Jeffrey Lee playing Scriabin Etude op 8 no 12 rerecorded

[areshuan]

Insuperable !

[tapaddtiiiii]

I've seen a few virtuosos perform this, and some of them, though having a mastery over the execution, lacked the expression - the soul of the music. You have it man, I'm proud of you.

- Random guy on the internet who loved your playing

[chei1]

very talented. record at better quality please.

[mermodfreres]

DAMN! You are amazing. There's passion in your playing and it's pretty breath-taking. Thanks for sharing your talents!

[blaxors]

good, very good

[ocsound1]

It was a really solid performance,

if you want feedback I think there's a lack of dynamic contrast within the chords themselves, more of a voicing contrast.. it will sound less overly chordy in the repeated chord section I hear the ba da da da of the repeated chords over the melody, but again, let yourself melt into the tragedy of the piece and become dark crying out in the beginning then slipping into sublime intensity through the middle section returning to the cry as an all out scream

[molecoladimollica]

Really awesome! The technique is very good, but the most important thing is the expression, and you are very very expressive! Great performance! If i were Abbado i would you play in my orchestra always!

[Hanamaman]

Very beautiful! I love this piece. when I watched a movie "Besieged" I discovered this song in the movie and I fell in love with it right away. I don't know anything about piano or music but you are great! Have you seen the movie? If you have not I recommend you to watch it. I liked how this pieace was played in the movie.

[MrTiagoCCosta]

I like you interpretation very much. It's intense and expressive too. I like also Cortot's.

[AndreyGranko]

you are a genius! i cried.

[doothless]

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your wonderful talent.

[dietyAndrewLai]

holy fuck you play this song like 1000x better than the one i uploaded lmao, i should rerecord too

[Asphyyxia]

I am practicing this piece slowly first - Is this right?

[gtimny]

Well done!

[Maticomp]

WOW!!! I totally LOVE it! I was never hoping for THAT SUPERB interpretation when I found the video first.

[calflyboy]

EXCELLENT ! MUCH better than the Etude #10 and the Mephisto which WERE pretty good. But this Scriabin interpretation is really MASTERLY !

[mannycl]

Excellent interpretation and with a very orginal style. Your use of the pedal and the strength in the left hand chords add an incredible Romantic sense of angst to this etude. No need to compare your playing to anybody else. Everybody is unique and so are you. Best of luck.

[htshoward]

All of that power coming out of such a smaller framed guy. Amazing. Your playing is reminiscent of Horowitz. I love the Scriabin Etudes.

[doothless]

Ahhhh, wonderful!

[gerardbedecarter]

A favourite (under the new system)!

[bebevoice]

I love this piece and you played it very well =)

[JZS713]

I was wondering if you were actually playing it closer to the kissin interpretation than the horowitz one?

The breakdown was the most impressive part to me.

[mraxeguy]

I really, really love this performance. Thanks for the upload :].

[ilichtube1]

This is fantastic. I have bookmarked only Horowitz and yours performance. You two are the best I've ever heard !

[Shogunmiyuchan]

What about the version of Scriabin playing it himself? :P

[mrkwonsony]

thanks again, I'll try and practice with that new 4 formulas you gave and I'm just happy that It might work and actually even improve my dilemma better. haha. Cheers :) May God bless your prospects.

[mrkwonsony]

renown school for piano, Juilliard makes me quite happy and unbelievable haha. I'll work on something even at least technically easier pieces because right now I don't or haven't recorded any of those pieces that I can perform. I wonder what and how more difficult pieces you've gotta do more since you'd already even played "Islamey" and in my ignorant small knowledge world it's like "oh, dude, what more pieces are you left to practice with ?" hah. loool. Half joke, half I mean it, yet anyways,

[mrkwonsony]

Wow, what can I do for you, wow it's just so thankful to hear some useful tips which I've never tried before, and H.R #6 was the only one that I haven't known before, but I just checked and I totally agree with it. Maybe I'll try one of three and show you some progress haha. actually for La camp, I'd done reading the notes and actually i'm in a slump because I can't speed up for that piece but haha, i'll try the other 2 pieces as well. Also the fact that I can actually have a friend from such

