Added: 4 years ago
From: medpiano
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  • Puedo notar que a los pianistas que son tan expertos como Godowsky en este caso, les cuesta trabajo interpretar estas melodias tan sencillas, claro sencillas para ellos jeje

  • "minute" waltz does not mean at all that you have to play it in a minute or less... this would sound terrible! "minute" in this context comes from french "miniature" which means "small" or kinda like :) so this is just a little waltz and not a waltz to break your fingers - and musicality

  • i don't like godowsky's chopin :)

  • @borisoff22 usually I'm fine ignoring the hundreds of people who say stupid shit on classical music videos on Youtube, but god you're full of it.

  • @borisoff22 You're right. It's not Chopin, it's Godowsky. So what's the problem?

    I call bull on everything you've said. Your grandmother was a famous pianist? Who was she. You're a pianist who has been studying Chopin all your life? Where are your videos? I'm a 21 year old amateur pianist and even I have more video evidence to back that I know what I'm talking about. You're 61 years old? I'll go out on a limb and guess you're 14. Don't make me tell your mother on you.

  • @cowheadcow Are you an immature Troll? I listen to your Aufschwung on your site and it shows a maturity that is sadly lacking in your childish attack on me. After typing all I have said on this list, my comments can't be bullshit or the worst you ever heard. i found a quote from Harold C Schonberg which allows us both to have a descent point of view and mutual respect. I will paraphrase it in my next comment. Then I want an end to this thread and let the facts on both our sides stand.

  • @stephenborisoff Schonberg states:"Godowsky was well aware that his tinkering with Chopin Etudes would be protested in many musical circles...[Godowsky wrote] Their aim is to develop the mechanical, technical and musical possibilities of piano playing...to polyphonic and poly dynamic work and...tone coloring. Godowsky's remarks have made no impact on the present age, which regards the paraphrases as sacrilege...heresy. Godowsky...is the piano pushed to extremes of transcendental quality.", etc

  • @borisoff22 Nothing is gained musically? You're joking, right? As for the difficulty, the POINT of an etude (study) is to work on your technique.

  • @cfwpiano i'm not joking. some of these Godowsky paraphrases are aesthetically ugly. Period.  Don't tell me, a 61 year old professional pianist that you use Chopin Etudes to work on your technique. They are just too damned hard...and Godowsky's are utterly unplayable for most pianists to be practical for polyphonic, counterpoint technical studies to further the capacities of the pianoforte...let alone to help to play Chopin or Liszt's much easier works. Czerny yes, Chopin Studies, not.

  • @stephenborisoff I am sure you are spot on with your judgment---I am a professional (academic) musician and amateur pianist, and have to defer. I wish I had somebody to force me into Czerny when I was 12-14 or so. As it was, though, I was rescued around age 23 from mediocre "jazz" by a one-two punch. First was deciding to play all of Joplin's rags, and second was learning some Chopin etudes. For me, this was the perfect recipe to elevate most everything to a new level.

  • Isn't this the same recital where he played Balakirev's Islamey? When he wanted to get the Guiness World Record for playing the hardest pieces ever written for piano in just one recital he definitely won it ^^

  • @borisoff22 ""It is so apparent that no one on this page of comments even can play the piano, let alone understand Chopin!""

    - There is nothing to understand; either you enjoy it or not - clearly, in your case, not! You seem preoccupied with the rather minor accomplishments of your ancestors although why you think them relevant to any discussion here is beyond my understanding.

  • @borisoff22

    Lighten up.

  • Fantastic playing!!

    10/10!

  • wow the texturing in this arrangement is amazing!

  • Chopin wrote this thinking of a dog chasing it's tale I guess, haha.

  • Que mierda ._.

  • 0:44 - 0:53

    Lovin the subtle harmony changes that Godowsky did.

  • number one!!

  • Godowsky sux, just listen the original version omg

  • richclayderman you're an idiot!

  • very cool. sounds like Geo. Girshwin. lol

  • Perfect description of what salon playing should be like. You really put your finger on it.

  • sicuramente è molto più bello chopin nella sua semplicità.....questo tizio dopo aver rivisto gli studi perchè non si è fermato??

  • rather like your contribution here.

  • Is it really Godowsky? It's too awful and tasteless even for him....

  • He is the best!!!

  • good Fun! like a set of variations on the theme

  • honestly - i think i prefer this to the original. so much more colourful.

  • I obviously prefer the Chopin version, but man, what an excellent technical display on Berezovsky's part.

  • His bass and left hand so precie and the character he gives it like 2 pianists playing togethe!

  • nice interpretation!!

  • the piece is so inventive and full with elegance!brilliant playing!

  • Bravo

  • I just LOVE this stuff! So delightful. I wonder if Godowshy's treatment is in any way a continuation of performance practise and attitudes from the time before the conservatorys took over.

  • Comment removed

  • Woohooo. Love it! Godowsky was a genius with this sort of transcription. Superbly played here too.

  • notice how the left hand at 1:31 is exactly like sweeney todd's a little priest

  • It is!!

