Sergei Rachmaninoff plays Schumann "Carnaval" Op. 9

[QueenofMalinlorien]

3 people are idiots, Rachmaninoff is the man

[QueenofMalinlorien]

@QueenofMalinlorien, ermm...was the man, i.e. he was awesome!

[MarlitaLinda77]

This piece is very sweet, is very clear and very soft... is so beautifull... without words.

[gnw1944]

It is said that if Rachmaninoff was to play "Carnavale" in New York NO other pianist would bother to perfrom it that season !! I think that this performance displays why !

[New4785689]

is he playing sphinxes with a tremolo? why? 8:50

[truecrypt]

@New4785689

"Sphinxes" is more an *idea* than actual piece and was not intended for performing by Schumann.

Rachmaninoff-composer couldn't miss an opportunity to re-create Schumann's abstract "mind game" into real character - grandiose and mysterious.

[New4785689]

@truecrypt thanks!

[wrdna58]

@truecrypt I wonder whether it reflects a historical performance practice for this piece---ie. it was customary for an improvisation to be inserted.

[truecrypt]

@wrdna58

I hear more improvisational spirit than improvisation here... Rachmaninoff's performance is very individual(istic?), but everything is played "as written". His implementation of "Sphinxes" is not an improvisation either - rather an attempt to voice and revive "mute" images.

Back to your question about "improvisational inserts" - I think it was pretty typical!

One can only guess how Liszt himself would play it!!! ;)

One caveat though... “Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi"!

[medievil212]

@New4785689 Is it just mee or the sphinxes are kinde of freaky and scary they hunt me all night

[EdmontDantes2]

Thank you for that rare pleasure of hearing this recording! You can hear the effortless ease with which the great master played this rather uncomfortable suit of movements and the tender music making that is all but extinct today passionately glow between each note and phrase. I agree with the other statement that competition and stage playing today are one and the same - brutal machine imitation and recording perfection within repetition of learned interpretations.

This is an elegy of art....

[hoiyiu2512]

6:30 reminds me of papillons

[BachHarmony]

@hoiyiu2512 right. Schumann often wrote music reminding his precedent works

[TheCourtwick]

Re Pinocommy, Rachmaninov was a great admiror of Liszt and Beethoven. It's sad to consider that Horowitz opinion was that Beethoven didn't understand the piano- he may not have written vertuoso pieces, but how fundamental his piano works were, just listen to Soloman (Cutner)

[acortot]

the good thing about this performance-style is that the listener is not watching the pianist in awe but is totally engaged in the meaning of the music.

The music is given to the audience in a generous and humble manner..

...very UNLIKE modern performance style which puts the pianist on a marble pedestal with the hope that the pianist will be worshipped for their technique and style.

Rachmaninoff's superb technique never becomes the focal point of the music.

[SouuFiian]

Je te mangerais ... est le titre du film qui ma fait découvrir ce magnifique morceau.

[garfreed]

All I know is that I've heard many pianists perform Carnaval, I love the piece and I love this performance!

[WanderinIrishPianist]

I second that. and don't you have anything better to do than bash great piano players?

[etmatar]

i think this interpretation is not exceptionally good, but its special

[pianocommy]

Rachmaninov considered Carnaval, along with Liszt's B minor sonata, Chopin's 2nd sonata and Beethoven's Appassionata to be the most important work for solo piano.

Rack's devotion to, and identifaction with this masterpiece are evident in this playing.

[Gargantupimp]

I'd be the first guy to bash someone for going against the score, but when it comes across as musical as this you'd have to be a idiot to. This is art to create something great and original.

[pragmaticus123]

Rachmaninoff (I think the correct Russian spelling would be "Rachmaninov"...why the change to the american "off" instead of the proper Slavic "ov" makes no sense to me...as he was born in Novogorod "new city", Russia!) is like a god to me!!!

If I can go back in time to a fairly recent pianist/composer...and had to choose between meeting with Rachmaninov and Vladimir Horowitz (my second god)...It wouldn't take me but a second to choose Rach!!...(and then go hang out with Mozart.)...LOL.

[arturon111]

you cant compoare rachmaninov to mozart,... mozart is in the top 5 composers of all time,... whereas rachmaninov is NOT

[Gargantupimp]

Agreed but why would you even compare the two. Might aswell compare Bach and Liszt while your at it. Or Steak and Milkshakes, two whole different worlds.

[pragmaticus123]

I was comparing Rachmaninov with HOROWITZ, NOT Mozart, and then strictly as pianists, NOT composers.

I was jesting that if I COULD get in a time machine and meet one of those two pianists, that since I had use of the time machine, I would go back in time even further and hang out with Mozart.

But if I HAD a time machine, then: Leo da Vinci; Michelangelo; Galileo; Kepler; Newton, Antonio Stradivari; Mozart; Bach;

Wally Whitman; Chuck Dickens; Nicky Tesla; Al Einstein; Ernie Hemingway

[arturon111]

In that case i much rather meet 100 times more Rachmaninov than Horowitz. Rachmaninov was a better pianist and composer than Horowtiz.

