@VdSV9 No my post wasn't intended to be a Troll, it was just a joke I tried to make. I personally do enjoy this piece and even more Horowitz playing, but what I was trying to make fun about was, that uneducated listeners could find this piece offensive.
@VdSV9 No my post wasn't intended to be a Troll, it was just a joke I tried to make. I personally do enjoy this piece and even more Horowitz playing. What I was trying to make fun about was, that uneducated listeners could find this piece offensive.
Years ago I heard an LP of Vers with trills added at the end to augment the bare notes going up, which as written seem weak, not continuing with the character of the piece. VH could have easily written them in transcriber and emender that he was.
This is prime Horowitz, his high-voltage neuromuscular system undiminished, before the ravages of old age slowed his steel trap reflexes and sapped his limitless power. I seriously doubt Liszt himself played better than this. This is not just "Toward the Flame", it's in it. Horowitz immolates the piano in luminous sheets of fire. Simply without equal.
@MISHA1119 Thank you so much for showering me with your infinite and superior musical knowledge. You are the counterexample to the idea that people who spend the majority of their time on the internet are pretentious low-lives who rant intellectual babble simply to feel some sort of superiority or entitlement over the other worthless pions who happened to stumble upon something sophisticated. God bless you, sir. Live long and prosper. May the force be with you.
It's a REALLY unprepared performance. His recordings are better.. This is absolutely awful :(... Really.. The recording is AWESOME! Listen to it!! This is just noise man!
@DmitriMose Oh yes, absolutely. Quite unprepared. There was this team of journalists who happened to be walking down 94th St in Manhattan and suddenly said: Why don't we drop in on old Volodya? So they rang the bell and Wanda sent them in and got them some coffee. Then Horowitz showed up and said: What could I possibly play? Oh yeah! Let's do that piece by Scriabin I haven't played for years!
You know, I hear a sensibility in this that one could almost call...jazz. Jazz, 20 years before Jzzz. But of course, it's not Jazz. Because jazz evolved in a vacuum.... We so much to our forebears. We really do stand on the shoulders of giants.
Certain pieces he just does better than anyone-and it's not the technique-it's the place he seems willing to go.
I love when the silly talk and joking comes to an end he looks down at the keyboard and says let's go, you see illustrated the immense will that drove him There's a Barenboim Beethoven master class on Youtube where he relates being brought to play for Horowitz as a child what he never forgot from it was H's admonition that to do this-you must have the will, you must want it
Yes, from those masterclasses, although Lang Lang is not the major appeal there. You can find them on Youtube but apparently I can't just give you the address-it won't show up here. I think it is #5.
It's very amusing (he imitates H's heavy Russian accent) and insightful, at the same time.
If you saw my comments on the Barenboim master class-similar to the ones here-that the persona seen here-until he plays and on the videos as an old man can make us forget how driven or possessed he was
u just have to keep listening to modern music, first it sounds like if the composer was an ignorant and only wrote notes with no relation at all, but unce u get used to atonality ull start to like it! And there is a lot of beautiful music u would love to listen!!
maybe go gradually, start with Debussy, he is not so "atonal" and move on =).
or maybe listen to Schoenberg or messiaen or webern, then u come back to this and ull find it much easier to listen :P
@Deimosxsz btw i got that whole "scribian's strong belief" thing from wikipedia...and although it maybe inaccurate you can see that it's worked for me...sorry if i contaminated your developing interpretation of the piece
@Deimosxsz - bravo to that intellectual statement! Scriabin is my favorite Romantic composer, a near tie with Rach. And yet, there are certain Scriabin pieces that, if they were the first things of Scriabin I heard, i would never touch him again! It takes a long time to understand some of his furthest machinations!
The issue is not so much one of difficulty, given this piece and Horowitz's age, it is the energy requirement needed to execute it. This is exhausting playing at any age, and miraculous in your eighties. What's remarkable is he can play this piece perfectly, but needs help climbing the stairs of his home.
I'm sure someone knows the year of the interview, but if I recall, he was an old man, but not that quite old. I think he was still in good shape, and actually would still go out walking in NYC.
I can't speak to the difficulty when music is on that level, but I agree that energy, at any eaage, is an essential factor.
Yes, he is moving around like Andre Watts. So uncharacteristic of Horowitz. He usually looks like a machine, but the content is as emotional as any pianist now, before or ever again!
It is very deliberate actually. This performance is from Horowitz: A Reminiscence, a documentary. Previous to it, Horowitz was saying he expressed his music only through his hands and not his face. So he's basically mocking other pianists that sway and look to the heavens.
such a piece this is this is one of the most if not the most emotional piece i have ever expiernced. this piece is all mixed with the feelings of a man who was on the verge of insanity (scriabin). to have composed this piece he must have bean jsut tormented and put all his feelings inside of him right onto paper and piano those trills that he makes are just electrifying. all of you must appreciate this piece for its not something you hear everyday. i just have no words for this. excelente.
