Earl Wild Plays Chopin from 1958!

[satyu131089]

Really WILD !!!

[donthuis]

Earl Wild always approached piano pieces like etudes to show his dexterity. This prelude is no exception. Pity!

[RabidCh]

@donthuis

I don't think this prelude is played well here at all, but that kind of statement about Earl Wild is just plain wrong.

He played works like Haydn Sonatas and the Hindemith Sonata 3 and his Chopin Etudes set is one of the most musical out there.

[kyouharissyun001]

Feel bad.

Earl Wild, Pianist, Dies at 94 Published: January 23, 2010 Earl Wild, an American pianist and composer who was renowned for his performances of the virtuoso showpieces of the grand Romantic tradition but whose enormous repertory included everything from Baroque works and Mozart concertos to contemporary scores, died Saturday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif.

[willmiller5]

RIP Mr. Wild: one of the most beautiful, graceful, supple, sensitive players ever recorded.

[lovesGenet]

well well.someone else was doing this for the cameras way back then.WILD IS A GREAT GREAT TASTEFUL PIANIST.HisChopin is smart and catholic like the man himself!

[JimCarbon385]

wikipedia sucks

[callenishss]

wikipedia says hes born in 1915, that rite?

[CarltonMaaia]

Yes - 1915. Ohio (Toledo, if I remember correctly)

[cmhmuscle]

pittsburgh

[CarltonMaaia]

Pittsburgh!?! Wow - I was WAY off...I can't believe that. And here I call myself a Wild devotee! Thanks for setting me straight. This is going to be hilarious but I think I was thinking of Tatum! I believe Wild lived in Ohio - that might be what I was remembering....Cheers!

[weenosu]

he taught at Ohio State for a while and lived in Dublin, OH. He just moved to California and his health is reportedly not good, afterall he is 94-ish...

[ATier3]

°.°

[killergirls]

GOOD!

[horatiodreamt]

Josef Lhevinne has a wonderful performance of this on record. I don't know if it's been posted to YouTube yet.

[mephyman]

I find this rendition, and most of Mr. Wilde's playing in general, a bore. *shrug*

[jcyl141104]

agreed

[smithsherman]

Well,this is fast,and it's an "Etude"...but he certainly makes no music of it.This goes on my Horrible performances Hall of Fame list.

[faustianliszt]

Umm... actually it's a "Prelude"... so... I guess you have my nomination for the Pretentiousness Hall of Fame.

[newton2060]

LOL.

[jero13595]

It's a prelude that sounds like an etude...

[faustianliszt]

what does an etude "sound" like? does opus 10 # 6 or op. 25 # 7 "sound" like an etude? regardless, they are etudes. and what about the last mvt of the 2nd sonata... it basically employs the same technical idea throughout. why isnt that an etude? the reason i said what i said to smithsherman is that he's actually calling it something it isnt with a tone that suggests he actually knows what he's talking about. and that, my friend, is just annoying

[Bruce88keys]

@faustianliszt you're an etude go study something so you'll sound less dorky & then shutup

[skimask7]

not too bad

[JayIvory87]

@faustianliszt but he doesn't make any music of it..

[dave231000]

very interesting to watch, espacially in comparsion with current pianists playing this piece.

[pchk1]

Earl Wild IS a current pianist. He is still alive.

[principessaeboli]

Not only is he still alive he, as you may know, gave a concert in Carnegie Hall for his 90th birthday!  I had the honor of speaking with him on the phone a few months ago. He is perfectly lucid and VERY entertaining.

[lynndelano]

Are you serious!!!! Thank you for that information. I would have NEVER thought to even look up any current info on Wilde!!!

[Rachoszsky]

I think you missunderstood my comment, what I wanted to say is that I found it interesting to compare him to f.e. Sergio Tiempo

[michieldpiano]

Mr Earl Wild plays this Prelude very nice. At least less mistakes then Rubinstein. This piece was a showpiece of chopin so it has be played with fire. Nice interpretation.

[ivrykeys]

wow a young video of him! I'm happy to see in this vintage video of him, his hands are shown throughout the whole thing. Because in most of these old videos, they like to focus on facial expressions for some reason...

[libetta]

what piece is this?

[leomulder]

Yes, because his Mephisto Waltz is remarkably different from this sense of interpretation!

[lovesGenet]

Thanks .i don't know where u got this. I don't like what he does with this.It sounds like a tin can and litlle fire .Wild has enormous energy but i dont think this is exceptional playing here but who can tell with such limited sound

[kasyapa]

he may have altered his interpretation to account for television sound - notice the unusually clear articulation - much as josef hofmann piano did in his 1945 rachmaninoff c# min prelude performance.

[cziffra1980]

I think that's simply because a TV studio has an incredibly dry acoustic.