Added: 5 years ago
From: Sissco
Views: 112,603
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:

All Comments (118)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Never take for granted how lucky we are to have this vid of the great Cziffra playing this Impromptu, at the click of a button.

  • @@AlexPxr8 - nothin'. forget it man

    what grand music!

  • sorry 2 u cziffra fans but i personally think rubinstein is better...though cziffra is one of the most accomplished...

  • really well played.

  • what beauty!!!!! thanks .........

  • Wow. I think he may have a running for the best Chopin interpreter. Or perhaps Liszt. Either way, awesomely played.

  • Chopin is such a Genius! and it's my inspiration, I find his compositions so inside my mind... It's like, I can see like a movie in each piece than I listen. A diferent situation, it takes me to other world, That's the wonder that put the piano in the 1st place in my life... Love to play him...

    What a great composer! Sorry, my english is poor..(I'm Argentinian)

  • This deserves more views. Chopin shall rule the musical world.

  • Such INTENSE concentration.

  • beautiful

    

  • he plays so unbelievably natural....

  • You guys are all regular poets.

  • this piece sounds like many other chopin pieces.

  • @junkunter5 you can nearly always tell a chopin piece but they are all individual treasures

  • Notes always came out from me.. I just confuse how could Chopin write and memorize it perfectly? He's totally the best!! xx

  • Magnifica esecuzione...this is Chopin...

  • kewl song

  • @0syntrax0 best comment evar

  • hat er Chopin gespielt?

  • hermoso el impromptu

    que elegancia

  • INCREDIBLE AROMA

  • I see where people are making comments about how Polish this music is, to which I reply, Yes, but.... Sure, being a native of Poland who had music training there, wrote works based on Polish dances, folk music and current events, and had his heart sent to Poland, that element is strong in his music, but fon't forget the French side of Chopin's writing. He was French on his father's side, lived his adult life in France and perforned in the Paris salons...it's there for those who will listen.

  • Thank you for this post!!!!!!!

  • That´s a greatful interpretation ,I love the mannerisms he uses to play the piano ,he makes the piece so joyful ,

  • @ranthony1903 or out of his ear and up his **** lol

  • Extremely Polish.

  • A wonderful performance by Cziffra that proves him to be one of the greatest Chopin interpreters. As for the composer, his music often strikes me as glorified salon music...ah, but how glorified! And there is a certain nobility of spirit along with a sense of poetry and perfection of form that comes out in pieces like this, which is why Chopin ranks high on my list of favorite composers and always will. Bravo to both of them!

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • For this performance, I got to love pianist cziffra ...

  • che personalità raffinata....

  • Chopin is my favourite, if only he lived longer, he would of made another 100 pieces that we could listen to and enjoy today- the way he put those notes together is amazing

  • Alas... so many composers died in their 30s and 40s.... without modern medicine

  • My bourbons so sweet now for him sake

  • really magical

  • hi, i hope u're well to...

    very love this song... 5 star

  • But you know, he became a French citizen which is why his playing is so lyrical, the French understand Chopin very well.

  • Chopin, by far, is not only the greatest composer after Beethoven, but the most underappreciated composer I've ever seen, considering the depth of harmony, which even couldn't be matched by hundreds of composer's after his death. One couldn't get higher than his level and command of harmony. That's why modern composers, who couldn't make music go any higher, created atonality, to hide their own inferiority.

  • True Chopin is under appreciated. But I think his use of harmony was surpassed by Brahms, Wagner, Mahler and Strauss. This all led to atonality. It was inevitable. Atonality was an evolution not a revolution. But atonal composers are experts on tonal harmony. They possess a greater knowledge of it than most. Didn't Schoenberg write his own book on tonal harmony! They can and do make music go higher all the time, just not music under the shackles of tonality (which is beautiful of course).

  • Would you really say Wagner surpassed Chopin harmonically. When I heard the opening of Tanhausser, It felt like he was using I IV V etc.... I don't feel that with Chopin. He does use them, but has a unique way of 'adding flavours' around them that make them feel perhaps other worldly in terms of harmony. And Brahms, looked back into the classical, so I presumed that he would focus on the conventional harmony rather than moving forwards, although his intermezzo's are harmonically unique.

  • or minimalism

  • So by becoming a French citizen are you saying my playing will automatically become more lyrical?

