Rachmaninoff plays Mozart K. 331 Rondo alla Turca

[rachmaninoff1990]

This is a great interpretation. One thing I would like to point out at 0:04 (measure 5) is that he plays G-A-B instead of A-C-B (which is in the original piece). It seems intentional. However, I wonder why he decided to deviate from Mozart's original pattern.

[amarizfilipe]

Why is Rachmaninoff's interpretation the best that I heard in my life? He is better than anyone to do this!!!!!! Bravooo

[fissionesque]

This is why the classical world is dying. Because it's filled with people who only care about speaking and playing in the correct form and not about ART. It's all pretence.

[forgottenbooks]

Everything Rachmaninoff played seemed to come alive at the slightest touch. Wonderful rendition of a wonderful song.

Yes, I called it a song. Since most pianists aim for a "singing tone" anyway, there's no reason why you shouldn't call piano compositions "songs". Incorrect though it may be, it has a poetic quality to it that makes describing wonderful performances that much more eloquent.

[pd2905]

this guy is a great piano player can you hear the difference between his and other performances of the Turkish march

[fissionesque]

Obviously, it's not really a song, but it doesn't matter. Shut the fuck up until you know enough about music to correct a more important mistake. Pretentious fuckers. Rach wouldn't have cared.

[HentaiFundamentalist]

A song is a composition that is for voices. I have no idea how anyone would be able to sing the 16th notes.... unless Glenn Gould was the accompanist... And just because a piece may be based off of a song does not make it one.

[Lukecash12]

@HentaiFundamentalist I agree with you about it being a piece, not a song, but many classically trained singers can handle 16th note runs.

[physicsnh]

But this particular movement is a song. Mozart composed this the same year that tax collectors from Turkey came and the Janissary band was singing its song to announce their arrival and Mozart used their song as the second theme.

[examanted]

0.03 is there a mistake omg ?

[happypenguinnutthead]

rachmaninov is not sticking to the written music

[9Livia7]

Isn't it a bit too fast...and i think he slows down a bit at a certain point...

[eniovipp]

@9Livia7 he plays everything too fast, he's fucking Rachmaninov !

[mario54671]

@9Livia7 It is...considering it's Mozart, and it's only marked "Allegretto." If this were Beethoven, this "Allegretto" would be a little more acceptable. I don't know how it became a standard to play it at this tempo.

[21436587abc]

Funny style :D

[MarlitaLinda77]

I love this piece!!!

[thequantumcollapse]

Off to the races, this one!

[re1ntyes]

I don't like this one. I like Stanislav Bunin's much better (check youtube).

[chickala]

Rachmaninoff is arguably the last truly great pianist/composer of his era, we are not to judge the amount of respect he has for mozart.

[sistinas1]

mh, i respect him, but find myself not liking this.

[nextren]

Definitely not an academic performance. Lighten up, you Beckmessers!

He's interpreting it, kind of reshaping it into a quirky piece of his own. I love the rhythmic stamp he imposes. It sounds like a brand-new Etude-Tableau...

He leaves out the repeats (repeats are optional) to get to the point or points (at this stage of life he was making purposeful cuts in his own pieces too).

I think it was Curzon who said that even when R was "wrong" in Mozart, he was as mesmerizing as a cobra.

[MrSpiration]

Call it a piece people, and call it peace.

[MartinGilmour]

nice song XD

[OnlySleeping89]

No, it is the full version. My ending is a little sloppy, but, practice makes almost perfect.

[OnlySleeping89]

This was my first song I learned on piano. Took me less than 1 month. No lessons

[Doomlord336]

@OnlySleeping89 It was probably a simplified version.

[surrealillness]

@OnlySleeping89 hahahaha....you're funny.

[SeniorProperNoun]

Yes, show respect for this song.

[ajayalmighty]

This is a master's rendering of this piece. Rachmaninoff was known to keep a rock solid pulse while changing the tempo so everything he's doing is extremely deliberate and controlled. Don't try this at home unless you really know what your doing.

[48104goblue]

finally, somebody who doesnt rush through this piece. Ironically, it's Rachmaninoff himself!

[foreverfluteplayer]

好經典...

[oitotheworld23]

i wish he would've played the repeats, but i very much enjoyed it nonetheless...

[pianololita]

Good speed. Didn't sound rushed to me. I liked this interpretation. A few of the notes here and there are different from the Urtext.

[chrisb0000]

the finale is different than the sheet but I'm sure that rachmaninoff never read the sheet. It was just in his mind and he just played it not read it! So he was a genious.

