Maria Yudina plays Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition 1/4

[hugobickel]

Essa é a pior versão dessa obra prima. Ela estragou a segunda promenade, a gnomus e a vecchio castello. GOOGLE TRANSLATOR

[Chateaubriand26]

Une interprètation des plus intéressantes. Très ample, pesante, riche en reliefs. Elle demande une très grande concentration d'écoute, Maria Yudina ne rend pas service à son auditoire. C'est une manière de jouer ces tableaux qui est très exigeante, et elle a forcément une visée plus développée que la simple esthétique. Je ne la trouve pas très agréable à entendre, or quelque chose me donne envie de continuer l'écoute, une curiosité de ce qu'elle aura bien faire de tous les autres tableaux.

[chaoss5070]

To not like an interpretation is one thing, but to say that she plays poorly is completely wrong. If you listen to the rest of the piece - not just Gnomus - her technique is irrefragably good.

[awesomekapownoises23]

This is different... but incredible! as was yours truecrypt :)

[Olibutters]

She used to carry on with her a loaded gun all the time !

[ccdg1066]

Thank you for the upload - I had not heard of this great pianist before and glad to have finally "discovered" here, all thanks to you. This piece is one of my all time favorites. Mussorgsky wote such great imaginative colour and character. As did Ravle and so I like the collaborated piece, too!

[gurthgirth]

@ccdg1066

couldn't agree more..

[benedetti]

Gentleman listen: this is a great pianist (and a great lady), too bad that she is not well known...a name to remember!

[straussgirl96]

I really like how she shows the different feels of each of the promenades just perfectly.

[pianomanrsn01]

Yudina is not one of my favorites, but to give her her due, she does play very skillfully. Sometimes I do not like her interpretations, but there is no denying her talent.

[adissonantnote]

Masculine, brave, feministic, part of the sister-hood, antidisestablishmentarianistic (sic), religious. Everything all wrapped up in one incredible woman. I'd marry her tomorrow (even her bones) and I'm not normally the marrying type. Stalin's love for her is about the only thing I share with Stalin aside from preferring my left side for photo shoots.

[Hohenschonhausen]

Marija Judina you can either like or hate, no more possibilities!!

[danyarivw]

why all the comentaries about how shoul or would? Yudina, she IS AT THE EXPOSITION and no one shall tell how fast to stroll or how feel about rhe pictures. You like or not, cant oblige me to like or not what I see, and also today I have stomach problems , so I see differently than yesterday, today I dont like so much !

[FCTuba]

Played "the old castle" WAAY too fast. I like it slower, much much slower.

[adragnavincent]

it's just wonderful. I have never heard this piece like this. she takes freedom from the text but what an artist....the gnomus is frightening....what a woman. amazing.

[schimmlz]

This version of gnomus destroyes all the tension. You may discuss whether right or wrong... but in my opinion it is less to dramatic... as if lurch (=addams family) playes the piano. NO TENSION!!!! auf steirisch: ouni iagenda gfü!!! wia wüstn sou a spaunnung aufbaun, du kristkindl !!!

[Jamesdude2000]

It amazes me how badly gnomus can be played

When played right it has an incredibly spooky feel to it that's almost chilling, but so many performers seem to turn it into a clunky mess

[truecrypt]

It amazes me how naive (or even worse) some "comments" could be...

Do you really think Yudina couldn't play Gnomus the way all "good students" do?

Try to find out WHY she played it differently ("badly" in your view).

[missveryenthu]

why?

[leonengard]

Great answer!

[gurthgirth]

@truecrypt

this performance is amazing

I really adore this woman for her originality and intelligence

she really knew how to present so many different composers personalities and herself through performances of their works

[sshuck]

@Jamesdude2000

I agree with you, Gnomus sounds awful. Guess I'm going to get "too many negative votes" too....Oh well, small price to pay for allowing myself to not like something a celebrated musician did.

[CJQME36]

I love listening to these unnecessary comments (that are ignored) about how someone should play. It's different for everyone. There is no SET way someone should actually play. Art is supposed to create emotion. How does one go about measuring precisely how much someone is pouring themselves into a song? hmm

[Robotman42]

The promenade is a bit quick for my preference. That's how fast I walk on the street, not in an art gallery.

[kimbaofkamba]

That made me LOL. Well said!

[operaman20]

hahahhahha too funny

[Classicalmpm]

One must be aware not of your preference on tempo - walking speed or not, but more less concentrate on the aspect of Mussorgsky. Pictures is a wonderful piece that does a great job representing the pictures at hand - one must not be decieved by what they hear. Mussorgsky I feel used Pictures as away to hold on to the memories of Hartmann, not to set music to his drawings. Next time you listen to the music think of everything in a sad way, alow the Great Gate to make you cry. The Tempo is free!

[lastnaturemistake]

Old castle (my fav) is played way faster than other pianists I know. it's strange isn't it?

maybe yudina was right?

