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From: Sissco
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  • JE LAI EN VINYLLLE!!!!! <3 love Richter

  • En la pista virtuosistica de los teclados mundiales de marfil, Richter es el mejor. Tal vez menos lo era esta sala de grabación, cuya acústica está totalmente seca.

  • One of my favorite piano pieces!

  • OMFG! Awesome!!

  • @scientistpatrick - No, the recording is not THAT old. I tuned pianos for much of my working life, thus my moniker (A444 is the frequency of concert A in much of Europe and Japan), and I can tell you that the second octave above middle C is particularly out of tune. Stage lighting can sometimes be the culprit. It's very hot and can heat up the piano and cause it to go out of tune. Or Richter was practicing immediately before the recording was made and the tuner had already left.

  • Sounds like music from the twilight zone, I understand music is very subjective. I can't even make out a melody in this. Maybe I'm just jaded.

  • @ericisindebt Try listening again :)

  • @ericisindebt Prokofiev has a lot of very popular melodious pieces, like Lieutenant Kije or the Cinderella Waltz or Peter and the Wolf. But his truly cerebral and powerful pieces have desolate atonal spaces mixed with haunting and sometimes heartbreaking melodies, sarcasm, and fiendish, demonic dances. He also likes to cram a bunch of melodies together in a dissonant snarl. The most badass thing ever written is Movement 3 of piano concerto 2, Ashkenazy's, imo.

  • Wouldn't you imagine after going to the trouble to engage Richter for this performance, and arranging the architectural sculptures, and hiring the cameramen, etc., that somebody would have thought to have the piano tuned?!

  • @TunaFishA444 Detuning might have been due to the old age of the recording, not the actual piano.

  • I can learn from from watching most great pianists, but Richter's secrets seem a bit impenetrable to me though - like he's a bit too far above my capabilities to understand! There's something quite godlike about this guy's playing during this period.

  • Terrific.

  • Richter is the greatest Prokofiev interpreter that i' ve ever heard...only Efim Bronfman can challenge him with regards to the true Emotion, Feel, Skill and Mastery in his playing ...just sublime ART... amazing interpretation here...no words...just listen folks.!

  • @sessionmessiah You should hear Biret's reading of this sonata.

  • eich.....and that from a miserable little cunt like Prokoviev was known to be

  • Bravo! Bravo! I love everything about Richter and this performance of Prokofiev's sonata is top-notch!! Nothing negative can be said about it.

  • I find it funny that people attempt to find interpretative flaws with his Prokofiev, especially since he premiered most of the Prokofiev sonatas. No one will ever be richter.

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  • @extrasharpcheddar1 Correct me if I am wrong, but he didnt premiere most of them ? okay, I know he premiered his famous 7th. He didnt even play the 3rd one because nobody would play it better than Gilels. Also, Gilels premiered the 8th one. However, 2nd sonate was his warhorse so I would believe that :)

  • bad props

  • I love how he comes running up to the piano. I love everything about this!

  • J'en pleure...quelle puissance.

    

  • if he keeps on practicing like that then some day he might play like me.

  • What an upload! Thank you so much!

  • dumaju prokofjevu eto ocen ponravilos:)

  • I mov. Allegro, ma non troppo. 0:00 - 6:45

    II mov. Scherzo. 6:46 - 8:36

    III mov. Andante. 8:37- ...

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  • Only Russians can.

  • Some parts are so romantic, and then it's splendidly contrasted with modernism. So characteristic of Prokofiev.

  • why did he like, run up to the piano so fast? haha.

  • Richter's Prokofiev performances are soooooooo gooood. I really think its close to how Prokofiev might have sounded

  • @ReturnOfTheStienway i just allow myself to assure you that, this upload DOES sound better than prokofiev himself. it is just a prejudicy to believe that, beethoven plays the sonatas he composed better than anybody, or, mozart, or rachmaninoff....or anybody else in this matter. composing, is just another discipline than to play it proper....beethoven COULDNT play a tune on violin, but composed one of the greatest violin concerto.

  • @paganviodio OK. Thanks!

  • @paganviodio

    Comment le sais-tu ?

    les as-tu entendus ?

    Et à parler dans le vide, on dit des conneries; la preuve: écoute le Rach 3 par Serguei.

  • @paganviodio what the HECK do you mean? He was a violin virtuoso, Beethoven that is.

