Appassionata, 1st Movement, performed by Solomon Cutner

[MrAristaeus]

I'm in the sublime part of YouTube again...

[CTFlink]

AH! Finally! There you are Herr Beethoven!

[Brewdish]

I've only recently discovered Solomon, but his Beethoven is simply the best I've ever heard. I only wish he had recorded them all.

[meredith21846]

Thank you for posting this historical footage of Solomon. His great technique and overall refined pianism never intruded but always served the music.

[TeaOnTheGuganSlav]

OH SHIT DAYUM! SOLOMON GOT THIS SHIT ON!

[BPECA1]

mozart had innate talent, beethoven worked, you can hear who's better

[Mariovsky1]

I have had the previlege to be in a recital of Solomon, in São Paulo, Brazil (Radio Gazeta' s auditorium) in the fifties. It was fantastic!

Mário

Santos, SP (Brazil)

[Kievest]

Drama, dynamic playing, profound understanding of Beethoven's impassioned

statement, timeless monumentality and intimacy..Solomon is superb. Thank you

for posting and to paulostroff99 for sharing!

[paulostroff99]

As good as it gets.TY. Spexter1337

[Agbeladem]

Such a breath-taking interpretation of the Appassionata. Ludwig would be proud.

[lovesGenet]

Excedingly controlled clean even his emotions seem no extremes here except for order. Kovacevic I prefer.Straining ,metaphysical . Solomon is very direct . He does not try to interpret . His style is fastidious. Hess seems more emotional and her sound more varied. He is controlled everywhere. Each section has its own feel yet it doesn't ever seem to leave the page .Solomon is somehow very different. Curzon is my favorite English. His Liszt sonata was a great surprise !

[paulostroff99]

@lovesGenet -And was mine As well.Curzon/Liszt is as good or better than all others IMO. He and Solomon Cutner were easly the best of the English pianists.

[majornewb]

i love this movement of the Appassionata!

[jdbrown371]

Solomon suffered a stroke in 1956 which left his right arm paralyzed. He was recording Beethoven's 32 sonatas at the time.

[advisorC101]

I love this.

[saltburner2]

I knew Solomon's EMI recording of this sonata, but had no idea that this film existed. Presumably it from a television broadcast. The sound is very good.

[Danielnoctis]

Che geniale!

technicha, tempo e accurezza,Cutner gli possiede tutte in uno stado sublime.

Pochi pianisti sono di questo calibro virtuoso.

[ursulafriedman]

Brilliant! My absolute favorite!

[daniel0212]

every touch is so graceful.

unbelievable.

[JessicaRoemischer]

Sublime beyond words. Breathing, phrasing, subtlety of expression--it's all here. This is Music!

[bruckner4444]

Bar none, Arrau is my favorite interpreter of Beethoven. Cutner is obviously exceptional, but Arrau is more elegant without be less strong, and less express without be more noisy.

[Lukecash12]

Bar none, Solomon is my favorite interpreter of Beethoven. This makes even Glenn Gould's renditions of the concerti look silly (and I don't think Glenn Gould is all that silly, unless he wants to be).

[ShawDAMAN]

Wow what aplomb. Brilliant

[BRENDANGCARROLL]

Magnificent!

[paulostroff99]

As good as anyone ever played the piano. Bravo!

[scribe249]

Not just one of Britain's greatest, in my opinion one of the world's greatests artists. I have a vinyl record of some of his recordings and I'm not ashamed to say that his rendering of the 23rd Sonata ALWAYS makes me cry when I hear it. His music was a language to him and he spoke it as a master.

[hatem52]

A GENIUS!!!

[sko91841]

Do you have Schumann's concerto by Solomon? if so, please upload. I had a vinyl disc in the 1960's, but lost it. I thought then his playing was the best.

[Spexter1337]

Sadly not. This is his only video recording as far as I know, but I've got lots of his audio recordings that I might just upload soon. Among these, a spectacular hammerklavier sonata, op. 110 sonata and a Chopin fantasy.

[RabidCh]

I've already uploaded his Hammerklavier sonata unless you want to repost.

[Scalatti]

@Spexter1337 Solomon's "Hammerklavier" is simply the best out there.

[RabidCh]

I have the remastered version... however I cannot upload it anytime soon

[jmabendroth]

Solomon simply was of the greatest pianists of XX° century... not only " english pianists".

Superb elegance, deepest musical feeling.. Serkin had the great admiration for him.

[killerbunny123123]

anyone has got any idea of where i could get the music sheets of this sonata for free??

[Ygrec1]

I believe he wasn't knited. Maybe because his career was cut short before he'd achieved wide recognition. And I read once that he was more respected in Germany then his native Britain, and apparently he only gained wide recognition after the stroke that ended his performing career.

Anyway this is a fabulous performance, stormy and ruggent and without the mannerisms of Richter whose rendition I admittedly don't really like. One of the best Appassionatas, with Gilels, Moravec, A. and E. Fischer.

[garmasan]

he doesn t play the sonata, he psychanalises it

[cortor3652]

One of Britains greatest pianists, comparable to sir Clifford Curzon and dame Myra Hess, Wasn´t Solomon knigted? And why not?

[Alexvamp321]

soooo nice

Hi :) uu

[scriabinwasmydad]

amazing .. i find solomon and myra hess to be the supreme interpreters of the beethoven appassionata. they both take beethoven's intentions to a level far beyond mere virtuosity or technique..

[Karrie62]

Fantastic playing Uncle Soli. Its a shame i didnt inherit the piano gene

[gh2106090]

A Giant!The greatest!

