Cazal plays "Poltergeist" by William Bolcom

[meagaa]

Kk funnist

[organboi]

Totally unoriginal piece.

[Zona57Bob]

Drop the tempo down just a third!...

[patreid005]

now finally, I get the pleasure to hear a great pianist! Thank you very much...made all the difference.

[theblindeye]

Fantastic performance! The interaction part with the audience at the end is just brilliant! Would love to buy the audio version of this track :-).

[Enjoyable77]

haha gotta love this guy :)

[jre58591]

This is on par with Hamelin's rendition. Simply excellent. Best performance of this out there.

[LillyC68]

Brilliantly played! Thanks for sharing,

Lilly

[rodneyjayl]

Excellent! Love it.

[Lynxrule52]

Best song of all time! The expression always makes me smile. By the way, great eyebrow technique. Just another thing... I broke the replay button. Oliver Cazal forever!

[hyktmbe]

Masterful combination of whimsy, musicality and technique. 'never seen or heard it played nearly so well. Has Olivier Cazal recorded this piece for sale? 'would love to have this in MP3 format, for instance.

[sferrault]

@hyktmbe This is a live performance and I'm sorry there is no recording of this piece by Olivier Cazal other than this video. But thank you for the nice comments

[333333uk]

youtube.com/watch?v=NpMRl3ek6o­g

[andretchaikowskycom]

Terrific! Thanks for posting.  I was not familiar with Bolcom so I had better get busy.

[TheWolfMan1941]

You know, a few parts of this song sound like the Mission: Impossible theme. COINCIDENCE?

[bryan57s]

Very well done. Does anyone know of where I could find a video or recording of Bolcom's "Dream Shadows" though? I found two thirds of his ghost rags quite easily (Graceful Ghost and Poltergeist) but I haven't been able to locate the third. I have the music for it and want to hear it before I start practicing it.

[musicscotty1]

Dude, 6 stars. This is ninja hard. Well done!

[edopiano88]

greatest pianist of our time in my opinion

[Schaezen]

what about keith jarrett ? :)

[pookiehohn]

I have never known a pianist to be able to dance and play at the same time so well.

[84Fish48Fish]

William Bolcom seems to be the Liszt of Ragtime -- both composers create devilishly challenging pieces.

[Lennythewinner]

Delightful touch and so spritely!

[38pasadena]

A truly fantastic performance! None of Bolcom's rags are easy to play, but this one takes the cake (at least with my tired, old chops). To simply read the score will cause most musicians to grin---or laugh out loud. What Bolcom does is play with the pianist's mind, as well as tax his fingers, but with a joy filled result. Bolcom and William Albright used to attempt to compose rags that could confound each other: a wonderful game for them and great music for us. Thanks for the post.

[alblahblah]

Wise words from a savant

[highphlyer]

What a delightful performance. Bravo!

He captures Bolcom's picture of a playful spirit perfectly. I wouldn't mind having this happy poltergiest in my home!

[RehdBlob]

2:23

:)

[floralky]

Wonderful performance!!!

I repeat and repeat this video about 20times since I found it on youtube!

I love William Bolcom and this is one of my fav' piece from him,

it's such a difficult piece to play(for me)and Cazal dose a BRAVO job,

BTW,the eyebrow technique is really funny!

[ferociousgumby]

Bring on Harold Lloyd!

[CriticalListener]

Bolcom captures both a 1920's aura and the unsettling feel of a "noisy ghost" in his music. It's not easy, and Mr. Cazal does a very nice job, indeed!

[KawhackitaRag]

Anyway, I'm not trying to wage a virtual war here with this well-meaning person or classical music people in general, just crystallize and refine my opinions until I can post them on a blog somewhere. I'll quit wasting space and let others listen to and comment on this superlative performance.

[sferrault]

This mini-debate was, anyway, very welcome and highly instructive. I'm glad my friend Olivier's performance of this piece played as a trigger for it.

Thank you gentlemen

[mesophyte]

I tried posting a reply to your comments yesterday, but I think I accidentally hit the "discard" button instead of the "post comment" button. At any rate, the substance of my message was that you made a very strong case against the condescending stance that many classical musicians take towards ragtime; you've led me to a reassessment of some of my own biases. If you ever do find, or create, a blog devoted to the thoughtful discussion of ragtime, please let me know! And now back to Mr. Cazal...

[hjiuhfhrehui]

lol 2:23 XD

[mesophyte]

I am often annoyed when I see pianists incorporating histrionic gestures into their performances, but in this instance Mr. Cazal's theatrics, far from being distracting, seem to be no more than a natural, maybe even necessary, outgrowth of the piece's boisterous humor; he clearly has no technical or musical shortcomings for which he must compensate!

William Bolcom has done for ragtime just what Chopin did for the mazurka and Brahms did for the waltz: he has raised it to the level of high art.

[KawhackitaRag]

I thought that was Joplin who did that already? And Joseph Lamb, and James Scott, and Paul Pratt and Artie Matthews, and Harry C. Thompson, and good lord, a whole slew of vintage composers. Certainly, Bolcom was just about the first to take it into the realm of modern CONTEMPORARY classical music.

[mesophyte]

Point well taken. Admittedly, I shouldn't have used such a vague and tendentious term as "high art" without defining it first (blasted 500-character limit!) I certainly didn't mean to imply that the rags of Joplin, Lamb, et al do not dislay a high degree of artistic merit, but simply that they exemplify an essentially POPULAR art-form (as do the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, etc.) Although Bolcom's rags are more "schooled" than those of Joplin & co, they aren't necessarily better.

[KawhackitaRag]

I still don't know what you mean by more schooled. They are certainly more difficult and use more modern classical techniques and harmonies, many of which appeared after Joplin's time. If you mean Bolcom was practically the first serious modern classical composer to write ragtime, even before the classical music establishment started taking ragtime seriously, then I agree with you.

[KawhackitaRag]

Look, I know that you are well-meaning in your comment and you like the older rags. It's just that I've seen scores that use the usual enharmonic misspellings of notes and chords (which, admittedly, can be easier for me to read in some cases), and then I've seen scores like Joplin's, where every chord is spelled correctly, and he even uses double-flats (and maybe double-sharps) where necessary. He also does classical things like restating thematic material.

[KawhackitaRag]

I find it funny that some people on the classical side try to paint ragtime as a very "simple" music (in some ways it is), and occasionally belittle the musical talent and education of the composers (sometimes disregarding the actual education of the ragtime classicists). On the jazz side, they focus only on ragtime AS classical music ("classic ragtime") and use that as a negative quality, completely disregarding the many fine POPULAR rags which were never intended to be played as written!

[ProudtobeAmerican17]

This is a very good performance of a very difficult rag. Right now, this rag is a little out of my league...but I hope to one day be able to play as well as this man!

[aaron12345432]

william bolcom grew up across the street from my piano teacher I'm not joking

[abmephise]

I can't believe no one knows this man!!!!

He's a fantastic pianist!

[ralkramralkram]

Fantastic performance! I love the eyebrow technique.

[Scherzo567]

i love this stuff. the pianist has a great connection with his audience. very impressive piece, too.