[pianocommy]

Rachmaninov and Horowitz were great friends and mutual admirers. Rack considered Vlad a better interpreter than HE of his 3rd concerto and always approved when the latter altered HIS texts!

[thisismymoniker]

@pragmaticus123

Einstein especially would be interested to see your time machine.

[pragmaticus123]

@thisismymoniker

Ha ha...if time was a linear function, I would pop back and invite Einstein, but since I don't believe time is a liear function, I have no idea "when" I would show up. Otherwise I would.

[lsbrother]

@pragmaticus123

time is not a function - linear or otherwise

[toneeeeeee]

If pianists played like this today, they would be immediately kicked off the stage or booted from a competition. Total originality, like two gods battling, Schumann's split personalities and Rach's brooding humor and sadness. Listening to this reminds me of why i play.

[truecrypt]

I think your comment is lacking the required educational minimum to judge Rachmaninoff's performance. I respect your right to express your opinion, but my God, you're saying a complete nonsense and not even embarrassed... I feel ashamed just by reading your "comments".

[shicjkuli]

I question your capacity to think

[pianocommy]

Idiot!  Schumann would have called you a philistine, the Davidsbunder would have sorted you out!

[darkkerrigan]

I am not an idiot for not liking this performance..I am not saying that he isn't a phenominal pianist..I just don't like this interpretation. That does not make me an idiot by any means.

[chameleodon]

Truecrypt, you cut it off!!

[Vikrussia]

Великолепно! Огромное спасибо за запись и за информаицю!

[Vikrussia]

Хотелось бы узнать: какого года эта уникальная запись? Спасибо!!!

[truecrypt]

1929

[imawsome13]

the best carnaval period

[hophmi]

One of the greatest piano recordings ever, possibly the greatest along with the Chopin 2nd Sonata.

[junglejim66]

I agree. Rachmaninoff had the ability to make how he played things seem so natural that this was "the" way to play them.

Rach is one of my favorite pianists along with Schnabel, Novaes, Hofmann, Horowitz.

[zamyrabyrd]

What a revelation! Rachmaninoff gives a more accurate reading of the score that brings out its spirit with equally exciting tempi.

[arturon111]

i dont agree with you, he does not respect the score at all,...

[zamyrabyrd]

Maybe you have a different score than I have. But out of curiosity, just where does he violate it?

[arturon111]

i have henle edition, i have played and studied this piece for more than 20 years,... legato, note durations, phrasings, sound quality, gradations of sound, are VERY different from original score. Dont get me wrong, Rachmaninov plays the piece well, but HIS OWN WAY,... nothing to do with what Schumman wanted or wrote.....

[darkkerrigan]

Could not have said it better myself =)

[KennYWooD2]

I agree with you in that Rach doesn't at all adhere to the score, but I must admit that I'm curious about your own studies of the score since you mention sound quality and gradations of sound...I assume you to mean dynamics, yes?

[TheAspenTom]

Performance practice in the 19th Century was quite different from today's. Schumann himself (or Clara) would never have played a piece the same way twice and they took what we would call egregious liberties with scores, including their own. It is said that rachmaninoff took fewer liberties than pianists a generation or two before him. Pianists were SUPPOSED to inject themselves into the music of others. And being a composer/pianist, he fully understood how to do it in the spirit of the time.

[pianocommy]

Many confusions about what Schumann wrote are the fault of Clara who altered things when she thought they reflected his mental illness.

That said, "Rack" doesn't really deviate very much. This is an authentic romantic interpretation of an authentic romantic work by an authentic romantic composer. It's great playing!

[arturon111]

No, i dont agree with you,.. rachmaninov was a fantastic pianist and composer, however, as an interpreter, almost everything he played from other composers music, he made it into rachmaninov... instead of getting into the spirit of the composer/composition he played.

[darkkerrigan]

Thank you! I have been called many nasty names because i don't like the way he plays this....

[pianocommy]

There's no accounting for taste, of course you don't have to like it... but to call this playing "sloppy", and to say that "he doesn't take the time to be musical" is truly idiotic!!

[Gargantupimp]

Why don'y you go listen to someone who adheres perfectly to the score, like your own playing of it. Rather than sit here bashing Rachmaninoff for attempting to deliver something more than traditional. A new experience that you can either love and learn from or hate and dogmatize. Tradition is laziness - F Liszt.

[micheldvorsky]

My favorite recording of this piece. What character!

[vladimirgligoric]

Two masters! Schumann and Rach

[dantemichelangelo]

non ho parole...è straordinario!

[goldberg72]

ne convengo anche io...ma il pezzo che comincia a8:36 cosa e' lo sai?

[alexongcs]

Excellent!!! So rachmaninovv!!!!