[mrkwonsony]

do you practice like octaves-killing kind of pieces ? I do practice Hanon, but they ain't helping me because I can barely reach from at the end of C to very slightly touch next octave D, so which total is 9 keys but really with maximum stretch that reduces the flexibility or relaxation of my wrist. I don't know if you can help me or even read this but thanks anyways and good luck, love to hear more pieces especially those virtuosic masterpieces. :)

[slicejl152]

hey! thanks for your kind words. i'm not graduated yet. I'm a third year undergrad student at Juilliard in New York City. My parents are Taiwanese but I was born in Utah and grew up in Colorado. I do have small hands like you. I can reach a 10th at very slow speeds and at pianissimo haha. For practicing octaves I just suggest playing octave scales in a few different ways. 1) staccato from the wrist 2) flexible wrist (legato) 3) from the arm (firm wrist). And perhaps some arpeggios in octaves

[slicejl152]

and try to keep relaxed. with relaxation comes speed. if you try going faster than you can, you may hurt yourself.

good pieces to train octaves may be hungarian rhapsody 6, la campanella, and of course scriabin 8/12. good luck :) Thanks again for the encouraging words!

[mrkwonsony]

I kind of think, by the last name of yours, you might be a Korean, or American with your parents blood, anyways, just envy you, considering you are any of Asian by looking at your hands, you might have small hands yet perform pretty much large range of your repertoire. If you were a renown and I didn't recognize that, then I owe you an apology, but I don't see the clips like your performances. If were a improfessional, or non-graduated student, how far do you reach on the keys, and if I may, how

[mrkwonsony]

Hey, Jeff, "slicejl152", are you some kind of a 'already-graduated' performer ? I'm asking because I don't really see clips of your own performing in audience but those recorded at your own place that even has a Grand piano, although it's merely a baby Grand by the size I reckon, still, you play even "Islamey" yet with occasional mistakes but STILL, you get my point ? no explanation of yourself who plays more than a normal guy but seems not a graduated professional pianist ? Who are you ? and

[Und1ne]

This is really good

[spike2133876]

ur sitting to far off the stool, it looks like you might fall off any moment. I was thikning of playing this piece, please respond of how hard this piece is. and wat i should and how i should pracitce to get this piece down right. thank you

[slicejl152]

hey. ya people have told me i sit far away. i like it that way :)

umm i think its not as hard as many of the other things that scriabin has composed. it is pretty short and a solid octave technique is just about all you need to get through it. just practice it as you would with any other piece. slowly and with your brain :) good luck!

[Ianthe22]

@slicejl152 Depends. Well yea, the piece isn't probably pretty easy to learn notewise. But the feeling is different for every recording, even among the masters. I don't know how to explaine this.. erhh.. The melodie is very easy and the piece is not too long. But the theme and feeling can be fine tuned a lot in this piece. Like compare the Evgeny version and the Horowitz version. It's like hollywood/america versus russia/revolutionsomething. Think the key is where you choose to play weak or hard

[oklymaster]

Sexy!

[camaysar222]

Nice playing, a little bangy. Jeffrey, look at the ryhthm of the theme. If it were Bach, you'd play the 16th notes to go with the LH triplets. But in Scriabin, the 16th must be a 16th, so it must occur after the last of the LH triplet eighth notes. That is, the 16ths must be sharp and short. You play them as triplet eighth notes, and it robs the theme of its character. Please correct this, and you will make it better!

[camaysar222]

On second thought, I think the banginess is the result of the recording, because I can hear that you are playing with good dynamics. You also correct the 16ths later in the piece. But they should be faster when you first state the theme at the beginning. It's a simple fix... you really should make the correction.

[davecotuit]

this is more lyrical than any other performance i have heard, dare i say more beautiful? yes, i think so. your right hand staccato at 1.54 is superb! and of course you play with such passion and fire...bravo!

[davidgray2]

Maybe think more about the rhythm of the right hand at the start..is seems to be quavers rather than dotted (maybe it was intentional?) Very powerful, personal playing though...well done!

