Koji Attwood plays Scriabin Sonata #5, Op. 53

[chelomustis]

i had the fortune to work with him a few months, he replaced my piano teacher for a while!!! he is absolutely awesome both as a performer and as a teacher, i remember i would walk by his office at 7 30 in the morning and he would warm up with chopin concerto 2... one of the best pianists i've seen, and he's actually very cool and nice too!!!

[Chachboon1]

That was just BEAST.

[okera123]

Good job! That A major ending is gangsta!!!!! Almost destroyed my inclination to learn this piece. (ussually only learn peices that have potentials yet to be explored by existing interpretations. ) Your rendition seems to bring this piece to its maximum. Even I would be challenged to play it after hearing you.

[dawidmysle]

what a great performance! Bravo! The presto is so tricky to get right at speed!!!

[Atma505]

Can anyone who's ever played a piece this long without any sheet music tell me how you do it?? I can't imagine it's even possible unless you really love what you're playing.

[jonorulz]

practice practice practice. thats about it.

the more you play something, the more your brain just learns it. its just the same way you'd memorise any other piece really.

nice performance by the way. thanx for the vid. :)

[ibclappin]

Scriabin himself.

[Atma505]

What about him?

[rudy117041]

I know a 14 year-old kid who can play EVERY song from Lord of the Rings from memory.

[Ravel87]

@rudy117041 lmao

[DmitriMose]

@Atma505 If you have the music memorized in your head, you have the piece memorized. There's not really an explanation for that question. That's just it. Passages you've played over 100 times, unless you have some memory impairment, you'll have it memorized! I've played this piece. Also, if you love it, it kinda plays in your heart. Memorization is always the last thing a pianist needs to worry about, I think.

[keeskogel3291]

Ha ha ha ha!!!! Oh come on--I've heard already a lot worse than that! And besides, I find he plays the work quite well--he gives it a stucture and a meaning.

[fmz0507]

I like your works.Bravo!!!

please watch my works,I'm a composer age:13

[Chiikun19]

Brilliant!

I like Scriabin's misterious music.

This piece is very difficult, but this performance is filled with beauty.

[phecez]

i'm confused ... i don't know the piece too well but i just looked at the score and it seems that attwood added a bass note at the very end? is my score missing it or did he just add it for effect? thnx

[keeskogel3291]

I'm afraid you're right--that last base note was--in my opinion unnecessarily, unless he was following an earlier or later edition by possibly Scriabin himself--added. What motivated him to do that I don't know...it struck me as well. Good performance otherwise--but I did'nt understand that element either.

[hedgehod]

the most difficult solo piano piece ever written !!!!

great!!

[dnjnyc]

This is good stuff -- he has a great feel for Scriabin, and that includes the mysterious slow sections.

The two great high points (after 7:59, and from 11:05 to the end) need to be more thoroughly unhinged -- you just have to be a madman.

But what's with his ending?? That last bash in the bass is completely manufactured, unless he has some bizarre edition I've never seen. It ruins Scriabin's version of closure here, which shouldn't be "grounded" like that, but shoot off into orbit!

[sagalat]

Fine performance. But I must agree with "cy1992's" comments on "yaleguy's" deep analysis. Here in Yonkers, New York we have an expression: "Yaleguy, if you'd take your boyfriend's dick out of our mouth for a second, and the diseased gerbil outta yr ass, you might, just MIGHT, make sense some day. And for God's sake, STOP breaking yr Prozac in half...Take THE WHOLE THING...Mainline it thru yr rectum." Thanks for listening.

[keeskogel3291]

HUUUUH???

Uhm--what about the performance?

[thexalon]

Well played! That technical ability is impressive! It's definitely a tough piece: I can just about make it through the exposition right now, and that was after working on it for a long time.

My only comment is that I think if you did some theory work, you might find some more ideas of how to bring out some of the structure a bit more. For instance, early on in the development I'd increase the contrast between the various themes to show how they're being mixed together.

[Alvarordonez]

Great!! I like this performance

Bravo!!

[loves2listen]

WWOOOOWW!!!

[marcelmombeek]

yes, this is a very good performance, and I think the use of the pedal is GOOD, I do not like the dry interpreation of richter... I think sometimes LITTLE bit to fast, but it is a very good performance!

