Grieg plays Grieg Butterfly (1906)

[TheIlikecookies123]

this piece of music....so natural and crisp....it is a work of beauty and art.very beautiful.

[gerardbedecarter]

Thanks for uploading this!

[tinyteishy]

thank you for this recording, an invaluable resource..xx

[24luvstepo24]

the beginning has sucha great tempo distance. its just not right. sorry X

[tuberobotto]

@24luvstepo24 I suppose that you don't realise you're actually commenting on the playing of the composer of the music himself, Edvard Grieg. That's him you hear playing the piano.

[JeyelSchroeder]

@DeLorean4 Both Ampico and Welte-Mignon systems were capable of recording nuances. Grieg made many piano roll recordings. There's no obvious reason to believe that this one is a fake. Also the pianistic style is very typical for the time.

[egalitarianist]

@DeLorean4 Of the four ingenious reproducing piano systems of the time, none was better than the Welte-Mignon at preserving the tempos and every nuance. Busoni said he could not detect any difference from his original performances. Grieg was very happy with it and much preferred it to his acoustic recordings which had to be rushed and abridged to fit recording limits. Despite the name Mignon ("small and pleasing") the apparatus was way too large and bulky to compete with modern electronics.

[DeLorean4]

@egalitarianist I regret writing my comment! La traduction n'était pas nécessaire mais merci quand même. C'est la deuxième fois que je me fais corrigé sur mon dernier commentaire. I have never had the pleasure of listening to high end player pianos of the epoque... only upright models used primarily for ragtime music before the advent of proper jukeboxes and sound equipment. I'm more of a 78 record collector than a player piano connaisseur so I'm more aware of artistic conflicts between

[DeLorean4]

@DeLorean4 early record companies and composers than the few times people got it right with other technologies.

[beccay19]

aaaw :')

[A3onstorm]

why does he have these random pauses? surely if he wanted those pauses there he would've written them in the music

[IcedBlueTea]

@A3onstorm It's possible that this is Grieg's interpretation, and one must keep in mind that this was played a year before he died. He was probably very weak, and might have needed to pause occasionally. :)

[A3onstorm]

@IcedBlueTea i mean at like 0:42 and then at the same point in the second repetition. its clearly not that he's resting, because those two bars are very easy to play without a pause, plus interpretation does not include having pauses where none are indicated, especially when u wrote the piece urself :P

[IcedBlueTea]

@A3onstorm My point was merely that Grieg is playing the music the way he intended it to played, there could be a variety of reasons for the pause.

[egalitarianist]

@IcedBlueTea You are right that he was weak and ailing, but though he struggled to get through these recordings, he persisted until he finished them as he wanted, and I believe no one has ever done better with them. Considering his health, it's amazing this little guy survived to 64. Since his left lung was destroyed by tubercular pleurisy at 17, he had trouble breathing and grew progressively weaker. Much of his final years were in physical agony as emphysema was claiming his remaining lung.

[tuberobotto]

@egalitarianist You are of course referring to Edvard Grieg, aren't you? This is so sad. My apologies but I never heard this story said about the maestro. In most writings they say that he lived a happy old life in Norway and enjoying the hero status his country honored him with. I really felt sad after reading this. He wrote some of the most wonderful piano pieces in the world but I never thought he had an illness since youth. Even Liszt had high praises for his concerto. Sad.

[egalitarianist]

@A3onstorm This is exactly as Grieg meant it. Grieg's top priority in composing programmatic pieces or songs was to have every detail help create the image or meaning of the piece - and he was a great genius at that. After that was beauty and interestingness etc.. Watch a butterfly around flowers, stopping to feed, and moving in fits and starts as it is buffeted by tiny air currents. They generally do not and cannot fly smoothly.

[971redhead]

So many of the people watching this or other videos like it simply don't understand the beauty of the pieces recorded. I wish classical music was more prominent today's society.

[Zoldilol]

@971redhead Yeah, i can almost cry about people who don't understand classical music or pieces like this. I hear this piece for the first time, and it amazes me.

[mwelle1]

Is this recording public domain?

[F0nkyNinja]

Oh look! I didn't know Einstein played the piano.

[iPodShaz]

okay. how am i supposed to play it this quick .

[Berserker754]

This CAN'T be 1906! The quality is even better than some of the stuff we have today!

[ZeevaTV]

oh...not just "Like"....LOVE....ADORE....

