Added: 5 years ago
From: NonfoX
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  • I just LOVE HIM! What a technique

  • Look up this piece played by Christopher Richardson

  • 9people were probabbly deafth so they disliked

  • My friend can play this he's ten years old

  • ahahha ma vi rendete conto di come ogni singola nota nella sua estrema velocita' sia perfettamente udibile con una cristallinita' incredibile???? ma chi e' cziffra e' o no un altro litz se non la sua reincarnazione porca troia

  • Secondo me, si divertiva anche a giocare al funambolo sulle difficoltà più intricate, ma lo faceva trasformando i fraseggi e le melodie in lirismo, luminoso e scintillante, ricco di vitalità traboccante di "gioia di far musica". Forse voleva trasmettere anche il senso di libertà che provava, specialmente dopo i lavori forzati che aveva subito durante la prigionia in guerra. Il suo stile esecutivo così gioioso e virtuosistico era un continuo inno alla libertà riacquistata !!!

  • Practice long enough to master the more difficult concepts, for most this is in the 20-30 year range. Attain a higher level of grasp, a greater understanding of what music really is. Cziffra is, quite frankly, one of the most accomplished musicians. I would compare him to Pearlman, Charlie Byrd Parker, Oscar Peterson and the late, great, Buddy Rich. There are few in my book. Demonstrable mastery of the instrument, absolute perfect technical playing willingness to bend with complete control.

  • Everything he does is magic. His skill is so highly evolved - there are simply no comparisons.

  • that's FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAST!

  • best interpretation I've ever heard

  • Un genio del pianoforte. Che tecnica!

  • Incredible. Wow wow wow! Everything is fresh when I hear it from him. It was fast. so fast that for the rest of us mere mortals it's not fair.

  • It's perfect!. I put another performance of the same piece.. of a bit more low level of this but he is a very young pianist.. of 17 y.o. on my channel

  • usa troppo il pedale... non convince,preferisco Arrau

  • usa troppo il pedale... non convince

  • Tits mcgee that was good

  • ma come fa ad essere così veloce? uno che deve impararlo e lo ascolta così si impressiona e perde la voglia XD

    però devo dire che è fatto benissimo,stupendo

  • It's almost just too fantastic fast

  • Please note his expression at 1:50.. no effort!! his playing is so natural as breathing... an incredibly virtuoso!

    I think this rendition is some fast, but very, very good..

    For me the best Gnomereigen I've heard is by Claudio Arrau (live)... > watch?v=ING1lFPoHks

  • he's just amazing ^-^

  • 1:46 aaah la complaisance ^^

  • 2:04 - sweet heavens

  • OMG! 1.26-1.33 the left hand

  • @G1GAR0 On top of that, the fast repeated chords on the right hand are epic as well.

  • @G1GAR0 Not to mention the fact that he plays both hands perfectly in sync...

  • fuck off

  • mmm I wish I had a time machine like yours! Please get me a photograph of a real life t-rex, It would make a kickass poster

  • LISZT FC

  • clean,

  • in my piano the keys do not come up fast enough to play the triplets, fuck!

  • same here it drives me crazy

  • for uprights, try playing them using 1-2-3 as fingering ...and really just letting them glide. I was able to perform scarlatti's d minor like this and its based on the triplets.

  • superb technicality

  • haha priceless when he looks up at the end

  • WHOAWHOA JEEZ that was AMAZING

  • This is the most magical thing.....evar. 5/5

  • omg this was awesome O.O *stunned*

  • Cziffra is brilliant

  • I PLAY THIS. ITS PRETTY HARD

  • I agree.

  • What if this piece wasn't composed by Lizst. Say it was an original composition. Now, what could you say about his tempo, his pedalling. Too fast? Too Slow? Too Much? Too little. I think not. What really matters is that it sounds good, which it does. I didn't have the manuscript next to me, but i couldn't tell if he made a mistake. Its called MUSICAL LICENCE people. And my jaw nearly broke of amazement when i saw this. Definately a favourite of mine!

  • such incredible dexterity!

  • His face is priceless @ 1:47.

    He looks looks satisfied at his playing, like hes just had a huge turd.

  • @youknowyoureright123

    Lol, I'm never going to watch Cziffra the same way again!

