Maria Yudina plays Bach-Liszt Organ Prelude & Fugue, BWV 543

[MrFidelcaster]

Six people are accustomed with more impressive live performance than this one. Lucky them!

[devilxhlywood]

there is a mixture of melancholy and rage that blends so beautifully in her interpretations. i'd imagine her personality was not much different than her playing, I feel like I know her after listening to so many of her recordings.

[NelsonPinheirojr]

Who are the six people who pressed the button dislike?!?

[Gargantupimp]

say what you will about yudina but she sure is controversial

[Rublyov]

Просто потрясающее исполнение!

Гениально. Такого Баха первый раз слушал.

Какая высота духовной культуры И человеческое страдание за всем этим.

Причем год звписи...

[goodguysdoll]

organists would puke. the tempo of the fugue is way too slow. at this tempe it's going to take all day to get through. and she misses so many notes, it's like she's sight reading it.

[Snakkerdakkie]

@goodguysdoll No, I'm sure most of them don't. At least not in Europe.

[uhartchristian]

@goodguysdoll I hope you are as well as Maria Yudina in sightreading.... how many works have you recorded? where can we hear this geious you are? would like to see who makes it better than Maria Yudina !!!! This would be someone better than God....

[etap1]

One of the most powerful and detailed performances..............of this piece. Such articulation and control!

[13anjowizard]

@espejosgigantes choosing stalin over hitler only shows your brain has atrophied from hollywood renditions of the history. Not saying Hitler was a great man, but he is far more accesable when it comes to material demonizing him, when Stalin has more blood on his hands.

[29regsinclair]

Wonderful!

[jsnauwaert]

There are so many notes, yet none is superfluous.

[alvaros83]

Unbelievable. I have no words

[joerois404d]

AMAZING!

[WatchBlueSkies]

this is a fascinating record !!

she plays Bach it a little way like G. Gould

[quetzalandino]

nice version.

[leomulder]

What a great bass she has!

[japanesesweet]

There's a very apt description of this performance as sounding `raggedy` - -of course,in the best possible sense of the word.

There's an honesty about this which I like-wonderful shift of mood at 5:04

Another great performance of this piece,which flows along at a headstrong pace is Alexis Weissenberg.

[Enix5548]

Fantastic. I never heard her before. But it seems some people are still capable of playing Bach well.

[danyarivw]

on a scale from 1-100 Yudina gets 138 (I do not more budget, I would give it all)

beware! She is a witch !

I can hear her Bach renderings all day long and ignore anything else >>it is not healthy, I have to eat , sleep and work , in the inverse order.

[Lukecash12]

She makes other pianists sound like wimps. What a healthy touch!

[kobiianardo]

i heard weissenberg play it, it's not even the same piece. not bashing weissenberg but yudina really made this piece sound like her voice, soft where she meant, and swearing when she's mad. her voice is not pretty but the message is powerful, sad, and rebellious. she never once faltered or backed down even in the most tender passages. i cant listen to too much yudina, she'll stab me to death.

[marca961]

L'esprit de Bach et les démons de Liszt, et Maria Yudina qui joue comme une possédée... j'adore!

Merci Truecrypt. Pour ces enregistrement de Beethovem, Schubert, Bach et Mozart, Maria Yudina, que je ne connaissais pas, est maintenant l'une de mes pianistes préférées.

[bochritas]

It's briliant !!!!

[felix0911176727]

8:50 to 9:05 is awesome!!

[punkpoetry]

She rarely gets due credit for the power, accuracy and agility of her pianism. However idiosyncratic, her visions are always impeccably executed

[rsmullyan]

Yudina, that was really beautiful!

[Pischnaholic]

This is first and foremost an ORGAN work. It sounds best when performed on the instrument for which Bach intended it. Transcriptions of organ and orchestral music are interesting, but they could never SUPPLANT the original version of ANY of these great organ works.

Yudina makes a mighty attempt to evoke the splendor and overwhelming power of an authentic organ. That much of it sounds "rough" is the result of tremendous energy needed to sound "organistic." She projects the spirit very well.

