Prokofiev piano sonata no 7

[1862Debussy]

Glenn Gould sings when he plays

[joboy1992jesto]

@1862Debussy lol u used headphones right?? i heard it too

[1862Debussy]

@joboy1992jesto Right! XD

[dialecticon]

What a fantastic interpretation!! Thank you so much for uploading!

[slateflash]

this movement is amazing. the 3rd movement in comparison to this is a tad disappointing but still enjoyable

[justmartha]

oh silly me. prokofiev did write it exactly half a bar missing just for that bar!! oh miracle lol

[justmartha]

I love this playing. But I'm quite sure he skipped time equivalent to half a bar at 0:34 . hehe

But strangely the effect sounds really good.

[ALPRAS91]

Prokofiev is the creator of the "Mind blowing". In the good way.

[konstantinidisgeorge]

great modern,still modrn music...!amazing composer....!!

[melindasys]

who played this ?

[F14Lolcat]

@melindasys Glenn Gould.

[MrAkihiros]

I've always preferred Stravinsky to Sergei but only now do I appreciate his genius. He's incredible.!

[ernent]

If Prokofiev's sonatas 6-8 are the "war sonatas" then this movement is surely the "carpet bombing" stage ...

[F14Lolcat]

@ernent Actually this is the "Stalingrad" sonata...

[BurntOut90]

hahah, this IS glenn gould, i can hear him singing veeeery faintly in the background!

[thisnamehas18letters]

i cut my nails while listening to this song. and they came out all jagged and sharp :)

[TheBoshintang]

This is one of the very rare vidoes where Glenn Gould plays a piece from the Romantic period XO

[TheBoshintang]

prokofiev.... A genius that comes once in a millenia...

[slateflash]

turn off your lights at 7:33 and listen in total darkness 0.o

[Gflapcamel]

@RH98 - lol, I caught the E-flats staring at my crotch.

[bombergal1]

The section at 0:22 has the same rhythm as Teddy Bears Picnic and sounds a bit like it!

[ilovesoda]

this sounds fucking homosexual

[RH98]

@ilovesoda This sonata sounds like it would engage in intercourse with music of the same gender... how does that even fucking work?!  :O

[478493]

I never compare things like this on some kind of meritocracy scale...why bother?The esthetics and values of these two composers who knew each other were different as night from day and both have something different but equally valuable to offer. Rachmaninoff was a disciple of Tchaikowsky and Prokofieff was a tonal terrorist and prophet of the machine age who like Schoenberg wanted to rewrite Diatonic harmony.He did so without 12 tone rows and utterly alienating 95% of the human race.

[478493]

I never compare things like this on some kind of meritocracy scale...why bother?The esthetics and values of these two composers who knew each other were different as night from day and both have something different but equally valuable to offer. Rachmaninoff was a disciple of Tchaikowsky and Prokofieff was a tonal terrorist and prophet of the machine age who like Schoenberg wanted to rewrite Diatonic harmony and well...he did so without 12 tone rows and utterly alienating 95% of the human race

[allenglandlawns]

Prokofiev did write gorgeous tonal music but I think he was more experimental in his compositions than Rachmaninoff. I dunno but they both write great piano music...

[rezmogm]

I do like the way Gould hears this first mvmnt in this recording.

[cedricrlongreen]

Now this is good atonal music

[enriquem90]

@cedricrlongreen I think it isn't atonal but complex harmonics ;)

[cedricrlongreen]

@enriquem90 woops that's true. I don't think Prokofiev even wrote atonal music. I think I got thrown off cuz there was no key signature but there is one.

[dredeye]

This piece isn't atonal... It just cant decide which tone it wants.

[wbuck]

Weird that this sonata has a key assigned to it, since it doesn't even start in B-flat, much less stay there for any real length of time.

Prokofiev is badass, though. Lives right on the cusp of of 19th-century Romanticism and free atonality, which is my favorite place.

[Nutterbutterz95]

I could never quite get into Rachmaninoff. He was always too formal for me. But that's of course a personal opinion.

