Rage over a lost penny op. 129 - beethoven ( Anatol Ugorski)

[Shalgrom]

this has Beethoven's name on the tag right? well then it is fast enough. Back off. It is Beethoven for crying out loud. He's the greatest musical genius of all time, if not equal to Mozart, and you guys are complaining about how fast the song is! I can't believe this. I just want to listen to the master and not some peons cringing at the speed. Huf!

[chrisrolnaldo1221]

@Shalgrom if u dont want to see the people complaining u could always stop reading them? u dont have to have a nerd rage about it

[doomsday1216]

@Shalgrom not to mention that, for fun, beethoven would learn any mozart piece on a whim. I imagine mozart never wrote something for the piano that beethoven couldn't play. And the reverse may not be as true. Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, none of them can compare to beethoven...just his body of work and the variety of it is incomparable.

[JumpDiffusion]

this is fast and all that. but Sokolov's crystal clear performance is just amazing.

[laurarox80]

I want to learn this so if I ever lose a penny I'll have means of catharsis. :)

[s1earle]

This is a RAGE so excess speed is the essence; I have found Schnabel's version the fastest and he gets close to what I think Beethoven intended - Mr Ugorski plays very well indeed.

[alexatmusic1990]

Great played,

nevertheless i dont think you should play ist that fast,

in 4:23 it sounds like its played by a computer ithink, not nice this part.

But really great.

[TheMarioBrosFan]

I HATE FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE. This pwns it. Great video xD

[baumliebhaber]

verry fast ,,... if i had a bösendorfer ,....... interpretation quite nice ( the repeating ) and the soft end , also a good idea ,..... mindblowing speed ,

[pieguyfry22]

i found the penny! :D

[hnofer17]

and he repeated on the first page when there was no repeat sign

[hnofer17]

The guy playing this is completely ignoring the dynamics, and repeating at places he's not supposed to. So he sucks. (For example, the end is fortissimo but he plays it super soft)

[EyMeng]

@hnofer17 I don't think he was trying to play it that way. if he actually didn't intend on playing super soft then yeah.

[GothicGroucho]

@hnofer17 ...right, because everyone knows the mark of a great interpreter is how well he/she follows the rules.

[macCarlos9]

@hnofer17 Hello retard. Probably you are the best musicologist and pianist in the world, so Ugorski is just an amateur for you. Please faggot, pay somebody to kill you.

[elfreeky]

@macCarlos9 los lizos malguas

[Horrible28]

omg how long has this guy practised to be able to play at that speed?

[rockhammer666]

Its like Flight of the Bumblee bee when you know what it should mean you can see it in front of your eyes...amazing to create this kind of music

[webphaser]

Mind blower...so Presto!

[modeleccentric]

Here's the sheet music...try to keep up!

[pal0palo]

lol...his hair is funny....

[TheMarioBrosFan]

O_O

[nirvanafrik]

3:23 what the hell happened there?

[gOtHiCxAnGeLxox]

@nirvanafrik - He must have found a penny and rejoiced before trying to buy something with it and then discovered that it was just some copper! XD

[dussekfan]

ooohhh...it changes keys!! Looks hard. xD

[TheMarioBrosFan]

@dussekfan DUDE... it's like CRAZY hard.. -..-

[dussekfan]

@TheMarioBrosFan It must be....:P It does look hard. But maybe not as hard as  Fantasie Impromptu?? XD

[DrinkingRoses]

actually he did name it, but someone else gave it this name. it was among the unrealeased songs beethoven had after he died. the music seems to be the trivial nature of literally, being angry over a penny. hence the slightly angry runs that last for a few seconds.

[howdilydoodily]

Interestingly, I actually find Ugorski's interpretation quite similar to Kissin's famous 1997 recording of this work. Ugorski recorded this in 1992, so I'm wondering if Kissin was influenced by Ugorski in his execution of this capriccio.

Great performance by Ugorski.

[dussekfan]

what grade might this be?

[MusicStudyMan]

@dussekfan Sections of it are used a slower tempo in Grade 5!!! Longer and faster sections commonly used at Grade 8 and you'd probably perform it a music college 'for fun' - it's the sort of thing I've known RCoM and Julliard scholars warm up with.