This is a musical view, of the perversion hidden inside, what has, and will come to humans in and out of Earth. It is the twisted horror of fear slowly creeping and altering your awareness of what truely feels safe. Breaking down your so called "foundations' of reality thanks to your "scientists". It torments you from a distance, and follows. Once it catches you it will set fire to your back, and trap you, tormenting you with horror, perversion. you will feel trapped forever with no way out.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Not good. Too many mistakes. Horowitz, as great as he might have been, declined eminently as he grew old. Swjatoslaw Richter recorded "Vers la flamme" live, few years before his death - and it's outstanding. Horowitz, on the other hand, became more and more a clown. He, being a dissident, surely got corrupted by this country which has no culture of its own and is formed by the scum of Old Europe (which is, of course, America).
'this is a very difficult piece... if i dont collapse its alright" - indeed, Mr. Horowitz! :D But could anything be too difficult for Horowitz? I dont think so...
Very difficult piece, colours and Scriabin´s floating sound. Without mentioning the trills and rhythm. Very good interpretation, and he really seems to understand what is it about...
This song makes me feel and think to this man's life(Horowitz) but not just at him, rather to all human kind life on this planet, since you've been borned until one step before death. It's a speciall piece with a special message.I'm wondering if we could have been listened this song before our arrival on this world, who would chosen to go further?
This is the only recording I've heard where the performer slows down the last line instead of tastelessly speeding it up. The effect is dramatic, and the apocalyptic end of the piece is given a powerful significance.
Was Horowitz a great pianist? well of course he was. Does that mean that we'll always like the intepretation? no not at all, I mean there are some pieces he plays like the polonaise in a flat that i love but I didn't like how he played this to be honest :s. He was phenominal but it was just too bangy, choppy and just loud notes. I mean you can play loud but have the most beautiful tone by the weight in your fingers so it's bright and vibrant. I didn't feel satisfied when the piece was done.
That was probably the only song i've ever heard that did a great job of relying entirely on disonance. Funny thing. I thought i would find a song like this from chopin, but i'm not suprised that it was scriabin. Incredible song. It's hard to believe the emotion that was put into it. Like the bitterness of going mad and being completely aware of it(something i truly know). Played harshly like Horowitz, or softly like another individual, the same theme is shown.
scriabin wrote them in the score, so yes. that part is relatively easy compared to the left hand double trills near the end of the piece, which are brutally painful to play at volume.
i was wondering if anyone knew if horowitz ever scored the numerous additions he adds towards the end of the piece, ive learned the piece from the score, and the chords in the score dont come remotely close to expressing the power that horowitz conveys at the end of the piece.
from about 3:54 on the tremolos are written out fully measured, in 16th note triplets, including a pattern of ties... I have never heard a recording where I can hear that pattern, and they are very difficult to play correctly up to tempo... how important are those, really?
Basically, it's alright to just play them as tremolos, as it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference when you're playing it up to speed (unless you're Scriabin). Some would disagree though, but most don't care. On a somewhat related note, I've never heard a recording where the five-in-one notes in the left-hand starting at 2:16 played the same. It's just kind of a free thing, sort of like a feeling, rather than a strict set of rules. I think that's what Scriabin was trying to write here.
I agree..Musical notation is sometimes not efficient enough to get on paper what he actually was hearing.All his late works are just incredible improvitations.I believe what is on the score is not a true represantation of what he wanted..but close to it.
i was replying to this sorry, that pattern of ties consists of the main actual melody for the piece the 'fanfare' that he scores at the outset of the tremelo.
I disagree with fisherroastedpeanut and really like Horowitz's interpretation. I gave fisherroastedpeanut's two posts a thumbs up nevertheless. His posts are simply expressing his opinion and that's what this discussion board under videos is for.
So grom some brains and don't give a thumbs down simply because you disagree with a stated opinion.
i don't hate him.i hate him simply when he plays vers la flamme.i mean listen at the end.he plays as a ffffff while it's just ff.sorry but i can't see any Scriabin in that.
The chord he does at 1:53 is just beautiful. I haven't seen anyone else voice it so perfectly and personally that kind of a touch makes the piece for me. I also really enjoyed Richter's version.
This is unbelievable! What a modern piece, "There's no home in there", as someone said. And what a masculine energy in H's interpretation. Truly great.
there is so much tension in this piece. you just feel impending doom while listening to it, i guess that is why people dont like it. I myself am not even sure....regardless it is a masterpiece.
I personally have not found a recording with a satisfying ending, and I must place the blame on Scriabin. It sounds like he had a deadline to publish this and that he just abruptly inserted a weak ending to an otherwise intense piece of music. Other than that rather awkward component, this piece remains as one of my favorite Scriabin compositions of all time.
My Music history teacher played this video in class and asked how many people didn't like it and almost everyone raised their hands except me. Dark and chaotic music is very interesting to me, it doesn't have to sound "nice" to be an amazing piece, just like artwork doesn't have to look pretty to be a masterpiece. "Scream" by Munch is a good example of this and its also from the expressionist movement
neskutocne...ked sa clovek zapocuva, pochopi zbytocnost slov...povedal nam svojou hudbou vsetko, bez jedineho slova...presne sa sem hodi uryvok z jednej knizky:A pomaly prestalo jestvovat vsetko okolo. Tahavy trpky jed hudby obaloval dusu,zarazal dych,kazdy uder srdca v hrudi zabolel. Nie zlozitost(aj ked tu asi aj hej)ale vzrusenost a tragicke vypatie miestami nedovolovali hudobnikom pokracovat...neskutocne...
question- is the sensational and widely circulated story about scriabin attempting to make cuts into the skin between his fingers to get a greater range of extension true ?