  • @Lity who was violin virtuoso?...what the HECK YOU are talking about?...i say that so good could prokofiev also not play this piece....i give to it also another example, that it is just a prejudicy to believe that the composer plays the piece the best...and then i even underline that with another eample that BEETHOVEN couldnt play violin at all, bur wrote one of the mos demanding concertos...did you now understand?...

  • @paganviodio yes, I do understand that you say Beethoven couldn't play violin at all - and I understand you use him as an example, but an example can either be true or false.

    So do you mean Beethoven couldn't play violin for real or was it just something you made up to underline your point?

  • @Lity10 beethoven wasnt a violinist, he played viola a little, but far from playing his violin concerto, more further than playing a piece like "kreutzer sonata"...you havent written at first as you do understand , that´s i wrote whole these....

  • @paganviodio What do you mean, sorry? And I don't get it.. Beethoven did play violin very well :S?

  • @Lity10 no beethoven didnt play violin very well, who told you such a thing....this is a wrong information.

  • @paganviodio I don't think you're right, I think I read it somewhere.. where did you read it?

  • @paganviodio Uhm.. it's documented that Prokofiev played this sonata before a few private guests, one of them being Richter.

  • @JohnEBProductions well...the discussion was about the violin abilities of beethoven, i can also imagine taht prokofiev has played the sonata...he palyed most of his piano pieces- at the end, he was a pianist.

  • @paganviodio Beethoven had an extensive knowledge about violin playing, some of which had to have been from some sort of practical ability. There are also some historical records that could testify that he did play violin. However, he was not a virtuoso, and probably couldn't play his more demanding works...but who knows!!

  • @LeonidasBasileus what does "extensive knowledge" mean?...anybody can have "extensive knowledge" about playing the violin, or flying a plane...there is no historicall recording in which beethoven play violin. well...the cello part of the "triple concerto" is also very difficult for cello, and beatifull...but he for sure didnt play cello. he doesnt have to play the instrument in order to write nice music for it.

  • Основные Рихтера

    Grande.

  • This place looks like the Arcane Santuary and it perfectly fits the music.

  • @pierolivier111

    arcane sanctuary :O yes

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  • @surrealillness You put the dumb in wisdom asshat.

  • When it comes to Richter you know you'll find his pattern of quality. It's very difficult to have him misinterpretating something. Especially when it comes to fellow Prokofiev!

  • listened to most of the other artiists.....

    R shows mastership and brings the creation to life.

  • (sorry for my english).....i discovered this sonata : the first movement is very beautiful....There are superbs colors.....someone can tell me more about this piece or how play it please??? Bigs thanks!!

  • ah.... ce morceau est vraiment incroyable....

  • yes, you are right... Sviatoslav floats over all of it, and drops in when he wants to play

  • 1:13 to 1:50 is such a hauntingly beautiful melody.

  • I agree, Prokofievs lyricism is often viewed as being somewhat ironic and in many cases that is the case. In the second subject theme of this sonata however I feel  there is great sincerity in the expression, especially in Richters superb hands.

  • I absolutely agree with you, its an exiting part.until 1:58 I think next year I will extract some parts from Prokovjefs Sonatas. I don't like some overdone fortissimo presto parts. but upt to 50 % are hauntingly beautiful.

    Can you play piano ?

  • Actually yes, and I think the differences he makes in tempo and dynamics make it all the more interesting to the ear.

  • don't deprive Prokofiev from his fortissimo!

  • wow, this is good! i havent heard so good version yet.

  • oh man, just quit it with the colours and feel the music...

  • Who have a notes to this piece?

    Help me :)

  • I have =)

  • Thank you, but I found this notes :)

  • Amazing!

  • 0:34 love how he brings down that line from above, which i never realy payed attentinon to even though I'm playing this

  • the middle section of the second movement here is so much better than Viridzadze or however you say ehr name, plays it. Richt plays it mechanically, as it should be, following prok's wish that there be staccato.

  • I think we've all decided on light blue grey because of the visuals themselves probably- grey but light enough at times to seem blue. ?

  • awesome is right.....

    i thought that his usual best definitely shone through here.

  • how about a yellowish blue ?

  • it's interesting, that he doesn't like this Sonata, just learn it!.. He is awesome..

  • how do u know that he didn't like it?

  • I've read about it in his bio!!!

  • I've performed this piece some time ago, but not nearly this well.  Wonderful interpretation. One day...

  • wow the 2nd movement is really hard... even a man of richter's calibre made a few mistakes here and there.. jeez!

  • i think of a light blue-grey...

  • I'll second blue.