[chad410]

he s similar to Francois clarity

[whatsmylogin]

Thanks for this. He has all the technique he needs, and there are some beautiful nuances that I never heard from other pianists.

[PianoGirl555]

The Best Sonata ever I LOVE IT SO MUCH and i hope i am gonna play it one day :)

[ipmoic]

All the old publicity posters just said: SOLOMON!

[roseofgnosis]

Er spielt und focosiert dabei sein Herz.

Seine motorik ist von selten hoher Qualität,

im Bereich seiner Arme und Schultern.

[MindOverMuscle]

Beautiful.

[Wcross34]

This, I believe, comes from the good old days when British TV used to show more classical music. Nowadays, if you got any at all, it would be spoiled by lots of fancy camera work.

[exponentu]

Solomon is regarded by most cognoscenti as the greatest British pianist of the 20th century.

He stands alongside ALL the greats - Gilels, Richter, Arrau, Kempff, Lipatti, Schnabel, etc.

Absolutely tragic that his career was cut cruelly short.

[bernardocarmopiano]

You forgot DAME MYRA RESS. The great interpret of Beethoven: Myra Ress, Annie Fischer and MARIA YUDINA!!

[exponentu]

Forgive me. Of course, you are right. Great artists one and all.

[galanski]

MYRA HESS... not Ress.

[bernardocarmopiano]

Yes, of course. But you did understand the name. By the way, I love Kempf interpretation and many others, like Arthur Rubinstein.

[paulostroff99]

bernardocarmopiano-Kempff,not Kempf-Ha,ha.

[3NUNS]

The bangy chords left right left in triple time at the beginning of the first movement. This guys gets them right.

[zair55]

This is the best interpretation of Beethoven 23rd sonata

[3NUNS]

'gree...

[weikko79]

No, Richter's performance was the best. This is only the second best.

[nietzschemasterclass]

Tkank you for posting this. Awsome. What a pity Solomon had a heart disease, I think and had to stop playing. Blessings for Mr. Solomon!

[Elfinsafety]

Actually he had a severe stroke which made him paralysed on one side. He survived for another 30 years but was unable to play again :-(

[sjdimarco]

Ottimo video di un grande della tastiera. Ma come devo fare per poterlo salvare su hardisk.ho provato in tutti i modi. Qualcuno può consigliarmi.

grazie

sjdim

[wallyronchietto]

my favorite pianist. Second only to Rachmaninov

[bassslayer]

Solomon Cutner is, in my opinion, one of the greatest instrumentalists of the 20th century. His playing was virtuoso without being "virtuoso". His musical conceptions were framed around the larger structures of the piece, while the phrases seemed so individual they served larger structures. Under it all was a brilliant sense of breath, color,timing, and an inate sense of emotional intelligence, which is the root and the core of great artistry.

[3NUNS]

Agree.

[smudgepots]

As someone said once, "Playing that evinced all the classical virtues, one of the most polished pianists the century had to offer." I sat and watched in total awe, and at the end, I wept.

[3NUNS]

Good on you.

[monaXXXX]

thanks for posting that

[maddpianist]

A man I'm studying under by the name of Mark Westcott, a former Van Cliburn winner and world class pianist, just idolized this man. I can see why.

[prongated]

...that's very interesting. Didn't Mark Westcott study with John Perry? My teacher studied with David Wilde, who was a pupil of Solomon, and my teacher very much agrees with the way John Perry teaches Beethoven (and pretty much everything else)...

[Chazdaspazzzz]

May I just ask what year this was recorded? Fabulous performance!

[Spexter1337]

An earlier poster has said that it was recorded in 1956, which looks about right!

[spind]

@Spexter1337 Just before his stroke. What an early and tragic end to his career ...

[aclooijen]

Highly surprised to find this magnificent video of one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th Century. Thank you so much for sharing.

[dawntinto]

It is fabulous to be able to see and hear the beauty of this playing .

thank you

[Mumum2]

aye, its tragic, and it be the way of the musician to live a life that sucks. Good video though.

[SolomonCutner]

Solomon's performance of the entire sonata, filmed in 1956, is available as a bonus on an EMI Classics DVD of Claudio Arrau performances. This is the only film of Solomon playing. As Rudolf Serkin commented, it was a blessing that he recorded a fair amount, though the next 32 years were lost to him and to us, and his recordings have been reissued on EMI/Philips, Testament, Pearl, Naxos, APR, Myto, and a few other labels. still more. Many are ranked among the greatest recordings of the works.

[sabadabaduz]

He seems to barely if ever open his eyes - doesn't he?

[heerfidelio]

...Wow! One of the best Beethoven interperters ever! Finaly to be seen here! Thanks for posting!!! And dare I ask; is there more?

[bookguy12000]

yeah i completely agree. this gentleman is highly skilled.

[Spexter1337]

Unfortunately this is all the material I have of him, and I don't think he made many more video appearances anyway. But I guess we should be lucky we got this.

[pianist41]

I saw this one in cinema some years ago, in a series of features with great pianists from the past. There was a Schubert "Impromptu" too. Would be interesting, because he never recorded that one elsewhere. But so far I only have this sonata as video.

[Spexter1337]

Actually he was cut down by a stroke in 1956 and was left almost completely paralyzed for the rest of his life. A great loss for the musical world, as he was considered to be in his prime when it happened. He never performed again but he held on for another 32 (!) years before dying in 1988.

[bookguy12000]

amazing. Thanks :)

[Ivanhoe2]

Such a trajedy that this fine artist was later prevented from performing through rheumatics (I think) I hoped his great friend Sir Clifford Curzon might be on Youtube too,