Yundi Li - Verdi-Liszt "Rigoletto" Fantasy Paraphrase

[EmmaHMB]

Yundi is just wonderful.

Chopin may be very glad to see it he was alive.

[bachopinberg]

where has gone the third page?!??

[VELXXXXXXX]

It shouds like he has a lot to tell thru the piano and I just listen to him playing the whole piece.

[JModestas]

Free notes of this piece you will find in : FREEMUSICBOOKS . COM (there many notes for free!!!)

[e4e5sf3sf6]

Motherfucker needs a dentist appointment :p Awesome perfprmance by the way.

[thefirstkc]

anyone have trouble turning the volume up? i have mine cranked to the top and it's still really quiet. I want to hear it, not just watch it.

[e4e5sf3sf6]

Yundi owns this piece and the piano so much, it's ridiculous.

[yellingLoL]

It's a bit flat in some places, but still better than one of his other performances that's on youtube. Is there some ossia or other publishing that omits two pages?

[mdg280]

9 people are jealous.

[pianofolle]

Yundi Li is a TRUE ARTIST.

Whatever piece he interprets, it shines like gold

[tigertolyy]

All of you people who think this interpretation is bad, back off. Cause there's no way this is "to fast" your just jealous cause you can't even play easy music like fur Elise at the right tempo. This vids not the best vid however. Raise the sound.

[UtopiaPoet]

Arpeggios from hell !!

[tommy9882]

the sound is fucking low

[rufflove78]

just because he has clean technique doesn't mean he isn't artistic as well. it wasn't a perfect performance, and it's not the very best (he's still kind of young, people!), but i have a lot to learn from this wonderful performance.

[andeanphoto]

Extraordinaire!

[flugelmaniac]

sound levels need raising

[andreichiu01]

too fast but he played very clean

[JanCabali]

I cant hear a thing

[Jusohpin]

I love Yundi Li!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jvillave]

For those who say Yundi Li is merely playing notes or showing off, try playing this piece first and you will quickly realize that making musical sense of the thousands of notes found in works of Liszt requires the greatest control of structure and dynamics. That said, this was not my favorite performance, but he did a good job of making those critical interpretive choices that separate artists from dilettantes. Personally, I prefer a somewhat less exaggerated approach.

[jonnybosch1988]

nice comment :)

[remington57]

Magnificent!

[remington57]

Bravo Yundi Li!

[minetto2]

technically, very good performance but i mostly share trms83br's comment, may be the piano used has something to do with it

[choletalenda]

das stück heißt einfach nur Rogoletto-Paraphrase. nix mit fantasie hehe

[cdpiano27]

He is technically incredible. But he does rush this too much. I appreciate so much of Yundi Li's Chopin but I feel this is rather weaker. I have done this at times too. When something is too easy, try to play too fast. If just slowed down a little more, it would be great. May have not been his day. Touring is so hectic and tiring. I was second prize in the Concours des Grands Amateurs and playing four times in three days (ranging from 5-30 minutes depending on the audition) was exhausting!

[purplefondu]

Yeah it's not the best of performances... i love his other pieces so much though, he is a great pianist. Oh well i'll just watch the other vids instead ^-^!

[gerardbedecarter]

A wonderful performance although, for me, the "quartet" 3;25< was a little dry in terms of pedalling.

[SutherlandPavarotti]

he has not the slightest idea about what he is playing, the word cantabile seems completely unknown to him, he doesn't know the opera for sure as well or he didn't understand it. he makes this to a cheap showpiece, weird faces should replace "expression". by far the worst version of this piece i have heard.

fanatics will also enjoy rating me down now ;)

[trms83br]

it's good to know that i'm not the only one here that can notice that!

[trms83br]

I will repeat my comment that was rated -6, with minor changes. Looks like it is forbidden to comment anything here if you don't worship Yundi Li. Come on, people!

"This performance is too dry and doesn't resemble the opera colors, voices and cantabile, which one should pay attention to. Sadly, he is using it just to boast virtuosism. It can be a beautiful lyric piece when played in the right mood."

Now I am quite sure about that. And please feel free to rate me -6 again. :P

:)

[Rure]

So queit >:(

[phamgialuat]

Yundi Li played well but I prefer Berezovsky

[innerswedish]

he ignores alot of markings on the piece. still excellent though.

[FantasieHeart]

Yundi uses his heart 2 play. im learning from him.

[TamaNewb]

"你能比你快"

[Gigi086]

Both Lang Lang and Yun Di Li are great pianist! But I prefer Yun Di :P

[KoreanSpaz]

i have to say Li is better than Lang Lang..

[itsanthonyhere]

Well you got the main idea, that's all that it's about : P

[trms83br]

hahaha i don't like making evil comments, but i have to agree with you about lang lang... i completely dislike his fireworks and awkward faces. BUT listening to Lang Lang without watching him can be good sometimes (just sometimes)!

As for this performance of Rigoletto, it is certainly too dry and doesn't resemble the opera colors, voices and cantabiles, which one should pay attention to. Sadly, he is using it just to boast virtuosism. It can be such a beautiful lyric piece when well played.

