Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Andrei Gavrilov smashes Prokofiev 8 finale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoRJOcIz2Co

I found this after being directed to comments Gavrilov made on his facebook page about his relationship to Sviatoslav Richter. I realized I've never really listened to him, and I'm a bit shocked about how forcefully he demolishes this great piece (not to mention the piano), crushing it under this hands. What's with this guy? Does anybody like this?

Who do you all think?

He's a weirdo...Richter described him as being devilishly talented, and they did the Handel suites together. I don't recall Gavrilov having many positive things to say about Richter after he died, or am I incorrect?

Another weird thing about him was that recently, he was supposed to perform Rach 3 in Russia somewhere. The are two sides of the story. Gavrilov claimed that the orchestra and conductor were completely incompetent, and on the day of the performance, just didn't show up. Gavrilov posted his "explanation" on facebook shortly after. The other story, was that apparently Gavrilov could barely play the piece in rehearsal, and just didn't bother to show up to perform. Another pianist in the audience, I forgot his name, volunteered to perform Rach 3 right there on the spot.

I should include that Gavrilov was paid before he performed; he took the money and ran off with it.

As for this performance, it's pretty awful.

Here is a link to the story I just mentioned!

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippedd...w-theres-always-another-in-the-hall.html

He is one strange character. I've never liked his playing.

I'll post his opinion Richter below, it's an interesting (and not very credible-sounding) read:

Edit: I've taken out the wall of text, but you can find it by scrolling through here:

https://www.facebook.com/AndreiGavrilov1?ref=profile

My basic reaction is that he's an egotistical wacko....

Haha, woops.



Wow! I read it was Alexander Ghindin who replaced him - sort of an in my dreams hero saves the day situation, though perhaps considering everybody's stress, not the best thing to dream about. I kind of doubt Gavrilov couldn't play it knowing his reputation with the piece. And here is one way of solving the conductor problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcW6_4yHDsk

And other way is it just take over like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhNxPIxGcQw

Quite interesting ego.

Do you think he and Richter ever had sex? Richter was gay by all accounts, closeted in the extreme because of Stalin etc., terribly unhappy about it, but simply couldn't or wouldn't defect to the West. And they did get awfully close for a while!

If they WERE lovers, it would explain the odd postmortem opinion...

Now that's rather shameless and indecent. Do you need detestable acts to explain a detestable ego?

..well uhm, yeah...detestable...are you sure...

...since we're dishing nothing but gossip, it might as well stay in the gutter where it started...

Any other thoughts on his Prokofiev? I guess that piece is sort of what he's associated with, since he's toured with it a lot and there are several recordings of his on youtube.

It's interesting that he's a legend who seemed to sputter out like Pogorelich. He got crazy too, but it seems like the big difference between the two is their self-opinion..and how big Gavrilov's mouth is.

And gracefully as ever we're back to topic. Here's the full sonata also recent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyjluKmqiCg

(well with gaps...)

(somehow I hit quote instead of edit...)

Oh yeah I listened to a bit of that! (the end of the exposition, and the development). He was doing the slow bit alright....then I was wondering what on earth was happening.

Very...unique body movements....

First movement is not bad. I still remember a recording of Gilels I thought was the best ever. I gave it to another pianist in 2004, and have never seen it since, alas. The opening is so pastoral...sets up for quite a contrast in the development. It is my favorite Prokofiev sonata.

^^ Any chance it's this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7xxf_DGkBw

This is his live (not studio) recording, and it's wild...it's fantastic and I'm so lucky to have it on CD as well. This is my absolute favourite recording of this piece by far.

It's my favourite Prokofiev sonata as well! I hope to be able to play it one day...

Not this exact one, though this is great. It was probably a studio recording, part of Philips Great Pianists of the 20th Century series. 3rd Sonata was also on there, and Petrushka. I cannot remember what else.

The first recording in this thread is quite bad. It's got the force the movement needs, but there's so much pounding... ouch!

The stories about the pianist do not really impress me. I actually know a pianist pretty much like that. Huge talent, enormous ego, can't keep his mouth shut! And he's constantly complaining why he's got no job. I haven't spoken to him, but when you promote yourself by saying "Come here, I'll teach you what all the other idiot teacher won't. You won't be like me, but you'll come a bit closer!" it doesn't exactly work! :P

I had the opportunity to attend his performance of Prokofiev First Concerto many years ago. At one point of his performance, I believe the coda, he literally fell off the bench from excitement, and perhaps exaggeration. The entire audience, including me, gasped!! He definitely made a "statement" since I have never forgotten that day nor his performance.

I hope what has been said about Gavrilov is untrue; I enjoy some of his playing and it's a shame.

To the extent that we all collectively think it's in poor taste to suggest romantic conflict as a possible explanation for why one person has an otherwise inexplicably negative opinion of someone else, I just thought I'd point out that we probably ought not to shed too many tears for Gavrilov, as he is certainly not above it himself. He, in trying to conjecture as to why Richter was seemingly callous towards Milstein, did the exact same thing:

"...maybe there was some gay back-story between the colleagues? ... Milstein lived with his wife and family and was extremely private about his personal life. Slava hated closet gays of that sort."

And that's not really even the most interesting part. Taken as a whole, all the excerpts from his book appear to be a lot of conjecture and gossip, and he's the big hero through it all, so I think we shouldn't shed too much of a tear for Gavrilov. Whether it be for abandoning concerts or his own romantic dalliances, as long as the point is not to simply gossip about his sexuality, which I find inappropriate no matter what, I'm not sure we should worry too much about a thread generally conjecturing about Gavrilov's motivations in abandoning the concert, even if it's a bit gossip-mongering, simply because it is in no way something Gavrilov himself appears to be above. And to the extent we went "too far" in conjecturing about Richter and Gavrilov, I just wanted to point out that Gavrilov himself conjectured about Richter and Milstein.

(Edited, and then to add: Sorry, I see the thread has moved on and I don't mean to bring it back simply to dish about Gavrilov. Just saying that I don't think it was wrong, necessarily, to do it (unless it's simply to gossip about sexuality) and we can continue or move on for reasons other than whether or not it's unfair to Gavrilov.)