Added: 4 years ago
From: donthuis
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  • the 3rd and 2nd to the last arpeggios are really hard to do :(

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  • Qué idiotez típica de los soberbios y de los critican por tener el complejo de "divinidad griega". Pobres mortales jugando a ser moradores del Olimpo...

    Bravo Maestro Pollini!!! Gracias por darnos este placer imperfecto del disfrute de la música de otro imperfecto pero maravillosamente humano: Chopin.

  • @flouz2 I could only correct one, the final one. In general I noted that most people take it for granted that Pollini did NOT make mistakes. While Rubinstein once said that missing notes came naturally to him early in life. When older (beyond 40 years) he cared more for perfection and played much more strict than before...

  • @donthuis there are more, 1:39, 1:44, 1:58, but great performance nonetheless...

  • @musicioso My student friend once remarked, that once you master the 4 against 3 rythmic difference in the hands, the fantasie impromptu was tecnically not so difficult. But since he could play almost everything he wanted, he might not be the right judge. Préludes possess more problems of a non-technical nature...

  • Od kiedy Kubica jest pianistą?!

  • actually i like pollini very much because of his polonaises interpretations. in my opinion he is the best non-polish polonaises interpretator far better than argerich, horowitz, askhenazy and asian pianists.

  • Brilliant, priceless footage!

  • What was th year???

  • I loved it!!1

  • Anybody know the next time Pollini plays in Milano? Thanks in advance!

  • A rough ride on the boat from Majorca...

  • Boy, I'm sure glad I'm ignorant enough to simply enjoy the hell out of Pollini.

  • @roberthenryeller You hit it right on the nose. This is a rare look at the young Pollini. The heck with the quibbling over this detail or that and the few wrong notes. This is POLLINI -- one of the greatest. It's like getting the opportunity to watch a young Moritz Rosenthal or a young Josef Hofman.

  • Pollini was playing that as an encore last sunday in his recital in Berlin. Just splendid!

  • @vanthoff1 Hi Vanthoff. How was Pollini in Berlin? I have the chance to see him pretty soon but have to choose between him and Zimerman. Tough choice, but if it's anything like the Pollini of old I'd choose him.

  • I am not suggesting that one has to be Polish to play Chopin' music right.

    Even Chopin had admitted to Liszt upon hearing Liszt play his own compositions that Liszt's interpretation was so far superior to what Chopin could even imagine when he wrote it.

    All I said was Chopin's music has its root in various Polish dance forms but .too many pianists pay no attention to that. They are not dancers and it shows in their playing. .

    I am saying that a lot of pianists play Chopin

  • The most difficult dance form for non-Polish people is the Mazurka. The variations in tempi are quite tricky to master. A Dutch pianist of the 50's recognised for his Rachmaninoff interpretations, Cor de Groot was well aware of this. This aspect can not be covered by the musical notation, but should be conveyed in person. I still have his historical Mazurka interpretations's in a full set on CD.

  • Sorry, but that is NOT what Chopin admitted. Chopin admired Liszt's technique and the uncanny ability Liszt had to sightread the most difficult of Chopin's etudes. He never discussed matters of interpretation.

    You might be thinking of Rachmaninoff, who said that Horowitz's Rach3 was far superior to his own.

  • @FredilYupigo

    I distinctly remember reading an eyewitness to Chopin's reaction to Liszt' playing his etudes. I recalled that Chopin said Liszt's imagination exceeded what Chopin himself had hope for in the piece .

    Also, if Rachmaninoff said such complements of Horowitz then I think it's utterly ungenuine for Horowitz is an ideosyncratic player not worthy of his fame. Rachmaninoff is a far better interpreter and pianist..

  • @leopianotuner Both of you need to realize that composers didn't actually have to mean the COMPLIMENTS they were giving to the pianists.

    Think about it. If you (a composer) had a world-class pianist playing one of your own compositions. Wouldn't you -at least out of courtesy- tell them how brilliant you thought they were?

    It doesn't really mean much. Plus, Rach was known to be overly humble. He -allegedly- told many other pianists the same.

  • Pollini won the prize because he exuded the spirit of Chopin. Pollini was 19 yrs old when he won the competition and played Chopin No. 1 concerto, written by Chopin when he was 19 yrs old. Too many pianists play that concerto with too much thoughts and reflection while that Pollini played it just right---youthfully, with dashing bravura, a piece truly full of excitement.

    The old man Pollini has some other outstanding Chopin playing too found in YouTube, but not all are good..

  • Most foreign pianists don't pay attention to the authenticating a song. They don't play the music with the original nationalistic flavor. In pop music this is very apparent. Just listen to a french guy sing an American song or an American guy sing a french song and you get the picture. 

    The same goes for classical music interpretation. Most foreign pianists plays nicely but it is apparent that they have no idea of the music's original songform, and native style.

    A

  • noone can play this prelude perfect lol

    the best is arrau for this one

  • Unbelievable, this is my favorite prelude by my favorite pianist. I saw him two years ago at Carnegie Hall, and he wasunbelievable...Debussy Etudes, Chopin Scherzos, Chopin Etudes, Ab Polonaise, and the Boulez Second Piano Sonata played with commanding authority and passion.