[Multibjarne]

the part at 0:46 is what touches me the most

[Lesya8325]

Какое потрясающее исполнение!

[skycarmuse]

Grieg's BUTTERFLY is one of the most stunning short flights of genius that ever existed...and to have the blessing of being able to hear Grieg play it! Thanks, somebody.

[whythewar1]

how is this greig? The quality is too good for 1906

[19AJB]

@whythewar1

It sounds like a piano roll to me, especially as the final bottom A is played an octave up.

[russedav5]

test

[russedav5]

@whythewar1

It's because it's from a piano roll that reproduced Grieg's playing on a modern piano, not an old recording.

As it says above, "Welte-Mignon reproducing piano, Digitally Remastered 1991."

w w w . pianola . o r g / reproducing / reproducing _ welte . cfm

[snateraar]

Like piano keys falling off a small waterfall. That's what this sounds like.

[Fredianel]

Ничего лишнего! Один поток! Ни намёка на потуги блеска виртуозности!

[lolage116]

waw is the only word to describe it...thank you for making me so happy :D

[lorelea131]

Боже мой ! Какой звук !!! Никакого стука ! Никакой "мужской хватки" !!! Никакого "большого творческого Я" , только музыка , только художественный образ ... Я просто рыдаю ! Григ был действительно потрясающим пианистом ...

[boris1952]

Guys do you know where i can find Grieg recording of Beethoven Sonata 8 (Pathétique) ?

[jesstiger81]

So this is actually Grieg playing this. So nice to hear what he heard as he was composing this piece. Really neat piece, I love it!

[gmpeck322]

I can play this perfectly at around 60 beats per minute, does anyone have any idea how I could get it sped up?

[jesstiger81]

@gmpeck322 Every time you play it, bump the metronome up just ONE click. If you play it perfectly again, bump it up again. Do this a couple times over several days and you'll have it. However, it may take a little more time because it needs to be about twice as fast. That's what I do. Just one metronome click at a time! Good luck!

[speedstream001]

I've read the comments and a lot of people are skeptical about the quality of the sound. Let me just say that I used to have this LP and it is in fact Grieg playing.

The secret behind it is the Welte piano roll system. I did not record actual sound! What it recorded was the pressure from the keys and pedals and then saved as electrical impulses.

[speedstream001]

@speedstream001 What you are hearing in fact are velvet fingers mechanically reproducing the exact pressure Grieg used over a hundred years ago. When J. Levine listened to his recording years later, he stated that it very accurately reproduced every graduation of tone.

[IVlr3vil]

What's with the quality? It's so clear that I almost couldn't believe this was Grieg. They should do that with other old recordings.

[ForTheFallen2000]

Who is they???

[wagerfilmART]

Fascinating. It's often true that composers don't make the best performers, but I like this well enough. It's always interesting to know what the composer thinks about his or her work.

[chkjns]

just added this to 1906 in my music playlists for each of the last 100 years.

From piano to pop, ANY music you might hear in any given year, a trip back in time is waiting . . . . . . . .

[sentjourwla]

You like this WELL enough??! Are you kidding? I've heard this piece played over 100 times in my life on recordings and in person and have Never heard it truly sound like a butterfly - as Edvard Grieg has masterfully done.

[flyingtadpole]

Goodness me, doesn't anybody read up on the Mignon or reproducing pianos generally? Must be fixated on pumping the Pianola. Thank you for resurrecting these !

[pleasureman666]

thats not Grieg! the recording qualtiy is too good for 1906. no noise, no swoosh, perfect sound!!

[ChonQuahog]

Filoclito - This is not a fake. It was recorded on the Welte-Mignon, a device that recorded and was capable of reproducing the physical movements of the keys in a piano performance. Many great artists of the late 19th C. and early 20th C. recorded on it. Then years later, the Welte-Mignon device would be interfaced with a piano and recorded using modern techniques. The original sounds were not recorded. However, the performance of the pianist - in this case, Grieg was preserved.

[filoclito]

It is impossible that the pianist is Grieg... He died in 1907 when it was possible to record only in wax cylinders. It is almost difficult to restore and digitalize a cylinder record, It is certainly impossible to obtain this quality, so in what concern the player it is A VISIBLE FAKE!

[majortom51970]

@filoclito It's not a sound recording of 1906; it's a piano roll recording of 1906. That means that the actual sound recording could have been made a year ago, but it's still Grieg playing

[kiasmus]

As a general rule, EVERYTHING was played faster in the old days, from Bach to Wagner.