[trms83br]

(i'm not one of those youtube critics that remain anonymous, so i have one recording of this piece. of course i play with the score, i make some mistakes, i'm just an amateur piano player and i don't intend to be better than any of these profesionals... but i try to phrase and sing this music as in Rigoletto's original aria, i don't rush the piece all over and i avoid using it just as some kind of virtuosity display music, because i'm pretty sure that was not Liszt's main intention)

[anthrax088]

agreed

[rvn10rvn17]

at least there are still few people like you who (may) really understand the differnt quality between yundi li and lang lang..

but, maybe, if lang lang covers his face with mask during the performance, he (may) plays better than Yundi Li...

[e4e5sf3sf6]

@KoreanSpaz no titty fucking shit sherlock

[donthuis]

This reminds me of Arthur Rubinstein remembering his younger years when "more notes were dropped by him than were being played". This was a joke of course, but still people adored the emotional expression he always put in his playing. Yundi Li now is not that different; whether a section or two pages were skipped does not matter, because he plays beautifully. Langlang tends to "overdo" it and overstretches his performances of Chopin. But this is all a matter of taste of course....

[woRstbB]

no ones better than him...full of pride....gosh..

[dberthel]

Lang Lang sucks compared to Li. Lang Lang is just all show..its quite pathetic.

[superhao69]

Yeah, you just told everybody the truth. I just can watch his(lang) dumb face with orgasm emotion when he plays.

[gtelloz]

Hes coming to Lima soon...proyected as a big event...what do u say?

[greekguyabc]

I think he is only a mediocre pianist. Lang Lang is so much better!!!!!!

[rayzha]

are you comparing li's and langlang's showmanship? If you are then yes, li has nothing on langlang, but playing-wise li is above and beyond langlang.

[shijunpiano]

=NO NO　He forgot 2 pages!! GOD

[shijunpiano]

there are 3 bars missing in Andante section

[innerswedish]

there are sections missing people because its a piano reduction

[ThunderRanger]

I think his performance in Japan was more controlled. this one just doesn't give the same feel as the on in Japan.

[samielowe]

stunning performance, i just dont understand how you can possible critisize yundi li by compainge him to sgours, they are at two different levels in terms of maturity and experience.... madness. But he could be better than sgouros eventually

[classical000]

why aren't you just accept its an excellent performance, maybe learn something, yeh, i've heard better but still if you can play that at his age like that, you also should be a concert pianist

[trms83br]

I don't agree that one must be able to play a piece to criticise a performance. By that rule i could only judge piano performances and never have oppinions about orchestral works, etc. Music is what matters, not the means through which you make it.

[trms83br]

And maybe people don't accept this as an excellent performance because it's not so. He's doing what shouldn't be done with Liszt's music: showing "how hard it is to play all those notes" instead of making the piano sing as opera singers and sound as an orchestra. THIS is what's really hard in this piece!

(this comment and the previous one were to classical000, comments are not being posted in the right place)

[trms83br]

i must say that Yundi Li plays Rigoletto much better in another video... search for the one in which he plays "Rigoletto, Sunflower and La Campanella".. then compare to this one! The other performance is by far better than this one, with more careful phrasing and tone! :)

[JakWho92]

I wouldn't say that you shouldn't show how hard this piece is because Liszt was famous for his show in the time he lived in ...

[trms83br]

well, the young liszt was famous for showing off his techique... the older liszt insisted that music was meant to be sung, not used as a mere display.

i don't mean you shouldn't show how hard it is... it is quite hard and you cannot hide it. but you can choose if you will "play music and show how hard it is" or "play music, which, as a matter of fact, is quite hard".

got it? :)

[JakWho92]

yeah :)

[111alexander111]

Excellent!

[pianogirl714]

wonderful!!! i don't know how anyone can call his interpretation immature and unemotional. you people just have to criticize, and if there's nothing wrong with the performance then you invent something.

[bonfiresky]

bad performance, sgouros is far better, compare the sparkling during the canto section, the cadenza in the beginnning

[pianogirl714]

i love watching him play!!

[dkawewehi]

Anyway, I can't play like that. I can articulate my opinions better than I can tickle the ivories. I bet that's true for almost everyone else here. *lol*

[dkawewehi]

Some people forget how young some of these performers are. In regards to the present piece, I've heard a far more expressive and (dare I say) 'mature' recording by Cziffra, but he was much older than Yundi is in this video. Yes, Yundi is technically flawless, but that sometimes leaves much to be desired in interpretation. I think that's probably the only real gripe in this case.

[29622]

So many stuck up wanna-be critics living in the past. You people will always find something to pick on no matter how wonderful the performance. I have actually proven that.

[edirol2007]

great octaves, cheap and fake emotions. for real liszt playing see van cliburn's 12th rhapsody

[thepolonaise]

you can't compare a rhapsody to a fantasy paraphrase.. thats like a nocturne and a polonaise.. can't do it.

[nicckAtNight]

@thepolonaise I think he was comparing the emotions and the artists' feel of "liszt playing" not the compositions

[Mioshmikan]

Okay, edirol2007, tell me. Can you really play better than that? What's "real liszt" anyways?

[Fairytale4eva]

I wish my fingers can be like that....

[pianisamet]

me too man yundi's fingers is really nice and long=)

[dave12122]

extremely poetic playing, almost as good as the classic Bolet performance. Bravo!

[boojum22]

there's a whole section missing! at 1:45.  very odd.

[Hiro5508]

youre right

[muratduman87]

Nice interpretations. He has a own style of playing.. And of course a vituoso!

[datruzepp]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH DAIM 4'57 WIZ 120% DUCHnezz

[thepolonaise]

wtf..

[Mioshmikan]

...

[pianist314]

virtuoso monster