I think this piece is all about the inevitable death that human beings are magneticaly drawn to like flyes to a light bolt, hence "toward the flames".Essentialy is all about Scriabin's fear of death as if he was on death row and counting his minutes before the electric chair.The powerfull sound are not describing flames that burn insects but breathtaking panic.
Beautiful, what a treasure is this. Horowizt's personality is hugh, wonderfull, charming, superb human being, and his playing is just out of this world.
This one misses the brief Vladimir's talking before he plays. This music was about Scriabin's dream of the end of the world. He saw, in his dream, the world being destructed by flames, so, woke up and wrote that.
I don't think a moth being caught in a candle would do so much noise, but, still, it was a good guess, if the guy didn't know about the history.
quiet before the storm... I say this is pretty terrifying and brutal, the music is impetuous, merciless in itself the writer must be suffering from anxiety (attacks maybe?) clearly searching for something, its bewildering torment, spiritual. How he put it down on piano in musical form makes me want to laugh and be angry at life at the same time. the ending reminded me of the rainy smell and the condensation in the window, focusing in and out between your reflection in the window and the outside
Or as if,waking up from a nightmare to slowly come back to the natural reality we learned to follow
and comfort ourselves in. or was given... although the ending cords gave the feeling as if... witnessing as your enemy walks away from your
soon to be dead corpse.slowly dieing... its hard to tell.Rachmaninoff inspiration in his pieces came alot from russian poems in his younger years.(Around 4:03 to 4:05 is like hearing 2 things painfully express something...)waitn to be murdered can be theme?
imagine having a family member who could pull that stuff off in your living room at the piano. He plays it quite well, Scriabin was very unique in many ways.
Quite nice, although it feels a little less emotive and more percussive than another performance I have on mp3 somewhere (Richter or Gould, can't remember).
if you can do better, then do so and upload it if you have a piano it should take much effort. talk is always cheap, notes are meant to be heard, not talked about.
I have loved this piece for over thirty years since the moment I heard it. I have also played it all of those years. I even wrote a book of the same title. The piece is one of a kind, sadly one of the last Scriabin wrote before his early death at 43. Horowitz brings it alive more than anyone else. I have heard others come and go over the years, many play it slower, one even faster (Rudy), some more mystical, some more Chopin-esque. But none give it the FIRE Horowitz does. Doc
i agree. no one i have heard plays it fiery enough.
it is a shame that scriabin had to publish it early. i have always felt there is something missing since scriabin originally intended it to have been longer.
9/8 bounce? Really? Looking at the scores of his later works and recordings thereof, I haven't heard anything that didn't have a free rhythmic character that, while not total rubato, pedalled mush, was hardly metronomic.
@RediForKing I'm assuming this post was a Troll, so I'm removing it.
VdSV9 9 months ago
@VdSV9 No my post wasn't intended to be a Troll, it was just a joke I tried to make. I personally do enjoy this piece and even more Horowitz playing, but what I was trying to make fun about was, that uneducated listeners could find this piece offensive.
RediForKing 9 months ago
@VdSV9 No my post wasn't intended to be a Troll, it was just a joke I tried to make. I personally do enjoy this piece and even more Horowitz playing. What I was trying to make fun about was, that uneducated listeners could find this piece offensive.
RediForKing 9 months ago
This will be played at the end of the world
Heat0nMyFeet 11 months ago
Years ago I heard an LP of Vers with trills added at the end to augment the bare notes going up, which as written seem weak, not continuing with the character of the piece. VH could have easily written them in transcriber and emender that he was.
nearenough3 1 year ago
He was making a joke on us ! It seems unplayable : who could imagine that instead of real music ??
Sylvain894 1 year ago
He was making a joke on us !
Sylvain894 1 year ago
Rocky Balboa 100 percent!
ididete 1 year ago
"If I don't collapse, it'll be alright"
magdluke 1 year ago
This is prime Horowitz, his high-voltage neuromuscular system undiminished, before the ravages of old age slowed his steel trap reflexes and sapped his limitless power. I seriously doubt Liszt himself played better than this. This is not just "Toward the Flame", it's in it. Horowitz immolates the piano in luminous sheets of fire. Simply without equal.
MISHA1119 1 year ago 16
@MISHA1119
uhhh, lol. That's a little dramatic.
entheomycophagist 1 year ago
@MISHA1119 chill out..
msg355 8 months ago
@MISHA1119 Thank you so much for showering me with your infinite and superior musical knowledge. You are the counterexample to the idea that people who spend the majority of their time on the internet are pretentious low-lives who rant intellectual babble simply to feel some sort of superiority or entitlement over the other worthless pions who happened to stumble upon something sophisticated. God bless you, sir. Live long and prosper. May the force be with you.
goodtime444 8 months ago 3
@goodtime444 What an awesome reply.
tarquin161234 6 months ago
Comment removed
goodtime444 8 months ago
pretentious asshole.
randomprimate 4 weeks ago
hmm are the added octaves intentional?
xodn3300 1 year ago
@xodn3300 it's probably Horowizt showing off
I like them
I think I'll play it that way now :D
retrogamerdave 1 year ago
The way Scirabin wrote the ending is just superb. Horowitz other recordings of this piece are much superior to this one.
