A treat for those who like classical piano


'Tamar Beraia play's Rameau'. Just outstanding. Look on YouTube. :-)

newbee

For me Olafsson is the one who master controlling himself totally, the piece perfectly without too much virtuosity demonstration or excessive mannerism...He played perfectly well but with expressivity not too slowly and not too vivace...

Beraia and Sokolov and Cziffra please me... But when we listen the same pieces hundred times or only a few times our choice differ , this is why even if Sokolov impress me a lot for example, he will not be my choice...😁

I want to listen the piece of Rameau at the end not the pianist interpretation...

Because with Rameau we have plenty of choices with good interesting interpretation... It is not the case with Scriabin, here i listen the pianist able to play Scriabin at his optimal to begin with and they are only a few... With Rameau we have plenty of choices in piano or harpsichord...

mahgister, OT. I've noticed you often speak highly of Scriabin. I have Maria Lettberg's complete set.  I find them rewarding.  Am I missing anything? 

Gilbert Rowland is the harpsichordist on the Naxos albums that I referenced earlier 

mahgister, OT. I've noticed you often speak highly of Scriabin. I have Maria Lettberg's complete set.  I find them rewarding.  Am I missing anything? 
 
 
Yes and no...
 
Most pianists cannot do it at all for me...
 
Even great names i will not mention here ...
 
Lettberg do it safe and well...I kept it.... I tried 32 versions almost none i kept ...😁
 
But it is not my favorite version...
 
Most pianist cannot play it as it must be done anyway : at the border between spirit and the abyss...
 
Scriabin do not wrote music for salon and leisure but progressively go toward the goal of writing music to save and transform human heart...
 
This music cannot be understood but felt more than any other... The melody grows toward spirit and fall into the abyss each moment , harmony must be explosive or calmed beyond anything at the same moment ...
 
Sofronitsky, Zhukov are my favorite... Neuhaus father recorded a few at the top, Neuhaus son Stanislas can do it also...
 
Some others can play him all unknown Russian giants...
 
Michael Ponti is my best non Russian but the recording is beyond atrocious...Low cost but it gives an idea of a different successful interpretation ... It is in my third favorite...
 
Music matter me the most with Scriabin, sound dont matter because this music is not beautiful as much as powerfully impactful...
 
I discovered after Scriabin by Sofronitsky long ago why i never loved Liszt piano so much.... Almost no pianist can play it as Liszt was able to do and i did not like much most of them with very few exceptions...
 
i revisioned and reevaluated my Liszt understanding completely with a controversial pianist : Ervin Nyiregyházi
 
Now i adore Liszt and consider him a giant pianist over most and a giant composer... ( Christus is my favorite works)

With Scriabin,each chord of the keyboard each harmony deployed must boil like molten lava and not flow only like a calm and melodious river.. This is why most pianist struggle to play it with heart it is not only difficult technically but more difficult poetically ...

With Scriabin  writings musical time is used as an hologram of eternity, his timing is spiralling , not linear and is really an image of the beating heart out of mundane time but immersed and suffering in it  and delivered from linear time at the same moment , we must enter in a vertigo near ectasy ... How pianist can play it as such ? No technician, nevermind how great they are can , it takes a supreme poet on the keyboeard...

 

 

Sofronitsky concert :

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxNOfFdkcKs

 

 

Here in this Liszt piece each note is a bullet in the heart :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLk6vqaxU1Y

 

This piece is well recorded and give an idea about Ponti genius in Scriabin :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBxMKwZB2cA

 

The son is less than the father Heinrich but is also a giant :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVHCLRT0fI

The father Heinrich Neuhaus is beside Sofronitsky :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1hHPu9e8bI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kegxB1aBllM

The best version ever of this piece of Scriabin by Neuhaus father and even Horowitz dont even compare:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMWx-F35awQ

 

And on par with my favorite the great Zhukov 2 hours :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-BbYY41UIk