Jonathan Tsay - Wagner/Liszt - Isoldens Liebestod

[cubicle880630]

bravo!!!

[opus795]

There is no higher music in the world, than composition - Liebestod - from Richard Wagner - and no higher transcription than from Liszt - and no higher performance of - Liebestod - than from Jonathan Tsay!

[gerardbedecarter]

I enjoyed this performance (and the more relaxed tempo).

[Invisus944]

easily the best piano performance of this piece that i've seen on youtube.

[opus795]

Many, many thanks for this interpretation.

Hier stimmt Alles! Harmonie, Tempo - absolut herrlich!

Habe mir das Video schon oft angesehen. Wagner hätte sicherlich seine

Freude daran gehabt.

Mit besten Grüßen aus Germany

[DasAmericanAtheist]

Absolutely loved the tempo. Some people play this SO fast! There's almost no time to enjoy it--in fact, a piece of music this glorious, there could never be enough time to enjoy it!

But playing fast is inexcusable! Wonderful playing.

[Garboskindredspirit]

I'm neither a musician nor a critic, but, in my very humble opinion, I think you gave a tremendous performance. I'm in awe of such talent. And that piece is so haunting and dramatic... It leaves me breathless almost.

[brunoparis12]

I am sure you can give more...in terms of expression, dynamics... just do it ! you have the means for that

[2111velvet]

Berührend....wunderschön

[348Frate]

olga kern and simone pedroni still have the best versions...

[psychokaz]

not going to argue with that. i learned this after listening to kern live at the cliburn and buying pedroni's recording after a recital...

[Longbow16]

yamahaa is good i think..

beatifull

[Lavalampoflava]

Well, I disagree with you, but I respect your opinion anyway.

[Lauritz1]

Love your playing but could you get a good piano next time. Yamaha....egads! I want to see and hear it again on a Bosendorfer or Fazioli.

[Lavalampoflava]

That's a goofy way of thinking about music, IMO.

[Lauritz1]

What is goofy about it?

[Lavalampoflava]

Well I respect your view, but IMO music is more about the harmony and what entities and adventures it represents in the universe, as opposed to the performance or what kind of piano it is performed on.

[Lauritz1]

Well aren't you the genius, then! Why bother to perform beautifully and play a magnificent piece, if you're playing on a cheap stack of lumber instead of a magnificent piano?

[Lavalampoflava]

Well, with my view, what is reveled in is not the performer or their ability or the piano or anything that has to do with individual talent. It has more to do with art and life (which are no different from one another) pointing past itself to a ground of truth that is one with the consciousness of the beholder.

[Lauritz1]

Thanks for that load of esoterique bullshit.

The ground of truth that is one with the consciousness of the beholder won't be worth a bucket of chitlins if the performance sucks; and yes I understand exactly what you are saying despite not being a native English speaker, and it's CRAP! Unless you want to compare a brilliant performance of a pianistic piece with someone cutting down a giant redowood with a chainsaw, then your diatribe is common dribble and you seriously need to get off of drugs.

[Lauritz1]

Having reviewed your profile, I see that you don't like Israel or support it and you adore Richard Wagner.....clear enough you are a Nazi. Take your ground of truth that is one with the consciousness and ram it up your Nazi bum!

[calflyboy]

I once knew an old foul-mouthed Yenta who had the same sense of humor as Lauritz. LOL

I miss her dearly.

[Lauritz1]

Foul mouthed indeed! Did you even comprehend what I was responding to?

I once knew a mindless idiot named calflyboy that spent virtually all his life with his head up is bum! Imagine....

[superclarenceboi]

Such an amazing interpretation! Love his sound and sensitivity to texture and colour! How on earth could someone ever compose such music? Such amazing harmonies...Only a great composer like Wagner can compose such an opera to be transcribed by Liszt, one if the greatest romantics of all time! This piece is evidence that Liszt wasn't just a show-off. He could really write or transcribe such beautiful music if he wants to (Liebestraum, Un sospiro etc...) This is what music is all about! 5 stars!!!

[chutdigadut]

amen to that :-)

[gabylouis]

Thanks to Youtube , one dream come true . Now i can see any classic concert whenever , whoever and whatever pieces i want. It's so Amazing!!!!

[kmjaemo]

All of you idiotic people attempting to analyze this music make me laugh. This is why I think YouTube beats Comedy Central.

[chutdigadut]

:-) amen

[52dalibor]

try to imagine this piece as the surface of a monet painting. call professor james elkins at the art institute in chicago and get him to explain. this will help you to reimagine this piece. do it with better sound in a more intimate setting. you will get rid of the bathroom acoustic. i want you to be even more wonderful than you are now. regards from prague.

