Claudio Arrau's performance is the best. This one is like other Cziffra's performances, lack of musicality and lyrism, all technic and demonstration. Too much fortissimo everywhere, this interpretation is grotesque. Sorry for the fans but for me it's not music. Here Cziffra missed altogether the beauty and magic of this Master Piece, maybe one of the most beautiful piano piece ever written (in the this style), with Harmonies Du Soir.
@chilenoHDU What I appreciate more in Arrau is this sense of perfection for every single note, even if the tempo has to be lower sometimes to let the audience catch the full beauty of every piece. Listen to his interpretations of Beethoven's sonata, and Debussy. A jewel.
Consider that in French "Chasse-Neige" literally means "Snow Plow" and not the more commonly assumed "Snow Storm" or "Blizzard." See if this changes your view on Cziffra's unconventional interpretation!
@CD122344 I believe Arrau is more appropriate for this work of Liszt, which is predominantly melancholy. Cziffra is too impetuous and impulsive, this work requires much more finesse and feeling.
@Ray0X0 Sorry! Arrau can't handle the octave section at 3:50 this section alone separates the men from the boys. His playing is labored at 4:23. The left-handed 3rds beg. at 5:19 are labored and sloppy. Cziffra owns this piece - finesse? feeling? baloney! Chasse-Neige - French definition: IMPETUOUS winds which raise whirls of snow. And by the way that octave section at 3:51 is played strepitoso - in a noisy, boisterous, impetuous style!
@CD122344 Well, what you say only proves how unknown is Liszt at present, unknown in his deepest essence, intimate and romantic. It is clear that you do not understand Liszt. Or you imagine this work is about the nature? If you don't understand and don't feel the significance of the work you will never have credentials to criticize the supreme interpreter of Liszt, Claudio Arrau. (continue)
I wonder why he only plays six sixteenth notes per note of melody... It adds to the melodic feeling, but it makes it less snowy and stormy and more singing... and it's not what liszt wrote.
You really do not know what you are talking about. Cziffra has what many of us musical dwarfs lack. Spontaneity and musicality. It flowed through him. The piece lives through him. I wish I had 1% of what he had!!!
@trtnec Chopin's are much more artistic and beautiful. Liszt's wonder off into wonderland somewhere and are not very deep in thought and emotion like Chopin's.
@daytonmlivingston youre wrong there. youre basing that off recordings youve heard. Liszt etudes have very much character. this one is a perfect example, so is no.5. listen to Ashkenazy's recording of Feux Follets and tell me you cant hear the intricate detail in that piece. listen to more recordings to understand Liszt
@anonymousQ45 Have you not ever heard Chopin's Etudes Op.25 No.10 or No.11? What about Op.10 No.10? They are so much more beautiful. Liszt's are also way to long, Chopin only wrote two that even reach the 5 minute mark. Chopin was able to fit much difficulty into a short grande concert etude. He is amazing
@daytonmlivingston of course ive heard Chopin etudes. i am a cult fan of Chopin etudes i study them everyday and im studying op.10 10 rite now. listen to Mark Faragos interpretation of Harmonies Du Soir. listen to Ricordanza by Ovchinnikov. the reason they are longer is because they are like the early Etude-Tableaux. they are much harder than Chopin to interpret correctly. also no.6. they take time to grow on. just keep looking for good interpretations
Oh thank God, he fucks up some parts in the same way I do and he's a fucking pro. Just need to calm my nerves for tomorrow's performance! Afraid that I'll fuck it up from nerves.
I love how some things are like basically impossible to notice as mistakes in this thing even if you totally shuffle through them, like the chromatic thirds at the end.
I like how he ends it for its uniqueness, but it's not like a settled storm.
@hellomate639 It's Chasse Neige, who cares about a mistake, anyone who calls you on it is more than welcome to try to play it themselves...which is unlikely considering how epic hard it is, good job
You misread me. I DID learn the piece and the fact that Cziffra made some mistakes gave me consolation for when I played it the next day after I made that comment. I actually made fewer mistakes than most amateurs on YouTube, but not nearly as few as a professional.