  • I think this is the best record what I ever hear with the Gnomenreigen... Cziffra was the best hungarian pianist.

  • Aside from Liszt himself ofcourse.

  • Mighty playing from Cziffra, as usual. Was he the greatest pianist to have his performances recorded? Quite possibly, though the case can be made for a very few others such as Rachmaninoff.

  • The pedalling was exactly as the manuscripts tell. Brilliant performance. Bravo and Rip.

  • Oh my! he actually starts to play REALLLY fast towards the second half of the piece, its scarily good.

  • Great interpreatation to my opinion.

    His playing was very accurate and the dynamics were perfectly weighted.

  • Pretty fast, but sounds good. He captures the Gnomes movement, through the music. I think that is what this etude suggests

  • Well, "Gnomenreigen" means "Dance of the Gnomes". I agree with you, it's very gnome-like.

  • An amazing performance, but too much pedal for my taste; for me, Richter and Petri play this the best on YouTube.

  • Holy flippin crap! This guy is off the hook!

  • As usual his performance of this piece is also outstanding!!!

  • The Rachmaninoff version is also beautiful even through the hail of surface noise. He also manages to create a sort of shimmer in the piece. The same shimmer can be found in his recording of the Schubert Impromptu #4 in A flat, Op 90. When you hear the opening bars it sound more like bells than piano.

  • Definetely beyond the "metronome level", Cziffra is THE best recording I can find. And that's after a good couple of months of recording-hunting. He demonstrates the right speed for this brilliant piece, and he really doesn't make and no noting errors at all (but then again, what do you expect from a pianist like him?). He demonstrates absolutely wonderful technique in this. Over all, he makes the most of us look like a bunch of people who can just manage to press the right keys in a tune.

  • Magical. I love Cziffra's mischievous grin at around 1:50, what a show off. I love it. I love the tempo he chose, regardless if it may or may not be too fast, but the fact that he can easily manage it and yet still make the music it fun and exciting to listen to. That is a true master. Fantastic performance, so envious!

  • Cziffra is badass.

  • Cziffra's interpretation makes the other ones looks like dreck. The man was a machine.

  • Definitely not a machine. If you listen carefully you can hear that he doesn't play it with metronome accuracy. He just know where to play faster and where little bit slower. He is just amazing!

  • Time to get the metronome out and practice every tempo, every shade and dynamic. After several months of knowing the piece backwards, forwards, inside out and upside down then maybe just maybe 10% of the talent in Cziffras left pinky could be ours.

  • Cziffras makes the rest look like ivory pushers. His lightness of touch coupled with the power in restraint places him in the first rank of every virtuoso pianist who has ever lived!

  • pletnev or cziffra, i don't know

    to choose with Gnomenreigen , it's so perfect!

  • Why upside down?

  • I have always wondered that myself.

  • so cool!

  • the part in the middle is too fast for me :-)

  • Yeah, I have to agree with you (the g minor section). His tempo is inconsistent throughout the whole piece. I'm not used to hearing that, and I'm not sure it makes a lot of sense. However, I have to say this is a totally dazzling performance nonetheless. It's not labored like so many others, and it sparkles rather than getting hammered out.

  • me agree as well, but nevertheless... it was awesomely kewl

  • yeah, i love that piece!!

  • I'm learning this piece right now... And lemme tell you, this tempo is damn impossible for the first... three months.

  • Agreed.

  • Damn, you didn't want to mess with these gnomes.

  • haha

  • absolutely DIVINE :)

  • Dear god, does anyone notice his left hand thumb? it's like..detached from his hand, it's another index finger!!

    Amazing performance

  • cziffra was the best liszt interpret

  • dude i play this pease and im not that very good either lol.

  • damn AMAZING!

  • I do not see why people slate such a preformance, or artist. I would love to see them do better, or even anywhere near the same standard. absolutly brilliant

  • Oh my god! Pure magic! Nobody can match this, never!

  • gawd.....he played this sooo fasttttt, i played this piece one time, and the fastest i ever went was about 2:45 with a crapload of mistakes.... hes got 15 seconds on me and every note is crisp, amazinggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!­!