[dido93]

Beautiful! But Gilels gave a real "soul" to this "little" piano pieces...

[gnolti]

The Gilels recording of these lyric pieces is one of the must-haves of any serious classical music collector.

[dido93]

No doubt about...

[ScrowTema]

I love Grieg and he's songs!!! :D

[yuxuan121094]

did anyone hear those mistakes he made

[flyingtadpole]

Yes. Listen to any serious live performance and there'll be mistakes there too! But in a modern_ studio, the engineer covers them all up! THese are one-take recordings!

[mychemicalrelapse]

is it ironic that to sound this free and floatless on a piano takes ages and ages of practice and refining technique? lol so beautiful though that its worth it

[Ry1749]

Ok, why is it that whenever Greig plays this everyone is like "omg nice rubato!" but whenever I play it close to this, everyone says I have way too much rubato??? lol...

[antetdi]

That's just the result of the evolution of the use of rubato with years. The older the recording, the wi(l)der the rubato! In French we call it "la souplesse du phrasé", which is now sometimes seen as an absence of stability in a phrase. Take it as a compliment ;)

[IrishPianoMan1996]

Who wants the sheets to this? I have them.

[Danster185]

Yes please.. I want them ;)

[breakerofcodes]

My 89 year old grandmother plays it this fast. I love her.

I don't cry when people die, I don't cry in movies, I don't cry at ANYTHING, but Grieg's piano.

[tomitstube]

@breakerofcodes ~ i cried at my birth. and when my shoestring broke. edvard is a genius.

[tomitstube]

@tomitstube ~ "was" a genius.

[MJTTOMB]

@tomitstube "is." He may have died, but I wouldn't think that should strip him of his brilliance.

[tomitstube]

@MJTTOMB ~ i agree, edvard's genius is still alive, unfortunately he is not.

[koalaswrath]

@breakerofcodes You don't cry when you chop onions either?! What if they pepper-sprayed your eyes? What if they locked you up in a gas chamber and filled it with tear gas? Would you cry then?! Besides, how do you have access to Grieg's piano? Is it at a museum? Did you inherit it? Are you related to him?! Wow, that's awesome!

[GJmusique]

@koalaswrath

The piece is indeed not called "Kindergarten".

[pianonine]

@breakerofcodes You and me both...cry at Grieg... and Rachmaninoff...oh the depth of their souls revealed. And we understand.

[hfleung100]

@breakerofcodes How come you don't cry when people die, or at sad movies?

[KegPatcha]

@breakerofcodes I pictured your grandmother completely with this music and your comment. Bless her!

[sancito5]

@breakerofcodes

[sancito5]

@sancito5

[kristianaps]

omg, so fast! my level is way too low for me to play like this!

have to practise a lot!

[ipmoic]

This is just excellent. I love the freedoms taken by this pianist.

I hope it is Grieg. Remarkable reproduction.

[RottHans]

piano roll?

[bboymango]

naw i don thtink those are piano rolls

jsut really fast chromatics and scales

btw this recordgin seems to be reallly clear and good quality unlike the other ones

haha

[pampiliong]

I'll dream that it is Greag.

[09Benavides]

This piece has to good quality.

Why was wedding day at Troldhaugen nt so good digitally remastered?

I think, that it was not Grieg who played this piece. Sorry.

[fesitolare]

In opposition to what I said in a comment I posted 7 months ago, I dont think this recording is necessarily a fake, I have to admit ! I checked some information about piano rolls : I didnt know about that possibility and I really believe its a great fortune to have such memories from our classical composers. In any case, sorry for have been mistaken !!

[Pischnaholic]

A nice bit of history, but very frankly I'd rather hear Gieseking or Rubinstein perform it.

[chocolategirl321]

Cool! i'm playing this right now!

[emimichan007]

Is it Grieg himself who plays here ?

I love this piece, even if it's rather difficult .. <3

[morinoroba]

Ｂeautiful .thank you♪

[12louys]

Of course the audio is good; it's a piano roll, not a recording.

[BrendanKennedy96]

I Wonder If there is a recording of In the Hall of the Mountain King.

[puchalaka]

Who is this playing? What interpreter?

[parkourjordz]

GRIEG YOU MORON!

[puchalaka]

I bet if i play the piano in-front of you, you would be looking like the moron...

[parkourjordz]

I bet i played the piano in front of you, you would instantly be swept away by love.

