Evgeny Kissin plays Bach-Busoni[Part 3 of 3]

[osowoofy]

Watching his hands is like watching hummingbirds.

[chobeethaninov]

Bravo Kissin! Yet another grand performance! You are in absolute top form wherever you go and whenever you play it seems. Genius is too small of a word for you!

[aidavdbrake]

first notes are missing :(

[gcaee]

It's not the best of course.

But not that bad in my opinion.

He is still one of my favorite pianists.

[Hexameron1]

Note-perfect, outstanding sustained staccato, needs only a more powerful

"great organ sonority" to be out-of-this-world, but this will come too...

[everythingistken1291]

I don't know what all the negative comment people are listening to, I think that it was great.

[bachgodofmusic]

Qué grande Kissin jodeeeer!!

[tommyIglesias]

@bachgodofmusic un genio, y estoy totalmente de acuerdo con tu nombre de usuario jeje, saludos!

[JFKaiser]

the middle paerts pretty tight, good for headbanging

[ric55]

I have to say that this performance is overpedalled and that he has not got the sonority to play it effectively- due as I have observed before to the way in which he holds his hands at the keyboard. Sonority is never a problem in Horowitz's performance-nor in Francois or Demidenko's for that matter.

[latchy01234]

kissin rules at the piano horowitz can not play as good as kissin, listen to chopins polonaise op 53 no 6 horowitz changed how he played it and made it sound really crap. horowitz plays a lot of music but it does not mean he,s a better player like everone makes out. its just peoples own taste.

[sistermitzi]

Listening to Evgeny play anything is like taking a few minutes in heaven. He plays from the heart & should be listened to with the heart.

[cristianEIRE]

impressive! Never heard this piece before!

[nadyart]

Kissin is great. But in this case, he just choose a very ugly transcrition, although it could sound better.

[derhawk]

To be saying things like that, I hope that at the very least you're at the level of professor of music at a major university... rather than some arm-chair know-it-all who doesn't know much more than the B.S. material from college.

[derhawk]

This is a fantastic interpretation of this piece. Too many people are way too harsh criticizing Kissin, and many others.  So much talent and potential and so many people just want to attack him instead of celebrate him. Makes me rethink what people really mean when they put people of his abilities down.

[davisville17]

I've noticed what you're saying, everyone on here craves to be right in any way they can, most likely for lack of self-esteem in other departments, unfortunately many people don't realize that the comment of a Joe Shmo on youtube shouldn't be taken as seriously as a qualified expert or a NY times music review lol

[latchy01234]

thats right m8 people keep criticizing him but i have watch alot of top piano players like horowitz and that but they dont play the music as good as kissin when kissin plays his music he plays it perfect all the time no can touch him realy iv been playin the polonaise op 53 heroique and played solid for two years and carnt get it to sound like his, is just a pro at what he does best some ppl are just ment to be, lol

[chopin5440]

We are lucky to have Kissin in the world today. I have listened to him play this on CD and finally get to see it on video. He is good enough to play however the hell he wants to. My hat's off to this guy!

[allegrissimo]

In the beginning it says "un poco umoristico". Of course that's something Kissin has never heard of and therefore doesn't recognise. This performance has absolutely nithing to do with the original organ piece (and sound), and with the intention of Busoni. Chapeau!

[turcioz]

Busoni's intention?. And what is it? This is just a transcription from a Bach organ piece. Shouldn't be Bach's intentions instead? I think is really hard to get the spot on which are the intentions from other persons, at least in music I think that at most we can transmit our own intentions, and our interpretations of that we suposse is the intention of the author, but in any case it will always be our own point of view

[allegrissimo]

If we just strive for persuing just our own intentions while making music, we're detaching the music from its musical context of the time it was written in and therefore we make music without a perception of tradition. To learn about Busoni's intentions, or Bach's for that matter, there's lots of literature to study. To talk about Kissin's performance: in my opinion this is really poor musicianship. Where's the grand "organ-like" sound? What happened to creativity?

[turcioz]

I agree on being aware of tradition, but I stand on thinking that in the end is always about our interpretation of someone else's intention. I think there could be a lot of interpretation posibilities for one piece, and that they all could be right and acceptable in terms of tradition, even if they were not too alike. About Kissin's performance I found it too staccato all the time, and with a harsh sound. Bach is not his strong field.

[allegrissimo]

You're very right. And as Busoni said, the printed notes are already a transcription of the musical idea and thus an attempt to put the musical thoughts into a straightjacket that's called "the notes". Just wished Kissin had a bit more of imagination...

[goobleglob]

you guys should hear Samson Francois' version, it's so much better than this. much grander; fuller sound, and much more MUSIC.

[29622]

Wow thanks a bunch for this. Kissin is my current favorite pianist, and I hadn't really listened to this piece before.