[mario54671]

No..these pianists didn't do the YouTube thing by learning things by ear...they got the sheet music. The edition he has is probably very different than most other editions. Just like the Edition Peters book I have of Mozart's Piano Sonatas. I'm currently learning the 8th Piano Sonata and there are a few things that are different than a lot of popular editions that other people own.

[nmbanana]

@mario54671

actually Rachmaninoff was one of the few people that could hear a piece and reproduce it 2 days later perfectly with dynamic and all without any sheet music

[uhartchristian]

well he had a good ear and memory and was a composer so the harmonic structure was easy for him to see and understand even without sheets. Yes some pianists have few difficulties to learn a piece. And that makes it much easier to go on concert tour.

[nelsyeung]

if this was recorded with modern technology I'm sure this will be much better, people say it's crap, but never considered the recording quality back then.

[Alanpini]

Have to say it sounds hurried to me....

[pguitar13]

i really don't like how he plays or introduces the 4th (octave) theme, and the piece sounds like it's not whole to me at least..

[queencheetah88]

well, the first time i heard rachs version i find it horrible. But the more often i heard it, the merrier it sounds!

Ok, the record quality is very bad, but rach died 1943, and the record was before!

[morvensky]

Please expand on how it is "horrible". His tone is very nice, it is very clear and it is extremely spirited. I would agree this is not Rachmaninoff at his best.

[organman52]

Not surprisingly, a total distortion. But his name is Sergei Rachmaninov, so he can do no wrong. WRONG.

[bigblackmanswilly]

Hmmm... he missed out at least one repeat and he made several errors at the beginning (one at 0:04 approx). Would have thought he was more professional than that...unless of course this was an informal recital in which case errors are not as important.

[morvensky]

dear bigblackmanswilly:

He did not "miss" a repeat, he merely just did not take it. You are allowed to drop repeats, or he might be playing from an edition that does not have the repeat written in. I did not here any wrong notes, it may just be the recording.

[dragon4166]

I've loved this since I was a kid -- this posting is, however, my first time hearing a Rachmaninoff rendition of it. How he played it is nothing to sneeze at, but I like the "flow" of Alfred Brendel's style better.

[kjw163]

Hey people, please stop calling everything a 'song', OK? It's a movement from a piano sonata. Thanks.

[trojanlol]

@kjw163 snob :p

[beatlesmack9]

@kjw163 Snobbbb!

[cnmaster01]

@beatlesmack9 song implies ABA form this is sonata form

[HeartGoldMVP]

@kjw163 i agree completely

[Forsaken593]

@kjw163 It's a fucking song, my lord...must we complicate things? 

[Romdirt]

@kjw163 And then ?

[T1carus]

@kjw163 plus its not a song but a dance !

[4Teddybears]

@kjw163

Yes, and he's singing it beautifully!

[shroomingnewman]

@kjw163 a song is the analog of a movement, so stop being a douche

[moltoallegro19]

@shroomingnewman He's not being a douche, he's simply correcting people using the wrong terminology. "Song" really isn't an appropriate term in this context; a "song" requires someone singing.

[TripleRhu]

@shroomingnewman No! a song is a piece with vocal parts. Who are you to call somebody a douche?

[ThePianistHero]

@kjw163 yeah the song is something you sing

[babykoala96]

do u know where to download this song?

[JoJoKenn94]

at the start i heard some mistakes. Excellent otherwise. :)

[luvepanda]

I love this song!!!

Pauline

[stuporstar]

he's reworking it, and its excellent- simultaneously looser, yet snappier/twitchier.

stop moaning you bores.

[jasonextreme]

Where the fuck is your logic at. So what if he interprets differently?

If you can establish yourself as one of the best in the world of virtuoso piano, then... only then can you talk shit you arrogant punk.

[LeppKingGathbertI]

wolfie woulda kicked whomever's butt your talkin' too. LOL howdy!

[stehlius]

Ale opakovačky mu asi nič nehovoria :D

[emilypotter7]

emily loves rachmanninoff

[pupkinkaka]

you idiot Rahmaninov is born in russia and he is a russian

[aronron2727]

no rachmanininov has a german mother and a tatar father.

his is a very typical tatar name, although spelled differently now.

[IloveAlexisBledel689]

Beautiful! I never heard him play this.

