Rachmaninoff plays Debussy Golliwogg's Cakewalk

[doroppulokkupoppu]

WOW Rachmaninoff playing Debussy! My respect for the genius increases twofold - thanks!!!

[alinnman]

Fantastic. 

[GolliwoggMusic]

Golliwogg APPROVES of this.

[n64wilbert]

Marvelous interpretation!!!!

[peachmelba16]

magical...my kind of Rach music

[TheBulgarianThunder]

Rachmaninov!

[bcooly11]

I'll never kno how he interpreted the last note :(

[LOTRzagorath]

@bcooly11 Why not? It's in the recording…

[PhilK1231]

Amazed the politically correct vermin haven't demanded the removal of this piece due to it's "racism" in the title(They see it everywhere but where it's at it's worst) or at least it's renaming.

[gemmaliantinis]

i play it better....

[MrLinkoci]

@gemmaliantinis Hehhe... Sure.. :p

[gemmaliantinis]

@MrLinkoci

sensitivities korkolis..

[toadsEATbugs]

Rachmaninoff totally owned this song

[MarlitaLinda77]

This version has been very happy to me!!!

[MarlitaLinda77]

So quite! (Qué lindo)

[Oldladeesistahs]

Omw! I just listened to debussy play this piece and now Rachmonioff! They play this song so weird!!!

[Gangjoyful]

@Oldladeesistahs You must have been listening to the piano roll version that I just listened to?

[C3P0meetsData]

Ugh! Are all recordings from this time period so awful???!!!

[n64wilbert]

@C3P0meetsData Some sound better than 21st century cell phones!!

[CurzonRoad]

((((((((((( Thank You! )))))))))))

[sdegrace]

Joué avec humour et esprit. Il se passe bien des choses. J'aime beaucoup.

[dussekfan]

I am addicted to this piece now :O:O

[dialecticon]

Thank you for posting this marvel.

[lePistolero]

ok Rachy i will slow down the next time... ;op

[JanetteHeffernan]

For Chou Chou!

[Ilovemusic326]

i've been working on this lately. it was an absolute nightmare to sight read! very different...

[scarlett24ca]

I bet , I play piano and it sounds like a difficult piece. I really enjoy the contrast and would love to get the sheet music.

[LOTRzagorath]

@scarlett24ca I'm not a brilliant pianist, but I can all apart from the section with a Tristan and Isolde imitation (1:20) till near the end of the section (2:00). Ragtime can be deceptively easy.

[josefin2minutos]

genial !!!! maravillosa interpretacion .

[marialebed]

I like Rachmaninoff's playing more than Debussy's! :-)

[SixthSenseDeejay]

Love this kind of pianism... he is probably one of the better Debussy-performers cuz he grew up around the same time and therefore has similar musical influences. Nice to see late romanticism (Rachmaninoff) meets impressionism (Debussy).

[lyndenbarber]

Enough with the cliches - this is not impressionistic Debussy (bar the mid-section). It's Ragtime.

[3NUNS]

@lyndenbarber : It certainly ist !

[ZeuhlEmgalai]

it is impressionistic. To me, it's an impression of a quite challenging situation, where people would have the need to drastically do something in the process..

But hey, it was made as a ragtime song, but there still is debussy's impressionism in it.

[TheWanderingNight]

@lyndenbarber

Well...can't it be both?

[3NUNS]

@SixthSenseDeejay : Good comment!

[DarknessHowls]

Rachmaninoff had a mastery over the piano that few pianists in history can honestly claim to have wielded. I like that Rachmaninov put his own sort of spin on this piece, but it doesn't do it for me. Just a matter of personal taste.

[FluffiFish]

I really miss this piece. I have to re-learn it

[TheMikester307]

I've never heard such a pianissimo in this piece! Bravo, Serge! And I loved the ending! All played "with great emotion."

[halo3face]

nowhere in my comment did i say that debussy was romantic. i think you misunderstood what i wrote. what i said was debussy helped develop the style which CAME OUT of the romantic era, i.e. the romantic era inspired debussy's music, which is why you see so much romantic influence in his pieces. thankyou very much.

[kim66003]

god love this song!!

[CodyNelsonMusic]

Rach sounds so bored. It is like he sight read this over breakfast the morning before he performed it.

(Sorry, nothing against Debussy, I still find this piece difficult.)

[PhoenixL1ght]

Lmao, at first i thought you were dissing Rach for playing the piece so plainly.

[elevenwhy]

I'm a huge fan of Rachmaninov but I see what you mean. He does have that charming and blaise callousness about his playing. Not that I would know anyway, that's just how it seems.

[XPJamieXD]

Someone else seems to suffer from this disease. Please shut up!

[penearth]

Debussey plays this much better

[sigsoundfan]

of course, he wrote it!

[Rachturne]

you shut ur dirty fucking mouth right now

[Cedarfaced]

funniest comment yet

[aniko66]

Tarado!

[nebnubs]

how so? i like rachmaninoff. i have not heard much of his live recordings, but i'm guessing this is not one of his best.

[Pianoplayer002]

Is it just me, or does Rachie sound a little bored?

[Liblibido]

Definitely--he doesn't care for this "trip to the candy store" bullshit Debussy

[halo3face]

i'm pretty sure that rachmaninoff would have respected debussy greatly- after all they were both equally as important as each other in terms of developing the style of music that came out of the romantic period. both of them have created some of the most beautiful pieces we know today.

