Lang Lang - Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 7 - III. Precipitato

[MultiTyrannosaurus]

twat twat



[jameswginn]

Wow Wow!



[ofakar]

Haha I love how everybody have an opinion about Lang Lang. People love criticizing him, typical for a genious in his time. He will surely be remembered as one of the greatest a long time after his death!

[anothermusicfan]

It's sad when people pay attention to the musician, instead of paying attention to the music.

This is what Lang Lang is forcing people to do with his over-the-top and theatrical expressions.

If you don't look at the video, his rendition is good (not one of the best, but it's technically sound). When you look at it, it makes you puke. Horrible.

[pianomyweakness]

KATSARIS was only 19:listen on you tube his live recording of this Prokofiev Precipitato.KATSARIS is definitely THE BEST!!!!!.! Not only he plays it in an incredibly fast tempo WITHOUT MISTAKES but he is the only one who plays really Precipitato!KATSARIS IS THE GREATEST PIANIST!!!!! Watch also his Brahms Sonata, his Chopin,his Bach ,Mozart Rachmaninov,Ravel,Haydn,Beetho­ven Concertos:KATSARIS is The GREATEST PIANO GENIUS!!Anyone knows where he lives?????

[anothermusicfan]

@pianomyweakness

He plays it extremely fast, but he makes quite a few mistakes here and there, misses some notes and what not. Still, a great performance, about as fast as Martha Argerich's when she was 20.

[pianomyweakness]

I just found out about the UNBELIEVABLE audio live performance of CYPRIEN KATSARIS( he was only

[MrInterestingthings]

Who are these morons who want to grade everything.They have never studied with the best they dont even know what the interpretation is about nor can they tell the difference.Lang has incredible musicality his Mozart is stupendous as well as his Liszt and Prok.There is nothing he cant door imagine.Musicians willtell u this.Heis electricity and as intelligent ,surprising as Pogorelich or anyone else on stage now.

[fredericfranc]

...you have to say he did have it memorized, at the very least, but very little of the Prokofievian drama comes through, he just pushes the technique to the front, but no expressiveness, it is all so flat and mechanical...is Lang Lang interested in music at all?...or WHAT is he interested in?...hard to figure that out...

[HandlelessUser]

I just listened to Glenn Gould play this. Sorry Lang Lang, you never had a chance.

[honron21]

This piece is not about playing fast, it is about articulation, accents, details, different kind of sounds, listen to Sokolov and you will understan what I mean.

[jaspernatchez]

@honron21 yes, it's a good performance. He learned a wrong note, however, in the third movement in the little counterpoint in the treble (it's not a mistake since he plays it both times). Silly Langlang plays in 7/4, Sokolov as written in 7/8

[sebastianrc]

Although it's not very "precipitato", I like this rendition and I agree, he was a clown with a disgusting way of playing in terms of musicality, he's not just a great pianist anymore, he's becoming a great musician as well

[imsohornynwet]

oow

[timurgran]

That's very great perfomance! It's wonderful) I love Lang Lang)

[pianobanana]

Stunning performance.

[Ratoscruvy]

Good attempt; but I think the best intrepretation of this piece would go to Pollini

[auerod]

What a disaster! R u kidding? He plays this about a 30-50 seconds longer than Pollini, Argerich, Horowitz and countless others. You know why? Its because his fingers would fall off. This mvt is not supposed to be pensive. What is the audience clapping at, that he's finally going to go off of the stage? I don't understand why people think he has a great technique. Every time he plays a legitimately hard piece, he sounds like a senile man with bad arthritis. Look at his Islamey--embarrassing.

[marianomanto]

lang lang evolved a lot in the last few years, he was kind of a clown at the piano. I think Barenboim was very influencial on him, and for good. I like this video

[terrygowork]

Weak!!

[NKMedtner]

Such fervor, such vivacity! LL here really captures what is most essential with this piece: that orgasmic ecstasy. I have never seen such wide array of expressive faces, expressive movements, expressive blinking, expressive breathing, expressive you name it! This performance is possibly the most expressive I've ever heard.

[705JRC]

@NKMedtner @CFforLL2011 I don't know what you people are smoking, but I am pretty sure you have not heard the Genius that is Eduard Kunz play Prokofiev. Check out his third sonata on youtube. It will change your world forever with its transcendent spirit and Beauty. In comparison, Lang Lang is a mere amateur who has to make stupid faces to make up for his lack of musicality!

[CFforLL2011]

@705JRC So what you're saying is that you prefer a pianist who hunches over the keyboard, plays tentatively, and generally gives the impression that he's not able to take a stand over a self-assured, gutsy, and charismatic performance? Give me Lang Lang over some Russian kiddie who's still trying to find his personality any day!

[705JRC]

@CFforLL2011 Ok, First, Eduard and LL are roughly about the same age. Second, Eduard is clearly a more mature artist -- the BBC thinks so too. What you dismiss as "tentative" in his playing is Subtlety. But how could I expect a Lang Lang fan to understand such a concept!? Nothing LL does is subtle, except maybe moving his eyebrows.

[stevef095]

@705JRC say all you want about subtlety, who is better known? who has more money? who inspired over 40 million kids to learn piano? you may dislike the way he plays and you may like to generalize his fans, but i can assure you, your view is supported by far fewer people. i've never even heard of Eduard Kunz before your comment.

[705JRC]

@stevef095 Go ahead, equate monetary success with musical quality! Some of us know better -- that there are true geniuses out there toiling in silent obscurity!