[junenostalgia]

You don't know how much I love this. ♥_♥

[1Janny1]

Hmmm. Ive been following a Gould thread for several weeks. Today I wind up here, and almost did not listen to this at all. I LOVE just about anything Glenn Gould played except for atonal slop (pardon my english). Atonal is just something I dont enjoy. This one clip though seems to flow a little better and connect somewhat. Not as dark as some other P-recordings. Dont know if its Gould's touch or Prkfivs music here. Overall Gould dug the atonal and I STILL dont get non-music music. .

[Sveccha93]

@1Janny1 this isn't atonal music...it IS dissonant and plays with modes, etc, but there is plenty diatonic in it. the first and third movement end in B-flat major, the second movement is in E major...Prokofiev played with dissonance, but to call his music atonal means not hearing 60 percent of it. Picking nits, I know.

[Nutterbutterz95]

@1Janny1 I think it's simply Prokofiev's music. Personally, I prefer the atonal over the "pleasant-sounding". Also, simply because you don't enjoy the sound of it doesn't mean this is "non-music" music. Of course, if you mean that this stands in opposition to many of the things that were considered "musical" in his day, then yes, you are quite correct. But this is still music nontheless. By the way, your English is great =)

[Rimskyfarby]

Pure art in its rawest form:)

[dredeye]

If you listen closely at around 2:56 you can hear him humming. You can hear Glenn Gould humming throughout most of his preformances. :D

[Nutterbutterz95]

@dredeye Thanks for pointing that out. It makes him seem even more awesome! Haha.

[chaddyfromtheblock]

I have turned many people onto atonal (or whatever term you prefer) music by playing this. It is not too far out there in my opinion. But, wow, this Gould interpretation seems to accent all the right spots.

[daltoncpierce]

by far my favorite piano piece ever. i just wish i had the sheet music to it. i remember walking through the local music store looking for Fur Elise and passing this, which far surpasses Fur Elise and all Beethoven for that matter. I wish I had discovered this gem earlier. I will forever regret that day.

[marisasw]

I LOVE GLENN GOULD!!!!!

[adams82683]

I freakin' love Prokofiev! This sonata is so brilliant and really fun to play - after months of practice for hours a day of course!

[bombergal1]

This kinda sounds like a warped version of Teddy Bear's picnic.

[FreddieSausage]

@bombergal1 Actually,it's more like "Nellie The Elephant" !

[matowana]

A masterpiece of musical black humour

[whatever534231]

Brilliant! Gould is my favourite pianist

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

After a second of listening you have to recognize his stupid playing, always too much bachian

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

After a second of listening you have to recognize his stupid playing, always too much bachian

[Kefienzel]

okay, ive been trying to like this, but simply cant. i cant stand it

[afertyus1000]

i love it! but my hands are too small to cope

[BNM321zxy]

sounds like spider crawling to you!

[aizendarwin]

I love all Prokofiev's compositions

[2009xellos]

I can't believe he hated Chopin & Liszt.

[coaster1000]

He did? :O

[Vesters1]

Gould and Prokofiev is a very good combination

[sacramushmygoat]

Prokofiev is the master of the wild spinning madness that sends your mind crying after to hear the rest of the story.

But he always falls short of the classic chilling Russian style; nothing can compare to the haunting tones of Rachmaninov.

[danedaworld]

yay russian music

[bboymango]

@sacramushmygoat definitly with u on the rachmoninov comment

but i dont know, wat made my mind cry was sorajbi's opus clavicymbolism or however u spell it.

now THAT is spinnign madness. but prokofiev is still a master of precussive piano

[jdbrown371]

@sacramushmygoat Rachmaninov wasn't Russian, he's a Tatar. It makes a difference in understanding his music. Similar myths abound, e.g. Ravel was Basque not French, Mozart was Austrian not German for instance. Prokovief sounds like madness but he needs to be taken as seriously as Beethoven. Prokofiev is a universal composer capable of everything.

[ajwiebe]

@jdbrown371 Rachmaninoff was of Russian nationality bearing half Tatar ethnicity. Ravel was of French nationality bearing half Basque ethnicity. Cultural (including musical) influence does not in itself define one's nationality. As well, stating that "Prokofiev was a universal composer capable of everything" is rather sweeping and arbitrary, although I'm sure there is an intention hidden somewhere in there.