@hellomate639 nononon, the way typed it made me sound like an ass.. I was making reference to the fact that you had made the accomplishment of learning that evil thing and that should give you confidence to crush anyone who nit picks at mistakes. I'm working on it myself currently, I took out Mazeppa and Feux Follets earlier this year, I just hope my fingers are up for the tremolos in this.
@hellomate639 Basically, Cziffra really didn't have a great deal of musical sensitivity or imagination. In fact he's piss-awful really. He simply has great fingers and technique. Really, it's laughable as a musical interpretation. It's how i imagine a 7-year-old kid would sound if one could somehow play this piece. AWFUL at every turn!
fantastic performance - it was recorded quite a ways back - so we must understand the limitations of recording dynamics at that time and the aging of the original media as well.
@yellingLoL Without your parents you would not exist, does this mean you have to live your life like they wanted to???? the composer wrote some note's with some dynamics, but don't you think that when he played it, he played it always different?
I think the world would be a much better place if envy would cease to exist!!
Folks, if you had the capacity to be virtuosos, you would play like this also and you wouldn't be writing critiques of a man that could very well criticize you but whom you can definitely NOT criticize!!!!
@cygnusne I'm fully aware that it's easy to make critics over other artists. Art and critics go together, some like some don't. I don't like this interpretation, it's a matter of taste. No doubt Cziffra has an impressive and amazing piano technic, it's not what I'm pointing to. I'm pointing to the lack of search for beauty and delicacy. He was sure able to play differently but it is the artist's choice.
I agree that Cziffra seems to use too much his virtuosity for this song, but maybe that day he felt the song that way. Sometimes musicians have different interpretations for the same song according to their moods etc.
I find Cziffra a great interprete for Liszt. Consider some hungarian rhapsodies or the trascendental etude nr 10... i find it the best interpretation ever.
CD122344...Do you believe that the velocity in interpretation is enough for doing an objection to what senselessly you mention like "sounds tired and labored" of Arrau?
As to Cziffra, I believe than in this interpretation exaggerate some passages, and even you miss some notes and alter times, like cost of expressing your virtuosity.
I do not argue that Cziffra is also the big Pianists' of all times one, but also there are some works better achieved than other ones...
Baloney! I'm not jokin' Sharpen your ear. In this one and others, Cziffra towers over the competition. As far as Kissin, I think he's confused with the Anvil Chorus and seems to have gum on his pedal foot. Liszten carefully!
He is not afraid of breaking the rules to make it alive. With that kind of sensitivity he can't reach everybodys heart in cold times like we have today.
Cziffra is a genius. We all can see the centre of the target after his hits. A talent strikes the targets wich we all have known before. Thats the difference. Thanks to everybody who made Cziffra possible and that he was born in times of recording.
Cziffra blows Arrau and everyone else away in clarity, dexterity, interpretation, etc. Arrau sounds tired and labored. He cautiously approach's the entire octave section after the chromatics because he either can't do it or possibly doesn't have the stamina to do it. His whole octave section sounds like he's just practicing. In addition Arrau over pedals - blurring much of the piece. I've listened to pianists hack their way through this piece for almost 50 years. Cziffra is first with this one.
you are joking,..... Arrau had more stamina-power (without banging the piano) than any other pianist INCLUDING Horowitz). Whatever Arrau does is because of musical conviction and not by lack of technique and/or power.
Obviously you are a fanatic of Cziffra, well I say that he likes me too (example, Chopin etude 12 op 25, where he is amazing) but in this Liszt's work he seems to be betrayed by his own impetuosity, attacking this work in a wrong way. Here you don't have to listen a great master playing the piano but feel what Liszt felt ... this work needs more heart than mind... more feelings than impetuosity . Arrau is widely recognized as a Liszt's specialist and he knew perfectly what he was playing.
You just have the listen to the performer as an individual, and stop trying to categorizing them into a conformist lot. It's kind of boring to have everyone play all the same... don't yah think?
