Samuel Barber Piano Sonata mov.1

[jositaJea]

4:56 reminds me a lot of Scarbo

[jcsv12345]

Of all of Barber's works this one is surprisingly terrible.

[oneminuscossquaredx]

piano falling down stairs

[MrSkinnygecko]

so is this guy like related to justin bieber rite?

[5BLD]

Incredible!

[FlyingBlackAndWhite]

what a definitive performance!

[iriverivyleague]

who played this?

[FlyingBlackAndWhite]

@iriverivyleague Vladimir Horowitz

[Zirocket8]

3:26 best part

[hotplate85]

Many bravos to this composition! Barber reminds me of Brahms in his use of thematic material. I love it when the tonality is all over the place, then he pulls the reigns in to e-flat and streams along in the diatonic home for awhile.

Unfortunately, Barber never seems to lighten up the rhythms and show off his inventiveness. The result is a kind of colorless music when compared with Copland, Hanson, Sessions and Carter, etc. But his talent is immense...It's a pretty Beethoven-like sonata...

[Sveccha93]

Matthew, bless you for all these videos...you have made this year so much more amazing and full of discoveries for me. I'm not only playing again, I'm memorizing a Prokofiev sonata and starting to compose again after years and years...these videos are very inspirational, just seeing the music means so much!

[Joltyness]

Interesting that Barber composed his saddest (Adagio for Strings) and most violent (Piano Sonata) works during the happier parts of his life.

[whack47]

dundun tada!

[beastlybobo]

You should try to put the whole sonata up!!! It's such a great piece. And all of the Hindemith sonata as well!

[iamalittlespy]

I don't know Barber's music as well I should. But this by far the most complex, percussive and violent i've heard from the generally neo-romantic composer. Great piece nonetheless and gets better with repeated listening. The concluding fugue is awesome.

[markov2b1]

how the heck do you sight read such garbage.

[philomelchloris]

@markov2b1 oh my you certainly do not know how to appreciate this. so get lost

[Sveccha93]

@markov2b1 Your comment reminds me of a little boy talking about how "yucky" girls are and how he would never want to kiss one.

[MoltoRubato88]

This is a tour de force performance by one of the greatest pianist of the 20th century. The John Browning recording of this sonata is superb, too.

Happy 100th birthday, Samuel Barber! :)

[JoeTownley]

How does one memorize something like this??????

[Sveccha93]

@JoeTownley part brain, part muscle, baby!

[gwhizofto]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. What a tremendous confluence of pianist and composer. Thanks for the video.

[deemilieu]

the complexity of 'serious' music must represent that of the times. otherwise, we're only dealing with pop style and 'aesthetics' in the worst of the term. classical music, above all other forms, in my opinion, has this charter...to reflect the complexities of a time. sure, i still love js bach, chopin, beethoven, etc.. that's all fantastic stuff that can lift the spirit. i don't want to preach, but anyway, there's a lot of room on classical music for formal expression...

[DemonSlazer]

5:25 - 5:40 has a very impressive effect in the context of the piece

[jewish1972]

a very aggressive mov.

[ilhadosmacacos]

omg... he has serious depression...

[Zebeldarebel]

I like the contrast between tonality & atonality.

[Exanimousx]

..... It's in my mind it's one coherent language, rather than two distinct 'styles' being juxtaposed. The contrast between "tonality and atonality" as you say to me is merely an alternation between higher levels of dissonance and lower levels.

These labels don't serve to say anything other than make your comments appear sophisticated to the unknowing.

[AvidHobbyist]

This piece has really made me very grateful for Chopin.

[Renshen1957]

@AvidHobbyist Amen! In Chopin's time, playing music such as this was a one way ticket to Bedlam. Much of the 20th century was so just much chaotic cacaphony that it is no wonder that Classical music is moribund.

[EMPERORMIKI]

Classical music is not moribund ... it still has at least 3 thousand more years of steam (assuming we're around in 3k years).

There are great great and wonderful moments in classical music ...