[derefis]

Rachaminoff was one to play pieces ignoring what the sheets say

[darkmaides]

he was? never heard that b4..lol some idiot made this a poor comment probably casue u said sheets and he thought it was shit..o0

[Curatica]

Rachmaninoff was an original and a musical genius. I would tolerate such excentricities from him...

[ZhengStudios]

he cut out all of the repeats... :-( this is very different from my sheet music of this.

[Balingeo]

Grandiose, je crois que c'est le mot

[jacrachs]

Some proof this is actually Rachmaninov playing here? I believe this is a fraud.

[voolare]

jacrachs, this is not a fraud, it is a reknown recording of Rachmaninoff. I have the cd of it.

[thorwest]

Maybe he was forced to record it, and just messed it up so people wouldn´t ask him to play mozart anymore. Or this is a recording of him sight-reading it for the first time. Remember that Rach could handle even Liszt-pieces easily, as there are recordings of that too.

This was probably too easy for him, which made it hard for him to stay interested during the entire performance.

[RedRiverUnderTheMoon]

I dont beleive this is rach. No way!

[abuhm]

why dont you believe?!

[pianopera]

I like it, but it's the weirdest version I have ever heard...maybe he had too much Turkish Delight ;-)

[Vlaanderson]

I like it, I'm not really a Mozart fan, but this interpretation really makes me love him.

[brojkiller]

if you don't appreciate this, you must be deaf....and if you disagree with that statement, post the "more musical" version of you playing this piece

[JoshuaSethComposer]

LOL

Exactly.

[CraigDirty]

Besides He rarely recorded Mozart or beethoven, or any other musicians music at that.

[CraigDirty]

This is also the worst interpretation I have heard of this. Or are we simply not open minded enough to comprehend the changes he made, that I supose sounded better to him. Or purposfuly worse.

[CraigDirty]

Perhaps it was because he disliked Mozart's pieces. That he purposly left out the last quartet note. These are certainly not mistakes. Even on several drugs and drunk Rachmaninoff could of pulled rondo alla turco off perfectly with ease. This is VERY puzzeling. let me know if anyone finds more info about this recording.

[fredslu]

I can't remeber who it was, but there was another recording of a pianist at Rachmaninoff's time that also "left out the notes". If you listen carefully, he makes the roll beat one, and plays 3 notes after--four beats in all.

[BeatlesGuitarist]

I'm not critizing Rach, because you cant really. But, i've seen better straight off youtube...

[samanpapillon]

Too Fast with a lot of wrong notes.The tempo is wrong too.I didn't exprect Rach such a bad interpretation!!!!!

[capselo]

so little views i really expected this to have a lot of views

[glorifindelcare2com]

Yeah I found the start of the coda a bit strange too. He played 1.5/4 for a few bars before reverting back to 2/4. Maybe he missed a few notes, or maybe he just got bored.

[stevtomato]

Wow nice.. Rach playing Mozart, the "wrong notes" are only different edition stuff I think. Otherwise he might have done it on purpose...

Ok the coda stunned me. It is played in 1.5/4 instead of 2/4! omg... well just some parts. Maybe he was being cheeky =P

[TheTurtleman9]

he changed a bit but it still sounds great

[Morahman7vnNo2]

A Bit Sloppy, And Thats About It.

[Zoaguyver]

haha... id never expect to find a video of Rach playing this piece. 90% of the time he plays very tragic romantic music by chopin liszt or Schubert. VERY nice to hear him playing this.

[pablogregorian]

Rachmaninov's wrong notes are more beautiful than your correct notes, my dear brakmoll

[pianodan10]

word :)

[NagualElias]

i hear it too

[Brianjonestown]

His wrong notes are magnificent

[phemt666]

it's not a wrong note, he plays that note for alla the piece. I don't know if that note is by the editor or by rach, but it isn't a wrong note, it's deired.

[nickus32000]

Who cares about those wrong notes, it almost sounds intentional, what is more disturbing is when he goes from 4/4 to 3/4 at the coda, I bet you didn't catch that.

[dpkaiser]

Do you mean that He plays just 3 A with left hand in the coda?

[fredslu]

No, he spreads the A-major arpeggio as beat one, then 3 A's after. That makes the right time.

[okinawasword]

bisogna rivalutarlo, farlo conoscere sempre di più. E' l'ultimo dei romantici

[Yangsta999]

wow!

[francheski]

Rach is un genio; gracias por todo lo que hiciste maestro, espero tocar como vos/ Rach is such a genious; thanks for all what you´ve done I hope to play as well that you do.

[sophy90]

Rachmaninoff fu e sarà sempre un grande musicista!