[CFforLL2011]

@705JRC If you can't equate monetary success with musical quality, you also can't equate poverty and obscurity with quality. If you did, then your argument would lead to us to the conclusion that Joe Schmo's home-recorded clip of himself playing Für Elise while his cat sits on his upright piano is of more artistic worth than Lang Lang's captivating performances.

[NKMedtner]

@stevef095 Let's move this discussion to a more intellectualized plane here--we are, indeed, speaking of the music of Prokofiev. Music that won the revered Stalin Prize, Second Class. Thus, we should seek to deconstruct the musical gestures of this piece as they are couched within the aesthetics of Socialist Realism--only then can we understand the quality of the performance. We must ask ourselves: does this performance fully reveal the mien of Stalin? Or does it obscure it with turgid nimiety

[705JRC]

@NKMedtner You're right. This glib performance tends to support the notion of undermining a straight forward socialist realist interpretation. After all, should we even understand these war sonatas as celebrating Stalin---or rather Prokofiev himself, as Richter once suggested? If that is the case, can we then not interpret Lang Lang's devil-may-care, flippant reading as a celebration of Lang Lang rather than Prokofiev rather than Stalin?  How meta!

[CFforLL2011]

@705JRC What's wrong with Lang Lang celebrating himself? He's of the new, post-cold war generation. His approach represents a new age, where pianists don't have to bow and scrape in front of political leaders and nut-job piano "connoisseurs" who fossilized their opinions and their tastes somewhere in the 1970s. Open your ears! Think about all the possibilities of new interpretations! Lang Lang is the future!!!!!!

[stevef095]

@NKMedtner look, if a discussion of his interpretation on pieces is what you mean, comment on his chopin videos. His interpretation of this movement is not so bad. Not only his facial expression, but his general body language indicate his excitement. He also makes far fewer mistakes than other shocking performances of pianists eg. argerich, buniatishvili. Sure Pollini has made, in my opinion, the greatest of this movement, but it is by no means a bad performance. even if you say he is fake.

[NKMedtner]

@stevef095 The performance is obviously really boring. He does the absolute minimum in terms of enhancing what makes the piece interesting: the sharp accented dissonances, the staccato bass, the roaring bass, etc. He never fully revels in these things. Consequently, the performance is extremely pedestrian and does not really serve the nature of the piece. I have no desire commenting on his Chopin since he is incapable of playing a sustained line lol.

[stevef095]

@NKMedtner btw, stalin awarded him the prize oblivious to the fact that the sonata showed prokofiev's sarcasm and hate for the soviet regime

[NKMedtner]

@stevef095 And what hermenuetical methodologies are you using to arrive at this conclusion? If you were familiar with the latest research in the field, you would know that elite members of the Composer's guild, especially during the War and later, were among the richest of any member of the Party. You cannot seriously be suggesting, unless you are still caught up in 70s and 80s era politicized pseudo-scholarship, that Prokofiev 'hated' the Soviet regime.

[stevef095]

@NKMedtner As I said, by no means is this the best interpretation. Your personal negative criticism regarding his facial expression and his style aside, if his performance is pedestrian, what of the others? Riddled with countless mistakes to the point where you can't even recognize the piece? If they feel perfectly comfortable to play these pieces live, why should his be pedestrian? Your prejudice against his style is clouding yours and many others' judgement.

[705JRC]

@stevef095 @NKMedtner it's true that this is not the greatest performance, and I'll also allow that there are probably some worse amateur performances out there. Or we could just turn to Lang Lang's interpretation of the Collines d'Anacapri if we wanted something outrageous.

[stevef095]

@705JRC i also dislike his debussy interpretations. But my point it, the lesser performances arent even amateur. Buniatishvili attempted to play it at a speed where the final passages were unrecognizable by the mistakes, and Argerich herself admitted that she became overcome by excitement when playing this. Its a hard thing to play it slower and still maintain the excitement. Whether he achieves it or not, at least LL plays the right notes.

[profdodo1]

@stevef095 Agree entirely in this case where it's nice to HEAr the notes written instead of just a mishmash of sound.

[stevef095]

@NKMedtner Money doesn't necessarily mean happiness or content, either. If you were a composer wishing to show your perspective of your government's involvement in a war, would you write piece of dissonance, loud harsh tones and menacing tone colours, pieces that resemble a collection of your previous works specifically called 'sarcasms' for piano solo? No, you would compose a patriotic, march-style piece for an orchestra. It doesn't matter that dissonance was popular at the time.

[CFforLL2011]

How could you call such a consummate artist Bang Bang? It's not glib and superficial. It's direct. Do you not hear the differentiation of the voices? The energy? Just because he's not Russian doesn't mean that his interpretation isn't top notch!

[705JRC]

Sigh, this is so close to being good, but ultimately too glib, too superficial, not enough dynamic profile and nearly no dramatic shaping. Here he really lives up to his nickname, "Bang Bang." You guys need to do yourselves a favor and listen to Eduard Kunz, a true Prokofiev interpreter!

[THUNDERBOLTERS96]

hahaha GT5!

[Alleykat606]

gran turismo 5!

[ZetsuuKei999]

Amazing! ♥ Wonderful!!!!!



[Rick110789]

GT5!



[Jubjubjubers]

sounds like classical mario :)

[Udders666]

Hey Phil, why did you re-upload these videos?