Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How Concert Pianists Make No Mistake

The more perfect the pianist, the more cancelled concerts (they won't play in public when things aren't going right). The perfect ones also tend to travel with their own piano/s, technician, entourage, etc.

Yes Gould made a mistake once. He actually grunted in annoyance if I recall.

Lang Lang is awful. Please don't call him a perfect pianist.

Michaelangeli also made mistakes, far more obviously than Gould.

Gould is a golden angel in comparison to Lang Lang. When Lang Lang played Goldberg variations on Gould's old piano he referred to him as "the best". Glad to know Lang Lang pays credit where credit is due.

How many live concerts of Gould have you attended?

And how many of Michelangeli's? And Lang Lang's, for that matter?

I dont get the gist of this discussion about counting mistakes. Every pianist is allowed to make mistakes, even if he should be considered very good. One should aknowledge that those gifted experperts play in their own league, as do professionals, semi-professionals and dilettantes (in the most positive sense of the word). After all it is about creating good music ... with or without mistakes.

Ok, why don't you post a video of Lang Lang
making a mistake?

I ain't holding my breath, because you won't find it!

Lang Lang is as close to perfection as you will get
in a pianist.

Try Turina: Rapsodia Sinfonica, hardly a right note and also anti-musical. LL always makes lots of noise to cover his blunders but, hey, he's got charisma which blinds (and deafens the dupes). A pity as he started off so well then slid downhill FastFast with fame and fartune!

Glum Ghould could only play Bach, (in a limited dry inexpressive manner). He massacred everything else he attempted, often with horrendous blunders, (mis-readings, clumsy, heavy, ponderous, dragging tempi....) He should be posthumously prosecuted for his systematic assassination of Hindemith, Scriabin, Grieg, Mozart, Beet......

Part of the solution is not to concentrate purely on "notes" but rather what they do: sound quality, dynamic contrasts, dramatic/poetic narrative, phrases, even... silences(!) etc. If you "aim" for notes, you may well miss them, (cos nothing else interesting happens), but if you look behind them, all the interesting things start happening and the mere notes look after themselves!

It's to reassure the original poster.

Only the great Alfred Cortot was note-perfect in every performance.

Bah, check out 5:23 or thereabouts:

Love these:



https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p0R9rQDz5AM

A big YEAH for Glenn Gould. I love his Bach Concerto No. 4. What joy! (1st and 3rd movements) and what sorrow (2nd). But best of all: what confidence! I think I have to go listen to it right now.

OPPS!! Blunder city!

But so What?

EVERYONE makes mistakes! We are not machines
or robots!

Even machines and robots make mistakes. After all, our pianos play the notes we make them play, not necessarily the notes we want them to play.

I have heard Argerich in concert twice (both times in London), and yes, there were a few finger slips, none fatal, and I wonder if they were even noticed by many in the audience.

OTH, her video of the Strauss Burleske (easily found on yt), appears to have no mistakes at all.

It is a notoriously awkward piece to bring off, and reportedly d'Albert was the first pianist to successfully negotiate it. Would love to have heard him play it, or anything else for that matter. His recording of the 1st movement of the Emperor is a rather a jumble, and there is no way it can be representative of d'Albert in his prime.

Here's the thing:

I'm not necessarily counting note mistakes, but interpretation/ musicality/ showing off bravado. Voicing and balance should definitely also be here. Absolutely NOONE gets it right like Glenn Gould. Not Barenboim, Argerich, whomever is flavor of the month.

To me, those are far greater mistakes than an odd note here or there. That's why I don't need to 'attend' live concerts for these pianists. Gould is a higher calibre pianist than Mr. Over the top or Mr. Good, austere, but not that good.

(Lang Lang and Michaelangeli respectively)

Wow!!

So, you're basing all your suppositions on their recordings?