Saint-Saens Etude en Forme d'une Valse Cortot Rec.1919

[17mathieu]

I thought cziffra's performance was impressive, but this is...holy crap..wow!!! bravo cortot!!

[8cubanm]

Bravo Maestro. Bravo indeed. Rest in peace.

Daniel Morales



[OrangeSodaKing]

Libetta is the only thing I've heard that comes close to this! Those double notes at the end sound so killer...

[AllaBreve3]

For Beckmesser : thank you. Jean Micault is 86 but his next concert will take place on the 24th May 2011 in Germany. He have still played this piece, of course, after this anecdote with Silvio Ceccato !

[AllaBreve3]

Jean Micault (suite) : But Cortot was not happy with the result, as for him Horowitz played "Trop virtuose" ("Too virtuoso". I have myself several time studied this "Étude en forme de Valse" with Cortot and it was considerated, in the little parisian circles, my "Cheval de Bataille" ("My best piece") Until Silvio Ceccato, a very important personality in the italian musical world, declared to me "È Musica inutile" ("It is an useless Music").

[AllaBreve3]

Jean Micault : "Cortot told me that after Horowitz have heard this recording, he decided to go to him to study. Cortot told me, laughing very loud with his bass voice "Quand il m'a rencontré il a été bien décu !" (="When he met me he was delluded !") I know that Horowitz and Cortot remained always in contact. I have heard too -but not from Cortot himself- that Horowitz have also studied composition.Cortot himself conducted the orchestra for Horowitz in the 3d Concerto of Rachmaninov.

[Beckmesser2]

@AllaBreve3 What a pleasure it was to read your comments regarding Cortot, Horowitz and the Saint - Saens Etude. I did not know that Cortot conducted the Rachmaninov 3rd Concerto with Horowitz or that they had remained in contact. Evidently, from your comments, Cortot's interpretive view of the concerto differed from that of Horowitz. I hope that you continued to play,at least on occasion , the Saint-Saens after hearing Silvio Ceccato label it as "useless Music."

[asv8104]

He skipped one section (repetition), so it is shorter

[stephenjoeagi]

Only Cortot could play like this. No other comment is necessary.

[aardvaark069]

I also don't think that these textures and 'lite brilliance' could be achieved on a Steinway. This playing custom-made for Pleyel and perhaps Bechstein.

[Offduty5Z66]

This is what happened when Cortot practiced a piece for more than five minutes!

[NOSEhow2LIV]

Yes, Yes, Indeed, a "miracle of velocity & lite brilliance!" A model of how to play the piece and no-one else ever comes close.

[jdbrown371]

Cortot has a way of surprising. He is often thought to be weaker than most great pianists in the area of technique, then he completely surprises with something like this or Ravel Jeaux d"eau or Liszt's Rigoletto.

[Overlapse1000]

demosj, cortot, aka, "Cortot" knew 5200 concert pieces, for real and was the number one reguarded pianist for 30-40 years, Saint-Saens knew his playing, V. Horowitz studied with him, "late 1940s", and his concerts were sold out 5 years in advance. ,"a legend"

[kaleidoscopio2006]

@Overlapse1000 he knew?or he played?

[donthuis]

Well Cortot was from the 19th century and still kept the dedication to composers worthy of his esteem. Horowitz is more 20th century and already a kind of pop star in his younger years and his vanity never left him. Clash of culture with Cortot so to say... However, I personally do not mind a star presence, think of Liszt: he also started with star performances and womanizing before becoming more serious in his later days. Cortot was serious all his life.

[kaleidoscopio2006]

@donthuis 5200 that he knew?or that he played?

[donthuis]

@kaleidoscopio2006

I guess knew, not played because of his job in Paris on the conservatory, teaching many students. Whether he played them all is something else. Because of his dedication to perfection in playing, it would've cost him too much time to study them all. Not to mention his frequent lapses of memory...

[eribani]

his coda is SO insane

[aardvaark069]

behold! Cortot stands revealed as a great and witty musical intellect with a pinpoint, whiplash tecknique.

[Noshirm]

With all due respect to Cortot, I believe his comments about Horowitz were spiteful and unwarranted. Horowitz was clearly guilty of many artistic and personal transgressions, but at least he was never a supporter of an evil regime, much less its Commissioner for the Fine Arts! Cortot's anti-Semitism was as legendary as it was vicious. His treatment of his colleague Lazare-Levy was shameful. How vindictive, to so malign a younger student. Horowitz's great achievements speak for themselves.

[pianopera]

Yes he was persona non grata because of his support to the Vichy regime. But as always, it is difficult to judge such a complex figure as Cortot. If Wikipedia is correct, "his wife, Clothilde Breal, daughter of the linguist, Michel Breal, was of Jewish origin and Clothilde Breal's cousin, Lise Bloch, was married to Leon Blum, the first Jew to become President du Conseil or Prime Minister in France."

It was of course unforgivable what he did to Lazare-Lévy.

[OrnishMathe]

Erwin, thanks for these words. Also, it's not just what CORTOT did to Lazare-Levy. The Paris Conservatoire gave his job to Ciampi during those awful war years, and Levy never regained the position he had lost there. It is also an awful shame that he tried without success to emigrate to the US. I think we should all pay homage to Levy by reading as much about him as we can and by listening to all of his recorded output. I hope pianists out there will play all of Levy's compositions for piano.

[pianopera]

Saint-Saens was still alive when this recording was made (he died in 1921). Would be nice to know if he heard it and how he reacted...

This is so much better than the 1931 recording.

[Noshirm]

Saint-Saens told LAZARE-LEVY that his version of this piece was the best he had ever heard. Yes, this version is more imaginative than the later one, and has incredible presence, despite the fact that it is now nearly 90 years old!

[chad410]

Cortot has such amazing brilliance and intellect. It s funny but all his pupils are very different.

[marcussalieri]

very smart french pianist

[aewanko300]

It seems to quote other waltzes. Thanks for the recording.

[GetMeThere1]

cute Horowitz story!

[fdartmouth]

It is "miracle of velocity and light brilliancy"!