[puchalaka]

How? By your great fake playing of Chopin? I really can prove to you that i may be more usefull on the piano than you...

Was there really a point in calling me a moron?

[puchalaka]

lol unfortunately there will always be ignorant idiots walking on earth.

Youre a great example...

[Hornyfaggetmunchers]

your face is a great example....... take a hard f** ing look at it.

Maybe you should to, just look at your dp

[BrendanKennedy96]

OMG! Very good audio! And it was only 17 years after that recording of Brahms. That audio was Terrible.

[hapicheri]

i love the pause at 1:21

[orionedwin]

Great sound quality and a lovely interpretation!

[ArturoAlejandroS]

What a wonderful and fantastic piece!

[harrija408]

I very like it because i play these buterflyes

:)

[friendfarang]

What has colour got to do with it?

[wildliongirl]

Amazing!!!! His style is so unique! wonderful, wonderful

[Curiousonic]

I red somewhere that in the last years of Griegs' life around the time of this recording, he expressed some frustration about the playing style among pianists, that it was really popular to play rubato. But he is really affected by the trend himself , despite his frustration. It think its really interesting, because it could show that composers of his time had to follow the trend just like pop musicians does today to survive in the business..

[thomandy]

You make in interesting point :) But do you then think this type of music and modern "romantic,classical compositions ect" are doomed to fail?? I really hope there is room for it all though, and that the concertos ect and pianosolos arent gone... Then some of the most beautiful music that can be created will be totally lost in some centerys..

[JimmieBluffdweller]

The reproduction of these performances are affected by many factors including the regulation of the device, coupled with the piano's own regulation. I own a copy of this and it plays more lyrically on my instrument than here. The dynamics are encoded on the roll. There are limitations, obviously, but the performers themselves had to approve before they were released, so I would say that this is as accurate as possible given the limitations.

[AnnaHelenaKarenina]

Григ !!! ФУГк йу !

[Will170392]

this is really a rare gem of the recording world - grieg was a genius there is no doubt - and this recording is beautiful and musical

[vincecharus]

How do we know it's really Grieg playing?

[MarkoKassenaar]

It is actually possible to record music with piano-rolls. I am not quite sure about the technique, but it was explained to me once in the Pianola Museum in Amsterdam: The pianist plays, they keep the paper rolling on a reel and somehow they note down everything down in ink: tempo, dynamics, phrasing etc. The ink is later replaced by punched holes.

So it is not a "live" recording, but it comes as close as we can get to the composer's own interpretation.

[4c00h]

guys ive got a time machine who wants to come back with me to record them playing it live

[BarbaraPloyer333]

Well- there is no law of physics that says that time travel is impossible... HAHAHA!!!!!

[godsloved3]

well get chuck norris with us to defy physics.

[BarbaraPloyer333]

No- I'm serious there isn't a law of physics against it (I'm sure there is, but we haven't discovered it yet..) At least that's what they said on that documentary that was on Discovery Channel in 2003. You can find it on You tube if you type in "Time Travel: Einstein's big idea (Theory of Relativity)."

[godsloved3]

oh lol i misread yours. i thought you meant "theres no law of physics that is for it" sorry dawg.

[phalanster]

this piano roll is better sounding than some today digital recording!

[Xenogfan43]

This is a Welte-Mignon piano roll recording, and it is most certainly Grieg himself playing.

The fermata'd rests are absolute genius, and I somewhat doubt anyone but the composer himself would be daring enough to interpret the piece in such a way.

This is also the most fantastic recording of 'Butterfly' I've ever heard, and 'Little Bird' (also a Welte-Mignon roll) is just as impressive.

[bachmaninoff]

it's not fake dumb shit, it's a piano roll.

[catrevaje]

Fake!

[Jonza121]

No one, i mean no one can play this better that composer himself!

Not even YOU!

[Ry1749]

So true...

[fesitolare]

This is a fake, there is no doubt. Don't be naive !!

[cziffra1980]

It's a "PIANO ROLL", you tool! Google it.

[bicsc7]

a piano roll would never be this good quality. This is obviously a fake, as fesitolare said.

[cziffra1980]

Do you even know what a 'piano roll' is? Go and look it up...

[sephiroth999999]

This is definitely a piano roll. It sounds just like one.

[Sinfoniette]

I'm a beginner, so I'm going to say this. This sounds way too great for a piano roll for me. The Gershwin Rolls aren't even this good!

