Chopin's Op.25 No. 8 'Sixths' Etude Audio + Sheet Music

[2hyeok]

short etude

[tomekkobialka]

@2hyeok short comment

[fredericfranc]

...I was always bitching that this thing was too short...but now I know that I was making an asshole of myself...

[AkLvKk]

some people think the Thirds Etude is harder, but in actuality, this is harder than the Thirds Etude. had the piece been any longer, it would probably had been THE hardest etude

[cantseetheforest]

Pretty...um...mannered interpretation. A big part of the difficulty in this study for the pianist--which I think is also supposed to be part of the musical charm for the listener--is the "mezza voce" indication, meaning that the tone should be mostly subdued. Cziffra solves this technical problem by merely banging the crap out of all the sixths...not that impressive.

[Schamschi]

Lol, yeah, mezza voce... Well, Cziffra was never known for extreme fidelity to the score. But I don't think he didn't know what mezza voce means or couldn't play the piece mezza voce, but he just played the way he liked it, whether it was in accordance with the score or not. He's a bit like Glenn Gould in this respect, only that Gould saw this as his role and consciously deviated from score indications when he saw fit, while Cziffra just played away without giving a shit when he was in the mood.

[Laudan08]

@Schamschi This guy plays the piano as he wants, he takes the score as a guide, and he has respect to the dynamics (well, he is very extreme), but i like him the way he is/was.

[tomekkobialka]

@Laudan08 That's why I like Cziffra...I hate it when people point out to me when I'm learning a piece that this should be played 'piano' then 'forte' then slow down then speed up...why does everyone have to play the piece in the same way? It's so boring! Whereas Cziffra plays stuff however he wants, not paying attention to the score in all places.

[ClaudioArrau]

I like Cziffra mostly at Liszt. This was one of the worst interpretations -if not the worst- i've ever heard.