Classic Archive Trailer: Alexis Weissenberg

[mammonak]

una macchina perfetta

[Jigov]

He died 8th January 2012, just few days ago. It was a big los for all Bulgarians and probably for the whole world. His vision for music is so much more than just playing.. i am sorry i did not have the chance to meet him. He died in Swizerland at age of 82. RIP.

[FirstGentleman1]

R.I.P.

[francito77]

Wow!!! Sad that i didn't know him before!!!

[lisadotdash]

What a lovely obituary in the NYTimes. Had to look this man up. He is unbelievable. Condolences to the family.

[MrWillthemoose]

RIP Alexis, you legend !!

[xGoVEGAN4aLARGEdicKx]

RIP Alexis

[bonniebardowski]

fantastic

[samthemusicguy]

Rest in peace Maestro Weissenberg! thank you for your art..

[iamrepete]

GENEVA (AP) - Bulgarian-born French pianist Alexis Weissenberg, whose love of music from the age of 3 saved him and his mother from a German-guarded camp during World War II and carried him to the musical heights of 20th century performances with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein, has died. He was 82.

[Jigov]

@iamrepete well music did not saved him :)but the connections of his father :P anways he is briliant but dont forget who was his teacher - Pancho Vladigerov - he is THE MAN.

[cher19952]

0:28 - 0:30 ...

[PaulRx4]

Not playing?? the same performance with worse video work is also here at you tube

Then tell me is not not playing!! I suppose being on the Moon was a video fake also.

Maybe they were lip synching!!!!! have a laugh

[paschishod]

A dancer hear a music and dance with his/her body and then you can enjoy the dancing , a musician dacne with his/her body and made a music and you can enjoy the music.

[traktus5]

fantastik performance and piece, isn't it. It's his playing, but FYI, for the film, he is just doing hte motions and not playing.

[martimtavares]

If this is not inspiring, then i don't know what can be

[infajoe]

small hand compare with me

[xyaqua]

I love this performance, and every time i look at it after a few months, i am consistently overawed. The cinematography is superb, The execution is beyond comparison. Weissenberg is truly one in a billion.

[coldshovel2010]

Purely and Utterly EPIC. One of the best performances of the dance ever performed.

[broadwood1830]

wirklich großartig. bravissimo. das zu spielen ist vermulich anspruchsvoller, als dies zu komponieren

[TMTKowalski]

I love that change of light at 1:18, going from positive to negative, invert. B&W rules:)

[Pomegranatem]

oooıy nenni koçari koçari kimin yaariğ

[abucunezzer101]

This is fantastic!!!

[TheMagomusik]

Magnific camera views!! :D 5*'s

[Aufnahmesfreiheit]

great music, but somehow gloomy video

[vstasov]

Fantastic!

[ElEsquisProductions]

wiese means white and berg means mountain. I love how the last names of these europeans are done.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

Although extremely strong and powerful he maintains extreme clarity throughout all the fireworks.

[xyaqua]

There are no words. no words to describe...

to describe what i see here.

What do i see here? I cannot even begin to correllate his playing with the music.. i am an oaf, for sure, weissenberg is a god, or at least and angel.

[revorrah]

@xyaqua Come on, cut the drama.

[xyaqua]

Drama?

Who?

Me? ??? Okay.. maybe a little.

Alexis was the recording artist who really turned me onto classical music decades ago, and when it gets late at night and i've had a few drinks, and the family is at peace, and all is right with the world for a few minutes... i do get sentimental about him a bit i guess.

Looking at the other comments, he does seem to have a few good points...

b/r

[hellolife13]

ooh id kill to be able to play this XD

heard this on nodame cantabile and loved it :)

[ykmgt]

When he was younger , he was really a talent. What changed him...

[vincik80]

strepitoso....

[cziffra11]

This is a wonderful performance but I think it's only fair to point out that the video is synched to audio that was recorded at another time and very highly edited. I heard Weissenberg play this piece in Lincoln Center in the late sixties and, sorry to say, he faked his way through much of it. He'd get into trouble, play a glissando to the top of the keyboard, and start again a few measures further into the piece. An off night, perhaps.

[RabidCh]

There's another video around not highly edited (but I believe still studio) and he plays a little faster than this one, so I don't doubt that he could play it.

Just another one of those Live vs. Studio issues I guess.

[morvensky]

It was probably just an off-night, he was able to do it in the faster video on YT (where he does not fake) and in the studio. He also played Bartok piano concerto no.2 with control and it is probably a little harder than Petroushka.

[chazinko]

Ha ha! So there IS someone whose virtuosity in this piece exceeds Pollini's! Incredible stuff...

[donchevmeister]

Incredibile!

[goodmanmusica]

eccezionale!!!

[miliona1re]

His hands are dancing,what a great piani

st.

[suremate]

I have the medici DVD, excellent stuff. Well worth purchasing

[ferrucciob]

probably one of the masterpiece in musical movie...

[mandyschulz]

weissenberg - der james bond unter den pianisten - spielt wie ein jaguar - elegant,spontan und prachtvoll - rachmaninoff preludes,2 konzerte,chopin - die konzerte mit skrowaczewski,21 nocturnes!wow!!die nocturnes als lp die schönste klavieraufnahme (für mich)er hat so viel sinn für klang,struktur,dramatik...für mich seit 30 jahren der größte!

[japanesesweet]

this makes so much more sense than the EMI recording which is derived from this film-there, ones attention is drawn to the weird piano sound (very dry/boxy)where here you can savour the imaginative marriage of sound+visuals.

I read somewhere that seeing this film is what ignited Karajan's interest (in more than just the musical sense ;-)to Maestro Weissenberg.

[metube1227]

As a college freshman in 1981, my piano professor asked which pianists I admired and listened to most often. Having been under the spell of Weissenberg's Rachmaninoff preludes for years, Weissenberg was near the top of my list. He asked if I had ever seen this film; that it was mind boggling to watch (he commented that parts of the performance are like watching a 33-1/3 RPM recording played at 45RPM). It is a dream come true after all these years of searching to finally get a chance to see it.