Am I alone in finding some, if not most, of the very fast versions of this dull? Structurally, rhythmically and harmonically it is a terrific piece, and if played only for velocity it can become just a series of (technically very impressive) notes. It takes a really special pianist to combine speed with musicality - and there have been one or two, I know. That said, Prokofiev himself is slow ...... and yet, you hear everything, and the musical value of the piece can come across.
Ok so this may not relate to this piece but question about music if anyone would know O.o what do you call a SONG that an artist writes about him/her self??? It\s not technically an autobiography and self portraits refer to painters soo what is it called in song form and instrumentals???
@acr08807 Yeah I suppose it would have been funny if it were in F, but it is an Homage to Schumann's A minor Toccata... After it starts in C, it modulates all over the place and returns to its home key just in time for the R hand glissando that forms its coda... :-)
@cheradinine8 In the first 4 bars, the only note is D. The next 2 bars alternate C chords with octaves in D. Then back to all D for 2 bars. 2 more bars with C chords alternating with octaves in D. Then back to all D for 2 bars. The next alternates chords in E with D octaves. Then we get a bar that starts with C and E flat for the first chord, then back to the octaves in D for three bars. Then C chords alternating with D octaves for 4 bars. I wouldn't exactly call that starting in C.
@acr08807 Prokofiev had a fairly loose attitude to key signatures... His very first piano work at 8 years was a waltz in B flat without the B flat...It is probably fortunate that he started as close to C as D... Prokofiev himself said it was C major ( for strict accuracy let us say sort of in C , but definitely not in D minor )...:-)
@cheradinine8 If Prokofiev said it was in C major, then he lied. But I'll grant that B natural appears in the piece almost as much as B flat does, so he could have scored it in C major without wasting much ink. Thanks for the waltz story, I wasn't aware of that. Pretty cool.
@cheradinine8 When I was a music major, my first two compositions were "Symphonie Sans Son" and a concerto for alpenhorn featuring 64th notes. My professors claimed that nobody could play either one (showing that they cannot rise above the confines of tradition, or imagine that in the future, alpenhornists will grow in virtuosity). Anyway, that's why I became a scientist. Probably a good thing for the world of music, if not for the world of science.
One I started listening I originally planned to move onto something else I was looking for but I was frozen and couldn't move off - had to finish such an adventure - I'm this world!! How the composer so commonly plays so much better than another..
This is absolutely brilliant... Such striking contrasts in colour! Pianists have no idea how to do this these days.. treat the piano too one dimensionally and require very broad musical training to get this right.. The producer added a lot of reverb but somehow didn't lose clarity so well done with the production also.
and who rates pianists by the speed? The expert who says above that many listeners are biased and uneducated. The same piece of music can be performed slower or faster.
What matters is that it is "performed" vs "just played", a pianist should give a personal interpretation of the piece of music, a personal touch to it. Prokofiev's pieces need to be performed. So, leave out the talk of speed, it is not about Formula driving.
Naturally, Prokofiev knew best how his pieces should be interpreted.
In the case of Prokofiev, Bartok and Rachmaninoff it's important to envisage the music as orchestral music regarding tempo and nuance. Sure, the piano can play more note/second but masters with the orchestra compose in gestures that would sound equally good transposed for a variety of instruments.
One assumes that Prokofiev had the ability to play faster, but chose not to. What does the sheet music say? Unless it says "Go To Hell Speed", why does anyone believe it should be played as fast as possible, or that that would somehow improve the experience of listening to the piece?
if it's a piano roll recording is it possible that the speed of reproduction can be varied - just the rate at which the paper is pulled off the roll? - and so this is not necessarily the same rate at which Prok played it?
actually it is a very good performance...it shows us a lot about how Prokofiev himself experienced his own music-it adds some very valuable components (aspects) that are lost in fast-speed robotic performances
quite refreshing and amusing
only now can I say that I really understand Prokofiev music!
This cannot be a slow tempo since this is "the tempo" intended by the composer. If you hear a slower tempo than this, then you could call that a slow tempo.
I can see why people say he's not "up to it". But on the other hand he brings out so much more than the rub-a-dub-dub. And this is the one recording that to me, says out loud, "THAT'S PROKOFIEV!" Wonder why!
honestly i think he just didn't practice enough! i mean maybe he was physically able to play it faster but didn't wanna risk making mistakes. it's not hard to imagine sergei prokofiev preferring not to spend too much time practicing one piece. i think he probably didn't wanna play it either, he wanted to just write a damn toccata and move on, but it's such a hard piece that him playing it is a nice gesture to the people who practice his pieces. that's just my guess.
It's said that Prokofiev didn't have the technique needed to play this piece. And I don't blame him. Not many people can play this piece at that fast of a tempo.
I'm not sure if I like this better at a slower tempo or not, it's almost like a different piece. The faster version sounds frantic, horrifying...while with just 20-30 BPM difference it sounds dazed, confused, like someone pawing around on the ground for their dropped glasses. However it's played, this is surely his magnum opus if you ask me.
