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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Everyone needs to listen carefully to the playing itself as you will see that he follows the original transcription throughout this performance and it is not all just a complete mess of notes. The pianist has done this deliberately from what I can hear and this leaves us with:
1) Was he poking fun at the music just like "BachMach2?"
2) Was he just angry at something else in life as we can see that he gives reference (with the final info at the end) to being an ex-veteran, and, may have a disability, or, handicap?
I know of one other pianist, Joe Townley, who has posted videos of himself playing even though he had serious physical issues with his hands.
3) He appears to be intent upon putting dissonance into the music.
Here are other pieces that are posted in the user's videos:
Everyone needs to listen carefully to the playing itself as you will see that he follows the original transcription throughout this performance and it is not all just a complete mess of notes.
I don't think so. I think it would be best to not listen to another note. I heard what he did the first time.
[...] I thought I'd skim through it (that's all I could bear, and just barely) to see if there's any resemblance to the Horowitz -- and there is (barely). [...]
I am using my human prerogative to change my answer, and agree with Mark. Only, I didn't skim. I studied and compared. And so, I would say, there is MORE than a bare resemblance to Horowitz in underzog's "performance." I think this is high comedy, of the kind that takes specific knowledge to enjoy. I still sense anger (and a lot of it), but I also sense that he is making fun of Horowitz, big time. I mean, listen to the first few lines of this, below-- (chord at 0:05!?! and following ) :
I also surmise there is a layer of cultural humor that escapes me, being a Gentile. Not that I don't *want* to understand--as I am an appreciator of stories such as "The Feather Merchants and other tales from the fools of Chelm"...
So, no. It's not trash. It's parody.
Really.
It is.
And maybe even satire, if you add the anger element to it.
Perhaps on a more positive note here is a very solid performance....
I was interested to check it out because I've loved the arrangement for decades, long before I imagined there'd be a chance to get hold of attempted versions of the score, and when I realized it I immediately went and learned it. So let's see....
I agree that it's "solid," but not particularly great -- too "dainty," and with some phrasings that are idiosyncratic and debatable (if not "wrong"), plus quite a few places where the tempo is suddenly compromised for no reason except that the passage is a little harder.
But I'll say this: he plays it 100% cleanly, which is more than I ever did.
Looks like he attempts a little too much speed in the the 16th-note passages and therefore misses a few notes throughout although he is the only one I have heard play this with a fair amount of risk and the crashing basses in the opening section are executed with flair.
No one is going match Horowitz for those crashing basses as this is partly due to the older recording equipment which couldn't handle the full range of sound like our recordings do, today.
My favorite example of the legendary sonorities is here:
No one is going match Horowitz for those crashing basses as this is partly due to the older recording equipment which couldn't handle the full range of sound like our recordings do, today.
Did you read this somewhere or is it your own conclusion? I was with the impression that Horowitz's tone was "real", i.e. not an artifact of recording processes!
No one is going match Horowitz for those crashing basses as this is partly due to the older recording equipment which couldn't handle the full range of sound like our recordings do, today.
Did you read this somewhere or is it your own conclusion? I was with the impression that Horowitz's tone was "real", i.e. not an artifact of recording processes!
M.
Horowitz made plenty of recordings (live & studio) in his old age on superb digital equipment on the DG label, and all show the same characteristics of crashing bass octaves etc, which is a combination of the way his piano is voiced, and his own playing.
The current issue of BBC Music Magazine (August 2013) contains a 'free' 75-minute CD of his London concert from 1982, digitally recorded by the BBC. The Chopin Ballade No.1 and Rachmaninoff's Sonata No.2 show those qualities very well.
No one is going match Horowitz for those crashing basses as this is partly due to the older recording equipment which couldn't handle the full range of sound like our recordings do, today.
Did you read this somewhere or is it your own conclusion? I was with the impression that Horowitz's tone was "real", i.e. not an artifact of recording processes!
Okay, it looks like I may have not been correct about the older equipment contributing to Horowitz's sound as I probably did read this somewhere and the info was not accurate.
I would recommend making copies of all the pieces you like as of now as there is no telling as to when these sites (especially the "Horowitz Scores") could get taken down.
I already have printed out paper copies of every Horowitz piece in the first link as I did this over a long period of time when the scores were originally hosted by Dr. Makoto Natsui, quite a few years ago.
The original site by Dr. Natsui had everything in the above two links and a lot of other pieces, listed by various categories such as "composer," "arranger," and so forth. It was titled:
Virtuoso Piano Transcription
The two links above only represent a smaller portion of everything that was listed/included in the original site.
I remember Dr. Natsui's website - it was massive and was the "IMSLP" before IMSLP arrived (so much for any need of "Musica Obscura", anyone else here ever receive that press' catalogues? as a little child that press' publications had me waiting for the mail man excitedly on many occasions!).
I see the Thalberg Fantasie Op. 33 with the big ending still is there . . . just look at the last five pages!
People complain about me as a composer using 128th notes when the music is half that tempo, maybe I grew up looking at too many of these obscure scores!
In one of his letters Liszt writes about Clara Schumann being more inventive and meritorious in one composition than all of the Thalberg Fantasies put together, I'm one of those persons who isn't so sure about this compositional assessment.
Raymond's Lewenthal's recording of that Op. 33 Fantasie is on youtube . . . maybe someone else here will agree that this music has its good points.
I am glad that you have mentioned Raymond Lewenthal as there is absolutely no doubt he was one of the greatest performers of Alkan's music and here is an excellent example of that:
I am glad that you have mentioned Raymond Lewenthal as there is absolutely no doubt he was one of the greatest performers of Alkan's music . . .
Raymond Lewenthal might have been led by Nyiregyhazi into Alkan. After one of Nyiregyhazi's performances in the 1940s Raymond got to hear Nyiregyhazi play the entire first movement of Alkan's Concerto with a power and level of technique he would never be able to equal - this is according to the words of a rather long monograph left behind by Raymond of recollections of Nyiregyhazi's performances in the 1940s.
I've never heard any recordings of Alkan, probably Lewenthal's are first rate, my personal inclination is have my ideas on the interpretation of Alkan totally uninfluenced by any of the recordings.
Raymond Lewenthal might have been led by Nyiregyhazi into Alkan. After one of Nyiregyhazi's performances in the 1940s Raymond got to hear Nyiregyhazi play the entire first movement of Alkan's Concerto with a power and level of technique he would never be able to equal - this is according to the words of a rather long monograph left behind by Raymond of recollections of Nyiregyhazi's performances in the 1940s.
As for Erwin (or, Ervin) Nyiregyhazi, he was a true genius unlike any other pianist in the great long history of musicians as his playing style was unique and there was unbridled raw power displayed in many performances. He also chose much slower tempi in many pieces although his balance of timing and proportion is otherworldly perfect as for the musical ideas that he wants to project to the listener.
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