Great Pianists' Technique: Glissando

[ukdavepianoman]

Good stuff...also there is nice glissando in Tippett Piano Sonata 2.

[dasingingpengroup]

Mmm

[pohlpiano]

Arrau is imho more impressive on the video from 1970´s Beethoven celebration. Anyway, thanks for very interesting and informative collection. I am looking forward to see more!

[pohlpiano]

@pohlpiano And I really like our Firkusny´s Alborada, too, perhaps a little calmer version, but technically perfect...

[henrique1944]

I have composed a piece that has OctavesGliss. in double strings, in both hands. Search in youtube Concert-Etude-Jose Henrique

[KeithWhalen11]

Thanks for these awesome uploads! One I'd like to bring attention to is Ponti's glissandos in Tausig's Fantasy on Moniuszko's "Halka"!

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@KeithWhalen11 Thanks Keith. And thanks of course to Ponti for playing this unusual repertoire. Single note glissandos were already quite well represented in the video, but it is nice that he manages to differentiate the forte glissandi from those that are piano. Not sure that it is truly a comparison between ff and ppp...but how could you truly do that with a gliss anyway?

[parsifal3142]

Thank you! You left the Waldstein so late thought you were going to leave it out. But thankfully you played it 3 times. Was the Chopin (turning in his grave) 'Black key' Horowitz?

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@parsifal3142 You're welcome! The etude was Rosenthal. I have heard people say that Volodja also played the last octaves glissando in some performances of this etude, but I have yet to hear one where it is really a gliss. He did typically play this passage very fast and fluidly with amazingly legato octaves however...

[parsifal3142]

@StockhausenIsMyCat I think the piano is the only instrument where you can play glissandos with such violence and impact both sonically and visually. Some use of glissandos are frivolous. There are some spectacular ones in Ravel's Left Hand.

[Prestohdus]

Tchaikovsky is sooo epic! :D

[wagneristhebest]

lol arrau may as well have played them without the glissando it was so slow

[BoschPianoMusic]

Nice, you must have gone trough alot of music to produce your Great Pianist Technique. GJ

[TripleRhu]

Where is faust :(

[pichuliux]

Thanks a lot for posting this!

[AlexandreJdB]

I think you had to add prokofiev's suggestion diabolique but, it's just my opinion..

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@AlexandreJdB though those are certainly nice, I believe that that kind of single notes glissando is already "adequately" covered. And as I said in the info this is not certainly a comprehensive catalogue so I am afraid some nice ones could not be included.

[robert982]

SC, keep uploading such great postings!

[twooffour]

What, no Hamelin HR10? I am disappoint!

Also, find Cziffra's glissando in Islamey more impressive ;)

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@twooffour You should watch the video before posting. As for Cziffra; well there are close to an infinite number of recordings of Islamey to choose from...

[twooffour]

@StockhausenIsMyCat

Oh crap :D

[gjyyngii]

What software did you use?

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@gjyyngii imovie

[robert982]

StockhausenIMC, thanks for the posting. I enjoyed it. Could you comment upon which recording(s), independent of the amazingness of the glissando, you prefer most.

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

what about Meyerbeer/Liszt "The skaters", illustration no.2? it's full of glissandos! and it's a very beautiful transcription (one of my favorites9

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@newFranzFerencLiszt yes nice one; and i am thinking of a great recording of Kentner...

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

@StockhausenIsMyCat indeed! but unfortunately that merry fellow didn't "completely" recored it. I love Michele Campanella! but anyway just for those 1000000000000 glissandos (a lot of minutes lol) Kentner is enough - I think

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@newFranzFerencLiszt yes, you are right, Campanella is also great in that piece. And by the way I hope an English translation of Campanella's wonderful book on Liszt will appear sometime soon...

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

@StockhausenIsMyCat did he really write it?!?!

I didn't know!

well I'm lucky... I'm italian :D

[TheSwordsweeper]

@newFranzFerencLiszt L'ho letto, si chiama "Il mio Liszt", è veramente un bel libro

[RollaArtis]

Great to hear all these glissandi - but you forgot La Regata Venezia. On the subject of the Waldstein sonata, there is a vintage recording of D'Albert who plays staccato octaves. But with his piano roll recording they are played glissando, maybe because any wrong notes could be corrected later.

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@RollaArtis >but you forgot La Regata Venezia

you mean Rossini? in Liszt's La Regata Veneziana from Rossini's Soirées musicales I believe there are no glissandos. There are fantastic octave glissandos in Rossini's petit Caprice from Les peches de vieillesse. But in these short compilations it is impossible to strive for completeness. Thanks for pointing out the d'Albert's recording; As I said in the info I think that playing those octaves staccato is a fully "legitimate" choice.

[pianopera]

And how could I forget Ravel's "Le Jardin Féerique"! (4-hands version) ;-)

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@pianopera indeed! and this one is good for kids of all ages :-)

[pianopera]

Another very nice compilation of a certain technique indeed! Thank you.

Some more examples:

- Prokofiev Suggestion diabolique

- Prokofiev First Piano Concerto (1st mvmt.)

- Shostakovich First Sonata (1st mvmt.)

- Liszt Waltz from Gounod's 'Faust'

- Rachmaninoff/Kreisler Liebesfreud

- Bartók Second Piano Concerto (1st mvmt.)

- etc. etc.

[brianCIM]

you did it again. Awesomeness personified. great post. I love these things. I look forward to them. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

[EugenArbrakh]

And the cadenza of Liszt's 2th Rhapsody by Hamelin!

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@EugenArbrakh Yes, that too, with many glissandi including in octaves! However that one was primarily left out because I already included Sergei's cadenza to the same piece...

[madlovba3]

Oh, and of course, Cziffra's CRAZY Gypsy Fantasy (from 2:15 on especially, but the whole piece is one of the most insane compilation of pianistic difficulties of every kind): /watch?v=Yr4drXNaTkE&feature=r­elated

[StockhausenIsMyCat]

@madlovba3 Thanks for the kind words, and the reminder about Grainger! The 15 min time limit is both a curse and a blessing; on the one hand there are many other things that one would like to include, while on the other it forces you to make a final decision. It's very easy to go on tinkering forever otherwise :) The Cziffra Gypsy Fantasy (and also his Fantasy d'apres Guillaume Tell, which has various octave and chord glissandi), similarly were just too much for the time.

[madlovba3]

Great compilation, I love these videos you make! :D By the way, another piece what's filled with all sorts of glissandi is Grainger's In Dahomey, a fascinating concert ragtime: /watch?v=bWgwPpb42kM

[brianCIM]

@madlovba3 "In Dahomey" may be considered the ultimate glissando masterpiece. Grainger's imagination was prodigous. and it was written in 1903. So ahead of its time!