  • SOOOO THAT'S MAGIC!! great! greeeeaaat!! :)) I JUST LOVE HIS GNOMES =))

  • He controlled this piece with, what seemed to be ease. This man is not human.

  • He is GNOMENREIGEN

  • MAN OR MACHINE?! **smashes monitor**

  • W O W  ! ! !

  • this must be as close as to perfection as you can get in terms if interpreting liszt

  • what ?!?!?!?! :O

  • stunning

  • I am speechless.

  • amazing left hand repeating triplets!

  • is this any more difficult than the friska of the hungarian rhapsody no.6?

  • Cziffra creates magic with his ease while playing the most difficult pieces of the world.

  • i know, i'm playing this right now, its a killer

  • excellent use of the pedal. nice and fast yet so accurate. this style of playing the piece is definitely superior to other styles. cziffra is definately the best liszt interpretator.

  • magnificent

  • Wow he looks so SMUG! He knows who he is. Cziffra. Thank god for this man.

  • Nobody's able to perform Gnomenreigen better than this. And nobody will ever be.

  • i totally agree ....

  • agreed

  • Great! Thanks for the post. It´s amazing the way cziffra plays this.

  • hey wenchington... GET A FREAKIN LIFE!!! this performance was outstanding!

  • Cziffra captures the devilish character of this little scherzo with fabulous finger dexterity. Simon Barere played it even faster but with less characterisation.

  • Um, holy crap? What's hit timing rcord, 350 bpm?

  • Some think they could do it better!! I think Not.....

  • this music is like the chinese music boxes with a ballet woman inside

  • The music isn't, the performance is.

  • i guess it is sir cziffra

  • Is this cziffra sir or Jr.

  • This is not his best performance. The best performance is on an old Angel recording (LP). That is aboslutely his "best."

  • Cziffra's playing was magically fixating. The ease and the lightness of his touch with the brilliant performance ... just out of this world.

  • Actually fantastic.

    Freaky in fact.

    No hesitation with the difficult bits. Seems to get stronger with the difficulty of the piece.

  • Fabulous technique and tone - the "music box" feel is a real treat. Admittedly, I prefer Rachmaninoff's, as it feels a feels more "goblin-esque" to me, but this is a real marvel.

  • I love the music-box-like-tone that he continually captures.

  • i'm 13 and i'm playing half well :) *head swells and falls down*

  • awesome technique !

  • yeah this is also my favorite recording of Gnomenreigen.

    I really like his use of the pedal in the beginning.

  • Handsome Man, Handsome Playing.

  • Too fast for the music (it is not possible to understand everything) and a lot too much pedal... I prefer the Perahia recording.

  • your opinion is noted

  • If I hear perahia, I always want to sleep...

  • This guy is very good. I just started this piece like a week ago and my piano teacher told me to look it up, thanks for posting

  • With Cziffra, those gnomes move as fast as lightning, with Richter, they are "more like elves playing in a state of joyful drunkenness".

  • at 2:02 the score reads "il piu presto possibile e FF" or "as fast and loud as possible." it is definately meant to show off the abilities of the pianist - and how fast and loud they can play.

  • There yes, but I was not talking about that place, I'm talking about the section starting at bar 77 and about the part from bar 144. The 'as fast and loud as possible' part has absolutely nothing to do with showing off, it's about the climax of the piece. But well, still this performance is highly entertaining!

  • i would definately say that the as fast and loud as possible part is about showing off. its a concert etude by liszt. like it or not, he wrote his etudes to show off his abilities at the piano. this is a perfect example of that.

  • If you would know anything about music in general and Liszt in the 1860's in particular, you would know that this piece has a climax and that it is marked bij the dynamics and the tempo. Unluckily you do not have this knowledge and think in terms of showing off or not showing off. Liszt didn't write this etude to be played in the circus or at the olympic games.

  • The dancing gnomes comment was gold. :-) I just pictured those poor, confused gnomes and laughed. Anyway, this performance was A+

  • Superb technique, as always. But...why is the tempo of the middle and end section changed so drastically? Musically it doesn't make sense at all. Many pianists do that, is it only for showing off? Just wondering how the dancing gnomes would deal with the sudden change in the middle and the end. I bet they would be pretty pissed off with mr. Cziffra...

