself on her youtube-page, there is very much:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Valentin...?feature=watch

Time well-spent.

12-27-12, 06:08 PM	#1
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,602 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	The composer, the good pianist and the bad pianist Rachmaninov again, Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 inG-minor. In his preludes there are quite some gems to be discovered. The best first. Valentina Lisitsa was a nobody for me when I first heard of her some months ago. I soon learned that she was not just an internet celebrity, but is a heck of a good piano player for sure and has earned quite some fame in concert halls by now. She plays Rachmaninov like many of his pieces must be played, for my taste: with furor. Though she now rates as one of the fastest pianists in the world of classic, speed is not a purpose in itself, and she nevertheless shows subtle changes in mood, nuances you would not expect to hear when listening to her speed - this is Russian piano school at its finest: very skilled, disciplined, and technically brutally perfect. Russian piano players get not trained, they get drilled. And it pays of in gifted players like this one. Lisitsa now ranks as one of my most favourite classical piano player there are. The same piece, this time by the Andre Rieu of piano: Lang-Lang. A man with an enormous ego and so much cheesy cheese in his pathos that the whole room smells of it. Like one feedbacker wrote on the site: he should be banned from performing this. Terrible. I never heared him performing anything well. But in this clip, he led his tastelessness to new downs that previously had been unknown to me. Why he is so much celebrated, I cannot imagine. And finally, the composer himself. This is the way Rachmaninov was recorded to play it. I read that he often was surprised by what piano players coming after him made of his pieces (in a positive meaning), and how much emotion and depth they managed to work out of it. So, while one could conclude that the composer of a piece can interprete his creation best to show what he wanted to show with it, this must not be always true. Rachmaninov sometimes admitted that he thinks others do it better than he did himself. Isn't it fascinating that in the old days, there were no ways to record music and there was no opportunity to easily assemble an orchestra "on the fly", so most burgoise people would listen to live music only, and on very rare occasions only in their lives. But the same is true for many composers: just imagine that they put all there music together - but often without ever having heard it in complete arrangement, never having heard the many voices of the partition, and still being able to put together some of the most complex works of human beauty and art! Mahler was one such guy, I think. Many of what he has written he has never heard being performed. I hope I do not mistake him on that. Or Beethoven, almost deaf - and still having created those piano concertos and symphonies (like them or not, it remain impressive that he nevertheless was able to write them). On Lisitsa again, as a closing word. This clip is what caught my attention, and when I jumped my seat - before she was totally unknown to me. Liszt's Totentanz. Jawdropping. I hope she earns more fame and praise over the coming years. She definitely deserves it and is an outstanding performer of her generation of pianists. You can discover her yourself on her youtube-page, there is very much: http://www.youtube.com/user/Valentin...?feature=watch Time well-spent. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 12-27-12 at 06:35 PM.