Well, adding to that, some people, like myself, actually prefer other peoples' performances than this one. I'm not being biased towards the performer; I think Prokofiev is brilliant; yet somehow I like Argerich's better. Makes sense?
It reminds me of some experimentation consisting in putting an opaque curtain between a violist playing and a bunch of experts in classical music, who had to decide if the thing they were listening to was a Stradivarius or a 20th century instrument. The result's been a slaughter... And there are so many of these anecdotes in both jazz and classical (or painting, litterature etc.). Do you know why ? Because art is elitist and we are snobbish (one calls the other).
@BachScholar I don't think one should be so quick to favor this one over others, as we know the piano roll alters the sound....I'm sure the original performance was very different, but by no means better.
@ BachScholar Well said. La différence avec Rachmaninov, c'est qu'on peut accorder toute confiance à son tempo idéal, puisque lui-même Rach est capable de le jouer.
and since when, exactly, is being "faster" any measure of a pianist's art? I am tired of soulless fast machines that think they have great skills only because their fingers move fast, when music is all about conveying the intents of the author, and *not* about showing off how fast you can play and spoil a composition.
@BachScholar Your comments are inaccurate. Every musician has the right to interpret a piece they play however they want. :-) You don't like it? Tough.
@BachScholar it's about taste and interpretation. For example; I prefer Mozart's Fantasie to be played faster in the jumpy bit in the middle, but no one else seems to play it in such a way.
The emotions conveyed within this piece are so amazing. When he does those chromatic swells and falls it feels like there's something inside me trying to tear me apart. I wish I could write like this.... Pure genius.
This piece begins to actually make sense to me listening to Prokofiev playing it. The faster tempo sounds like a thick forest of undifferentiated notes.
ugh, I know that this is how Prokofiev interpreted his piece, but I just enjoy Huangci's performance more than the master himself =/ It doesn't mean Huangci is playing it more "correctly," but she makes the Toccata more machine-like, vigorous, ...exciting
Thank for it! For me it is the best version - till now. (I know only 3). I don,t feel mechanical, but I,m only a rockdrummer. To me vigorousness is more important to this piece than freedom.
Wow, that is an unique intrepretation. If anyone else but Prokofiev did this, everyone else would be mad they didn't strictly observe society's view of how this should be played.
Yes, and it makes me feel that we should probably rethink our views of this composer. He's usually played in a vigorous yet clinical and mechanical way. Maybe we should play him with more freedom. I think he'd prefer that!
I think its very interesting how composers interpret their own and other's work in almost a jazz way (chaning notes, etc), while people who play classical music only take a pedantic view of the music and freak out whenever a change to the dogma that is the written piece is made. Its really sad and confirms what miles davis said about classical musicians (that they are robots and not artists)
That's a fair point, but given that there is generally a constant speed of the roll throughout this performance, the gliss at the end of the piece generally couldn't physically be played any quicker. Therefore I would suggest that this playback speed is probably accurate.
hey this is the right tempo, check up the urtext sheet music, and it says Allegro!!! i doesnt says presto. Any way played by prokofiev is better than any other pianist because he really make me feel what he wanted to.
Yeah I think Prokofiev wanted to every single note and beat emphasized, while today's performers (especially Huangci) opt for a slur/string effect. Though I think Martha maintains the same tempo as Prokofiev himself, though her interpretation doesn't sound as "robotic" as this one, even though this one IS the original =/
I have listened to Gyorgy Sandor play this outstanding piece... he may play it fast, but Prokofiev is more dynamic in his pieces. Sandor seems just to want to show off all of the technical aspects of this piece, and it ends up very sloppy. I prefer the composer's techniques. I have a question though: At the end of this video, another piece starts to play before it ends. Does anyone know what that one is? It seems oddly farmiliar to me.
It's a piano roll for a reproducing piano cut via an actual performance by Prokofiev.
Prokofiev plays a piano, it marks the roll, the roll is then cut & copies made to be played on reproducing pianos. Everybody with a reproducing piano gets Prokofiev playing their piano.
I can almost feel how Prokofiev might have sounded in speech, its so obvious in his playing-though others have played it as performers will, Maestro plays every note as if he were conscious of each touch and note.
He will be remembered as Mozart is in the coming years.
This is truly a masterpiece, one of my absolute favorite pieces by prokofiev. However i recommend other recordings, Argerich for example plays this piece more convincingly than Prokofiev himself.
Both Prokofiev and Bartok were geniuses. They also were superb pianists, but from purely pianistic point of view there were many pianists who could play better than these great composers.
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i agree with you totally!! I do not like Bartok and Prokofiev @ all. Thier compositions sound sooo messy and not very musical. I admire his percussive approach, yes, but still......there's the musicallity here???
It is just too sophisticated for you. You should get your facts right, because according to the music society, he is one of the most technical composers in the world. The more you listen to one music era, the more you will progress and begin to enjoy other era/composers.... open your ears!
At 1:34 Prokofiev doesn't play as written on his own score, with the left hand playing a sequence in reverse. Also at 1:50 he doubles the first E flat. Finally he takes a shortcut 3:34, like Horowitz, and skips a few lines.