  • i love it

  • y me cuesta pensar que la toca un poco lenta, a pesar de la rapidez que le imprime en partes especificas.

  • Piece of cake for him

  • Very interesting - Chopin reharmonised! The cute and dainty "little dog waltz" is one of my personal favourites from Chopin (it's hard to believe this is the same composer who gave us Fantasie Impromptu!). I like that Berezovsky has dared to change something all of us know and love so well, and inject some modern day jazz harmony into it, yet retain the piece's principal melody and characterisation.

  • pianololita, it's hard to believe this piece is the same composer who gave us Fantasy Impromptu? Why? Are you saying the two pieces are completely different in style and shouldn't have been composed by one composer? Or Chopin wasn't good enough to compose them both? Berezovsky didn't change it. He's playing Godowsky(1870-1938)'s version of this Chopin Valse. Listen to some Chopin Mazurkas and you'll hear a similar musical style. I don't think it's necessarily modern day jazz harmony.

  • Very interesting, typical Godowsky- harmonization...

  • Nothing pleases me asmuch as godowsky's ingenutity . Scriabin and Ravel .Forget Rachmaninoff ofr the time .Medtner is also fabulously inventive. These late 19th and early 20th cents have to be careful sometimes it sounds pretty like cocktail music .This is the tonal idiom of cocktail jazz anyway .berezovsky has the light winsome feel. that italian guy Grante is just as wonderful. Libetta has the looks TOO !!!

  • i love Berezovsky...he is just SOOO darn good!

    I love this transcription. Godowsky is awesome. MORE MORE MORE.

  • I saw Berezovsky in concert in Toronto. He does not have a flashy appearance indeed, which affects a bit the North American perception of him. He played very well and very relaxed. In the intermission the classical music station had an interview with him and asked him subtly why he hardly shows any emotion... He answered that is his style, moreover he feels indeed relaxed when he plays.

  • oh, when was he here?

  • He was in Toronto 3 or 4 years ago at Roy Thomson Hall with Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

  • As was the way with Rubinstein and Rachmaninoff, oh, and Horowitz.

  • perhaps it's a russian-and-eastern-european school thing? :)

  • The piece is one of my favorites, and I don't think it requires a smiley happy face to show that 'I'm enjoying this music'.

    In fact... The way he plays... the feeling he gives the listener, that's all the information one needs to understand how he's feeling about the music.

  • en que ciudad de mexico fue !?!?!?!

    chigado no fuii!!!

  • This is great, almost jazzy

  • Do you want him to smile like Liberace?

  • jaaaaaaa! so funny.... no guy, i dont want him smile like that american showman...

  • Godowsky? Son of a gum!

  • Beresovsky, Great performance!! I play the original Chopin-version! I like this much better!!

  • Whoa, sorry for the spelling mistakes :D

  • I wonder, did he wonder why is it called "minute". It's supposed to last for a minute, not for two...

  • It's called the minute Waltz because the word minute itself mean small. This piece lasting for only 2 minutes is small in size, hence the way it is nicknames the "Minute Waltz"

  • The title "Minute Waltz" did not come from Chopin, but he wrote it. It is NOT supposed to be played in 1 minute (that would be ridiculous--your mum couldn't be more wrong), but this adaptation by Godowsky is played slower partly because it's appropriate musically, but also because so many things have been added texturally to the music.

  • Ok, nvm, I'm probably wrong then... anyway I was so sure bout' it:/ Maybe I think of another piece...

  • I read somewhere that Liszt bet that he could play the waltz in under a minute, and collected the bet.

  • @medpiano also, "Minute" here means 'small' not the timing-measurement.

  • @medpiano

    Exactly. The word "minute" in this simply means "small." It's not the unit of time.

  • It isn't even a "minute" waltz, its pronounced "my-newt" as in small.

  • @Bulasz  poor stupid!!! hahahaha minute valse!

  • @ACE29q Forgive my utter ignorance! :P One cannot escape from their past as I can see :P

    And my poor mother, I consulted it with her afterwards and her reaction to me asking if it was one minute long was pretty much the same as yours. I feel as if my existence was pointless. Adieu, my fellow YouTube commenter.

  • @Bulasz read more books, being an avid fan does not automatically grant her/you authority. (Minute here means small, not 60 seconds)

  • Bulasz, the minute waltz title is not a Chopin title. Chopin's title is about George Sand's dog who use to chase it own tail.

  • actually, chopin never intended it to be called anything but a waltz; he preferred his pieces be named by keys, this one being Db major I think. earlier publications named it the "little dog waltz" because the beginning sounds like a dog chasing its tail or something :]

  • That's true about him not "naming" his song, but this is one of the exceptions. Chopin HIMSELF actually called this waltz "Petit Chein" (little dog). He was TRYING to depict a dog chasing it's tail with this waltz. I personally think he succeeded. He saw a dog playing and ran to a piano to compose this.

  • Chopin didn't actually "name" the piece nor was he TRYING to depict his dog nor did he run to the piano to compose this after seeing a dog playing. After composing it he quite simply made the statement to a friend that it reminded him of his dog chasing his tail and he did affectionately refer to it as his "little dog" afterward.

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