NEDM77 1 year ago
@NEDM77 There are more than one ?
neobiki 10 months ago
@neobiki Including this one there are three on youtube, maybe there are more out there.
NEDM77 10 months ago
@NEDM77 Thanks a lot, I was not aware of the Cleveland live version.
neobiki 10 months ago
It's a REALLY unprepared performance. His recordings are better.. This is absolutely awful :(... Really.. The recording is AWESOME! Listen to it!! This is just noise man!
DmitriMose 1 year ago
@DmitriMose Oh yes, absolutely. Quite unprepared. There was this team of journalists who happened to be walking down 94th St in Manhattan and suddenly said: Why don't we drop in on old Volodya? So they rang the bell and Wanda sent them in and got them some coffee. Then Horowitz showed up and said: What could I possibly play? Oh yeah! Let's do that piece by Scriabin I haven't played for years!
lospazio 1 year ago 2
Awesome music and Horowitz is a GOD!!!
seanjazzguitar 1 year ago
You know, I hear a sensibility in this that one could almost call...jazz. Jazz, 20 years before Jzzz. But of course, it's not Jazz. Because jazz evolved in a vacuum.... We so much to our forebears. We really do stand on the shoulders of giants.
marginallymental 1 year ago
He made my day
lecielmalice 2 years ago
awesome
MrSpiritualBeing 2 years ago
He sounds like Borat here. :-)
tnmtemerity 2 years ago 3
Fantastic - undoubtedly the greatest player of Scriabin of all time!
owatson322utube 2 years ago
@owatson322utube And most others :)
Ally123234 1 year ago
Fantastic!
pianora70 2 years ago
Certain pieces he just does better than anyone-and it's not the technique-it's the place he seems willing to go.
I love when the silly talk and joking comes to an end he looks down at the keyboard and says let's go, you see illustrated the immense will that drove him There's a Barenboim Beethoven master class on Youtube where he relates being brought to play for Horowitz as a child what he never forgot from it was H's admonition that to do this-you must have the will, you must want it
Labienus 2 years ago 4
@Labienus
Is that the masterclass with Barenboim and Lang Lang?
demosj 2 years ago
Yes, from those masterclasses, although Lang Lang is not the major appeal there. You can find them on Youtube but apparently I can't just give you the address-it won't show up here. I think it is #5.
It's very amusing (he imitates H's heavy Russian accent) and insightful, at the same time.
Labienus 2 years ago
You must have ' VILL' .
yohbyo 1 year ago
It's actually veal!
If you saw my comments on the Barenboim master class-similar to the ones here-that the persona seen here-until he plays and on the videos as an old man can make us forget how driven or possessed he was
the playing never does
Labienus 1 year ago
By the way, what does 'veal' mean? Sorry I thought he's pronunciation wasn't that clear and Barenboim thought it was 'vill'.
yohbyo 1 year ago
If Horowitz says it's difficult.. I'm not even gonna think about learning that.
zajorax 2 years ago 3
I tried........and I regreted it xD
COCOONFABULA 2 years ago 2
the power of that last chord...
esdac 2 years ago 2
AWESOME
esdac 2 years ago
Maestro of all time!
vincecharus 2 years ago
some how, i've never enjoyed this piece.This is a piece for very advanced listeners. Hope to understand it someday.
Deimosxsz 2 years ago 6
Imagine flames when you listen to this, especially the opening half, imagine eternal flames burning in hell.
I don't particularly "enjoy" this type of music over others, but it fascinates me, and makes me feel awe, like most Scriabin's music.
tarquin161234 2 years ago 2
Strange, because I usually associate this with the earth falling into the sun, rather than hell.
Ltlevim 2 years ago
u just have to keep listening to modern music, first it sounds like if the composer was an ignorant and only wrote notes with no relation at all, but unce u get used to atonality ull start to like it! And there is a lot of beautiful music u would love to listen!!
maybe go gradually, start with Debussy, he is not so "atonal" and move on =).
or maybe listen to Schoenberg or messiaen or webern, then u come back to this and ull find it much easier to listen :P
Chopinco 2 years ago
I hope for you indeed, this is basically Scriabin's master piece
COCOONFABULA 2 years ago
@Deimosxsz I saw this video a few years ago and only now do I like it
retrogamerdave 1 year ago
@Deimosxsz
some could find it annoying or in other words: bad.
just as Lizt or Bach, you like it or you find it Meh...