[Renshen1957]

....Emporormiki, this isn't one if them.

I wasn't referring to the glories of the past.

After a century of dishonor and the "burden of modernism," this legacy has made 21st century composers irrelevent, unknown to the public, uncelebrated, and ignored. Their music is a poison pill, sandwich between concert standards on a symphony program or premiered upon captive audiences at University Music departments.

[EMPERORMIKI]

Glories of the past??

Burden of modernism?? By whom?

The problem is and always will be the music.

I'm sorry if people can't hear the beauty in music, even *gasp* 21st century music.

Not my damn problem.

[Renshen1957]

Cavell coined the phrase in 1976, BOM: "it now seems necessary to composers to employ and confront, to make a work of art at all themselves insure that their work will not be comprehensible to an audience" (Or listenable)

If a minoriy are so tone deaf that can't hear ugliness or are so afraid to speak against the Emperor's new clothes, it's not my problem, either.

The problem is the "music;" the composers betrayed their audiences who left concert hall.

Get Well Soon

[EMPERORMIKI]

You need a quote from 1976 to address contemporary music ...

LOL.

This "ugliness" you speak of reminds me of what Beethoven's contemporaries said about his works.

Again, if your ears and mind are limited to a certain musical period fine.

I could not care less.

[Renshen1957]

The quote is as appropriate today as it was in 1976. Serialism, Minimilism, Aleatoric music etc, nothing new in contempory music in the last three decades. The above techniques never crossed over into other music genres.

Rejected.

"This "ugliness" you speak...." Comparing Barber to Beethoven? ROFLMAO.

It is a pity that aesthetics is a neglected study.

My mind and my ears know the difference between shit and shinola. How do your shoes smell?

[dementedpianist]

@renshen1957

i understand what you're saying about the systematic destruction of classical music. but this isn't a video of john cage or steve reich. (my apologies to the 3 people in this world who actually like cage.)

if you don't like BARBER, that's a matter of taste, and not just an objective statement. i actually like this piece, and apparently so does emperormiki. and barber knew how to write for audience appeal: just look at adagio for strings.

[Renshen1957]

@dementedpianist,

Point well taken, taste is a subjective matter; one can call the piece ugly or beautiful and be correct. Ergo, day is black and night is light.

Barber's Adagio for Strings is a popular audience piece with the general public, considered a standard, a classic, or "greatest hit." It is considered lovely . This piano sonata has not been elevated to that status and never will. It is appreciated by a minority; a little known curiousity piece amongst concert pianists.

[rpgero]

I´m sure you are something like....intelligent... Barber is not Beethoven but maybe Stockhausen is...if you knew what I´m saying... before anything, read a little, so you can judge without prejudice and avoid saying things that make you hear like a short-sighted moron. That´s a caution. And this piece is rather easy (very easy), try listening to Xenakis..... about "never crossing to other genres", just listen to (popular) Apocalyptica, Yann Tiersen or White Stripes (for your techniques)

[Renshen1957]

rpgero, Intelligent enough to know the Helicopter Quartet isn't remotely Beethoven. Where's the double counterpoint, harmonic progression, melody?

Apocalyptica is influenced by Heavy Metal,

Tiersen & White Stripes are influenced by 60's rock; all use orthodox Major/Minor system than crossing over genres. Where's the atonality? The Beatles Day In A Life's final crescendo is closer to Stockhausen.

If opinions makes one a moron, welcome to the club.

PS Xenakis = Emperor's New Clothes!

[edmundtyrone]

@Renshen1957 :Bwahahahaha! You know NOTHING of popular music to make the statement that "the above technicques never crossed over..." Serialism, I'll give you. But aleatoric music? That's as old as music itself, buddy! Or for a concrete example, consider, um, jazz? Minimalism has had a HUGE influence on current popular styles. Ever hear of Brian Eno? Or Radiohead?

[Renshen1957]

@edmundtyrone You are confusing aleatoric music with Improvistion, quite a different genre.  Whether a Jazz solo or a Eric Clapton guitar solo has a basis in what went before. Improvisation is instant composition but not randomly played notes in any register, any key.