[lukasmaier]

i just recently saw lang lang perform this at carnegie hall and you performed on par with the greats

[amyparking]

that lang lang is imagined by anyone at all to belong to the cohort of piano greats is a sad testament to the impoverishment of the pianistic world, and its growing need to implement the marketing strategies of advanced capitalism in order to survive within this cruel system. Piano greats are people such as Edwin Fischer, Cortot, Richter, Michelangeli, Gould, Lipatti, Gilels, Lupu, Argerich etc. lang lang is a tasteless stooge with a crude sound

[lukasmaier]

first of all, i think you should have invested in a dictionary before buying a computer. second, I am absolutely sure you have never heard lang lang play live because every note that he plays is so precise and thoughtful that one would never use the word crude to describe his playing. third, lang lang is a great pianist as well as those others you listed... and if you disagree, i'm sure you can discuss your disagreement with some of the greatest venues of the world (such as carnegie hall)

[amyparking]

what is meant, I wonder, by this reference to a dictionary apart from a sad attempt at sarcasm at all costs?

I haven't heard nor Cortot neither Gilels live, alas; yet the impression they left on me via recordings is rather favorable, which is more than can be said about lang...

thanks for rushing to agree with/confirm all my talk of capitalism and marketing strategies through reference to carnegie hall

[lukasmaier]

true, i am not exempt from the drudgery of attempting to conceive some aspect of sarcasm within the confines of this empty canvass known as a youtube response box... but alas, I am overwhelmed with joy that someone so superior in intellect and musical contemplation has recognized my necessitous attempt. You will find comfort in the fact that I would have agreed with you about lang lang's sound before I saw him live. BUT one cannot judge the expression and sound of an artist from the audio...

[lukasmaier]

...of a youtube video. If you truly have th ear that you exclaim, then it will be of no problem to illegally download some lang lang cd's (of course so that you don't feed the hunger of the nazi capitalists selling the cd's). And if you completely and utterly resemble the words you speak, you would invest in a trip to new york to hear the superior acoustics of carnegie hall. O wait, that would be supporting Lang Lang the money fiend. Because all critics agree he is simply an untalented impostor

[amyparking]

"Because all critics agree he is simply an untalented impostor" - quite a few actually do, saying he's terribly overrated

I never said I only heard him on YT, I have downloaded few of his recordings. I have no problem supporting the classical community as long as I perceive the artist worthy of support

I've been to CH on 3 different occasions

your attempts at sarcasm still suck ass, and you haven't answered why do I need a dictionary. come on, educate me, what in me is dark Illumine...

[lukasmaier]

lol to anyone who wasted their time reading this.. you can laugh along with me as this person is so incongruent... doesnt it make you a hypocrit if you have been to CH 3 times? yet earlier you said that "thanks for rushing to agree with/confirm all my talk of capitalism and marketing strategies through reference to carnegie hall:" ... makes no sense... and my main argument is, if he is so bad how come he is playing at the most prestigious venues of the world (not saying largest)

[amyparking]

your demand for what you perceive as congruity actually requires from me some demented fanaticism: by the simplest extension I should retire from society to lead a simple pastoral existence away from things own by big cooperations. I said: "I have no problem supporting the classical community as long as I perceive the artist worthy of support".

it can go either way: on the one hand, playing in CH is indicative of absolutely nothing, they'll plug in any old crap as long as it sells

[amyparking]

tickets, they have pop and new age music there; on the other hand, why should I miss a Perahia concert?

[amyparking]

while capitalism is reality one just might support the true artists trying to survive within its shackles. thus buying a Madonna album spells one thing, supporting Stina Nordenstam and The Pixies another

*still awaiting illumination re my language*

[lukasmaier]

see, the issue here is that you are saying that the true and real quality artists aren't the mainstream mechanics of the capitalist structure, and arguably in the majority of the cases this is the case, except what i am saying is that perhaps you are just as ignorant as all of the "classical posers" if I may call them that that listen to artists like Lang Lang because just because he is famous and successful doesn't mean that he is a true artist with noble roots and true talent.

[amyparking]

that's a great way to win an argument - to compose smth so utterly cretinous (even if you conceived this as *self aware* parody) that it effectively knocks the air out of all possible replies

[amyparking]

"because every note that he plays is so precise and thoughtful" - spare us these hackneyed superlatives, love. what I was talking about is his sound, which is indeed rather coarse. I'm sure he slobbers over each and every note in due course

[Liedliebhaber]

This is really great.

[psychokaz]

thanks! glad you enjoyed it -

[werner99]

is he/she 9 or 54?