    I'm sure you know that Chopin was Polish and that there is nothing French about his music. It is totally original. The only nationalistic sounds in his music are Polish. So why do the French have a natural inclination towards an understanding of Chopin? Surely if you could wrongfully say that any particular nationality understands Chopin better than another, surely that nationality would be Polish!

  • No, I don't think so. But I noticed that there's a difference in the way French were taught interpretation and composing to, say the Germans. The French culture gives is generally conducive towards self-expression unlike that Britain or Germanic countries. There is also a French school of playing, which is uniquely French and a German. But I don't think this applies soo much today.

  • the lyricism comes from the italian bel canto style

  • That's an interesting idea. I never thought of that.

  • He was also half French since his father was from France.

  • Es bonita, pero la mejor interpretacion que he escuchado de Chopin la hace Dubravka Tomsic, en verdad, no piensas en quién toca, simplemente la escuchas y dices: =DChopin!!! excepto en la fantasia-impromtu, la toca muy rapido=S!!

    Beautiful, but the best Chopin's interpretation I've heard is the one Dubravka Tomsic makes, except fantasie-impromtu.

  • Oh my gosh.......what a serenade. God bless you George Cziffra. ~

  • It was totally effortless for him! I love the way he plays, especially his expression. His entire mannerism puts you at ease whilst listening. Very pleasing to watch + listen. Wide range of dynamics, all carefully controlled. The sophisticated aristocratic feel of this piece really came through.

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • Look at his face, so calm, relaxing while listening to the music that he's achieving..

  • You are so gay

  • I concur, fuck off mszimb

  • the best Ive heard

  • magic

  • if they put this on the spacecraft going beyond the solar system, you never know, aliens might just forgive the human race...

  • @AlexPxr8

    What you write is absolutely true !

  • @AlexPxr8 Forgive? What did we do?

  • Fabuleux, du grand piano, c'est très bien joué...

  • So effortless and divine.

  • This seems almost too easy for Cziffra.

  • i was thinking exactly the same.. he doesnt even look at his fingers when playing those nasty passages.. amazing..

  • Delicious!

    Do you have other Chopin impromptus by Cziffra?

  • My God, it looks like he's playing most of the piece with his eyes closed! He's so one with the piano, he's barely looking at what he's doing.

  • Bella interpretazione: qui Czyffra si dimostra più misurato che in tante altre occasioni.

  • Verissimo. D'altronde Cziffra era aveva una tecnica talmente straordinaria da consentirgli di fare qualsiasi cosa sul pianoforte....

  • Ma soprattutto negli ultimi anni della sua carriera esagerava assai!

  • cziffra approach to chopin playing is beautiful.1 like his playing because it comes from his heart and soul.

  • I love how he plays everything so stabby.

  • Every musician interprets a piece different... I doubt you could find two professional performances that sound exactly alike. I think it's hard to compare great pianists with one another because in the end, it all comes down to which interperation you prefer. It's a completely personal choice. (I, by the way, am a HUGE fan of Cziffra. I am so impressed! Thanks for the vid!)

  • Cziffra great;.

  • Cziffra: the most brilliant Chopin interpreter ever. Technical perfection and effortless ease. Also: the poetic beauty of his interpretations, so enticing that he himself is enraptured. Cziffra plays in his own bubble of lyric joy, performer ánd listener, utterly oblivious of the stalking camera. Compare this with Lang Lang's clownesque grimaces, W. Kempf's selfconscious stare, S. Richter's woodcutting or Evgeny Kissin's acrobatic glitter. Wary of calculated mediatic effects? Stick to Cziffra.

  • Well put

  • Do you really think all those great artists just invented themselves styles for "mediatic effects"? Perhaps this is what YOU see when you watch them play! I suggest you stick to audio instead of analysing images those pianists couldn't care less about! ;)

  • Calm down, dear friend. No reason to get worked up over a little piece of heartfelt admiration. As for the audio: read my first three sentences (and I have heard many Chopin interpreters). As for the mediatic effects: let us not be naïve! Most players are very aware of the recordings, and sometimes cannot restrain from sneaking a peek into the camera. True interpreters have no time or interest for that. Sans rancune.

  • music is music and an accomplished pianist is an accomplished pianist.. no matter what you say about them you can never take that which is fruitful and enjoying to them. don't criticize them just enjoy it.. and cziffra is good but not on all Chopin pieces..

  • spoken from the mouth of an idiot.

  • music is music and an accomplished pianist is an accomplished pianist.. no matter what you say about them you can never take that which is fruitful and enjoying to them. don't criticize them just enjoy it.. and cziffra is good but not on all Chopin pieces..