Overall, though, he is amazingly precise and mechanical.
Prokofiev was NO average pianist. He was extraordinary. As were most Russian composers. Their conservatories were and remain, committed to the highest standards of excellence and artistry. Neat info about piano rolls. thank you.
Prokofiev was one of the most influential pianists of the 20th Century, one of the first to emphasize the instrument's percussive qualities. The technical inaccuracies of a 80+ year-old piano roll don't do him justice. Listen to his 1932 recording of his 3rd Piano Concerto and you'll get a much better idea of his awesome technique.
Sorry, must extract my foot from my mouth, head from my ass, etc, and leave my ego on the doorstep. LOL. Scratch this Scots-Anglo-Irishman, find a TARTAR. Prokofiev had what I used to possess. One of those uncanny, used to be known as a photographic memory. See the DIsney short about Peter and the Wolf. Prokofiev auditioned at the piano, entirely from memory. I was told, that when he fled Russia for Paris, he had to discard many scores, and later recopied them all again from memory. How?
Ovviamente il rullo meccanico è soggetto a lievi disfunzioni in fase di riproduzione, ma è comunque interessante notare una certa morbidezza nella scansione ritmica da parte di Prokofiev. Morbidezza quasi del tutto introvabile nelle odierne esecuzioni della sua musica.
Have you ever looked closely at the way a music box works? Little bars stick up and flick each note of the sound bars, which then vibrates. A piano roll is that in reverse (I'm remembering looking at my uncle's pianos which he restored, back when I was a kid.)
The paper in the piano roll is thick and has holes in it, corresponding to each note. When a hole appeared, the corresponding lever and hammer was activated, and the keys were depressed also. It actually looked as though a ghost were playing as the roll went through!
Maybe with modern piano rolls -- but people use digital technology for the same purpose now. There are many limitations for old piano rolls such as jerky playing and odd chords, just to name a few.
I was just wondering if listening to this piano roll is the same as listening to how Prokofiev really played it. What do you suppose is of a higher/ more authentic quality: an old piano roll recorded on a good piano with today's technology or a really old actual recording?
It depends on how well preserved and manufactured that piano roll is. But on a note of interest, Rachmaninov was once invited to a demonstation of the piano roll, and after playing a piece to be perforated onto one of these rolls, he said: "Gentlemen — I, Sergei Rachmaninoff, have just heard myself play!"
There's a special type of piano that can record a performance, where each key punches a hole in a piece of paper. This paper then can be fed through the piano and be played back for future listeners. These recordings of rolls tend to be 1) dynamic-less and 2) sped up or slowed down.
The best piano rolls were recorded for a Pianola, a machine with mechanical "fingers" that you rolled up to a standard grand piano. They did have dynamics - the gizmos that punched the holes were conical, so the harder you hit the bigger the hole was. But this was not a piano-roll recording. Recall that Prokofiev lived until 1944.
I should have said, in my earlier comment, that the sound quality on this is really very good, which helps a lot.
leitfie3579 4 days ago
Am I alone in finding some, if not most, of the very fast versions of this dull? Structurally, rhythmically and harmonically it is a terrific piece, and if played only for velocity it can become just a series of (technically very impressive) notes. It takes a really special pianist to combine speed with musicality - and there have been one or two, I know. That said, Prokofiev himself is slow ...... and yet, you hear everything, and the musical value of the piece can come across.
leitfie3579 4 days ago
I love the way he plays it. It sounds absolutely perfect.
SWeston45 2 weeks ago
Ok so this may not relate to this piece but question about music if anyone would know O.o what do you call a SONG that an artist writes about him/her self??? It\s not technically an autobiography and self portraits refer to painters soo what is it called in song form and instrumentals???
wizarda7x 2 months ago
For god's sake, it is in C major NOT D minor...
cheradinine8 4 months ago
@cheradinine8 If you'd said F major, it almost would have been funny.
acr08807 3 months ago
@acr08807 Yeah I suppose it would have been funny if it were in F, but it is an Homage to Schumann's A minor Toccata... After it starts in C, it modulates all over the place and returns to its home key just in time for the R hand glissando that forms its coda... :-)
cheradinine8 3 months ago
@cheradinine8 In the first 4 bars, the only note is D. The next 2 bars alternate C chords with octaves in D. Then back to all D for 2 bars. 2 more bars with C chords alternating with octaves in D. Then back to all D for 2 bars. The next alternates chords in E with D octaves. Then we get a bar that starts with C and E flat for the first chord, then back to the octaves in D for three bars. Then C chords alternating with D octaves for 4 bars. I wouldn't exactly call that starting in C.
acr08807 3 months ago
@acr08807 Prokofiev had a fairly loose attitude to key signatures... His very first piano work at 8 years was a waltz in B flat without the B flat...It is probably fortunate that he started as close to C as D... Prokofiev himself said it was C major ( for strict accuracy let us say sort of in C , but definitely not in D minor )...:-)
cheradinine8 3 months ago
@cheradinine8 If Prokofiev said it was in C major, then he lied. But I'll grant that B natural appears in the piece almost as much as B flat does, so he could have scored it in C major without wasting much ink. Thanks for the waltz story, I wasn't aware of that. Pretty cool.
