DEBUSSY PLAYS DEBUSSY - Arabesque no.2 (piano roll)

[thecam4444]

I am so pleased that they did this.

[13mungoman13]

Even listening to this I can feel my fingers snapping.

[RodtheFierce]

It mental to hear this, I played this at Uni and thought I played it very similar to how Debussy would've played it. How wrong was I!! He plays it at a million miles an hour and he makes quite a few rhythmical slips on the left hand but then again maybe thats how he wanted it played.

[everlastingleet]

From the album 'Debussy plays Debussy' on the dal segno label. 7 of the tracks on that album are played by Debussy. This isn't one of them.

[Chateaubriand26]

Il y a deux compositions dans cette version, les notes sur le papier et les mains sur le clavier. Debussy devait vraiment être un pianiste incroyable ; on dirait qu'il se moque totalement de ce qu'il a écrit dans la partition et qu'il réinvente au fur et à mesure qu'il joue. Une inspiration quasi-Divine!

[Apollotheawesome]

i am learning this piece, and I love playing it! very beautiful

[ansonyeung825]

incredibly beautiful...

[Joseflhevinne]

This is played by Carol Robinson, not performed by Debussy.

and issued on welte in (7146 DEBUSSY - Arabesque No. 2)

(sorry for my poor English)

[Shanelololol]

@Joseflhevinne actually it says it is a piano roll. debussy played on the piano and the roll recorded his performance.

[Muzikman127]

does anyone know if there exists, or if so where to find a piano roll recording of Debussy playing Claire de Lune? All I can find is dead links

[anisometropie]

A piano roll can be THIS good ? amazing

[BSpaceMusic]

if only music in the genre's today would be as good as this is almost its own genre; Beautifull.

[fonfon241]

bravo quelle belle interprétation!!!

[GordonWillis]

Thank you very much, filippeo85. After listening to the clockwork performances of Gieseking and others this one by Debussy himself is a real eye-opener. It's clear he has no concern for a constant tempo, and he obviously plays this piece somewhat differently at other times (and he gets a bit messy sometimes, too!) but he conveys the character of the music like no one else. Really liberating for us slavish pianists!

Does this say anything about why the first edition is so imprecise over details?

[blumuze2]

Piano rolls are a lot like MIDI recordings of today. Rather than recording the sounds of the piano, they "record" the actual movements of the pianists fingers and feet by punching a hole for each note played in a "paper" roll. When the process is reversed, the performance is duplicated as the holes actuate the keys and foot pedals of a special kind of piano that can read them.

[tinydavis69]

This sounds amazing. Thanks for uploading it. I wish I understood more about the early technology that went into making player piano rolls; it's so authentic, even compared with modern digital gadgetry. Nice!

[diapas3]

QUE GENIALIDAD....................­..............................­..

Con su interpretación queda claro que la partitura solo nos dice un 30%, el resto después de un dominio técnico es algo personal.

Que gusto escuchar a Debussy, no sabía que existían grabaciones de el.

[leus]

@diapas3 - no es una grabación. Es un "piano roll", digitado por el compositor. Me imagino que se le agregaron las dinámicas posteriormente. Sería bueno conocer más de su procedencia.

[diapas3]

@leus No se que es un piano roll, disculpa mi ignorancia; pero la verdad es que sea lo que sea suena algo diferente de todas las grabaciones que conozco, y me gusta bastante. Agradecería información de la procedencia como dices tu amigo leus. Gracias.

[heaventree22]

@MsAppassionata also, ravel has a reputation for writing some extremely difficult pieces. check out gaspard de la nuit for instance.

[DunNotCome]

@heaventree22 yea but not as hard as hammerklavier by beethoven played at beethoven's speed

[toshiko2000]

Amazing♪

[Ringosfinger]

Only Debussy could give this better audio on a computer than all of the other YT videos of this piece. 

[MsAppassionata]

Wow! Thanks for posting this. BTW, this question is addressed to all the pianists out there, especially the really good ones: What composer's piano music poses the greatest virtuosic challenge for a pianist? Is it Debussy, Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, or someone else? Since I don't really play piano, aside from a few chords, I'm just curious to know what others think.

[Dnmk2007]

@MsAppassionata Alkan.