[martimtavares]

@sacramushmygoat he doesn't even aim to that! Prokofiev is the constant surprise, the constant possibility and mostly, the incredible variety of ideas he has. are there many composers that like him, have wrote such different works as the classical symphony, peter and the wolf, the violin concerto g minor, the sonata nr 8, aleksandr nevsky... i think it's best not to put prokofiev and rachmaninov in the same bag for the sake of both

[ScaryIndeed]

@sacramushmygoat totally agree ! Rach's no. 1 indeed in all time stories, period.

[ShukriKorkis]

@sacramushmygoat comparing apples to oranges does not make sense

[alonsoamadeus]

@sacramushmygoat what a stupid comment, really.

[RenegadeExpressVideo]

@alonsoamadeus haha, yeah they're not even similar styles.

[aabaker22]

@sacramushmygoat Prokofiev falling short of Rachmaninov? I'm sorry but I believe it is the other way around; few people compare with the genius of Prokofiev.

[hoiszhdfoifh22]

@sacramushmygoat I think, on the contrary, sometimes Prokofiev surpasses Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff was definitely the master of late Romanticism, but there's emotions that are inaccessible to him because of his foundation in the romantic musical language that Prokofiev can pull off perfectly. Rachmaninoff could never have created a work containing the same emotions as Prokofiev's second concerto. But they're both more awesome than a robot dinosaur fighting a giant Gregory House.

[Cancrizans]

Anyway, I think Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Richard Strauss and perhaps Hindemith and people opf his generation were the last genuine classical composers. I can appreciate a lot of what falls under the modern classical category intellectually...but it really isn't the same thing, and I wish people would stop pretending it is.

[Cancrizans]

up with the repercussions of this academic fantasy as the basis of how we listen to western so called classical music...that's how we ended up with the ridiculously academic "classical music" of the later half of the 20th century and the 21st...it makes no sense to consider it in the same breath as Bach Mozart or Beethoven because it is more of an academic study of what we call classical music than a genuine expression of the deep humanity that produced the music we call "classical".

[Cancrizans]

@hoiszhdfoifh22 well said...I think they are both great but different...I mean there is so much wonderful music that gets no attention because our general approach is to always look for "the greatest" or "the successful". It seems to me to be a weird situation where we can't really relate to the emotional(for lack of a better word) forces that create music so there is this overdeveloped academic pursuit that hypercategorizes music in a falsely historical context and we have ended

[mightyafrowhitey]

@sacramushmygoat two totally different styles...

[vincentizghra]

@sacramushmygoat They're too different to compare almost, I love them both but in different ways.

[vincentizghra]

@sacramushmygoat I don't know, my chaotic mind praises prokofiev before rachmaninoff.

[ofakar]

@sacramushmygoat Russians got diversity! They got this, they got Rachmaninov, they got romantic Tchaikovski. Diversity :D

[MrAkihiros]

@sacramushmygoat Well said but there is no comparison. Rachmaninov was essentially 19th century romantic (think Mahler) and Sergei was riding the bandwagon of Stravinsky's 20th century modernism. But of course you already know that. 

[Zebeldarebel]

Genius!!

[smiller42]

if you listen closely, you can hear someone humming to the music around 6:53....

M.C. Miller

[Rinhos]

it's Gould himself!

[smiller42]

Makes sense... I didn't realize it was Gould who was performing until I read your comments and the tags. Indeed, Gould hums while he plays/practices. Thanks!

[Rinhos]

you can understand that's Gould also listening at 35'''. There's a bar with three triplets of semicquavers, which must last 6 quavers (3:2+3:2+3:2=6), but gould makes a sort of glissando and he cuts tre quavers off. And it does also on the CD! I've never understood why, but it's known that Gould was not very able to play this kind of music ;) better in Bach and Hindemith

[EMPERORMIKI]

Oh for christs sake.

You know it's only Asians that are technically proficient in music and lack souls. Gould was Caucasian and could play the wonderful music of that other Caucasian Prokefiev.

Asians excel at Bach get your facts straight.

Gould the Caucasian is not limited to Bach! What nonsense.

Is your last name Wong? Hong? Dong? Long? Song? Tong?

[musicfanBRA]

@EMPERORMIKI - What a lot of unfounded stereotypes here. Have you heard Aymi Kobayashi playing Mozart? Music has no borders, and all human beings are much more alike than different.