acr08807 3 months ago
@cheradinine8 When I was a music major, my first two compositions were "Symphonie Sans Son" and a concerto for alpenhorn featuring 64th notes. My professors claimed that nobody could play either one (showing that they cannot rise above the confines of tradition, or imagine that in the future, alpenhornists will grow in virtuosity). Anyway, that's why I became a scientist. Probably a good thing for the world of music, if not for the world of science.
acr08807 3 months ago
lovely
JohnWhitesideParsons 5 months ago
eye-opening indeed, i have been working on my speed to sound more like argerich...
uurtunc 6 months ago
One I started listening I originally planned to move onto something else I was looking for but I was frozen and couldn't move off - had to finish such an adventure - I'm this world!! How the composer so commonly plays so much better than another..
peterlocke1953 6 months ago
This is absolutely brilliant... Such striking contrasts in colour! Pianists have no idea how to do this these days.. treat the piano too one dimensionally and require very broad musical training to get this right.. The producer added a lot of reverb but somehow didn't lose clarity so well done with the production also.
peterlocke1953 6 months ago
This one is slower but the best performance of this piece in the whole youtube.
PedroPedroPedrao 6 months ago 2
AWESOME! Would anyone happen to know what year this recording dates from? It's a treasure, to be sure.
Organistcomposer21 6 months ago
What is that piece in this video after the Toccata?
TheGlasnost1 7 months ago
I refuse to believe that this is Prokofiev's playing!! I can't listen to this.
Funmusic18 7 months ago
In a slower performance we hear more happening. Isn't it surprising or his ears are greater?
sdegrace 8 months ago
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In a slower performance we hear more happening. Isn't it surprising or his ears are greater?
sdegrace 8 months ago
In a slower performance we hear more happening. Isn't it surprising or his hears is greater?
sdegrace 8 months ago
What we are PRiViLEGED to hear in this performance is the master himself! How anyone can take it upon himself to criticize this is beyond me.
I am sure that there are many different ways even Sergei Prokofiev played it, whenever he sat down to do so.
And again I say: I feel PRIVILEGED to hear something as unique as the great composer playing his own work. Thank you very much for posting this!
mmbmbmbmb 8 months ago
and who rates pianists by the speed? The expert who says above that many listeners are biased and uneducated. The same piece of music can be performed slower or faster.
What matters is that it is "performed" vs "just played", a pianist should give a personal interpretation of the piece of music, a personal touch to it. Prokofiev's pieces need to be performed. So, leave out the talk of speed, it is not about Formula driving.
Naturally, Prokofiev knew best how his pieces should be interpreted.
karapturam 10 months ago 3
In the case of Prokofiev, Bartok and Rachmaninoff it's important to envisage the music as orchestral music regarding tempo and nuance. Sure, the piano can play more note/second but masters with the orchestra compose in gestures that would sound equally good transposed for a variety of instruments.
hotplate85 1 year ago
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looks like himmler from the ss
timtom29 1 year ago
@timtom29
And Jared Lougher looks like Uncle Fester... so what?
truecrypt 1 year ago
@timtom29 And you think and act like an idiot.
simcha181818 9 months ago
@timtom29 not really
Drizzlerman 6 months ago
One assumes that Prokofiev had the ability to play faster, but chose not to. What does the sheet music say? Unless it says "Go To Hell Speed", why does anyone believe it should be played as fast as possible, or that that would somehow improve the experience of listening to the piece?
CyberBarrister 1 year ago
if it's a piano roll recording is it possible that the speed of reproduction can be varied - just the rate at which the paper is pulled off the roll? - and so this is not necessarily the same rate at which Prok played it?
lsbrother 1 year ago
Otra sorpresa maravillosa. Muchas gracias por compartir.
jafigueroa41 1 year ago
actually it is a very good performance...it shows us a lot about how Prokofiev himself experienced his own music-it adds some very valuable components (aspects) that are lost in fast-speed robotic performances
quite refreshing and amusing
only now can I say that I really understand Prokofiev music!
vkoracx 1 year ago
This cannot be a slow tempo since this is "the tempo" intended by the composer. If you hear a slower tempo than this, then you could call that a slow tempo.
TemplarOfNight 1 year ago
fantastic.awsome!!!!
makedonka86 1 year ago
Sounds very anxious.
morvensky 1 year ago
everything is so uneven.. weird. didn't they have metronomes back then?
AIakar 1 year ago
@AIakar oh, it's a piano roll.. no wonder. POS technology lol
AIakar 1 year ago
what the hell was that in the end
FranzLisztian 1 year ago
@FranzLisztian The beginning of a Scriabin prelude (forgot which one) for some reason.
morvensky 1 year ago
If you think Prokofiev is a bad pianist, listen to him play Visions Fugitives, here on Youtube. He makes the keys sound like running water.
alienalienss 1 year ago
3:38 is murderous
Drizzlerman 1 year ago
3;38 is murderous
Drizzlerman 1 year ago
he can play this as fast or as slow as he likes - he wrote it!
cleveroonie 1 year ago
Slow Tempo? Pardon my Internet French but LOL! This is THE tempo.