OMG Cziffra is a madman!! His leaps are lightning fast. You can almost see the smoke from his chromatic scales. This is such a difficult piece - and his virtuosity is astonishing... but this is "Chasse-Neige". It is about snow-drifting wind. Have you ever been in European countryside on a snowy winter's night, listening to the wind and quiet snowfall? Compare Arrau; you can close your eyes and see the scene. Liszt wrote much "visionary" music describing mystical natural scenery in sound.
This piece is way more intense than the Grand Galop Chromatique. It really has to be seen to be understood. It sucks there's no video of Cziffra here. The Lugansky one is good though.
But berezovsky's version is best. Maybe it's not as musical as it can be, but technically it's just unbelievable. So sad it's not here anymore. I hope somebody will post it here again.
2:47!
2:53! .. !! :O
newFranzFerencLiszt 1 month ago
Kissin
newFranzFerencLiszt 1 month ago
Claudio Arrau's performance is the best. This one is like other Cziffra's performances, lack of musicality and lyrism, all technic and demonstration. Too much fortissimo everywhere, this interpretation is grotesque. Sorry for the fans but for me it's not music. Here Cziffra missed altogether the beauty and magic of this Master Piece, maybe one of the most beautiful piano piece ever written (in the this style), with Harmonies Du Soir.
clementj2005 2 months ago
@clementj2005 Absolutely.. Arrau owns this beautiful work ...
chilenoHDU 1 month ago
@chilenoHDU What I appreciate more in Arrau is this sense of perfection for every single note, even if the tempo has to be lower sometimes to let the audience catch the full beauty of every piece. Listen to his interpretations of Beethoven's sonata, and Debussy. A jewel.
clementj2005 1 month ago
I'm still waiting for someone who could play Chasse-neige like Cziffra......
felix0911176727 2 months ago
This made me cry - just unbelievable!!!!
hadsell1962 2 months ago
Comment removed
MrFetu98 3 months ago
Consider that in French "Chasse-Neige" literally means "Snow Plow" and not the more commonly assumed "Snow Storm" or "Blizzard." See if this changes your view on Cziffra's unconventional interpretation!
nipperdoots 5 months ago
In my opinion Arrau played this etude most beautifully
GoldbergerSuper 7 months ago
i think it's the greatest music ever written.
19871014 7 months ago
Boris Berezovsky's interpretation of this piece is great too.
123eldest 7 months ago
That subito forte at the end scared the heck out of me.
liszt141 8 months ago
@liszt141 lol yeh
123eldest 7 months ago
In my opinion the best Chasse-neige is Evgeny Kissin's....
Ultrazone91 9 months ago
Cziffra undoubtedly has the one of the richest touches for playing Liszt out of all major Liszt pianists from the 20th century.
Gibson29 1 year ago
Cziffra owns this piece - period!
CD122344 1 year ago
@CD122344 I believe Arrau is more appropriate for this work of Liszt, which is predominantly melancholy. Cziffra is too impetuous and impulsive, this work requires much more finesse and feeling.
Ray0X0 9 months ago
@Ray0X0 Sorry! Arrau can't handle the octave section at 3:50 this section alone separates the men from the boys. His playing is labored at 4:23. The left-handed 3rds beg. at 5:19 are labored and sloppy. Cziffra owns this piece - finesse? feeling? baloney! Chasse-Neige - French definition: IMPETUOUS winds which raise whirls of snow. And by the way that octave section at 3:51 is played strepitoso - in a noisy, boisterous, impetuous style!
CD122344 9 months ago
@CD122344 Well, what you say only proves how unknown is Liszt at present, unknown in his deepest essence, intimate and romantic. It is clear that you do not understand Liszt. Or you imagine this work is about the nature? If you don't understand and don't feel the significance of the work you will never have credentials to criticize the supreme interpreter of Liszt, Claudio Arrau. (continue)
Ray0X0 9 months ago
@CD122344 Arrau was educated by a Liszt's pupil, at age of 11 already played The Trascendental Etudes and laterly won the Liszt prize twice.