  • ... reminds me of the young michelangeli somehow ...

  • what a pleasure to look at pollini´s young mastership.actually i have to admit that i like the young pollini much more than the older,although one could assume that his musical potency must be bigger in the more advanced years,but he has lost so much freshness and composure over the years.

  • He plays without emotion or conviction, nor with slavic zeal.....it sounds somewhat tedious, actually.

  • 1:12 isn't emotion?

  • Do you mean the look on his face?

  • Nonsense. He plays beautifully with lots of passion, and sometimes even tenderness -- he gets a lot into this one short piece! Not tedious at all. And why would "slavic zeal" be appropriate here? Is that kind of zeal different from zeal associated with other nationalities? If your point is to connect Chopin with his Polish background, there are many world-class musicians who'd disagree. Many of the best Chopin players aren't Polish and would say that music is an international language.

  • AspenTOm, musical purists like me enjoy anything authentic and true to its roots, be it in cooking, language, or music.. As examples, ....when I hear an American orchestra play Rossini's Barber of Seville, iI never feel as if it' sounds authentic Italian because all the accents and nuances are in the wrong place. Similarly, when an an American speaks Spanish It' sounds horrible . One can make out what he is saying in spanish but his accents shows he doesn't know the language..

  • Composers and most performers (including all the leading conductors in the world) would disagree with you entirely. Music is an international language. And the statement about and orchestra having all the wrong accents and nuances is pure hogwash! This is the same drivel that Wagner touted when he said Mendelssohn could never play or compose German music because he'd always have his hissing, Jewish accent. The counter examples to your statements above and below are countless.

  • He knows the language, just a different iteration of it.

  • That's really silly. Are you telling me there are ZERO Americans in this world who can speak perfect Spanish? In music, Spanish people went crazy for Artur Rubinstein. Yet he's Polish. Yet he's Jewish. Can you hear inherent Jewishness in Rubinstein and Heifetz? Christian Tetzlaff explicitly stated in an interview that nationality does not enhance or hinder affinity to particular music.

  • My point is that music is national, not international.

    Most music were composed with the art istic ideals of the composer's native land, ideas culled from local songs and native folkloric dances.

  • AspenTom, the same with a slavic feel. Yes, a slavic zeall has a distinct style., so don't confuse that with other nationalities. They call it "zal", a sort of melancholic ache. This Pollini plays a continental Chopin, you might say, not the real thing.

  • There are people who can tell a person's nationality from his accent, or from his piano playing style. There are those who , like you, lack sophistication. You don't have a discriminating taste and thus you aren't able to perceive or even comprehend original styles, hence authenticity is not important to you.....Evverything is a hogwash international style in your pathetic simple (or mixed up) mind..

  • Well then, I guess I'll just have to join my international colleagues (Argerich, Uchida, Schiff, Hough, Li, Kwan, Oppens, Frank, Kissin, Friere, Toradze, Pressler, Brendel, Weissenberg, Perriah, Gould, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Perlmutter, Olssohn, Hamlin, Janis, and many more who all trained in different countries, have different nationalities, and manage repertoires that are different from their individual countries of birth and do so at an international level: all unsophisticated and pathetic.

  • I would defy anyone to listen to 10 performances of a Beethoven work and identify the nationalities of the performers. Even works or genres of which their countries of origin are fiercely proud (Vienne waltzes, Polonaises, etc.) can be authentically performed by non-natives - without an accent. Bernstein was revered as a Mahler conductor by the Viennese, Uchida is legendary in Germany and Austria for her Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart; the Poles loved Pollini's Chopin. And so on...

  • @TheAspenTom I agree ! Chopin n'est pas un compositeur folkloriste ou ethnique : les Polonais n'ont rien qui les prédispose à mieux comprendre ou jouer Chopin que les autres. Du reste, ils ne le jouent pas mieux que les autres ! On pourrait même dire, sauf exceptions notables, ils le jouent plus mal que les autres...

  • his playing is so crystal clear

  • My favorite piece by Chopin. :)

  • Really, wow thats new. I am glad you like this one!

  • How old was he when this video was recorded?

  • Wonderful!!

  • Thank you for uploading this amazing performance! Absolutely incredible, Thank you. I have never had the opportunity to hear and see so many different amazing interpretations since I started watching you tube.

  • mamma mia... mamma mia... this is really out of limits, the real chopin in pollini...

  • Kicks fuking ass ! Chopin was a badass!

  • Looks like a young Vladimir Horowitz

  • yah, both are genius

  • Looks like Robert Kubica

  • rzeczywiscie! :)

  • This is my favorite rendition of this on youtube for the first half. Up until the crazy descending thirds. I think he loses it a bit there. I wish i could trill like that though. Jesus.

  • Magnifique!

  • To my great surprise this video outperforms all my other contributions. Twice the Enrico Pace and Fado's popularity and multiple the other ones, in which I put much more creative effort. So from a marketing point of view I'm succesfull, isn't it? Once I contemplated removing it from my overview, now I like the debates it inspires... :-D on (thuis)

  • Which one is the fake?