[callenishss]

damn, this guy has a grand in his house!!!

[trigalg693]

So???....

[Lauritz1]

Oh yeah.......!

[wetteefun]

Awesome, even better than the first recording.

[cchamp27]

hell yeah. nice performance

[bulbulxp]

omfg... excellent!!!

[lkrsrulez08]

some sexy playing

[callenishss]

weird rubato but good technique

[JZS713]

not really, the rubato is good, very good actually. as good as the technique definitely. this sounds like horowitz's performances almost. you are an inch away from perfection

[callenishss]

horowitz does NOT do impressionistic music well. lang lang has such an abstract and spontaneous character that this is one of the very few pieces that he actually surpasses horowitz and others in

[JZS713]

fyi this is what horowitz is famous for so i cant agree with what you're saying. and this is not impressionistic, scriabin was late romantic like rachmaninov, not debussy/ravel.

[mrkwonsony]

I believe he wasn't exactly a late romanticism, rather, lot of descriptions say that he was at his peak from late romantic to early modern, or i should say the era of between them passing by, but they also had their own name, I can't spell exactly but, a mysterism. He was famous for his belief in music more like a religion and made his mysterism with the idea of synthesia. I kind of tried to translate the ideaology based of mystery/magic from my language but wtvr. no offence obviously.

[saintdracula]

Watch your mouth! Let's see what you can do.

[thecryptic1970]

Much better for me the first recording. Specially the breathless final. I think that shows better Scriabin's essence. Jeffrey, you are a genius.

[gerardbedecarter]

Technically and musically splendid playing. Good dynamic variations - important in a piece like this, otherwise it is too "full on". Is this the only piece in D sharp minor (6 sharps) apart from the Bach Prelude & Fugue Book One?

[sparticusfinch]

dude you're my idol.

[msl37431]

Change your ID name to Kingsucksky you loser.

[Skygrapped]

that's so ridiculous

[msl37431]

What's ridiculous about what I said.. I'm just replying to Kingstravinsky who is saying Jeffrey Lee sucks.

[Skygrapped]

I think I wanted to reply to another comment not yours sry

[stienwayz]

You play this very well man! I love the middle section... very much care to the dynamics! Keep it up!

[celpiano2]

you do too, so does smithsherman

[supersmashmike45]

Excellent work

[supersmashmike45]

Excellent work

[flugelmaniac]

Fantastic....I'll buy your CD's in the future

[clockwurkhamster]

!@#!@# this song is good. im a lee too. viva la lees

[Kryptykk]

Excellent performance! One of the best interpretations that I have heard.

[violintviolinist]

but i think your first four notes in the right hand are too..even. aren't they eighth notes tied to sixteenths or something like that? i don't remember.but i guess it is your own interpretation..

[beyond9001]

yea, the doubles did seem a bit lengthed out more than usual

otherwise, the rest is really good =)

[violintviolinist]

even better than your last video on this...

[alanlej]

on the internet & youtube at least, this is one of the very extremely few (masters included) interpretation where it's played right, i.e beautifully. Not playing it with the regularity of a metronome but with lots of rubato, changes of tempo with gives that kind of "despair" touch it was meant to have. The midpart, though a little powerfull, as the dreamish and nostalgic tone it must have while most pianist play it as if it was meant to be danced somehow!

[klausknulp]

this is a very well done interpretation! congratulations!

[diablo41]

At 00.49 there is an arab subliminal message!

[Skygrapped]

Can anybody translate it???

[monkfishseye]

fuck yeah!

so wunderfull powerfull and punctuated it might be like a metal-version, which i mean as a compliment, i might also suggest this because of the raw , a bit noisy sound of the recording, but to me it feels just right

right on !

[beercan75]

Wonderful, passionate and expressive. Awesome artistry.

BC

[ppx79]

wow, Jeff (this is Pan by the way), this is great.  I've always loved this piece.