  • music is music and an accomplished pianist is an accomplished pianist.. no matter what you say about them you can never take that which is fruitful and enjoying to them. don't criticize them just enjoy it.. and cziffra is good but not on all Chopin pieces..

  • music is music and an accomplished pianist is an accomplished pianist.. no matter what you say about them you can never take that which is fruitful and enjoying to them. don't criticize them just enjoy it.. and cziffra is good but not on all Chopin pieces..

  • Immortal pianistic perfection.

    An aside...check out the struggle artists have to go through: this phenomenal video has had 17,000 views in 18 months; there is a video of someone's damn cat "playing the piano" and it has had millions of hits. A minority wants Art, the majority wants sensationalism and entertainment. It would appear that the public is no more erudite than ever.... the artist must still do what they must in order to make real their work.

  • i like his version the best on youtube.

    i like how his phrase endings get realy soft sometimes.

    and man, he has skills, playing with his eyes closed......

    chopin shall always remain as one of my favorite composers.

  • Never!

  • oh yeah me too! i want his technique and his grand piano! damn it! i want it! i want it now! yeah! cool!

  • damm his techniek his techniek

    i want his techniek

  • Cziffra György a kiraly !!!! :-)

  • Cziffra played this Impromptu as an encore after playing Rachmaninoff's second concerto in Manchester in 1974. I like his expressive singing tone in the left hand 'cello' theme just before the end. Beautiful.

  • I <3 the hint of op 29 at the beginning.

  • I know!

  • Exquisite.  Anyone who disagrees with me is an asshole. Many thanks. GodBless

  • This piece is magic.

  • Chopin is magic

  • This performance is just fantastic...such freedom! And the middle singing cello part is just perfect in its rubato and expression, so fragile.... A marvellous piece of jewelry that really made my day! THANKS!!

  • I see the "large leather wristband"!! o.o

    it was as a memento of his years in labor

  • Totally disagree... there is a careless surface quality to the interpretation that even his rubato cannot hide. He LOOKS like his performance!

  • You mean being a bit sloppy and not spelling out some of the things he starts? I guess that's the inconsistency the OP talked about, yes?

  • It's true that he sometimes 'throws away' phrase endings. On 3rd and 4th listening to this, I like it a bit more than at first. It's one of his better jobs. I think the OP meant more that he varies from performance to performance.

  • Actually, strangely, his performance gets better, more involved with the music, as he goes along. Have you heard his 13 years old Schubert on Youtube? Really awful musically... turns to mindless pounding.

  • Yes, I heard that.

    With performers of this level, I find it hard to criticise constructively. They have their quirks and bad days, but because they occasionally open windows in the music, I just have to step back. They are large bulls whose horns I don't really feel in a position to grab!

  • Bear in mind that up until the age of 9 he'd had no teaching whatsoever.

  • Cziffra became noted at the age of five, improvising on popular tunes in bars and circuses.

  • everbody loves cziffra! everybody loves horowitz! everbody loves hamelin! everybody loves richter!

    i've wanted to compare liszt hungarian rhap 6 with cziffra and horowitz. i dont have the horowitz one.

    i wanna check out the speed of their octaves MUAHAHA

  • Dude, if you could run around like that guy in Taxi and jump between building and outrun cars, you would, so stop hating.

  • wow , his eyes our closed more than half of the time...which means he is truly brilliant

  • no it doesn't, it means his eyes are closed.

  • hahahahaha diz iz an inzanely wikid moizt perf

  • His Franck alsoshows whata musician he was .The problem lies so much in what the listener knows. It would take imagination just to hear Pollini (stolen?) badly recorded performance. devilish take on etude prolly an encore inspired and frenzied as obviously meant.Naive , Liszt is to be played same by all?I've heard P.offday perfect but dull ,5 Beeth sonatas. Every nuance ,texture ,note was there as he wanted it. When a Michelangeli takes you - then u talk.

  • Yeah, it's very good playing. Cziffra was very inconsistent but he could be very musical at times.

  • This performance will hopefully be a revelation for those who discount Cziffra as a virtuoso with little to express. I personally find it extraordinary and extraordinarily moving.

Loading...
Alert icon
0 / 00Unsaved Playlist Return to active list
    1. Your queue is empty. Add videos to your queue using this button:
      or sign in to load a different list.
    Loading...Loading...Saving...
    • Clear all videos from this list
    • Learn more