Please, if you don¡t know who was Claudio Arrau really, den't say nothing.
Cziffra was a good player but never could compare to Arrau.
Ray0X0 9 months ago
I wonder why he only plays six sixteenth notes per note of melody... It adds to the melodic feeling, but it makes it less snowy and stormy and more singing... and it's not what liszt wrote.
blade42251 1 year ago
@blade42251 liszt probably didn't know exactly how to play his own stuff, and left it open for interpretation...i think
PrincessDesert 1 year ago
no one can compare - he blows this out the water and into space.
Ravel87 1 year ago
1:58 ORGASM!
rolldito 1 year ago
he said "not so much" and it doenst necessarily mean they DONT kick ass
Kylymageeli 1 year ago
@Jegspillerpiano,
You really do not know what you are talking about. Cziffra has what many of us musical dwarfs lack. Spontaneity and musicality. It flowed through him. The piece lives through him. I wish I had 1% of what he had!!!
MrBenhoven 1 year ago 2
Chopin's Etudes KICK-ASS!!!! Liszt's...not so much....
daytonmlivingston 1 year ago
@daytonmlivingston how does this etude not kick ass?
plb909 1 year ago
@daytonmlivingston how does this etude not kick ass? i recommend Arrau's version if this isn't tickling your fancy
plb909 1 year ago
@daytonmlivingston you would seriously rather listen to chopin's etudes over liszt's? To each his own but that doesn't make any sense to me.
trtnec 8 months ago
@trtnec Chopin's are much more artistic and beautiful. Liszt's wonder off into wonderland somewhere and are not very deep in thought and emotion like Chopin's.
daytonmlivingston 8 months ago
@daytonmlivingston youre wrong there. youre basing that off recordings youve heard. Liszt etudes have very much character. this one is a perfect example, so is no.5. listen to Ashkenazy's recording of Feux Follets and tell me you cant hear the intricate detail in that piece. listen to more recordings to understand Liszt
anonymousQ45 7 months ago
@anonymousQ45 Have you not ever heard Chopin's Etudes Op.25 No.10 or No.11? What about Op.10 No.10? They are so much more beautiful. Liszt's are also way to long, Chopin only wrote two that even reach the 5 minute mark. Chopin was able to fit much difficulty into a short grande concert etude. He is amazing
daytonmlivingston 7 months ago
@daytonmlivingston of course ive heard Chopin etudes. i am a cult fan of Chopin etudes i study them everyday and im studying op.10 10 rite now. listen to Mark Faragos interpretation of Harmonies Du Soir. listen to Ricordanza by Ovchinnikov. the reason they are longer is because they are like the early Etude-Tableaux. they are much harder than Chopin to interpret correctly. also no.6. they take time to grow on. just keep looking for good interpretations
anonymousQ45 7 months ago
WTF?!?!
He can play this without moving his hands!!
DEEZA95 1 year ago
Oh thank God, he fucks up some parts in the same way I do and he's a fucking pro. Just need to calm my nerves for tomorrow's performance! Afraid that I'll fuck it up from nerves.
I love how some things are like basically impossible to notice as mistakes in this thing even if you totally shuffle through them, like the chromatic thirds at the end.
I like how he ends it for its uniqueness, but it's not like a settled storm.
hellomate639 1 year ago
@hellomate639 It's Chasse Neige, who cares about a mistake, anyone who calls you on it is more than welcome to try to play it themselves...which is unlikely considering how epic hard it is, good job
OniyukiRyuken 1 year ago
@OniyukiRyuken
You misread me. I DID learn the piece and the fact that Cziffra made some mistakes gave me consolation for when I played it the next day after I made that comment. I actually made fewer mistakes than most amateurs on YouTube, but not nearly as few as a professional.
hellomate639 1 year ago
@hellomate639 nononon, the way typed it made me sound like an ass.. I was making reference to the fact that you had made the accomplishment of learning that evil thing and that should give you confidence to crush anyone who nit picks at mistakes. I'm working on it myself currently, I took out Mazeppa and Feux Follets earlier this year, I just hope my fingers are up for the tremolos in this.