bolawarrior 1 year ago
@Deimosxsz it's based on scribian's strong belief that the world would end by an accumulation of heat
i start by imaging a major city on the brink of catastrophy..full of ignorance
then at 3:33 that's when the panic, fear, anguish and sorrow begins...at 3:42 i imagine hell on earth
the two intervals going back and fourth like a trill are like a flame
this piece and pieces similar aren't for advanced listeners..you just have to know what it's about since it's not always obvious
4hm3dimr4n 1 year ago
@Deimosxsz btw i got that whole "scribian's strong belief" thing from wikipedia...and although it maybe inaccurate you can see that it's worked for me...sorry if i contaminated your developing interpretation of the piece
4hm3dimr4n 1 year ago
@Deimosxsz - bravo to that intellectual statement! Scriabin is my favorite Romantic composer, a near tie with Rach. And yet, there are certain Scriabin pieces that, if they were the first things of Scriabin I heard, i would never touch him again! It takes a long time to understand some of his furthest machinations!
cashkenazipiano 9 months ago
Damn...that must have been so overwhelming in that small room! Horowitz owns that piece.
guitarwizard6 2 years ago 3
The issue is not so much one of difficulty, given this piece and Horowitz's age, it is the energy requirement needed to execute it. This is exhausting playing at any age, and miraculous in your eighties. What's remarkable is he can play this piece perfectly, but needs help climbing the stairs of his home.
cpanati 2 years ago 2
I'm sure someone knows the year of the interview, but if I recall, he was an old man, but not that quite old. I think he was still in good shape, and actually would still go out walking in NYC.
I can't speak to the difficulty when music is on that level, but I agree that energy, at any eaage, is an essential factor.
Labienus 2 years ago
1974, for german tv. unreleased at the time. :)
kasyapa 2 years ago
The main motive is the same as in the first movement of Samuel Barber's piano sonata.
BachScholar 2 years ago
I mean to see him talk
NeoMalikov 2 years ago
so nice to finally find a video of a slightly younger Horowitz
NeoMalikov 2 years ago
holy crap that's a difficult piece. those trills...YIKES. even horowitz has a difficult time with it. really makes me want to hear scriabin play it!
davidpolkmusic 2 years ago
I've been enjoying this piece for years now, but I have never been able to see him he's performing it.
Zoiks!
BirchBarlow 2 years ago
my favourite pianist playing my favourite piece
pierretang 2 years ago
"Yes I have to take jacket off, its very difficult piece... prepare for BIG sound... if I don't collapse its alright!"
lol
ReturnOfTheStienway 2 years ago
Yes, he is moving around like Andre Watts. So uncharacteristic of Horowitz. He usually looks like a machine, but the content is as emotional as any pianist now, before or ever again!
miker2001 2 years ago
It is very deliberate actually. This performance is from Horowitz: A Reminiscence, a documentary. Previous to it, Horowitz was saying he expressed his music only through his hands and not his face. So he's basically mocking other pianists that sway and look to the heavens.
But he still looks classy doing it.
demosj 2 years ago
My favorite of Scriabin!
pianolitguy 2 years ago
i find it somewhat sad and painful sometimes but yet beautiful and very romantic (love) in a literals sense of the word.
Qoind 2 years ago
It's like a slow rising flame, consuming everything.
A darkness spreading...
Randomnessk 2 years ago
I have never seen Horowitz move around as much as when he's playing this piece. It must really strike him as something special.
akapinos 3 years ago 5
I agree, he does seemed moved as opposed to other videos of him...
Clittl15 2 years ago
plus this could have bean used in horrow movies instead of the original songs
spike2133876 3 years ago
such a piece this is this is one of the most if not the most emotional piece i have ever expiernced. this piece is all mixed with the feelings of a man who was on the verge of insanity (scriabin). to have composed this piece he must have bean jsut tormented and put all his feelings inside of him right onto paper and piano those trills that he makes are just electrifying. all of you must appreciate this piece for its not something you hear everyday. i just have no words for this. excelente.
spike2133876 3 years ago 15
well said i totally agree.
123eldest 3 years ago 3
This has been flagged as spam show
@spike2133876 Scriabin was actually a very happy man...
Ravel87 1 year ago
It's very special, it's completely special!!!
GrandPatzer 3 years ago 4
5:29 those two chords
eek4rus 3 years ago 3
Atleast, that's what I think scriabin wanted to convey...
ChrisWatch 3 years ago
This is a musical view, of the perversion hidden inside, what has, and will come to humans in and out of Earth. It is the twisted horror of fear slowly creeping and altering your awareness of what truely feels safe. Breaking down your so called "foundations' of reality thanks to your "scientists". It torments you from a distance, and follows. Once it catches you it will set fire to your back, and trap you, tormenting you with horror, perversion. you will feel trapped forever with no way out.
ChrisWatch 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Not good. Too many mistakes. Horowitz, as great as he might have been, declined eminently as he grew old. Swjatoslaw Richter recorded "Vers la flamme" live, few years before his death - and it's outstanding. Horowitz, on the other hand, became more and more a clown. He, being a dissident, surely got corrupted by this country which has no culture of its own and is formed by the scum of Old Europe (which is, of course, America).
crimsontoxic 3 years ago
what about the interpretation? did you like it?
gdjuniform 3 years ago
Comment removed
demosj 2 years ago
Гениально
ytmiheev 3 years ago
what does Horowitz say in the very beginning ?
hugoagogo13 3 years ago
'this is a very difficult piece... if i dont collapse its alright" - indeed, Mr. Horowitz! :D But could anything be too difficult for Horowitz? I dont think so...
mephaz85 3 years ago
Very difficult piece, colours and Scriabin´s floating sound. Without mentioning the trills and rhythm. Very good interpretation, and he really seems to understand what is it about...