[musicfanBRA]

@EMPERORMIKI I hope you are being ironic. Have you heard Aymi Kobayashi playing Mozart?

[EMPERORMIKI]

If you think I was serious kill yourself.

[perjus]

That would be Glenn Gould.

[tuxdcat]

imo the best recording of this sonata is Konrad Skolarski.

[BalmungBerserk]

beautiful.... :_(

[124bjw]

I love sweet piano sonatas like Beethoveen's Moonlight or Pathetique, but Prokofiev is great--his music would be wonderful as background to an Alfred Hitchcock thriiler like "The Birds" or "Psycho". He has that spooky "Twilight Zone" flair about him. I love it.

[LAAR123]

This is not a Russian march. It's a malignant tarantella.

[morvensky]

By no means bad. I think it just does not have that Russian march drive to it (in the 1st theme). I thought the 2nd theme was very lamentatious, I liked it. I would recommend Alexander Korsantia's recording but I would not avoid this one.

[visualpiano]

I repeatedly hear my heart trembling when hearing this piece, especially the middel part. It's as successful as the third movement.

[skryabyn]

individual interp, but it doesnt fly crazily as it should, i htink. But who am i to critisize GG?

[NapSeason]

Wow this sounds like a freaky dance!! Then it sounds like a mysterious night and someone sneaking about...

[Werwolf2x]

whenever i listen to this piece, i can clearly see a man who's about to lose his santiy while his feelings constantly change between rage and despair.

[AllegroDemolish]

sometimes, i reli dunno wts prokofiev was thinkin.

his music is so difficult to understand.

[FabioThePianist]

This sonata is fantastic, all.

This first movement is so beautiful

[CocoaRadix]

This movement is the only thing Prokofiev wrote that I absolutely cannot enjoy no matter how many times I listen to it. The fast parts are great, but once it slows down, it just gets...bad. And I know there's going to be a mob of people screaming about how "genius" it is, and how Prokofiev can do no wrong, but, let's face it: even composers have bad days. Even Mozart and Beethoven wrote a couple things that are clearly inferior to the rest of their oeuvre.

[harisiadis]

That's surpising. I find the slow parts especially moving.

[darthphonebook]

Mozart sucks

[BalmungBerserk]

maybe you just need to be all high up to enjoy this movement... lol, just kidding! I think it depends a lot the mood you listen this... maybe the correct mood you could have only a time in life... my piano teacher said that you only can hear one time any music, if you listen twice, then is diferent... well... I'm all high up i think I'm going to sleep listening all of this! yeaaA!!

[KyndalSarah]

Yes, it is very true that some composer's music is not as good as their other works, e.g. a not every other symphony of Beethoven's was as good as his heavenly ninth. However, I think that everybody has a different aesthetic, so what may sound like random unenjoyable notes to you could be incredibly beautiful to others . . . so its just that some people think it sounds genius and Godly, but this just doesn't appeal to your aesthetic.

[NapSeason]

Why worry?... if you don't like it then you don't like it, move on to something else.

[bachopinberg]

@CocoaRadix world is strange.. slow parts of this first movement are the best for me, in the whole piano repertoire.. and I like Mozart of course..

[Lukecash12]

a very sad one...

[LackingLack0]

this is amazingly great

[otterhouse]

Thank you very much. Listening with the score like this is a valuable addition to youtube!

-----------------------------

Rolf, Netherlands.

I am a collector of classical 78's and lp's

Click "otterhouse" above to see (and hear!)

some of my collection.

(Gioconda de Vito, Berl Senofsky, Vlado Perlemuter,

Carl Schuricht, Gina Bachauer etc)

[boxplayer1973]

Yep his third movement is better than most others I've heard.

[classicalpianist32]

love it

[markopianist]

lol

[viennajazz]

cool

[shubus]

I agree with Fallansig.....the 3rd mov't is top drawer, right up there near Horowitz.

[ryanyee1234567890]

oh then it's a pity that recording isnt posted on youtube. i'm having trouble finding it u see.

[ryanyee1234567890]

i doubt he played the last movement

[znanto]

he did

[Fallansig]

He did, and he did a excellent job at it too. It ranks as one of the best recordings of it.

[Ihi92]

can you put the 3rd movement of rhis piece in youtube please??