ChuckAvalon 1 year ago
@ ChuckAvalon Si vous le dites, je m'incline;
Tous ceux qui partagent des hypothèses autrement sérieuses (cf supra) n'ont qu'une chose à faire: la fermer.
tonycosworth 1 year ago
I can see why people say he's not "up to it". But on the other hand he brings out so much more than the rub-a-dub-dub. And this is the one recording that to me, says out loud, "THAT'S PROKOFIEV!" Wonder why!
szkeith1 1 year ago
gooooooood reason LetTheMusicFlow1, and yea, my rhapsody sounds not so great when i play it
300musicmaster 1 year ago
honestly i think he just didn't practice enough! i mean maybe he was physically able to play it faster but didn't wanna risk making mistakes. it's not hard to imagine sergei prokofiev preferring not to spend too much time practicing one piece. i think he probably didn't wanna play it either, he wanted to just write a damn toccata and move on, but it's such a hard piece that him playing it is a nice gesture to the people who practice his pieces. that's just my guess.
ibclappin 2 years ago 3
It's said that Prokofiev didn't have the technique needed to play this piece. And I don't blame him. Not many people can play this piece at that fast of a tempo.
laundrylint 1 year ago
@ibclappin that the speed that he wants
ansonyeung825 1 month ago
I'm not sure if I like this better at a slower tempo or not, it's almost like a different piece. The faster version sounds frantic, horrifying...while with just 20-30 BPM difference it sounds dazed, confused, like someone pawing around on the ground for their dropped glasses. However it's played, this is surely his magnum opus if you ask me.
maynrdjkeenan 2 years ago 6
He didn't actually play it this slow; the pianola roll is fucked up. He actually plays it as quickly as he wrote on the sheet music.
Grayfog 2 years ago
Comment removed
BachScholar 2 years ago 41
Well, adding to that, some people, like myself, actually prefer other peoples' performances than this one. I'm not being biased towards the performer; I think Prokofiev is brilliant; yet somehow I like Argerich's better. Makes sense?
LetTheMusicFlow1 2 years ago 3
Comment removed
BachScholar 2 years ago 6
Because people have this mindset of "Oh! This guy composed it, it's how it's supposed to be played! 5 stars!"
LetTheMusicFlow1 2 years ago 3
@BachScholar
It reminds me of some experimentation consisting in putting an opaque curtain between a violist playing and a bunch of experts in classical music, who had to decide if the thing they were listening to was a Stradivarius or a 20th century instrument. The result's been a slaughter... And there are so many of these anecdotes in both jazz and classical (or painting, litterature etc.). Do you know why ? Because art is elitist and we are snobbish (one calls the other).
WAMEDJO 11 months ago
@BachScholar I don't think one should be so quick to favor this one over others, as we know the piano roll alters the sound....I'm sure the original performance was very different, but by no means better.
mahler151 2 years ago
@ BachScholar Well said. La différence avec Rachmaninov, c'est qu'on peut accorder toute confiance à son tempo idéal, puisque lui-même Rach est capable de le jouer.
tonycosworth 1 year ago
@BachScholar
and since when, exactly, is being "faster" any measure of a pianist's art? I am tired of soulless fast machines that think they have great skills only because their fingers move fast, when music is all about conveying the intents of the author, and *not* about showing off how fast you can play and spoil a composition.
Kuseikos 1 year ago 2
@BachScholar Your comments are inaccurate. Every musician has the right to interpret a piece they play however they want. :-) You don't like it? Tough.
Montyleeny14 7 months ago
@BachScholar it's about taste and interpretation. For example; I prefer Mozart's Fantasie to be played faster in the jumpy bit in the middle, but no one else seems to play it in such a way.
edwatom 6 months ago
@BachScholar
I find it a bit slow though. He seems to hesitate sometimes.
WAMEDJO 6 days ago in playlist nobody plays
OMG this is monstrous. I MUST have the music to it. Haven't played in 28 years and this is what I have to start with.
darnott44 2 years ago 3
Unha mágoa non poder escoitalo a el directamente. Pero tampouco nos imos queixar...
Milicroque 2 years ago
What is the piece that starts to play after the toccata?
Zebeldarebel 2 years ago
Scriabin, Prelude op 22,1
pianowolfi 2 years ago 4
The emotions conveyed within this piece are so amazing. When he does those chromatic swells and falls it feels like there's something inside me trying to tear me apart. I wish I could write like this.... Pure genius.
maynrdjkeenan 2 years ago 4
hehe Brilliant, totally mental like all of his music. :) Thanks for uploading.
tinikosur 2 years ago 2
Yes the emotions within this piece are so amazing and mental indeed
FeminiteEtAmour 2 years ago 4
Beautiful, amazing, and terrifying.