[margyoseven]

Wonderful! She is a real virtuoso, isn't she? I love this great work - also the Ravel orchestration, which I find beautiful but, in a way, unnecessary, because Mussorgsky composed with such understanding of the versatility and richness of the piano played solo. But I love it with piano or orchestra... and the Promenade is beautifully addictive. Play on...I'm loving this.

[lastnaturemistake]

I also like piano version and Ravel's one, but I might differ you about necessity of Ravel orches. work, for I found in history pic at exh. was meant to be orchestral but modest was a bit too lazy (busy to be optimist!) to write all his thoughts on paper.

so Ravel saved as much as possible IMHO, and piano version stands as an original statue.

[margyoseven]

Thanks for that information: I think when listening to Maria Yudina's interpretation I was absorbed totally and couldn't imagine anything more could be needed! I do love the Ravel also, and I heard another orchestration just recently - by Julian Yu.

[havskatt]

Not human

[voolare]

I read in Neuhaus' book about this performance; it's amazing how she immediately shocks by pointing out the specular structure of the main theme; basically the first six notes are specularly repeated by the next 6 notes,and that makes the theme!Yudina plays the second set of six notes slightly more piano... GENIUS! Thanx so much for posting this jewel!

[ffurgy]

Whoof...those are STRONG hands...not many women have that kind of strength....(I think of Amparo Iturbi as another in that league). And Yudina's playing of this "monster" suite is awesome. I can imagine walking between Hartmann's pictures, even...thank you for sharing her works...

[aewanko300]

Suprising to find that she didn't do an "attaca" after the first promenade. The tempo is unique, overall. Bravo Maria.

[senoa11]

today nobody can play like that........ people gave time to interpet music- today is everything rushing and screaming and running.....

[SarrasaniPianoCircus]

I agree. A candidate who plays so at a competition will be cut off, no doubt.

But this version is simply wonderful.

[pianopianissima]

@senoa11 Yes, I totally agree with you; Music needs time, silence; yudina is a wonderful artist, alive forever.

[paulostroff99]

Different interpreting then I am used to,but that is hers to decide.The playing is obviously brilliant,and that leads me to inquire as to what his rating might be were there no video. There are as I'm sure that you know-some without.One that comes to mind is Ezio Pinza with some female movie star.

[weikko79]

Thanks for this! One of the most interesting performances of the Pictures ever committed on disc. I have this on LP, btw.

[chad410]

I love the way she phrases the first few phrases.

[truecrypt]

Well... I'm all for freedom of expression, but user GnarlyPanda simply enjoying to rate performances as low as possible. I don't mind if he does it on my own videos, but to rate Yudina with 1 star is simply sick (even if he doesn't like or understand it). Probably another "disturbed" and unrecognized "genius"... ;)

[thunder1909]

You cannot judge people like that. Perhaps he doesn't like the way Yudina plays it, but it his own opinion. You are wrong to penalize him for it. There is no right or wrong Truecrypt, although I wholeheartedly agree with you on the fact that rating this a 1 is wrong. Do you have a recording of Yudina playing Mussorgsky's Duma?

[truecrypt]

well, thunder 1909, if Yudina's performance is judged upon video quality, I reserve the right to have my own opinion on such "freedom of expression". I'd rather prefer people express their opinion on music qualities. And BTW, there IS "right and wrong".

[thunder1909]

I meant right or wrong in interpretations, not the basics of musicality and stylistic aproaches.

[truecrypt]

Whatever you mean the point is - there is a certain level of performance/mastery upon which one should always ask himself - "May be I don't like it because of the lack of experience, education, understanding..."? I'm sure you'll find plenty of "very sophisticated" people who would insist that Mona Lisa is just an average painting... Beware such people!

[thunder1909]

And maybe Truecrypt, there is a performance where the critic is an educated musician, and tells himself "I don't like it because of the pianist's lack of understanding of musical aspects" or "I don't like it because the pianist doesn't understand the piece, and interprets it wrong", which may be the case with GnarlyPanda.

[truecrypt]

No, it's not a case. GnarlyPanda informed me that his low rating based on poor video quality (i.e. only 2 static images). GnarlyPanda considers YT mainly as a video medium and rates accordingly.

[thunder1909]

Oh, wow. In this case there is nothing to talk about as he wasn't even rating musicality and Yudina's playing.

[paulostroff99]

truecrypt-But nothing is (totally) black or (totally) white. They are always comprised of shades in between. Panda has a right not to like the performance or style,but not to give it the one star.Her playing alone deserves 4 stars.

[truecrypt]

And it's exactly my point! It's an audio recording turned into video with only goal in mind - make it available to wider audience.

To rate it according to video quality is like to rate audio performance according to quality of the CD box! BTW there are not enough stars to rate Yudina's performance. It's another dimension...

[paulostroff99]

truecrypt,I could not agree more. As you know I have spent the day listening and researching this brave and vital individual. You were quite right in your assessment of her background,as I enlisted at no pay-a relative who tells me that the answer is in the meaning or translation of her family name.Best wishes