[Renshen1957]

@edmundtyrone Minimalism, Brian Eno and his ambient background music owes as much toWendy Carlos's Sonic Seasonings as to the compositions of Glass or Reich.

Minimalism it isn't Atonal, Dissonant, Serial, or Aleatoric; it follows traditional harmonic progressions. Either a reaction modernism or an out growth of mainstream music values, it is very commercial.

Radiohead, an alt rockband with many influences, but Pink Floyd, Interstellar Overdrive said it all before any of them.

[Renshen1957]

@edmundtyrone finally, when did you last hear a country western tune, an Andrew Lloyd Weber musical, a TV commercial jingle, employing aleatoric music? For that matter Minimalism.

I will grant you, the sampled loops of rap songs do have a minimalist quality. I should have written that not one of the forms of composition has completely supplanted other forms of composition in other genres.

You made excellent point on minimalism. I stand corrected on that account.

[3cplantin]

I should have said, "He is no longer contemporary or modern." Terms move along as time does. He DID use 20th-century techniques in the Piano Sonata (polytonality, dodecophany, etc.), but that was long ago. 60 years after Mozart died (and he died young!), Beethoven was long since dead and Chopin had been dead a couple of years already. A great deal has happened since Barber. Just because something sounds "modern" to someone who doesn't know the whole range of art music, doesn't make it modern.

[John11inch]

Barber is a Neoclassical composer, actually.

[3cplantin]

I agree. That's is true for many of his works. He can be Neo-romantic, too. Probably either of those is better than "Romantic," which I used earlier. Things like is Overture for the School for Scandal really do sound romantic, but are more than that and I guess would be better labelled "Neo-Romantic." Parts of this Sonata sound very Neoclassical.

[youvebeensmoked]

I think the slightly ostentatious "Neoromantic" may be slightly more apt. His poetic style seems to owe more to the Romantics than anyone else. But he is certainly not a modernist composer.

[John11inch]

That would be like calling Wagner a Neoromantic composer.

[youvebeensmoked]

It would be, except that Wagner was born 100 years earlier. Neo- (as a prefix) means "new", thus, a "new" rendition of Wagner's and other's Romanticism.

Certainly some of his works owe much to the Neoclassicists. However, I still maintain that his work is less concerned with clarity of structure than it is with lyricism, harmony, and deep emotional exploration.

[Exanimousx]

Seems like an overfocus on labels and semantics, why can't we discuss the aesthetics of the piece without always referring to a style? Why can't we talk about musical devices and compositional techniques he employs, or what in particular about the piece is appealing or unappealing? I'll start: I find interesting for example the double octave statement at the beginning which repeats with modified accompaniment as the rephrase. It brings back similar material differently thus adding direction.

[davidbaker03]

And have you heard his Piano Concerto, the second movement is very romantic/poetic and one of the most beautiful and sad pieces I've heard.

[tomenicus]

2nd movement? The Great one is the first movement, from the very beginning, the few simple piano notes giving the topic, and then after some cadenza full orchestra... I love thi concert, is one of my favourites.

[ex59neo53]

Too "modern" for me ...

[3cplantin]

It's 60 years old -- not exactly modern anymore.

[ex59neo53]

What is 60 years in classical music history ? ;o)

[3cplantin]

Well, it's the difference between 2 or more musical/compositional generations. The difference between late Bach and Beethoven's mid-period; between Liszt and Bartok; between mid-Baroque and early Mozart; between Mahler and John Cage; between Bartok and John Adams; between Beethoven and late Brahms -- all huge differences. Barber hasn't been modern for a while now.

[John11inch]

Barber is modern.

Barber is not contemporary.

[etudepatetico]

@3cplantin Sounds like a nice medium, somewhere between Prokofiev/Scriabin sonatas and Sorabji's opus clavicembalisticum (a safe distance from the Sorabji though!).

[ryflar]

@3cplantin

Good Name Droppin, Chomo.