Drizzlerman 2 years ago 2
This piece begins to actually make sense to me listening to Prokofiev playing it. The faster tempo sounds like a thick forest of undifferentiated notes.
erutuon 2 years ago 4
frantic imagination brings out through hands and i hear what he thinks.Great your music last forever PRO
mebloke69 2 years ago
ugh, I know that this is how Prokofiev interpreted his piece, but I just enjoy Huangci's performance more than the master himself =/ It doesn't mean Huangci is playing it more "correctly," but she makes the Toccata more machine-like, vigorous, ...exciting
mnfchen 2 years ago
i totally know what u mean. I mean this piece is awesome, but just because you wrote the piece doesn't automatically mean you'll perform it best.
rainedog87 2 years ago
tout reste humain!
inkstand 2 years ago
Thank for it! For me it is the best version - till now. (I know only 3). I don,t feel mechanical, but I,m only a rockdrummer. To me vigorousness is more important to this piece than freedom.
Fantastic music! Not like Peter and the Wolf...
Best wishes from Hungary
GBWagner1 2 years ago
Does anyone else hear that extra note at 3:05? Where does he get the extra hand to do that? lol...
Zebeldarebel 2 years ago 2
I hear it - is that an overtone or something? His wrist brushing against the higher notes? A page turner getting too close? Interesting.
Melorama2000 2 years ago 4
@Zebeldarebel He used his nose.. ;)
Tykjen 2 years ago 3
I seem to love the sound from player pianos like this one. This is such a great recording. Really eerie and majestic. Thanks
chexg 2 years ago
uff... prokofiev is some kind of god, crazy god!! agg
BalmungBerserk 2 years ago
very intresting!!!
monicapianista 2 years ago
It seems like Prokofiev skipped a few bars of his own toccata here... brilliant, nonethless... very accented.
TheRaff1975 2 years ago
Maybe the cook should not also sit and eat at the table with the guests.
Prokofieff is great but this performance would be midiocre for a music student.
mrmolinodelahoz 2 years ago
Wow, that is an unique intrepretation. If anyone else but Prokofiev did this, everyone else would be mad they didn't strictly observe society's view of how this should be played.
Zebeldarebel 2 years ago 3
Yes, and it makes me feel that we should probably rethink our views of this composer. He's usually played in a vigorous yet clinical and mechanical way. Maybe we should play him with more freedom. I think he'd prefer that!
pianocommy 2 years ago 4
I think its very interesting how composers interpret their own and other's work in almost a jazz way (chaning notes, etc), while people who play classical music only take a pedantic view of the music and freak out whenever a change to the dogma that is the written piece is made. Its really sad and confirms what miles davis said about classical musicians (that they are robots and not artists)
Diomedes22 2 years ago 2
miles davis was an idiot then.
tharhodyhomieKdollaz 2 years ago 3
there is so much wrong about that I don't even know where to begin.
eighthnote49 2 years ago 2
That was one reasons which put me off classical music for a long period.
amig90 2 years ago
hahahahahah yeah miles douches was a moron.
prestomoltoagitato 2 years ago
that's the part I have the most trouble with, voicing wise anyway...lol
Darklord12356 2 years ago
i'm absolutely addicted with how contorted and almost obnoxiously menacing he bends and emphasizes different notes
me like very much :)
ProteusX2 2 years ago 8
there's a high note at 3:04. how'd he reach that? aren't both his hands at the darker side of the piano at that point?
is it even supposed to be there?
fionasapple 2 years ago
Good Question? Maybe he played the note with his nose, seriously, i don't know, it's maybe a bug of transcoding old piano to modern?
hailkayy 2 years ago 3
with his big toe, or maybe he had help
paganiniGOGO 2 years ago
This is playback fro a piano roll. Is it possible that the playback is slow, and this is not the speed Prokofief intended ?
rsundare 2 years ago
That's a fair point, but given that there is generally a constant speed of the roll throughout this performance, the gliss at the end of the piece generally couldn't physically be played any quicker. Therefore I would suggest that this playback speed is probably accurate.
pobz100 2 years ago 2
hey this is the right tempo, check up the urtext sheet music, and it says Allegro!!! i doesnt says presto. Any way played by prokofiev is better than any other pianist because he really make me feel what he wanted to.
alexmanzo19 2 years ago 4
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No. Prokofiev forgot the tempo to his own piece.
paganiniGOGO 2 years ago
lol
hailkayy 2 years ago
Yeah I think Prokofiev wanted to every single note and beat emphasized, while today's performers (especially Huangci) opt for a slur/string effect. Though I think Martha maintains the same tempo as Prokofiev himself, though her interpretation doesn't sound as "robotic" as this one, even though this one IS the original =/
mnfchen 2 years ago
Martha maintains the same tempo? Sure about that??
Galactu5 2 years ago
Comment removed
dawggonecrazee 2 years ago
I wonder why there's a cut at about 3'30".
paulprocopolis 2 years ago
there were time limitations (I think) when he made this recording
Dazzle94 2 years ago
prokoffiew had been famous as a pianist with hands of iron! what if would have heard horowitz and argerich?
ForeverIsis 2 years ago
can u smoke rolls?