[220392123]

debussy is much more important in musical history! although i love Rach.

[numberoneinline]

I love this song. =D

[pacoenigmatic]

is that good or bad?

[soami2u]

It would be interesting to hear Rachmaninov play "Chopsticks", but in this case I don't care for the interpretation...overpedalings and exaggerated rallentandi are some of the debits here.

[D0g63rt]

Are you saying that makes it worse?

[phileokai]

Well done I'm playing this song and I'm 12. I love it!!!!

[vorbs1]

well done?  I'm sure rachmaninov doesn't really care what any of us say...

[nikhilshinday]

i personally don't like this version...i think that he doesn't have a lot of dynamic range...but that's just me.

[VikingBerserker]

the dynamic range does not show up on a recording of this quality. Even on home videos with modern cameras the range doesn't come off well. I have heard other recordings by Rachmaninoff where you can tell the piano is making a huge sound because of the way the piano sounds (it's kind of a sort of clanging but hopefully you know what I mean) but the recording only shows the same mf of the rest of the performance. I think it was the funeral march.

[isra2eelsharrmoutlak]

@VikingBerserker before there were no high quality pianos like today

[ayso78]

@isra2eelsharrmoutlak On the contrary, pianos from that era were arguably better constructed than today's mass-produced instruments. Who knows what Rachmaninoff had access to in that recording studio, though.

[isra2eelsharrmoutlak]

@ayso78 Im sorry but pianos of today are better than the olds and have a more quality sound. the ''better constructed pianos'' began only in the 40's and 50's

before the pianoshad a very poor sound quality, in the times of beethoven per exemple. in the time of rachmaninoff, they were much better but today they are much better too

[ayso78]

@isra2eelsharrmoutlak It's no secret why many American pianists were afflicted by career-ending hand injuries playing on Steinways made in the '80s.

[ayso78]

Moreover, Pletnev recorded on Rachmaninoff's old Steinway grand and loved it, and he is certainly particular about pianos. He apparently favors Bluthners these days. At any rate, Rachmaninoff was playing on an upright in his early Edison Diamond Disc records.

[itsgud2bdking]

is it just me or does rachmaninoff look like max schrek?

[principalbass]

He sure does in this video.

[cuentanuevanueva]

Beautiful playing as usual.

[mmcrosbie]

I know it's ragtime, but any musician can hear the similarities.

[RoaCon]

BRAVO!!!!!

[emilysayshi1234]

AWESOMENESS

[sunlitporch]

Brilliant!

[taotaoyingying]

excellent

[mytchilla]

Just how incredibly refreshing is Rachmaninov's rhythmic style :)

[vocalpianist]

this is funny, Rach. disliked debussy

[Yaf0]

Its a wonderful interpretation but if you listen carefully you can hear the piano roll turning in the backgroud, or it might just be a record player however it does not matter thanks a lot! :)

[jsteeber]

It is obviously a phonograph record. The alternative would be what -- Sergei Rachmaninoff posting his own recent performances?

[dormi87]

lol - Sergei live down the pub tonight - one night only!

[mclarke825]

He'd have a stage name today. Something like Rock-Man Inoff, perhaps.

[dormi87]

Haha, I like it!! Heh, that really made me laugh.. not great in university library but hey!

[Yaf0]

I like Claude Debussy's own interpretation of this piece the best

[OverFjell]

There's something about Rachmaninoff's touch I prefer, and his lesser pedalling.

[utubeman6]

Fabulous piece!

[beauxsoir]

jazz influence, right?

[pshanahan2002]

Ragtime, actually.

[mmcrosbie]

Which is, of course, early jazz - Scott Joplin style.

[rockerduff1231]

thats rag

[rvn10rvn17]

great interpretation but i prefer Michelangeli's interpretation

[kamjoeski]

What a great interpretation and how great to find it...

[leontud]

because its beautiful and unforbidden. he plays it best as well.

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Why Would He Play This Cakewalk?

[shanehennessyguitar]

Why Not?

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Inferior Technique.

[igidid]

nice...

[Psychosirius]

i like to when rachmaninov play pieces of another compositor's

[mahpyua]

oh,yeah it`s him,unique rhythm effects,from the very beginning,and wonderful middle part,again amazing dealing with rhythm.this could be nobody else.rachmaninov is the greatest pianist,composer and conductor!

[GiorgioniCZ]

But donť forgot on Debussy. He composed this great song

[mahpyua]

ofcourse,youre absolutely right.but since rachmaninov is my favourite in all these fields,i couldnt not mention what i feel.:)

[thomasburtable]

actually it is called a piece, i didn't hear any singing...

[jeni323]

very nice.. a rare find surely

[willashland]

You go boy!

[yoki33]

hehe

cool

[123fakestr]

oag. i would have expected a more extraordinary interpretation, much like his "suck on it!"-stylish interpretation of schuberts impromptu op 90 no 4. like it! sounds very pure.

[arym666]

surprissed to noticed about this quite perffect interpretation, as my partner avobe has noticed, you can really know is rachmaninoff itself playing this masterpiece, a wonderfull curiosity

[yuanruan]

interesting...

I do believe it is rachmaninov. The pedal effects in the end sounds quite 'him'...

[123fakestr]

you are right! there is his signature..