  • &fmt=18 at end of video for higher quality and 1 second added.

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  • lol

  • Skepto?

  • Wunderbar!!!!!!!!!!

  • Richter's Prokofiev is always something interesting, and this certainly isn't an exception

  • According to Richter's discography this is his first recording of it.  But I like his later recordings of this Sonata more. Just doesn't connect here as well as his later recordings.

  • I like the little effect he does at 7:30.

  • haha what a patology of "Prestomoltoagitato"..........­....

    666

  • GREAT version.

    666

  • What an entrance! Looks like he was pushed onto the stage... and then he delivers!!

  • that's too funny

  • ни хрена не поймёте,умельцы...

  • The man knew Prokofiev personally.

  • Reading your comments.... It sounds like you are the best of all centuries. Come on, let us give a comment about your own playing... :-)

  • 8:38 - 9:14 such a dark red

  • that's your interpretation. this has nothing to do with the color red.

  • yeah thats true. not only do i see red, i feel red.

  • Red? somehow this is blue-grey to me... i don't really know, but d minor seems blue-grey intuitively

  • if you think this is a completely random interjection, it isnt, since there had been a discussion earlier on on the color of this peice.

  • yes with out a doubt deep red. colors to pieces to me arent defined by chord but by notes alone. and lol i didn't think it was a random interjetion i knew

  • that's weird. i thought of it as blue also

  • it is commonly known that synestethic visions vary depending on the person. (People who have perfect pitch and hear tones and chords as colours)

  • thats called synesthesia, not perfect pitch. I have perfect pitch and do not see colors when hearing notes/chords. This piece is a light yellow to me, by the way... no idea why.

  • Synesthesia is usually a pose, related to mysticism. People have all sorts of mystical notions about music. The number of people who have this disorder is quite small, and there's nothing romantic about it. It's simply the inability of the brain to properly filter stimuli.

  • Seeing as it inspires so many great musicians such as Scriabin, I really wouldn't call Synaesthesia an inability, it is more particularly caused by the links of nervous impulses from certain zones of the brain, it can be many combinations, and not always from sensory stimuli. In fact it is suspected Einstein was able to think so "outside the box" with his maths was because the mathematical and Spatial awareness zones of his brain were closely linked by neurons, it seems to add extra dimensions..

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  • ...to thought, imperative for a musician, especially one tackling romantic music. Lots of people consciously think about music in terms of smell, sight, touch, taste, and of course sound, as well as the impulsive types that, well have no choice! I think I know what you mean about synaesthesia being a pose...

  • ...to thought, imperative for a musician, especially one tackling romantic music. Lots of people consciously think about music in terms of smell, sight, touch, taste, and of course sound, as well as the impulsive types that, well have no choice! I think I know what you mean about synaesthesia being a pose...

  • 'simply' the inability of the brain to properly filter stimuli? if you're going that way, you may as well say that the whole of human consciousness is just electrical signals and neuronal connections. i mean, you're leaving out the whole depth of human experience...

    and mysticism is ingrained in music, as in all art. beauty is something that transcends scientific interpretation.

  • One of the best recordings of this sonata. If not the best. No questions.

  • Richter vs. Horowitz: A higher truth, though only dimly hinted at, thrills us more than a lower expressed (Thoreau)

  • Just perfect!!

  • i've really come to be unable to listen to any other pianist play Prokofiev, i just can't. Does anyone else have the same issue?

  • Try Frederic Chiu. The most creative and intellectual playing of the Prok Sonata's I've heard. But Richter sure is special, no doubt.

    Other than sonatas, Demidenko's PC No. 2 is absolutely phenomenal, epoch shifting.

  • I do, but try to listen to Edsone Elias here on Youtube, a great surprise, and Severin van Eckardstein does a creditable job, heard him once life in Amsterdam playing Prokofievs 6th

    pianosonata.

  • Does anyone know a good complete and authoritative collection of Richter playing prokofiev?

    I did not really find anything on Amazon, just single CDs.

  • There is no such a collection. You have to pick bits and pieces.

  • The first time i heard this, my cousin was learning this, and I don't know why, but i got teary. It was just so beautiful hearing something like this.

  • uhrkraft: If you look at the big picture (Richter's 900 composition repertoire including Bach) you will realize that Richter was Glen Goulds daddy.

  • Why don't you bastard go f*ck yourself and shove your free sheet music up your stinking fat arse!