Tatsu999999 3 years ago
The Apocalypse..
When I think of this song I think of the impending doom that awaits earth. The end is near..wormwood is coming.....
Kalen1457 3 years ago
5:23-5:29 OMG......
Best!
ianchow107 3 years ago
<3 Horowitz
kylelandry 3 years ago
This song makes me feel and think to this man's life(Horowitz) but not just at him, rather to all human kind life on this planet, since you've been borned until one step before death. It's a speciall piece with a special message.I'm wondering if we could have been listened this song before our arrival on this world, who would chosen to go further?
CristianTari 3 years ago
This is the only recording I've heard where the performer slows down the last line instead of tastelessly speeding it up. The effect is dramatic, and the apocalyptic end of the piece is given a powerful significance.
coasterman16 3 years ago
Well the legendary Horowitz would do something like that.
radioplug14 3 years ago
Indeed
coasterman16 3 years ago
Lol, I love the matter-of-factly stated "Yes, I have to take the jacket off." Then he started playing, and I found out why.
demosj 3 years ago 2
completely amazing! what a genius! and the music is just superb... form the total darkness to the clearest luminosity... :) waow
Schubermann 3 years ago
At 3:48 it looks like he's just slapping the piano with his lefting hand and still managing to hit the right notes.
georgecziffra 3 years ago
he's doing a fast trill with his left , then some intervals with different rhythm with his right over his other hand...
Timmytimtimtm 3 years ago
Yes..so?
abmsghost 3 years ago
I'm just explaining the technique to someone that's so !
Timmytimtimtm 3 years ago
Was Horowitz a great pianist? well of course he was. Does that mean that we'll always like the intepretation? no not at all, I mean there are some pieces he plays like the polonaise in a flat that i love but I didn't like how he played this to be honest :s. He was phenominal but it was just too bangy, choppy and just loud notes. I mean you can play loud but have the most beautiful tone by the weight in your fingers so it's bright and vibrant. I didn't feel satisfied when the piece was done.
xXMidnightHourXx 3 years ago
i so agree with you.but some people just don't.
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
ohhh I love his talent!
magnetopoireau 3 years ago
I always loved Horowitz's description of Scriabin's music as 'vaguely unhealthy " LOL
cmhmuscle 3 years ago
omg this is marvalous. i hope to master the power of dissonance
MiyazakiKnight 3 years ago
That was probably the only song i've ever heard that did a great job of relying entirely on disonance. Funny thing. I thought i would find a song like this from chopin, but i'm not suprised that it was scriabin. Incredible song. It's hard to believe the emotion that was put into it. Like the bitterness of going mad and being completely aware of it(something i truly know). Played harshly like Horowitz, or softly like another individual, the same theme is shown.
Lukecash12 3 years ago
The piece of almost completely tonal. Besides the tremolos in the last minutes it is just using notes from a Bb7 chord.
loltheworld 3 years ago
This is beautiful...i dont care wat anyone else says ;)
sHaling911 3 years ago 3
I just listened to it with my eyes closed, and forgot about Horiwitz and Scriabin. This piece of music is magic to me!
Viesrood 3 years ago 2
Beautiful jacket.
Thracozaag 3 years ago
"Be prepared for big sound." Lol, I love this man...
obscurereference7 3 years ago
scriabin wrote them in the score, so yes. that part is relatively easy compared to the left hand double trills near the end of the piece, which are brutally painful to play at volume.
i was wondering if anyone knew if horowitz ever scored the numerous additions he adds towards the end of the piece, ive learned the piece from the score, and the chords in the score dont come remotely close to expressing the power that horowitz conveys at the end of the piece.
pianismisdead 3 years ago
out of curiosity...
from about 3:54 on the tremolos are written out fully measured, in 16th note triplets, including a pattern of ties... I have never heard a recording where I can hear that pattern, and they are very difficult to play correctly up to tempo... how important are those, really?
Aiels 3 years ago
Basically, it's alright to just play them as tremolos, as it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference when you're playing it up to speed (unless you're Scriabin). Some would disagree though, but most don't care. On a somewhat related note, I've never heard a recording where the five-in-one notes in the left-hand starting at 2:16 played the same. It's just kind of a free thing, sort of like a feeling, rather than a strict set of rules. I think that's what Scriabin was trying to write here.
loltheworld 3 years ago
I agree..Musical notation is sometimes not efficient enough to get on paper what he actually was hearing.All his late works are just incredible improvitations.I believe what is on the score is not a true represantation of what he wanted..but close to it.
abmsghost 3 years ago
i was replying to this sorry, that pattern of ties consists of the main actual melody for the piece the 'fanfare' that he scores at the outset of the tremelo.
pianismisdead 3 years ago
I disagree with fisherroastedpeanut and really like Horowitz's interpretation. I gave fisherroastedpeanut's two posts a thumbs up nevertheless. His posts are simply expressing his opinion and that's what this discussion board under videos is for.
