Alexis Weissenberg - Jesu, joy of man's desirig

[KristianJune1979]

Au revoir, Alexis! Thank you for everything!You will stay in our hearts with your music as a friend and personality!It was great knowing you!

[vlad7763]

GRAZIE DI TUTTO GRANDISSIMO ALEXIS ! ! ! Sarai sempre nel mio cuore...

[dementeur]

Der liebe Gott möge es genießen. R.I.P., Maestro

[traxelable]

RIP ... what a wonderful pianist - may he play in heaven!

[djavcho]

R.I.P.



[Likeafoxow]

RIP

[Mila06021]

Great Pianist Alexsi Weissenberg! R.I.P.

[michelmans]

R.I.P Alexis Weissenberg. We will remember you always R.I.P

[quelbop]

the recording is so distorted that it's hard to evaluate this on many levels...it's got nothing to do with 'terrible use of pedal...a big wall of sound'

[praaht18]

I bow my head in reverence

[hl2mukkel]

Where is the melody ?? And what a terrible use of the pedal ... a big wall of sound without any details ! It's awful ...

Why I am complaining "I have heard better interpretations" ?

Because this is a masterpiece from Bach and a pianist can do sooo much better - listen to Dinu Lipatti to check out what I mean ... a lifetime recording

[spyderhat]

@hl2mukkel there are several melodies going and they are all there for anyone with functioning ears.

[Rektash]

Someone got his tempo right for this song.

[JESUS1John]

LISTEN TO HIM - LISTEN TO JESUS

[ivannrico]

Esta pieza no es una sonata. En teoria es una Cantata. Dos cosas muy distintas. No confundir por favor. Vamos a educarnos mas. La una es musica para piano solo, la otra, es decir la cantata, puede ser una obra para cualquier instrumento, o bien un coro. Ademas la cantata, es una obra de musica sacra.

[MinorityMans]

IMHO, he has the communicative genius i have heard heard elsewhere only in Sviatoslav RIchter's playing.

[homerdavilag]

Una hermosa sonata.

[joy501010]

beautiful voice and well-singing, but too many accent.

[USoeyadi]

Simply beautiful !!!!!

[marcxopoco]

Too heavy.

[uanextuu]

I have always loved Alexis since I listened to him playing in the Royal Theater in Madrid some years ago...

I was a little girl and my father invited me.

I will never forget this first experience with live piano.

Thanks dad.

Thanks Alexis.

:-)

[Deetroiter]

why is does classical music always have to involve some sort of negativity such as "oh i heard better interpretations" or "hes playing it wrong", etc. just enjoy the music for what it is.

[aweitzer1]

@Deetroiter its because thats the nature of classical music - the performer interprets the composer's work; plays it as they believe it should be played. I dont think its anything negative that people prefer some interpretations over others - its just their personal opinion . But I do hate it when people say 'he's playing it wrongly', for that contradicts the whole point of classical performance :))

[maunmau]

@Deetroiter That's because there is a lot of people trying to sound smart.

[armusik]

he holds his head high, so that his spine becomes like a string, and shoulders relax - and it helps he's sound without speaking already that he is very musical

[Pischnaholic]

"Poor in spirit." Overshoots the mark with grossly exaggerated, inappropriate sense of drama where the passion of human emotionalism is the antithesis of Bach's intention.

The accompanying triplets are consistently overemphasized and much too loud. As a result the pieces PLODS when it should FLOW.

For Heaven's sake listen to Myra Hess, who REALLY knew what she -- and Bach -- were doing.

[ScottZirpolo]

THANK YOU. Someone agrees with me. Hess's arrangement cannot be equalled or surpassed.

[CONTESTAR]

Agree. Nonetheless, you have to consider he was playing in a roman arena of 18000 spectators, not famous for its acoustics, were only the loudest operatic voices can survive...

[dnephi]

Are you at all familiar with Weissenberg's output? His personal style would give you some context within which to understand. Furthermore, his interpretations on this piece vary, if you'd care to listen to his studio recordings.

Cheers!

[Pischnaholic]

I've heard a great deal of his playing. He's highly competent -- even brilliant -- but I've always found his interpretations cold -- aloof -- emotionally uninvolved. There are so many artists with greater appeal.

In short Weissenberg may be admirable, but he's not lovable -- at least not for me.

Best regards,

Pischnaholic

[sormu16]

@Pischnaholic

At first I had no clue about what you meant - then halfway into the piece I realized that we were not so far from each other as I thought.

Still - only leaving room for one interpretation - Hess - is too limited.

[Hobbes379]

I don't care for it either but it's just a piece of music. Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation. I mean just look at what Busoni did to Bach and you're getting upset over this?

[ElEsquisProductions]

Lipatti had the pure heavenly tone, agreed with you on this even though, this piece is also great when played by Kempff

[Pischnaholic]

And greatest of all -- by far -- when played by Myra Hess.

[Belamus]

it may be the quality of the recording, but to me the climactic part sounds too aggressive. still i really enjoyed the performance. but for me, this arrangement of the piece will always be associated with lipatti.