  • richter could not play bach as well?????

    huch???

    poor people.

    when i was very young gould was so fasinating for me with bach, as i get older i learned to understand richters bach.

    by the way, gould was a fan of richter

    and i all my life i will hear them both with bach

    like richter said, is important to keep clean

  • Richter was a huge fan of Gould to they both played very well leave it at that.

  • I agree. Neither Richter's nor Glenn Gould's recording of the well tempered clavier should be missing in a good collection of classical music. They are different but both absolutely beautiful.

  • macromera: your knowledge of music and Richter is supercillious. Miss Argerich knows she is a mushroom huddling beneath a great oak. Ask her, she will be first to admit it. Somewhere in Richter's 900 hundred piece repertoire you wil find a bit of "linear/pianissimo."

  • i'v heard all the big boys play from Horowitz, Gould, Gilels, Arrau, Serkin,Ashkanazi, Cliburn, Kissin, Evo,Rubinstien, etc., etc. Combined, they do not = half a Richter! After Sviatoslav (the blessed Slav) their remains only redundancy. They all know it too-ask!

  • Sorry, 'blessed Slav' is really good ...Richter touchée is too tense and his interpretaion is so linear.... where is the pianissimos?, Miss Argerich is still the best ...

  • He is great but you are in denial. Everyone has their own interesting aspects. To dismiss those great performers is fucking stupid and you know it!!!!!

  • Well spoken. There is such a gap between him and the rest that they truly all do not equal half a richter and please all stop with Horowitz ridiculous. America made him out to be this big hot shot pianist. He should not even be in the same sentence or paragraph as Richter.....

  • Sure, and I'm Napoleon

  • I believe you!

  • Oh well thanks for humoring me. But if you insist on liking Richter less than Horowitz, why not take your post anywhere but here under this Prokofiev vid? Not that I would agree but at least I would understand it better.

  • does that mean your short and have small hands or just a repost to the previous

  • haha, the last, though I do have small hands:)

  • and what do you base your statement on?

  • It is as he wants to avoid the "human touch", that what make's us human... emotions... fire... If I hear him, I cannot help it, I do not hear a man who is busy trying to make music, only playing note's and now and then some difference between forte and piano, no rubato, no lyrical moments...

  • If you dont understand richter's interpretations you should just say that you don get it. Richter was a genius, with more faculties than horowitz, and richter was the best pianist of the century, and you wont change it.

  • You didnt know it? Richter was. You need to read more.

  • dumbass...

  • Whilst I cannot speak for everything Richter played... I can say that I do agree that this recording is... just rather average.

  • This recording is much less average...than your comment.

  • Don't really know, very often, however, Prokofiev that is not played by Richter is downoright inadequate.

    I can for sure point out Suggestion Diabolique - NO PERFORMER, and that really means no performer, even got close to Ricther's rendition. He stands out like a rock star, miles ahead of everybody else. No wonder there's people defining him as the best pianist ever...

  • I'm trying to avoid some sad emotions...right now, reading your comment...

  • That's your crappy view...

  • mine?

  • no... sorry

  • marcelmombeekeigen: Both were great pianists and musicians. As for width of repertoire Richter was unsurpassed...

    Both MUSICIANS greatly and genuinely respected each other. You should learn from both meanwhile...

  • The 2nd and the 6th are my favorite Prokofiev sonatas (both of which I've played). But only Richter can play them as Prokofiev intended.

  • how about the third? I find that as my...favorite of prokofiev sonatas. The 6th one is amazing, but the third one takes the prize for me.

  • The piano is not quite A440. Some of the notes are a bit off.

  • could the recording device possibly have something to do with that?

  • OnGuardForPeace: oftentimes actual pitch is modified by recording equipment, digitalization filters and even playback equipment. Richter's piano could easily have been tuned precisely to A440 and kept to it through his actual performance. If you played this YouTube file on your computer audio setup and tested it with a digital tuner, there is a strong chance A440 was lost somewhere along the way! :)

  • i love this piece and richter plays it brilliantly

  • this sonata is 4 parts. the second part which is the scherzo and goes from 6:50s to 8:35s of this video is very hard and no one played it like Richter. i bought a cd and i got very disappointed.

  • any way i could get this on a cd somehow?

  • The best!

  • superbe!!!

  • Truly sublime, better than sex.

  • Something you've never had...

  • ouch

  • well...

  • This sonata inspires me every time I hear it. It is so genious!! Richter does an excellent job. He is also quite inspiring. I know I will refer to his recordings someday when I play this piece if I ever do.