So grom some brains and don't give a thumbs down simply because you disagree with a stated opinion.
wagenna 3 years ago 2
"i hate horowitz's bad habit to modify pieces to his liking... "
well, that's why I love him. lol
shrinkingglasses 3 years ago 2
This is true art. Perfect in the hands of Horowitz.
Anders039 3 years ago
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this is not VERS LA FLAMME.this is a PARODY of vers la flamme.i hate horowitz's bad habit to modify pieces to his liking...
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
Horowitz was a genious piano player, I am very sorry taht you hate him! Enjoy the music instead of being "squared brain"
gonzalojosevb 3 years ago 3
i don't hate him.i hate him simply when he plays vers la flamme.i mean listen at the end.he plays as a ffffff while it's just ff.sorry but i can't see any Scriabin in that.
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
Change tunes is normal in classical music, everyone do it, Segovia have changed Bach for guitar....
Proletariunitevi 3 years ago
Have you heard Scriabin's playing?
Thracozaag 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
no,but i'm 99.99% sure that he wouldn't have played in this way.
Sofronitsky might did hear Scriabin himself playing this piece - that's why i think his version is the most reliable.
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
Sofronitsky NEVER heard Scriabin play in person.
Thracozaag 3 years ago
that's why i said might.
Scriabin music is about ecstasy and mystic lightheartedness.not post-modern stuff like Ligeti or Schoenberg.
Horowitz just vent his frustration on the piano..probably he had a bad day.
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
Jim Mora was right.
Thracozaag 3 years ago
now now boys behave.
chad410 3 years ago
Wait... You think this sound post-modern? You think this sounds ligeti? Schoenberg? No, no, no
Tatsu999999 3 years ago
i don't think Vers La Flamme itself sounds post-modern rather than the way horowitz plays it.
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
i mean the first part is ok,very climactic,but then around 5:00 it turns too much loud and heavy.
fisherroastedpeanut 3 years ago
The chord he does at 1:53 is just beautiful. I haven't seen anyone else voice it so perfectly and personally that kind of a touch makes the piece for me. I also really enjoyed Richter's version.
KeithWhalen11 3 years ago 2
This is unbelievable! What a modern piece, "There's no home in there", as someone said. And what a masculine energy in H's interpretation. Truly great.
musicdivinemusic 3 years ago
It reminds me of Sorabji's music.
IloveAlexisBledel689 3 years ago
there is so much tension in this piece. you just feel impending doom while listening to it, i guess that is why people dont like it. I myself am not even sure....regardless it is a masterpiece.
mavadd88 3 years ago 3
You have to love the ending! Scriabin was in another Universe when he composed this! This is unbelievable music for sure!
LVB1770 3 years ago
I personally have not found a recording with a satisfying ending, and I must place the blame on Scriabin. It sounds like he had a deadline to publish this and that he just abruptly inserted a weak ending to an otherwise intense piece of music. Other than that rather awkward component, this piece remains as one of my favorite Scriabin compositions of all time.
coasterman16 3 years ago 2
woah, at 2:30, never seen horowitz move that much
serox901 3 years ago 2
My Music history teacher played this video in class and asked how many people didn't like it and almost everyone raised their hands except me. Dark and chaotic music is very interesting to me, it doesn't have to sound "nice" to be an amazing piece, just like artwork doesn't have to look pretty to be a masterpiece. "Scream" by Munch is a good example of this and its also from the expressionist movement
Thesteadfast 3 years ago
i agree with you, in fact i think this piece is really nice in way... extremly powerful and fast
this music for and from the heart
Astraldisaster22 3 years ago
although, its a great performance of it. I cant deny, but i dont like the piece itself.
Deimosxsz 3 years ago
i have listened about 5 times this piece and still cannot apreciate it.
I remind you, its about a dream of the apocalypse of scriabin. Scriabin was obsessed with the apocalypse.
The only parts i like are the starting and the ending, the rest its so dark and noisy , that you cannot have pleasure listening to it.
or i am wrong?, surely , but that is my opinion.
Deimosxsz 3 years ago
neskutocne...ked sa clovek zapocuva, pochopi zbytocnost slov...povedal nam svojou hudbou vsetko, bez jedineho slova...presne sa sem hodi uryvok z jednej knizky:A pomaly prestalo jestvovat vsetko okolo. Tahavy trpky jed hudby obaloval dusu,zarazal dych,kazdy uder srdca v hrudi zabolel. Nie zlozitost(aj ked tu asi aj hej)ale vzrusenost a tragicke vypatie miestami nedovolovali hudobnikom pokracovat...neskutocne...
strasiak13 3 years ago
Moi j'ai adoré!
zamolxis7 3 years ago
Triple clairvoyance by Scriabin ???
His own death
Worldwar 1
Upwarming of the earth now
All fears of humanity compressed in this masterpiece, played by The Masterpianist
pollekepetaatekop 3 years ago
question- is the sensational and widely circulated story about scriabin attempting to make cuts into the skin between his fingers to get a greater range of extension true ?
mikebott 3 years ago
idk if this is widely circulated, i never heard this before, and i've done a fair bit of reseach on scriabin...