[Etudes]

nope

it is the right tempo for me

[yaleguy]

You're an idiot, blackboy. Get a piano teacher and see if you can learn "Raindrops are Falling on Your Heaad". Maybe the one-finger at a time approach won't t over tax you.

[cy1992]

Hey Moron!! Sounds like you're so jealous. You should go take some related music courses in the music department at Yale. That will set you straight.

-from a Columbia girl who is a music major

[cy1992]

Sorry, my previous message was a reply to the "Yaleguy".

This is a marvellous performance, of course!

[tyrannosauromon]

lol barnard

[tsiganski]

What are you talking about? Atwoods plays it wonderfully. What IS incredibly bad is your arrogance, guy, and for someone who can't play, and hides behind a screen name, thats saying a great deal.You are out of your league, blackbwel. Just stay put in Turkey and with any luck, you and your house be hit by an incoming scud.

[mayashutka]

Nonsense. You don't know what you're talking about, little boy. It's a fine performance. "Feeling emotiopns" while playing such complex music is the disopsition of rank amateurs. That must be you. Grow up little boy. You are no piosition to judge anyone, andif you are going to engage in critque, then be prepared to make it specific in compositional and historical interpretive categories. Ask John Bell Young or Margarita Fyodorova,; they will set you straight.

[crowdmaker]

"'Feeling emotions' while playing such complex music is the disopsition of rank amateurs"

Um. I have no idea where you learnt that from. But, um, unlearn it. Scriabin of all (late-romantic) composers too! Horowitz would def. disagree with what you said, and I can't think of any professional pianist who wouldn't agree too. All classical music in general is to be enjoyed rather than drily 'appreciated', both by the performer and the listener.

[robbiethemann]

hear, hear!!!

[morifanuck]

Very well done! Don't worry about the hooligan intheblackwelin, who is only 20, and hasn't a clue. He is just some obnoxious wannabe in a terrorist country, exercising his very own brand of international terrorism. We'll deal with him severely and ruthlessly in time, trust us on that. Just let us know if he causes you any more trouble. As you know, Scriabin wanted lots of pedal: i.e, the frequent use of pedals in varying degree: half, and quarter pedals, and in continual fluctuation.

[psychokaz]

Incredible control of line - and the jumps (those f-ing things) are well done, too. Bravo!

[John11inch]

FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK DA TRUDOC

[dnephi]

Since all of Liszt's pupils used this trick, it is assumed that he taught it.

[sinvicks080]

i just watched the first 20-30 seconds and i kno its already amazing

[lovesGenet]

My fave Skryabin sonata.I 'm so happy to be able to watch this.I play #4 but i adore #5.Wow

[deetak]

nice

[cziffra1980]

Keep separating the hands please. It sounds perfectly natural to me. I don't understand why it's frowned upon today (What orchestra plays every note together?) All the pianists with good voicing skills used this trick. Nice to hear left hand after right in tenor voices sometimes (as well as right after left) for once. Great playing. Your pacing of dynamics and balancing of texture reminds of the Horowitz style.

[crystal130h]

Another observation, and this is kind of funny, with regard to these compressed videos. Some of the hand/arm movements are so fast in this piece, where the arm is quickly thrown back and forth between one three-note chord and another, that sometimes one hand position fell completely between frames and was not visible on the video! I suppose this happens a lot on YouTube videos, I just never noticed it before...

[crystal130h]

One small thing I noticed though, and it's not so much a criticism as an observation, and I noticed it on your playing of a Scriabin prelude (also VERY well played)...is a use of a technique whereby contrapuntal melody lines are emphasized by playing some notes that are written on the same beat slightly staggered (one note after the other). It's not the choice I would make; I find it a little jarring, but I realize it is a valid choice and it does help bring out the lines.

[DRMMR1]

your an idiot - It was amazing - PERIOD

[qivory]

Such performance practice was done qute a lot at the turn of the 20th century. Some recordings from that era show this staggered beat effect on almost every bass note.

[crystal130h]

Thank you, it's refreshing to hear a good and proper performance of that piece, after having just listened to another one on YouTube that just didn't work for me. Excellent contrasts, emphasis of important notes, crisp articulation, and well-played overall (this is an extremely difficult piece).

[Bulacanos]

Yah Yah Yaaah!!!!

[pian000]

the sound quality could be better, but your technical skill is =}