[dussekfan]

I don't really know why it's "rage", but it's pretty cool

[mario54671]

I disagree with the title of this, music never has "anger"..at least the music that has a positive result. If this was anger or rage, it would have a very bitter sound and sound extremely harsh. This is nowhere near that. I feel like it's in a hurry, and you're tripping in a clumsy way..but it's not "angry". Beethoven didn't even name this, some publisher did, who also happened to complete the piece for Beethoven after he died.

[dussekfan]

I agree with you.

[schm4ve]

very very nice performance but i dont understand why he plays the chords in the end in piano :(

[Klinkibergi]

Great Pianists = strange ideas ;-)

[mario54671]

Yeahh...however, a pianist should play what's written, not do their own thing. Beethoven would've given this guy a black eye, he was very picky about people playing what's written in his music.

[howdilydoodily]

mario-

Sadly, you couldn't be further from the truth. Beethoven did that ALL THE TIME. Listen to Rachmaninov playing. He adds stuff everywhere in common works. Beethoven actually didn't mind when people missed notes, but was upset when people missed the message and meaning of his works.

In this era of performance practice, we have lost the art of improvisation and comedy. This piece is nothing but comedy, and should be played so.

The best pianists are composers, and vice-versa.

[mario54671]

Not exactly. Improvising a melody is different than attempting to play the actual written piece and making your own little "improvements". And yeah...I don't think he'd mind if people missed notes because that's different...every pianist does. But he always wanted people to play what he wrote, if he wrote a forte, he wants them to play the forte. Otherwise that's also distorting the message. I agree that this is a comic piece, but comedy doesn't mean "change whatever the hell I want".

[howdilydoodily]

Huh? That's exactly what I just said Rachmaninov did. He literally played pieces--written by the greats--and changed stuff. Horowitz filling in chords, etc. Ugorski playing the last two chords softly what was written loudly is child's play compared to what many, many other great pianists have done.

Get over it. He changed something Beethoven wrote. You cry heresy, and I cry that we need to move back to improvising and free-thinking, and that type of thinking can restore a renaissance.

[mario54671]

Toscanini conducted Ravel's Boléro with the New York Philharmonic while on a European tour, and he conducted it a lot faster than what was written, and when he finished the piece, Ravel didn't acknowledge his standing ovation, because he didn't like the performance. Toscanini told him it was "the only way to save the piece" and Ravel told him it wasn't the tempo he wrote. Then Toscanini told him that it "wasn't effective" at his tempo, then Ravel told him "Then don't play it."

[RabidCh]

Not all composers are the same. While Ravel was famously stringent about what he wrote down, Debussy was remarkably lenient on rubato and used it frequently when he played as well.

Rachmaninoff and Bartok (both excellent pianists) had some peculiar ideas as well, evident of their Chopin recordings. Rachmaninoff always encouraged that people interpreted his works, and Bartok said that he preferred his works to not be played like he played the piano.

[mario54671]

Rubato is different, especially if you play Chopin, you're usually gonna play rubato, even when it's not written because that's now you play Chopin's music. And especially if Rubato is written down, like in his very famous "Clair De Lune", with the big chords, it says "Tempo Rubato". "Rachmaninoff always encouraged that people interpreted his works"...yes, every composer encourages that..that doesn't say anything.

[RabidCh]

Bartok was not referring to mimicry, he was referring to his lyrical tone at his piano.

And as for Rachmaninoff, yes it does say a lot, he admired a myriad of interpretations, listen to Gieseking's Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 3 and wrap your head around the fact that Rachmaninoff loved Gieseking's performance of his 3rd Piano Concerto. He also left his Etudes Tableux without context.

This was about Beethoven wasn't it? The point is that you can't suddenly just jump from Beethoven to Ravel.

[EuphoricDan]

Wait... your not saying Chopin wrote Clair De Lune are you?

...

I hope not. Kind of makes everything else you've said meaningless.

[mario54671]

No, well at least that wasn't what I was intending to say, I meant to introduce Debussy in that comment, perhaps I had to take out certain sentences to fit the 500 character limit and I accidentally took one out that was actually worth having, or I just simply forgot to introduce him, but yeah, I'm aware that Debussy wrote Clair De Lune because I've learned that piece on the piano. :P

[mario54671]

As for Bartok, of course he doesn't want them to play it like him, same thing with Rachmaninoff when he plays his own works, because even when they're the composer of their own music, they still play their own work as if they were simply any soloist and as if the work was written by anybody. So of course, as pianists, they don't want other people copying them, otherwise that person will be just a mimic, and also, mimicking is never done successfully.