  • For the original with the wrong final note see the version by yoshimaninoff elsewhere. Mine is the one he never played so well :-D on

  • aw, why'd you go tamper  with this amazing piece of footage?

    the 'final note' is what made this video epic, man!

  • 0:08 - 0:39-0:40 - 1:08-1:09 these notes are epic! sooo thrilling....

  • well, actually 1 or 2 seconds before the mentioned.. this happened because i saw the timer just after the 'epic notes' had been played, therefore it looks a bit delayed :D

  • more calm and controlled than argerich

    im still debating which i like better

  • pianists back in those days so realistic in expression, nobody in the modern day can ever reproduce such a thing

  • My alltime favorite!

  • He does look a little uncomfortable with this one technically (compared to op28n8 where there seems to be absolutely zero struggling).

  • Well you've got both versions now, so take your pick. As I said before: it was fun to me...

    Nowadays, professional pianists never publish performances with such enormous mistakes anymore, technicians just remove them as I did. YouTube contains a lot of old material when such practices were not common practice.

  • Not a big deal, but why did you correct that?

    First, it's a live performance, which means, supposed to show the actual performance of the artist.

    Second, it's quite a fun/amusing thing when an accomplished pianist makes a mistake as something that can't possibly any easier, at the end of an advanced piece like this.

    Also, the dissonance make for a cool, dark effect - gave me the idea to play that intentionally :)

    It should've been left the way it was imo, but as I said, "no big deal"

  • Pollini never gives the most precise interpretations, though they're SO gorgeous and melodic and cantabile that you don't friggin care!

  • @aldebussy Pollini never the most precise? If there is one thing most people agree about him is that he is the most precise.

  • @classicalalways

    pollini has got a great technique but the most precise pianist who plays chopin is zimerman. this guy is totally awsome. i listened to a lot of his performance and actually i never heard any mistake or false... zimerman has just a gift - he always hits right.

  • @mx19idlewilder "most precise" being Zimerman? Never any mistake? Zimerman is legendary for editing many of his recordings, more so than most pianists. So if you want to hear a note perfect pianist, you'll get it with him after he records pieces over and over. I may not be the biggest Pollini fan, which is true, but Zimerman's Chopin is not as precise. The question is whether you think Zimerman has a better style or feel for the music - and that I think is very much a good discussion.

  • @classicalalways

    you know, i heard krystian's few times live and another few live recordings and actually i didn't heard any single false note during any of chopin's compositions he played.

    i.e. mauritzio made few mistakes in this prelude, but despite of this hes got great technique.

    but lets be honest - every pianist makes mistakes even the greatest and thats a normal thing because chopin's compositions are so comlicated.

    as i said he is the only one who i never heard making any mistake.

  • @classicalalways

    and yeah, thats ture - discussion about interpretation of the compositions is far better than childish arguing who hits the keyboard clearer.

    i'm quite a fan of pollinis talent because of how he plays polonaises. hes the best non-polish interpretor of polonaises and only few polish pianists can play them better than him IMO (i love his version of op.44 who he recorded for DG over 30 years ago).

    btw. listen to zimerman's sonata op.35 youtube.com/watch?v=ihjDQbMTZI­o (live)=)

  • extraordinar! a lot of fury and spirit

  • how did you sync the video up with the audio?

  • I use the MAGIX Video de luxe (plus) 200x programme, in which this function is present since a number of years, my present version is 2007. I guess Pinnacle provides for the same facility in Pinnacle 10 and 11 (I stopped at version 9 because of too many program crashes, so I did not follow their development). MAGIX VdL provides A/V forward or backward shifts on the sound channel(s) with respect to the image in steps of 1 image minimum to a very high number. (In PAL 25 images equal one frame).

  • THANKS alot. That really helped me out.

  • You're welcome.. With Pollini synchronisation was easy: when his finger reaches the key the tone should come straightaway. And within 1/25th of a second precise on a magnified timescale of the timeline. With normal amateur movies it sometimes is frustrating to look for a clear A/V-moment to sync upon. Professionals use "clap-boards" on purpose for every take..

  • Sorry i don't understand very well. You say you have a program to erase the mistakes that are did in the piano??

    And that all the pianists have their interpretation with many errors but technicians remove them all?

    Thanks for your answer.

  • Not in the way I described earlier. I just realised this piece contains two equal notes at the end and copied the first to the last position, after erasing the faulty one. Professional studio's record several takes of the same music and assemble the best parts afterward seamlessly. So they can replace any part they like. However not all pianists like this (Horowitz did not) and rather accept some errors equal to those on live performances.

  • Yeah, it's kinda like cheating to me. . .

  • Thanks for sharing!

    Wonderful, wonderful Pollini, and Wonderful, wonderful prelude!

  • Thanks a lot for uploading this corrected version :)

  • It was fun, despite the extra challenge in 4:3 screenformat and A/V synchronisation... :-D on

    PS: In the near future I will also upload Enrico Pace's Liszt performances in the proper format.

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