[jiminie612]

That was beautiful. (:

[burobbi]

great improvement from e previous! curious, did u model this after any1? horowitz? a tiny suggestion: scriabin was a famous synasthete; he sees colour in music, so his harmonies tend to be colourful, imaginative and above all, significant! @ 0'55 or 1'06 the small dark minor 9ths wld be great to show! e many dissonances as well; the piece wld then be more full bodied and flavourful! jus be careful, dont make it sound too virtuosic or martellato. otherwise, its brilliant. Bravo!

[LVB1770]

BRAVO! Excellent performance! Only advice I can give you is to listen the Scriabin piano rolls. On you tube search Scriabin piano roll. Also, Listen to John Bell Young on You Tube. He did a master class on the piece.

[ChrisWatch]

evgeny kissins interpretation is one of a kind and truthfully kissins interpretation is more understable in the big climax such as horowitz rushing thru it but i fear kissin may have practiced it to much before going onto stage anyways we have our bad days this i really like i wish you would get a better mic...

[chopin5440]

very musical interpretation//nice piano too, what kind is it?//very good power and accuracy//you should be proud of your ability//I like your repertoire selection with your other videos also. Great to see these staples performed well//don't every stop!!

[slicejl152]

yamaha c5. thanks :)

[lyricalsibelius]

you amaze me.

[RalleStar]

You pranked that piece pretty nicely.

[loves2listen]

i am dying... too goood

[pianogirl714]

definately one of the best interpretations i've seen!!

[Chopinesque]

Jeffrey, BRAVO!! That was outstanding! You are incredibly talented! I agree with PianoPlaya...one of the best interpretations on here!

[tinkleneko]

lol both my mom and dad said you play this better than kissin plays it. like.. you take more time and are more relaxed.

[tinkleneko]

hm the recording quality is a bit better in this one compared to the other one o.O and i like how you take time in some places in this one. sounds great =]

[kwastormayt]

really good

[RustyTube]

Wow!

[UncleNathan]

Quite astonishing, young man. I note the improvements over the first take. The sound is a bit too rattling and percussive on my poor computer speakers, but I don't think that's your fault. Don't forget that the piece ebbs and flows like a great river throughout, from the softest sounds to the great roar. Give it a chance to breathe in the right places and I think you've just about nailed it! Bravo!!!

[insektuo]

loved the end crescendo...and everything else...so much talent!! congrats jeff

[strider881]

bravo!!

[alanlej]

in my opinion there is very few good interpretations of this very hard piece. This is one of the very very few beautifull and faithfull along with john bell young's. Two thumbs up!

[DUNK2007]

amazing performance! Thanks for uploading this! :-)

[lyricalsibelius]

ok i seriously keep watching this over and over again because it makes me speechless.

[lyricalsibelius]

jeff is a superb pianist.

:]

[milo1111]

Your first playing was very good. This was even better!! I agree with the other comment here -you did an amazing job with that crescendo towards the end of the piece. Wow.

[Masatsu]

superb!

[PianoPlaya123]

I like this a lot better than the first playing, you seem more relaxed and you bring out the melody a lot better. Clearly one of the best interpretations on here. Also near the end where the melody is played from the beginning, you have a crescendo that goes all the way until the end and it was flawless, nice work

[cziffra1980]

Very good shape and contrast. Much better than that awful Kissin performance.

[Frenchandproudofit]

"Cziffra1980", incompetent piano monkey, can you play with both your hands 1/1000 as well as Kissin plays with fingers 3,4,5 of his left hand? Oh, I see, I thought so!!

Jefrey Lee, good job. You're not a wannabe semi-amateur like the fake Cziffra(1980).

[cziffra1980]

You really have nothing better to do than search out my comments and make sad attempts to insult me? I'm not a 'semi-amateur' by the way. I'm an amateur and would not describe myself as anything else. If comparison is what you're into, then perhaps you should upload films of yourself playing the piano...

[etwade]

I have to agree that the Kissin is pretty bad, and yes, he can probably play better with 3 fingers than I can, but that doesn't change the fact that his performance of Scriabin 8/12 is very bland.

[cziffra1980]

Don't put yourself down. I'm sure you could make a better tone with your arse than Kissin could with all his fingers. His tone is awful.