[MusicStudyMan]

@mario54671 OMG disagree!!!! The dots on a page tell us little. They're just symbols & represent a framework on which to build. The art to great playing is to ADD what is not on the page. What you propose is like Picasso insisting his pupils paint trees exactly the way he does - that's insane - that is not the way of the artist, in any discipline. Beethoven pissed about with other peoples tunes and he didn't have a monopoly on all the ideas and answers in the world. Besides, he's dead.

[SecaMartin]

@schm4ve That's indeed a bit strange. Beethoven writes ff and he plays pp. And why does he repear the section 0:20-0:25? Despite I like this performance because he plays with his own ideas.

[nezapamatovatelne]

It's very very good, but I don't feel here a lot of life, emotions. What do you think, if you compare it with Kissin's version? /watch?v=W0nKow-eIUk

[unstopedpiano]

WOW!

[robertslistening]

This is excellent musicianship...fast, musical. What it lacks is the overall story.

Listen to Evgeny Kissin. The speed is similar...but the interpretation and dynamics are awesome, with Kissin.

I would rate this as the 2nd best I have heard though. Being musical is wonderful, but being able to play a piece like it is a story in a movie is another thing. That is where I find Kissin is outstanding.

[whereis1]

Wonderful!

[wfkara]

hey, thanks a lot for uploading this and with scores!

[seanmcnally]

NEW PIANO FOR SALE 1 penny.

Where has my penny gone??? Time's running out.

[tucowannabe]

Where's my FUCKING penny?!?

[camileludwig]

brilliant and perfect! ;)

[Michael210272]

JESUS WEPT, that is AMAZING.

[mdeonx16]

I love his hair :3

[BazzTheBoss]

stressed out music!

where's my fucking penny?!!!

[Envergure]

did he find it?

[maxibusch]

last 2 bars is written "ff" :-O

[TimmyIsNice]

try rachmaninoff: "sFFF"

[mremile72]

i like the speed, it reflects beethoven's passion and relentless virtuosity. not too fast at all. just right for my liking =)

[amgceg]

Here is the story of the song...I find it quite amuzing:

A man, just after his morning bath, recieved a knock on the door...It was a man looking for taxes (i think) and the man who wrote this peice lost the penny that he was going to use to pay...so he started running up and down the stair naked looking for a penny!! i thought it was the funniest thing when my piano teaher told me!!!!

[Klinkibergi]

sounds quite funny

[flamethrowerabc]

sounds like something beethover would do to me (:

[pal0palo]

@amgceg wait...but did betehoven do that?? or the guy who finished the song for him?

[pal0palo]

@amgceg wait...but did beethoven do that? or the guy who finished the song for him?

[pal0palo]

@amgceg

[PiercyX]

Just a little bit less fast would be great.

Though, the playing is great.

[Alejandro270193]

I really like the speed =D

[N3tZraC]

it is played really well but i think that you should play it not so fast (i'm not sure, if this is correct english xD)

[Klinkibergi]

hey thx for your comment ;) im sorry that you missunderstood me but this is not me playing the piece xD its anatol ugorski a famous russian pianist ;) best wishes^^

[NodameSpecial]

Is not a stupid piece is a great piece im glad he is angry over a lost penny .

[XMabinogi]

if you think this is boring simply press the x button at the top left of your screen because nobody cares. this song is awesome i love it.

[Temptezt]

Even if its not the perfectly right score, its great I love this song and I like the way you made the pages go with the music. Thanks for posting!!!

[katkula]

boring...

[paul1964swimming]

yes im learning this piece at the moment as well but sometimes when your hand isnt big enough your have to harminize with a closer note maybe thats what hes doing...

[maxrothbart]

I've checked this performance againts the Cotta edition, and he's using a corrupt score, or at least a very different version; you can see that he doesn't play what's being shown in the video. For example, on that first page he repeats the E minor section, and there's no repeat there. And later on he leaves out a lot of notes, which makes life easier, but is of course untrue to Beethoven.

[Klinkibergi]

yes i already noticed that, too. i have this and another scory where the e minor scale is written twice. Althoug i don't like his interpretation i have to look up to the technical perfection he shows in this recording.

Best wishes =)

[ActaiosReborn]

my fav of beethoven xD