RoberTastic 2 years ago
how can a person compose such thing???
hongzai1993 2 years ago 2
It draws concentric circles above my head then hits me in the left eye with a hammer, and Im like woah, that was awesome
amadpianist 2 years ago 5
Prokofiev's performance gives the piece a floating, nightmarish quality it doesn't usually have. I approve.
Buldaner 2 years ago 7
other pianists think if they play it faster it better ........well its not the only pianist who can play prokofiev right its prokofiev him self
beethovenmetalhead 2 years ago
Is this the man himself?
emergenyexit23 3 years ago
yes.
MillyProductions 3 years ago
Comment removed
ChrisWatch 3 years ago
The piano roll makes it sound jazzy!
Anyway, much praise the brilliant mind that created such harmonic genius!
jerrytomball 3 years ago
this performance makes me feel better about myself since this is pretty much as fast as i can go on this piece!
kbuzard6 3 years ago
It's hard for me to play this piece at all; however, since it is mostly chromatic, I do find 1:25-1:31 easy.
112keys 3 years ago
I have listened to Gyorgy Sandor play this outstanding piece... he may play it fast, but Prokofiev is more dynamic in his pieces. Sandor seems just to want to show off all of the technical aspects of this piece, and it ends up very sloppy. I prefer the composer's techniques. I have a question though: At the end of this video, another piece starts to play before it ends. Does anyone know what that one is? It seems oddly farmiliar to me.
112keys 3 years ago
It's a Scriabin prelude. Op 22 no 1.
TomOwen77 3 years ago
Lol, "guy-orgy"
7Row7enn7 3 years ago
It's a piano roll for a reproducing piano cut via an actual performance by Prokofiev.
Prokofiev plays a piano, it marks the roll, the roll is then cut & copies made to be played on reproducing pianos. Everybody with a reproducing piano gets Prokofiev playing their piano.
rotoflex 3 years ago
LOL TECHNOLOGY
andsoonetcetera 3 years ago
Comment removed
DarkRaimundo 3 years ago
I highly doubt that.
Sinfoniette 3 years ago
I can almost feel how Prokofiev might have sounded in speech, its so obvious in his playing-though others have played it as performers will, Maestro plays every note as if he were conscious of each touch and note.
He will be remembered as Mozart is in the coming years.
Bruce88keys 3 years ago 4
And maybe Kabalevsky will be finally be remembered as Prokofiev.
Sinfoniette 3 years ago
I LOVE THIS RENDITION. This is really great!!!
alexongcs 3 years ago 3
This is truly a masterpiece, one of my absolute favorite pieces by prokofiev. However i recommend other recordings, Argerich for example plays this piece more convincingly than Prokofiev himself.
Psykofarmaka2008 3 years ago 2
i agree with u in all your words!!
Oahusea 3 years ago
O si es igualito como lo recuerdo hehe
hiramf11 3 years ago
what is the piece at the end
ive never heard it
agrandb 3 years ago
this is defenately N O T prokoffiew! prokoffiew, rachmaninow and bartok had been great pianist of category horowitz. but this performance is poor!
klausknulp 3 years ago
Yet it's Prokofiev's playing! ;)
Both Prokofiev and Bartok were geniuses. They also were superb pianists, but from purely pianistic point of view there were many pianists who could play better than these great composers.
truecrypt 3 years ago
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i agree with you totally!! I do not like Bartok and Prokofiev @ all. Thier compositions sound sooo messy and not very musical. I admire his percussive approach, yes, but still......there's the musicallity here???
bluematrix109 3 years ago
If you can't find musicality here, it's your problem, not Prokofiev's.
Norbeone 3 years ago 26
It is just too sophisticated for you. You should get your facts right, because according to the music society, he is one of the most technical composers in the world. The more you listen to one music era, the more you will progress and begin to enjoy other era/composers.... open your ears!
FIFAfutbol828 3 years ago 4
Prokofiev was one of the greatest melodists of the 20th century.
FrankMazeppa 3 years ago
I don't kmnow compared to horowitz and argerich they are 2 different but prokofiev has more glow and rationality in his playing.
ChrisWatch 3 years ago
I prefer Martha Agerichs version.
Its interesting to see that even composers can not always play like they would if they could. I think, P. even said this?
Nevertheless great pianist...
Appassionata90 3 years ago
At 1:34 Prokofiev doesn't play as written on his own score, with the left hand playing a sequence in reverse. Also at 1:50 he doubles the first E flat. Finally he takes a shortcut 3:34, like Horowitz, and skips a few lines.
Overall, though, he is amazingly precise and mechanical.
DrAsik100 3 years ago
lol@mechanical,you are joking aren`t you?it`s a roll....it is a player piano...paper with holes in....not a person playing
dawggonecrazee 3 years ago
I'm talking about the style, not the actual playback mechanism.