VdSV9 3 years ago
he's just making provocations.
cincinnatikid 3 years ago
I think this piece is all about the inevitable death that human beings are magneticaly drawn to like flyes to a light bolt, hence "toward the flames".Essentialy is all about Scriabin's fear of death as if he was on death row and counting his minutes before the electric chair.The powerfull sound are not describing flames that burn insects but breathtaking panic.
vbogdan22 3 years ago 3
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Vlady, we love you, we really do.. but dont you think this is a bit to much
speedotorpedo26 3 years ago
The end of the world.
Fire.
And insects.
Among the greatest performances of anything ever recorded.
vinteui1 3 years ago 3
Beautiful, what a treasure is this. Horowizt's personality is hugh, wonderfull, charming, superb human being, and his playing is just out of this world.
God bless you Mr. Horowitz!
nietzschemasterclass 3 years ago 3
This is perty music and the piano guy is a nice fella. A bit too much pomposity and -1- upmanship folks.
Earth to dilettantes.
63Attila 3 years ago
He is considered as being one of greatest pianists of our time. I think you are talking a little bit poorly of him...
HaparukuU 3 years ago
HaparukuU
I was not making fun of Horowitz. He is the greatest pinist I have ever hear. He was also well read and serious misician.
I was using sarcastic language toward those people on this site who treat him as only a technican rather than a serious person and musician.
Best wishes-John
63Attila 3 years ago 4
Sorry about that. Its a tad bit difficult to pick up sarcasm in text.
HaparukuU 3 years ago
Isn't this piece suppose to be about a moth getting caught in a candle or lamp?
ChrisWatch 4 years ago
Much more profound than this, I suppose
pedroprokofiev 3 years ago
actually, that's exactly what it's supposed to mean. The title literally means "towards the flame"
pianosomeone 3 years ago
Yes, I know what the title means.
This one misses the brief Vladimir's talking before he plays. This music was about Scriabin's dream of the end of the world. He saw, in his dream, the world being destructed by flames, so, woke up and wrote that.
I don't think a moth being caught in a candle would do so much noise, but, still, it was a good guess, if the guy didn't know about the history.
pedroprokofiev 3 years ago
If you were the moth, you'd want to make a lot of noise I think!
SmallPorgies 3 years ago
quiet before the storm... I say this is pretty terrifying and brutal, the music is impetuous, merciless in itself the writer must be suffering from anxiety (attacks maybe?) clearly searching for something, its bewildering torment, spiritual. How he put it down on piano in musical form makes me want to laugh and be angry at life at the same time. the ending reminded me of the rainy smell and the condensation in the window, focusing in and out between your reflection in the window and the outside
ChrisWatch 4 years ago
Or as if,waking up from a nightmare to slowly come back to the natural reality we learned to follow
and comfort ourselves in. or was given... although the ending cords gave the feeling as if... witnessing as your enemy walks away from your
soon to be dead corpse.slowly dieing... its hard to tell.Rachmaninoff inspiration in his pieces came alot from russian poems in his younger years.(Around 4:03 to 4:05 is like hearing 2 things painfully express something...)waitn to be murdered can be theme?
ChrisWatch 4 years ago
scriabin at his most eccentric.. i wish it would keep going
ivionday 4 years ago
Richter's and Horowitz's interpretations are my favorites. Although between the two I can't tell which I like better.
Darklord12356 4 years ago
imagine having a family member who could pull that stuff off in your living room at the piano. He plays it quite well, Scriabin was very unique in many ways.
preludioenigmatico 4 years ago 2
I need this partition. if you can help just contactme on private.. ok?
thanks...
themigmed 4 years ago
unsurpassed performance of this wonderful work
zummingsky 4 years ago
Quite nice, although it feels a little less emotive and more percussive than another performance I have on mp3 somewhere (Richter or Gould, can't remember).
batlin 4 years ago
Definitely, Richter. Gould only played things like bach, and I also have Richter's recording.
awdrgyjilplijygrdwaw 4 years ago
Gould recorded Scriabin's 5th sonata! ;)
faladda 4 years ago
You've got to be kidding.
awdrgyjilplijygrdwaw 4 years ago
He recorded Scriabin's 5th and 3rd and Prokofiev 7th
pedroprokofiev 3 years ago
if you can do better, then do so and upload it if you have a piano it should take much effort. talk is always cheap, notes are meant to be heard, not talked about.
gragboop 4 years ago
I have loved this piece for over thirty years since the moment I heard it. I have also played it all of those years. I even wrote a book of the same title. The piece is one of a kind, sadly one of the last Scriabin wrote before his early death at 43. Horowitz brings it alive more than anyone else. I have heard others come and go over the years, many play it slower, one even faster (Rudy), some more mystical, some more Chopin-esque. But none give it the FIRE Horowitz does. Doc
ramondean 4 years ago 6
i agree. no one i have heard plays it fiery enough.
it is a shame that scriabin had to publish it early. i have always felt there is something missing since scriabin originally intended it to have been longer.
robbiethemann 4 years ago 2
9/8 bounce? Really? Looking at the scores of his later works and recordings thereof, I haven't heard anything that didn't have a free rhythmic character that, while not total rubato, pedalled mush, was hardly metronomic.
ostrichspeed 4 years ago