[wangaling]

Amazing!

I heard Frederic chiu play it live today.

great job. :)

[rolipoli]

Singlehandedly the best Isoldes I've heard in my life.

[alkanliszt]

kikoolesnamis, I am sure I have much to learn about music, and when I wish to learn how to avoid projecting a melody, I will learn from "Maestro" Brendel. The tone and dramatic sense in this performance and the projection of melodic lines is so much better than Brendel's. A case in point would be the passage from 3.16. Here the pianist actually, shock horror, voices the chords.

[kikoolesnamis]

alkanliszt said :

Compare, for example, Brendel's grossly literal (and much inferior) interpretation found elsewhere on youtube

I say :

alkanliszt you're very funny, learn more about music... ^^

[andrewgorny]

dang dude. How many times did you listen to the orchestral version??? your playing is so emulative... pretty much how I imagine liszt might have played it, except he'd probably juggle something in the middle and make sleazy faces to blonde women

[Liedliebhaber]

hahahahh! I concur!

[Omunene]

In Tsay's beautiful ending, you can feel Isolde giving up life at "hochste lust..." He seems so moved himself that I wondered if he would be able to stand up...

[Pianoloverok]

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!

[alkanliszt]

This is so much better than many performances by "name" pianists.. in particular I am struck by the passage from 3.16, it is interesting the way in which you choose to bring out the melodic line there. Compare, for example, Brendel's grossly literal (and much inferior) interpretation found elsewhere on youtube. I also like the chosen tempo - it is often played faster than this, which I think denies it the appropriate breadth and space.

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

I agree; this is playing on a high level. Jonathan can control pianissimo in a way to create tension and a sense of expectation even at a low dynamic level (most pianist's can't). Many performances of this transcription sound just like an excerpt from the opera, but in Jonathan's performance he gives us the full emotional effect of the resolution of the four-hour opera - compressed into only eight minutes! Really serious-minded musicianship. Superb.

[BrucknerEnthusiast]

Sorry about the stupid spelling mistake in my last post, folks ... just noticed it.

[pianoboyo]

Its a stunning transcription this one..one of my favourites..its on my to do pile!

[jcyl141104]

beautiful performance

[Sennettfan]

What a stunning performance of a stunning composition!

[NightSylver]

Since the first time i heard Wibi Soerjadi play this piece i fell in love with it. I regularly listen to video, you play it beautifully Jonathan Tsay!

Vladimir Horowitz recorded this piece as one of the last did'nt he? Could anyone please get hold of that and post it on youtube? Would really love to hear his interpretation!! Thanks!

[alkanliszt]

Excellent performance. The melodic lines are always clear and I feel you enter into the spirit of the piece. Really enjoyed it.

[psychokaz]

thanks! I saw some of your videos, as well - it's amazing the vast rep that you cover as an "amateur" pianist -

[alkanliszt]

Heh, I'm not sure if my rep is vast; just obscure. My Beethoven sonatas are very rusty ;)

[gesual]

For people like me how regulary listen human voice on this tremendous aria, the time you choose to play the piece is too slow. I know piano do not need to breath but hears needs it...sing more!

[Douwe33]

Simply: great.

[htshoward]

This is one of my favorite pieces of music in the entire world...a simply glorious aria. I have heard many pianists play the transcription, and also many singers sing the aria. Your performance I found a bit different, but nontheless very beautiful...it had such a distinctly understated beauty to it. I would have preferred you feed in a bit more bass, but it left me tranquil and sighing. Great job!

[davidperk]

You're fantastic! A little loss of intensity around 4:00 perhaps. That section lacks something. But everything else is INTENSE, and beautifully, elegantly and honestly played. I wish good things for you!

I hope you're listening to lots of great singers--as Horowitz did when he was young. And not listening to too much Horowitz! :)

[cziffra1980]

Nice playing. Good sounds.

[ts9641]

absolutely gorgeous playing - you are so sesitive to the drama of this music. What musical ideas you want to show the audience, I can hear. Great Job!

[jfeucht82]

You actually make Liszt sound enjoyable. I am inspired to vomit by most of the other Liszt recordings on YouTube.

[VivaCallas]

Hate to break it to you, but it's actually Wagner. It's the ending of Tristan und Isolde, and this is Isolde's final aria.

[jfeucht82]

I hate to break it back to you, but Wagner didn't write Tristan und Isolde for the piano. That was Liszt.

[VivaCallas]

But, it was Wagner who wrote it originally. Liszt wrote the piano version, but it was, in essence, Wagner. I think I misunderstood you in your original post, so I apologize for that.

[nickia88]

you owned