OniyukiRyuken 1 year ago
@hellomate639 Basically, Cziffra really didn't have a great deal of musical sensitivity or imagination. In fact he's piss-awful really. He simply has great fingers and technique. Really, it's laughable as a musical interpretation. It's how i imagine a 7-year-old kid would sound if one could somehow play this piece. AWFUL at every turn!
jegspillerpiano 1 year ago
@jegspillerpiano this is obviously more musical and sensetive than you then
browny333 1 year ago
@hellomate639 Please upload some videos of you playing! I would much enjoy that!
xXAnthony619Xx 1 year ago
@xXAnthony619Xx
No, I only upload recordings that have almost no mistakes.
hellomate639 1 year ago
best performance i have ever heard; better then berezovsky....
TripleRhu 1 year ago
fantastic performance - it was recorded quite a ways back - so we must understand the limitations of recording dynamics at that time and the aging of the original media as well.
tannenstein 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
it is of no importance what liszt wrote, only what the performer does with it is of importance.
mombeekmarcel 2 years ago
without the composer you wouldn't have the performer.
yellingLoL 2 years ago
@yellingLoL Without your parents you would not exist, does this mean you have to live your life like they wanted to???? the composer wrote some note's with some dynamics, but don't you think that when he played it, he played it always different?
mombeekmarcel 2 years ago
super beautiful
venusmephisto 2 years ago 2
Aaah! Cziffra playing Liszt, and beautifully too...and what about the ending...with a flourish...
ratisbon1 2 years ago
I think the world would be a much better place if envy would cease to exist!!
Folks, if you had the capacity to be virtuosos, you would play like this also and you wouldn't be writing critiques of a man that could very well criticize you but whom you can definitely NOT criticize!!!!
cygnusne 2 years ago 15
@cygnusne wow well put
dustovshio 1 year ago
@cygnusne I'm fully aware that it's easy to make critics over other artists. Art and critics go together, some like some don't. I don't like this interpretation, it's a matter of taste. No doubt Cziffra has an impressive and amazing piano technic, it's not what I'm pointing to. I'm pointing to the lack of search for beauty and delicacy. He was sure able to play differently but it is the artist's choice.
clementj2005 1 month ago
I agree that Cziffra seems to use too much his virtuosity for this song, but maybe that day he felt the song that way. Sometimes musicians have different interpretations for the same song according to their moods etc.
I find Cziffra a great interprete for Liszt. Consider some hungarian rhapsodies or the trascendental etude nr 10... i find it the best interpretation ever.
marcoviani 2 years ago 2
LISZT wrote a crescendo and a sforzato!
bozebro201 2 years ago
Yeah, the random violence at the end was pretty bizarre. I don't mind artists being "original", but that shouldn't stop them from playing well.
demosj 2 years ago 2
it's to bad it got recorded on this piano because the action on it is obviously worn out and can't keep up with his speed
AmericanCars101 2 years ago
2:00 SUBLIME
rolldito 2 years ago
CD122344...Do you believe that the velocity in interpretation is enough for doing an objection to what senselessly you mention like "sounds tired and labored" of Arrau?
As to Cziffra, I believe than in this interpretation exaggerate some passages, and even you miss some notes and alter times, like cost of expressing your virtuosity.
I do not argue that Cziffra is also the big Pianists' of all times one, but also there are some works better achieved than other ones...
Marcelo721 2 years ago
Comment removed
Marcelo721 2 years ago
Baloney! I'm not jokin' Sharpen your ear. In this one and others, Cziffra towers over the competition. As far as Kissin, I think he's confused with the Anvil Chorus and seems to have gum on his pedal foot. Liszten carefully!
CD122344 2 years ago
CD122344 kissin is'nt.
you can check.
kempff95 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
He is not afraid of breaking the rules to make it alive. With that kind of sensitivity he can't reach everybodys heart in cold times like we have today.