[ryab55]

this is probably the same level as the chopin sonata no.2

[davidhberlin]

For me this is Barber's masterpiece, The greatest single work he wrote. Horowitz is wonderful, of course, but a piece like this allows many interpretations. He is magisterial all the same!

[skryabyn]

Haha findingusernamesucks and frosty956 had a hilarious conversation

[awesometoast100]

very very modern

[wildknight1103]

Good God... Horowitz played this piece as if he wrote it. I can't imagine a more compelling interpretation. What a shame there is no video of this.

[themoonandroundabout]

Am playing this sonata at the moment. V. hard. I find this movement harder than the fugue for interpretative reasons.

[findingusernamesucks]

good shit . . . too bad addagio for strings so overshadows his other works

[frosty956]

like the cello concerto

[findingusernamesucks]

lol . . . what about it?

[frosty956]

it was a reply to your other comment ". . too bad addagio for strings so overshadows his other works "

[findingusernamesucks]

oh you mean it also is overshadowed by adagio?

[frosty956]

yeah

[Glinkaism1]

@findingusernamesucks Yes! Barber's Essays for Orchestra aren't much in the public ear. The Adagio for Strings suffers from overplay. Too many movies have made it kitchy. Barber's 3rd Essay for Ork is like a romantic movie score, though. Lovely!

[EntropyEternal]

I quite like this ... I'm surprised ...

[frosty956]

dont try and understand, just listen and enjoy.

[Coixxman]

I like the syncopation and change of meters

[sanjosemike]

Charles Ives was a great American composer, to be sure, sytoslawski, but I have always found Ives' music to be a tad "cold." His Concord Sonata is a great work too, but is also cold. I have never heard the Tippett's Piano Sonatas.

This is a very difficult artistic form to "get right" as is the Piano Concerto.

That is why the great works in these venues are all the more remarkable!

sanjosemike

sanjosemike

[coasterman16]

can you please post the rest of the sonata?!!

[peterbaker261]

Tippett's piano sonatas are better, although I do have a fondness for Barber's fugue.

[sanjosemike]

The Barber Piano Sonata is the best work for piano ever by an American Composer. That was true when it was composed and remains true to this day.

sanjosemike

[szytoslawski]

I agree that Barbers sonata is one of the Americas best piano works, but listen to Charles Ives´s Second Sonata "Concord, Mass, 1840-60"!

[comrademarxist]

Reminds me very much of Leo Ornstein, but with more powerful rhythm.

[russwlkr]

What a moron you are, aldebussy.

This is nothing like Scriabin's "Vers la flamme"-- well, they are both for piano.

But Barber's Sonata stands on its own as a great piece of mid-2-th century piano music. And its fugue kicks major classical ass.

[lvb555]

I'm with you, russwlkr. But I hate to see you waste your energy arguing with aldebussy. You forget, he's 16...he knows everything!

[EMPERORMIKI]

Agreed. I think what he may be talking about is the dotted rhythm. In Vers la flamme it's limited to a single motif. In this sonata is plays a much different role. Other than that I can't see how anyone can confuse the two.

[Jockolantern]

Captivating piece of music and amongst my very favorite compositions from Barber. This entire Sonata is frighteningly difficult, however (particularly this and the fourth movement; possibly the most difficult fugue ever written)... not for performers who are faint of heart.

[chad410]

i lpve barber .absoltely captivating work wonderful

[lamsauping]

I love it

[BachFong11]

I would die to hear the rest!

[4444matthew4444]

boom! dead...lol i will have the rest up soon enough...i am busy with my job and lessons so bare with me!

[sanctusignis]

What an amazing piece of music. Please upload the rest soon!

[4444matthew4444]

I will. Keep Posted by sub-ing

[sanctusignis]

Whoa, I just realized something! At 3:02, you can hear a page being turned...

[4444matthew4444]

HAHAHA I heard it..

[JessicaDawn19]

I love how barber makes discord into accord. Thanks for posting this!!!

[suzettegm]

This is an excellent post, thanks!