  • they do it in emotional fervor. What musically doesnt make sense, makes sense to the heart of these great interpreters.

  • Bravo Cziffra. It's so difficult to play both quietly and fast. Very twinkly. Good stuff.

  • amazing technique, but it's hard to portray the idea of a piece at this speed. 2 pages before the last page, he plays it differently than I have ever heard. Instead of using big and bold sound, he turns this section almost into some sort of scherzo, definitely more playfully than i've ever heard this section performed. although it is a unique interpretation, i prefer that of others.

  • you must not have heard Ogdon, he played it in 2min sharp.

    And this is much more musical than OTHERS performance of this work.

  • i could not discover one single note music in ogdon's performance, and he can not play the piece at all... certainly not in the tempo he wants...

  • this is really outstanding!!! how is it possible to play like that? "la campanella" with joseph levhine is similair shocking to all professional pianists

  • Impressive technique, but I'd enjoy it more if it were a bit slower.

  • just luv it:X^^

  • HOLY FRICKN CRAP!

  • LOVELY!

  • ridiculous technique...think even lizst would be impressed

  • I must buy this, is it a DVD? Brand?

  • Really amuzing! He's like another version of Liszt.

  • great preformance

  • one word: wow

  • Cziffra is awesome. This is exquisite.

  • amazing performance, Liszt needs to played with such finesse in order to fully appreciate his works to the fullest, which so many simply cannot do!

  • Cziffra is incredible!!!

  • Ahhh, this piece. You gotta love those repeated note triplets. This thing just trucks.

  • Why waste time trying to decide whose performance is best? Is this synchronized swimming or some other lame subjective competition? There is no possibility that any objective scientific criteria could exist for determining whose performance is best. It is a matter of taste and preference. Spend your time your time instead relishing the amazing variety of nuances and interpretations that are possible in great music.

  • o man!!! you are so right!!! there is no criteria because everyone(concert pianists, i mean) plays the piano very differently with their own personality. the only horrible piano players are the ones who don't put life into their work - the ones who only try to achieve virtuosity for the sake of achieving it!!!

  • Well said, emtube.

  • i agree

  • when someone says "this performance is best" I think their preferences and taste is implied. It's always an opinion when someone says "this performance is best". Its ust easier than saying, "In my opinion, this performance is best." THat's whay you never see someone say: "FACT: This performace is best". Whatever reasons they give (i.e. colour, tone, etc.) is based on their preferences, and reflects their opinion.

  • SO what is really being said is, "this one is my favorite interpretation of the many varieties of this piece."

  • Rachmaninov's is best, imho. Barere and Cziffra tie for second.

  • they are both perfectly played entities themselves

  • My goodness....one of my favorite pieces! It's really awesome!

  • Everything should be fine if you just say "I PREFER" instead of "IT'S WORSE THAN". The balance between virtuosity and musical poetry sometimes is not so easilly pendible for "poetry" as the simple and best choice.

  • Cziffra is amazing, but he wasn't a natural from what I heard. He practised a lot. But by god it was worth it!! :D

  • ~*amateurs*~

  • fattog (homoe87)

  • Whaouu !

  • hahaa, this is the more musical recording between the 3 you mention, lay off the crack

  • Very impressive technique, but I prefer the George Bolet or Claudio Arrau recordings of this piece - they are much more musical.

  • hahahahh da JOKE.

  • LMAO i love the "cziffra is only a virtuouso not a poet" shit, seriously listen to all of them again. this is the best, thats it.

  • "Virtuouso not a poet" ...What? who said that cuz i dont see it in any of the 6 comments up now?

  • Cziffra was born to play this music. You're full of shit. Just repeating the old line that Cziffra wasn't "musical" because he liked to play technically difficult pieces.

  • Never once did I say Cziffra wasn't musical. I simply said I have heard better versions of this particular piece. Let's not have a rather juvenile comment war over a harmless opinion.

  • You haven't heard better versions of this piece, especially not from a technical cripple like JORGE Bolet. Your ears must have been gunked up with a boyfriend's errant cum when you listened to this Cziffra recording.

  • Nope... I swallow.

  • very funny answer, but i