Cziffra is a genius. We all can see the centre of the target after his hits. A talent strikes the targets wich we all have known before. Thats the difference. Thanks to everybody who made Cziffra possible and that he was born in times of recording.
barakjoe 2 years ago 2
Cziffra blows Arrau and everyone else away in clarity, dexterity, interpretation, etc. Arrau sounds tired and labored. He cautiously approach's the entire octave section after the chromatics because he either can't do it or possibly doesn't have the stamina to do it. His whole octave section sounds like he's just practicing. In addition Arrau over pedals - blurring much of the piece. I've listened to pianists hack their way through this piece for almost 50 years. Cziffra is first with this one.
CD122344 2 years ago
you are joking,..... Arrau had more stamina-power (without banging the piano) than any other pianist INCLUDING Horowitz). Whatever Arrau does is because of musical conviction and not by lack of technique and/or power.
arturon111 2 years ago 3
That's what he'd like everyone to believe.
demosj 2 years ago
Obviously you are a fanatic of Cziffra, well I say that he likes me too (example, Chopin etude 12 op 25, where he is amazing) but in this Liszt's work he seems to be betrayed by his own impetuosity, attacking this work in a wrong way. Here you don't have to listen a great master playing the piano but feel what Liszt felt ... this work needs more heart than mind... more feelings than impetuosity . Arrau is widely recognized as a Liszt's specialist and he knew perfectly what he was playing.
Ray0X0 2 years ago 2
finally nosniborceda made most intelligent comment ever on youtube..
msl37431 3 years ago
I like his more legato approach to the tremolos...
hellomate639 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
TOO FAST
Ecthelon 3 years ago
Czyffra imprime au morceau une tension inégalée, et c'est le seul chez qui on entend vraiment le blizzard dans les gammes chromatiques.
JPS1827 3 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
as usual with Cziffra. a virtuostic rattle with no soul.
englishplayer40 3 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I agree. One might as well listen to a player-piano perform the peice.
Ryosuke001 3 years ago
its there
cmc59 3 years ago
Great performance, despite the critics.
You just have the listen to the performer as an individual, and stop trying to categorizing them into a conformist lot. It's kind of boring to have everyone play all the same... don't yah think?
nosniborceda 3 years ago 31
Refreshing words.
Lemonizm 2 years ago
OMG Cziffra is a madman!! His leaps are lightning fast. You can almost see the smoke from his chromatic scales. This is such a difficult piece - and his virtuosity is astonishing... but this is "Chasse-Neige". It is about snow-drifting wind. Have you ever been in European countryside on a snowy winter's night, listening to the wind and quiet snowfall? Compare Arrau; you can close your eyes and see the scene. Liszt wrote much "visionary" music describing mystical natural scenery in sound.
AlexPxr8 3 years ago 5
I agree, Arrau's version is the only one I can close my eyes and feel snowfall/wind.
xeuriee 2 years ago
It makes me laugh out loud to hear this guy pull off such an awesomely virtuosic interpretation of this piece.
squishym 3 years ago 2
You sure this is Cziffra? It's no where near as good as his Grand Galop Chromatique...
hellomate639 3 years ago
yes, it is Cziffra
rolldito 3 years ago
It sure has the added notes/unwritten things that Cziffra seems to love...
trigalg693 3 years ago
Yeah, it does.
Gotta love Cziffra for that.
hellomate639 3 years ago
This piece is way more intense than the Grand Galop Chromatique. It really has to be seen to be understood. It sucks there's no video of Cziffra here. The Lugansky one is good though.
VikingBerserker 3 years ago 3
But berezovsky's version is best. Maybe it's not as musical as it can be, but technically it's just unbelievable. So sad it's not here anymore. I hope somebody will post it here again.
Aul1kki 3 years ago
lol, I just checked that one out for the first time, I don't know why I never saw it before.
It must be back on here btw, as I just watched it.
VikingBerserker 3 years ago