[Digmer]

is beautiful, but the recording is kind of old and the sound is not 100% clean...anyone knows a version in piano with a better sound quality? thanks.

[3NUNS]

a relatively easy piece to master ... . Y not twy it ?

[lnoirrionl]

Jésus, que ma joie demeure !

[okuseoluwa]

nice piece.thats my wedding day song

[davidgray2]

The man is a genius whether or not you proud youtubers think so. Listen to the sound, he's got "it"...the sound and control of the older age pianists. A true pianist in my opinion-incomparable to most of the pretentious bastards going around the profession tthese days (90 or so percent).

[Brianmystic2]

Was the petal held down for the entirety of the piece. I am just curious because every arrangement of this piece I've heard thus far seems to echo every overtone. I know that the piece was written for the organ; does that have anything to do with this?

[vova47]

It was not written for organ, it´s cantata for the choir BWV 147

[Brianmystic2]

My mistake...*cough*pedantic + hostile = anus...

[drjekyll66]

Thanks for this impressive first service !

Siegmund Freud might be lucky !

[ccr1963]

what does that mean?

[aidanfdsa]

thumbs up...hes right...

[morvensky]

it was good, I enjoyed it, but it was a little to heavy and ponderous. This piece is very hard to make it sound nice. Look for the interpretation by Alexander Korsantia; his is the best.

[vova47]

Dinu Lipatti´s version is the greatest known to me.

[vova47]

But to be fair, your georgian favourite is a wonderful pianist. However even he, I am sure would bow before Lipatti.

[morvensky]

It is hard for me to imagine a better performance of this piece than that of Korsantia's, And I am sure he would bow before Lipatti's because he is very humble

P.S. I have never heard Lipatti's performance, I will look into listening to it.

[vova47]

I am sure you won´t regret it. And you don´t have to change your mind, sometimes we grow fond of certain versions for personal reasons. Anyway there´s room more than one great interpretation of music.

[username1p]

Alexis Weissenberg is great, but this recording is not.

[opl1n4]

Thank you, I know who this guy is now. He plays with so much passion, I can hear it. He might be the most passionate player I've ever heard. however, I want to see what some of his other performances are like. Any recommendations for a lively piece.

[rutebeuf2]

hi, i'm not familiar enough with his work enough to recommend any, but i'm sure there should be plenty even on youtube to have a look at. thanks.

[rubestuh]

@opl1n4 I can't quite believe he's the most passionate player you've ever heard, but whatever ... opl1n4.

Why don't you compare two other pianists playing this same piece ... the great Rumanian pianist Dinu Lipatti, and the British pianist Dame Myra Hess, who arranged the version that all three pianists are playing?

Weissenberg is also very fine in Chopin, which I found surprising. His Bach, imo, is very good as well ... in fact, that great Bachian Glenn Gould much admired him.

[Bret6464]

@opl1n4 Weissenberg's Rach 2nd is on YT (With Karajan conducting the Berlin), also his Rach etudes, Chopin p. concerto, Chopin's Posthume and some others, Tchaikovsky p. c. (also with the Berlin) ...

Alexis Weissenberg absolutely does play with surreal musicality and passion. IMO he is one of those extraordinary artists who are the greatest ever. My favorites are Rachmaninoff (the pianist), Gilels, Horowitz, Moiseiwitsch, Weissenberg, and Richter... and now Argerich and Jung Lin :-)

[opl1n4]

who is this?

[rutebeuf2]

a world known pianist, you can find him in wikipedia....

[motive440]

@rutebeuf2 Yes, check out (on YouTube) his version of the Lizst transcription of Bach's Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543. Stunning and full of passion. Hope you enjoy.

[Blazin6996]

I luv classical music, this is one of my favs it's such a beautiful song... I'm even learning this song right now only the easier version

[kjw163]

A cold, rather souless take on this work, I think. His style is better suited to Stravinsky and Prokoviev. His Chopin is icy...just the opposite of, say, Paderewski and Cortot.

[awkwarderic]

I think the opposite is true,most people tend to play this song too fast,.

[aryanpianist]

I mean BirdsBrasil .

[larbaud]

Esse cara é bom mesmo.

[yannook]

One of the Best Pianist ever.

[hypsophilus]

Questo lo disse disse pure Herbert von Karajan

[japanesesweet]

i suppose it is quite heavy (nothing to do with the recording)but it has a monumental quality which is rather effective.Thankyou for sharing this.

[monelleny]

Thank you for this posting, but do listen to the late Dame Myra Hess playing it...she was the one who made "the" famous transcription of this beautiful piece.

[STEFANOGIARDINO65]

Semplicemente fantastico, wonderful playing!!! Che suono....

[palcsi]

One of the great Titans of the keyboard. Thank you for posting.

[BirdsBrasil]

He plays too heavy... No no... I didnt like. This music should be played softly.

[Brianjonestown]

Stunning arrangement, wonderful playing.

[princeashtonsdad]

its the way it was recorded not the pianist

[aryanpianist]

Shut up simple ! You don't need to speak !

[neskovic1]

Wonder!

[neskovic1]

Wonder!

[vlad7763]

grazie!!!