[ClassicalMusicReview]

Dear Ming-Yu,It's an irony that 20th century pianists have regarded rolls such as this as 'unreliable' and that composers were 'always very bad interpretors of their own music'.Grieg's playing is stunning!

[Sinfoniette]

Yes, I agree. When I was saying this, I meant the sound quality, not the emotion or anything. This is great as/greater than Gilels' Lyric Pieces!

[McLellandPianoStudio]

If this is Grieg, (or if it isn't), I hear the life and lilt and 'bubble' of his music .... finally! bravo for this post. thank you.

[tolctouyou]

I used to play this piece more more slowly !!! no matter : Grieg is genius !!

[mdeonx12]

it's recorded on a preforated roll, to be played by a piano that can read it. Piano rolls have been around since about 1890; If you don't know what I'm talking about, just google it.

[renatoaranha]

There are two things I would like to discuss with you. First of all, the recording is remarkable. Both in interpretation AND quality. Could this actually be such a wonderful remaster of the original recording (1)?? Also, putting side by side this recording with the one in "Edvard Grieg: The Piano Music in Historic Interpretations", some differences can be noticed. Is this recording here really Grieg 2)?

[tawtsai]

Is it possible that its a piano roll thing and being play on a modern piano? (meaning Grieg played and recorded on a piano roll, but what we're hearing is not the original real time recording... does that make sense?) just guessing.

[Achtelnote]

the recording is of course not 100 years old,but the roll is.

[DocHackenbush]

But did it also record the strength of the keyboard stroke and the use of the foot-paddles...?

[Achtelnote]

dont know exactly.pedal is on the roll and you can hear the dynamics,so its probably very close to griegs playing.

[paulostroff99]

That old and yet this clear? Remarkable. Bravo!

[kopiano2]

i love this piece. it really does sound just like a butterfly

[havenlover26]

I just played this, but much different than this............much more legato

[melsupra1]

Try to play like him. He's the composer.

[havenlover26]

I know

[genomos90]

@melsupra1

i don't think that would make sense,...he's only the "giver" of this music. what to do with it is one's own business...I once heard a recording of a chopin student, playing his first ballade in g minor and it was horrible..!! even tough his pupil must have had a idea how chopin meant it to be played...

[op118intermezzo2]

I think the speed here was a little free here, which worked well.

[yashil17]

is this actually Edvard Grieg? there's no scrathes n

or anything

[bomberchicken]

I'm learning this piece now but my hands are a bit too small for some of the bottom parts :(

[manishbabu]

is this really grig ?

and is he stoping in between by mistake ?

[bomberchicken]

Love this!

[englishplayer40]

is that really Grieg? the quality of the recording sounds far too good.. 1906?? If it is is he's interpreting the song very well.. which is understandable !

[nickus32000]

Scroll down and read comments posted by florestanuseusebius and kawachitarag, they explain it well.

[juansmdgp]

si supuestamente es de grieg la interpretación porque tiene tan buena calidad de sonido... que no coincide con la epoca en que vivio grieg???

(no intento corchar... simplemente me surge la pregunta)

[volodya2]

it is acoustical recording or roll?

i think roll...

[gerryrains]

Thanks theoshow2,

This is a great post!

[virkur]

The Fermatta at 00:40 & 01:21 are dazzling and exhibit Grieg's brilliant pianism and dynamic music making. 5*****

[snaaptaker]

Lovely-- almost as beautiful as the acoustic version (1903). Thank you again for both.---Stuart

[kissinalpalo]

no puede ser que esa calidad de sonido sea de 1906.. i don't believe this record. the fidelity is very good compared with 1906. my eanglish is bad. sorry.

[FlorestanEusebius]

It's a bit misleading: there's a wonderful acoustical of Grieg playing this in 1903 - but this is a recording from a reproducing piano that played the roll that was made in 1906.

You can clearly hear and compare the differences in nuances and rubati. Don't trust rolls!

[kissinalpalo]

aahaah.. ok. thank you..

[luxOculta]

What's a roll?

[KawhackitaRag]

I know what you mean... however some reproducing piano companies like Welte-Mignon (the German Welte, not the American Welte-Licensee) and Hupfeld with their DEA system, did the absolute best they could as far as fidelity of reproduction and being absolutely as true as possible to the pianist's personal wishes. Especially when there are no other examples of that performer playing, it is important to study these rolls. When records do exist, it becomes all the more fascinating to compare the two.