[MsAppassionata]

@Dnmk2007 Thanks for the info. I never heard of him but I will definitely check him out. Any other takers?

[daledude66]

@MsAppassionata

I would say probably either Liszt or Chopin.

[MsAppassionata]

@daledude66 Thanks

[F1R1NMAHLAZAH]

@MsAppassionata Well, for original pieces, probably Alkan + Liszt, maybe Sorabji, if I'm spelling that right, with his 4-hour Opus Clavicembalistum, or Ligeti, with his crazy etudes, but I can't argue the last two were actually composers on the level of Beethoven, Chopin, and others who might not have written the most virtuousic pieces. However, transcriptions pieces really makes things difficult, such as Godowsky transcriptions of Chopin Etudes and Cziffra's transcriptions. :)

[Veringetorix]

@F1R1NMAHLAZAH hard doesn't mean best, that's a silly way of thinking mozart is easy to play but it makes you feel so.. complete.. people looking for tthe hardest pieces do not really understand music and are merely show offs

[F1R1NMAHLAZAH]

@Veringetorix Yes, and I understand that. I was just answering MsAppassionata's question about virtuostic challence, and I did explain that composers such as Sorabji, with all their music's difficulty, can never match the beauty of Beethoven.

[Veringetorix]

@F1R1NMAHLAZAH I apologize, I didn't read the all teh comments =)

[F1R1NMAHLAZAH]

@Veringetorix lol its k :D

[yingfunful]

wow! It's fun.

[Salse7rito]

Ok. the interpretation is excellent.

Is it really 'el maestro' himself ? Unbelievable !

[SnowMozart]

beautiful! =)

[Twonez]

I like the first Arabesque better but this one is still a gem.

[AaronHenley88]

amazing sounds

[piano0001]

I really like the way that he played this piece. This version is the best one i have heard!! His intepretation is different from everyone else and full of colour.

[DesertKid2]

who performed this? where did the pictures come from? how come this song isn't really known? this is beautiful

[JupiterIV]

@DesertKid2 Haven't you read the title? It's the composer playing his own composition!

[Selendomono]

It's interesting to hear Debussy play it himself... but piano rolls ARE sometimes a little fuzzy on quality so I imagine it's not the same as hearing it in person

[groovyzebra]

I love this ♥♥♥

[MrEbaby2010]

Originally and innovative. It seems that some of the expressions are not recorded in the score. From this, I guess that Debussy's music has a very wide range of room for interpretation of players, in terms of every elements of music such as dynamic, tempo, embellishment.

[legallucy]

who cares about ages or grades just enjoy the BEAUTIFUL MUSIC

[destryx]

of course this is the best version, it was "played" by debussy himself!

[kub73158]

Great work of course, by the amazing composer.

Still, I find hardly anyone either notices or at least mentions that Prokofiev used the last melody here in his Classical Symphony.

[Virginielie]

Beautiful performance .... his emotion of tempo rubato makes the piece alive ....

[jalhp1000]

this piece is kinda fast... just my opinion though... im playing it anf i play it with a more steady type tempo.

[RCsST0RE]

its really good but i like #1 even more

[LittleTinRobot]

Its not Debussy himself for the last time?! lmao

Ive ordered this peice for my grade 8...if anyone has played this, is it one of his hardest pieces? I can play arabesque 1, claire de lune and just generally his work...but im nervous about this one....

[Jimmyd45]

No, in fact that's one easy piece compared to most of his work. Preludes, Etudes, l'Isle joyeuse, Estampes, these are the hard ones !

[samuelishmedia]

This is a piano roll which is playing back exactly how Debussy played this piece. In effect, it is Debussy's performance.

[f0xiek]

I'm playing it for Grade 8 also, is very nice, some difficult pieces but overall not too bad.

[iamsomotionless]

i've been playing this piece a while now, and can play it through - dont like it at this pace though. but i also have the 1st one. in terms of difficulty to learn whats the first one like in comparison to this one?

[nickoicool]

the first one is a lot easier than this one!!!!

[keetner]

Really, grade 8? The books I'm using has Arabesque 1 as a grade 10 piece @_@

Then again, I don't think the piece is too, too difficult. Ah well.