DrAsik100 3 years ago
wow how many tocattas did this man write? OH WAIT! this is that same one. -_-
why is this so different?
ibclappin 3 years ago
wow i bow to him. who could present him? when or why even, will we see him presented correctly? he reminds me of Chopin.
ibclappin 3 years ago
His XX-century style may remind of Shostakovich, Rachmaninov and Scriabin (chromatique pieces)...
f1f1s 3 years ago
Prokofiev was NO average pianist. He was extraordinary. As were most Russian composers. Their conservatories were and remain, committed to the highest standards of excellence and artistry. Neat info about piano rolls. thank you.
pakuapete 3 years ago 13
Prokofiev was one of the most influential pianists of the 20th Century, one of the first to emphasize the instrument's percussive qualities. The technical inaccuracies of a 80+ year-old piano roll don't do him justice. Listen to his 1932 recording of his 3rd Piano Concerto and you'll get a much better idea of his awesome technique.
Bobbnoxious 3 years ago 4
So.. you are russian !!
rawautube 3 years ago
Sorry, must extract my foot from my mouth, head from my ass, etc, and leave my ego on the doorstep. LOL. Scratch this Scots-Anglo-Irishman, find a TARTAR. Prokofiev had what I used to possess. One of those uncanny, used to be known as a photographic memory. See the DIsney short about Peter and the Wolf. Prokofiev auditioned at the piano, entirely from memory. I was told, that when he fled Russia for Paris, he had to discard many scores, and later recopied them all again from memory. How?
pakuapete 3 years ago
Everything written before 1917 had to be in the possession of the Soviets, then they had the choice to discard it or not. (Formalism)
FIFAfutbol828 3 years ago
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Prokofiev: Brilliant composer, average pianist.
unorthodoxatheism 3 years ago
lol nice one
pokesurfer 3 years ago
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I always hear his name, but i always forget what he is famous for. Can anyone...
heidikkchen 3 years ago
For his awsome music of course!
dmbguitar111 3 years ago 2
Ovviamente il rullo meccanico è soggetto a lievi disfunzioni in fase di riproduzione, ma è comunque interessante notare una certa morbidezza nella scansione ritmica da parte di Prokofiev. Morbidezza quasi del tutto introvabile nelle odierne esecuzioni della sua musica.
n0tkerbalbulus 3 years ago
C'est la référence... Qu'on se le dise !
EspaceArtPluriel 3 years ago
wait... did he do something?
mine is much much faster but it's 4 min and 50 sec.
O_o
classicalkid33 3 years ago
I think there is another "real time recording" of Prokofiev playing Toccata. This is a piano roll made before it...
truecrypt 3 years ago
piano roll?? what's that??
merissala 3 years ago
some bit at the begining is missing...
gkypianou 3 years ago
Hmmm.......People seem to fasten the tempo, faster then what the composer wanted.
Kalen1457 3 years ago 2
Very true.
ludwigvan17 3 years ago
Can anybody explain exactly what a piano roll is/does? I've researched them but I don't really understand how they work
AbsoluteZ3R0 3 years ago
Have you ever looked closely at the way a music box works? Little bars stick up and flick each note of the sound bars, which then vibrates. A piano roll is that in reverse (I'm remembering looking at my uncle's pianos which he restored, back when I was a kid.)
marykmusic 3 years ago
The paper in the piano roll is thick and has holes in it, corresponding to each note. When a hole appeared, the corresponding lever and hammer was activated, and the keys were depressed also. It actually looked as though a ghost were playing as the roll went through!
marykmusic 3 years ago
So these piano rolls are capable of perfectly duplicating dynamics, articulations, and phrasing as well as tempi?
AbsoluteZ3R0 3 years ago
Not perfectly all those decades go. But very well for a technology that old.
RabidCh 3 years ago
Maybe with modern piano rolls -- but people use digital technology for the same purpose now. There are many limitations for old piano rolls such as jerky playing and odd chords, just to name a few.
RabidCh 3 years ago
I was just wondering if listening to this piano roll is the same as listening to how Prokofiev really played it. What do you suppose is of a higher/ more authentic quality: an old piano roll recorded on a good piano with today's technology or a really old actual recording?
AbsoluteZ3R0 3 years ago 2
It depends on how well preserved and manufactured that piano roll is. But on a note of interest, Rachmaninov was once invited to a demonstation of the piano roll, and after playing a piece to be perforated onto one of these rolls, he said: "Gentlemen — I, Sergei Rachmaninoff, have just heard myself play!"
Jannie2044 3 years ago 3
can anyone tell me what PIANO ROLL is>???
fullyfatty 3 years ago
There's a special type of piano that can record a performance, where each key punches a hole in a piece of paper. This paper then can be fed through the piano and be played back for future listeners. These recordings of rolls tend to be 1) dynamic-less and 2) sped up or slowed down.
coasterman16 3 years ago
The best piano rolls were recorded for a Pianola, a machine with mechanical "fingers" that you rolled up to a standard grand piano. They did have dynamics - the gizmos that punched the holes were conical, so the harder you hit the bigger the hole was. But this was not a piano-roll recording. Recall that Prokofiev lived until 1944.
gspaulsson 3 years ago
Prokofiev died in 1953 - Stalin died the same day. Interesting info on Pianola mechanics! Thank you!
truecrypt 3 years ago