[samuelishmedia]

It's grade 8 with ABRSM and ABRSM only go up to grade 8 unless you want to do a diploma. Grade 8 ABRSM is equivalent to grade 10 on the exam board which goes up to grade 10 (sorry can't remember the name of the exam board)

[kalvin892004]

@keetner what is grade 10?

[josephinebijoux]

@keetner I think Arabesque 1 is sort of grade 7 standard (notes wise), and the notes here are grade 8 standard. But obviously the task of actually playing both pieces well exceeds those standards!

[petiteFangs]

@josephinebijoux Actually, both Arabesques are at grade 8 level..such amazing pieces...

[KillingCrazy666]

@petiteFangs Arabesque no.2 is now in the 2008 syllabus for a grade 10 exam, which is good news for me, I get to play it for one of my festival pieces and for my exam :)

[petiteFangs]

@KillingCrazy666 I'm currently preparing it for the Royal School of Music, grade 8 exam - and I made a mistake about the first arabesque - it's grade 7 for Royal.

Which school of music are you doing?

[KillingCrazy666]

@petiteFangs The Royal Conservatory of Music. Good luck on your exam :)

[samuelishmedia]

"and just generally his work" really?? Debussy's work goes all the way up to LRSM and FRSM level.. can you play those? I should think not if you're doing a grade 8 exam...

[jasonextreme]

I hate it when teachers tell me to play in tempo when even the composers themselves play the way they want.

Great recording from the Maestro himself

[chopinhorowitz]

yes, so true

[iamsomotionless]

my teacher never tells me to play in tempo, thats the whole point of playing pieces, interpretation and emotion, tempo comes alongside these and varies accordingly, just my opinion.

[pianist41]

This is not Debussy himself. The Arabesque isn´t listed anywhere among his own piano-rolls or recordings. As someone wrote earlier it seems to be Carol Robinson on a piano-roll from december 1923.

This was sometimes published on on a CD together with Debussy piano-rolls to fill the CD.

From 17 tracks on that CD Debussy actually played on 7, so that may cause the mistake.

You should stop to spread false information and change the description of your video.

[Rachel104evr]

I'm learning this song right now.... it's nowhere near this good.

[renjisXmineXbackXoff]

I'm with you, started last week but have a severe case of 'stupid fingers'

[geneosis]

by the way, this performance is really good (the best i heard)

[yuanyi1993]

I'm agree with you. But anyway, I find the quality not good. But I think it's because this recording is very old.

[goldie0800]

Let's be thankful to have this recording at all! My grandfather had a piano roll player at home. The piano rolls were about 12 inches long, special paper with small rectangle holes, rather similar idea to the German early music boxes, if you know what I mean. Foot pedals operated the movement and speed.

[geneosis]

i'm not sure this is Debussy's performance. I'm sending an e-mail to a french association who care's about Debuusy's work, ask them if there is Debussy's recording. Debussy died in 1918, so it's possible...

[Urfold]

Debussy also recorded "The Sunken Cathedral" ! And undoubtedly others pieces...

[progbassftw]

It's a piano roll, not a real record. Its somehow a "tape" with holes on it, which respent pitch and volume, or somekind like that. So it can be, as this was really famous that period

[sfLoat23]

this was debussy's performance? AWESOME!!

[EuropeanArchive]

Interesting!

------------------------

Greetings,

Rolf

Historical classical recordings

European Archive, Paris

[lordking9]

you guys mind talking in english so i can understand but a beutafful peice i'm learning it i'm 11 =)

[suzettegm]

merci beaucoup, enchantée !

[dabiribd]

Awesome

thanks for sharing

[CanPcess]

Beautiful...

[piano6861]

I love it!

[theoshow2]

Hi Filippeo85: I did research into this piano roll; it's probably of Carol Robinson.

[NedRorem]

And who was Carol Robinson? Tell us all the story.

[Ankhsnammon]

Thanks,sir filip!

I was needing a touch like this....the old master claude..mon vieux et bien aimè maître!

ankhsnammon

[theViolinDreamer]

Tu parles francais aussi?Mais c'est une jolie surprise.

[Ankhsnammon]

Oui,mon jeune maître...un peu...

ankhsnammon