[ocwhanappi]

maria judina : what a giant ! its her and liszts gestus !!!!

[Jtking3000]

good ol' liszt

[leomulder]

Nice basses.

[leandrusi]

Wow! How much bad vibe in here at the comments! no wonder the classical music´s insides are said to be kind of though, much of rudeness and envy !!!

Cant you all get a long? hehe

[angryjalapeno]

Well this is a Liszt transcription so that's a license to do some piano pounding which works really well in the prelude. What I don't like is the frequent volume changes in the fugue which pretty much breaks it up into many little islands of sound when it should be much more connected.

[SlyFox616]

The more I listen to Yudina, the more I fall in love.

[indigoblue555]

@ SlyFox616 - I didn't know Yudina but since I discovered her Bach renditions I keep wondering why listening to her drives me right to her heart ... Notwithstanding her very personal reading of the score can here and there sensibly differ from mine....

A kind of magic indeed.

Alas so little is available on CD.

[magaloff1]

Many thanks! I was born and raised in the Soviet Union, and have lived for many years in the USA. I can feel this music. There are too many things to describe. Those who disapprove of her art probably have lived sheltered and meaningless lives, and her drama and at the same time her glory is simply beyond their small dogmatic minds. They think in terms of "sonorities", "period instruments", etc... They pretend to be dead while still being alive...

[Renshen1957]

@magaloff1 I don't see anything wrong her performance, it is after all a Liszt Piano transcription of an Organ work by Bach. It would have the appropriate sonorities (Piano) and is almost period instrument, the Piano of Liszt time isn't that removed from our own. Yudina is following the spirit of the score. I don't disapprove of her artistry even though I have lived a sheltered and meaningless life.

PS I am an Organist, Pianist, and Harpsichordist.

[13anjowizard]

@Renshen1957 this piece is alot more awesome on the organ.

[Renshen1957]

@13anjowizard As an Organist myself, I agree with you completely. Liszt did popularize Bach's Organ works through his performance of these transcriptions, at the time piano was considerably more popular, and started a trend of transcribing Organ works which continued way into the 20th century.

[aceoq9s]

@magaloff1 May I paraphrase, "They are dead while pretending to be alive".

Yudina has no equals. She was sent to us from heaven.

[kovacevickg]

it is clear that just warm russian, orthodox christian spirit can interpret Bach's music in Yudina's way, this is why her interpretation is much unclear to all western souls, addicted to emptyness in their "scholar" souls...This is why they do not understand Bach and those who tryed to bring his passion, divinity and solemnity in the way Yudina and Richter did.

[AndreiKrakovsky]

Leopold Stokowski used to say that people forget that Bach was a hot-blooded man. Yudina did not forget!! This is hot-blooded Bach! I love it!

[Scalatti]

I liked this, in a perverse way. I see how she can offend "refined" or "anglosaxon" ears. But she is a unique musical force, a personality. I don't agree with some of her choices but I think she was trying to evoke the sonorities and overtones of the harpsichord, more or less successfully. Did Gould or Tureck record this? Don't deny yourself this piece and its sister fantasie by Youra Guller (uploaded here on YouTube).

[truecrypt]

Yes, I understand - really tough life...

I still think you are the first professional music critic who called Yudina's playing "unlistenable".

[BachScholar]

vysehrad: It's nice to meet someone else who shares my views on Yudina. I think her Goldberg Variations are awful (you can read my comments on some of them, if they are still there). You say it well with terms like "heavy-handed" and "clumsy". I think though, that this Bach-Liszt is considerably better than her Goldbergs. I actually kind of like this performance, but I totally understand your views.

[parazsdavid]

I respect your views but mine are the totally opposite. It seems everything is relative. Just curious: what pianists do you prefer?

[allegrissimo]

Anyone who puts Solomon and Fazil Say on the same level is not to be taken seriously at all.

[truecrypt]

You were confusing political views and politics with personal musical abilities. More - you make a very naive and wrong assumptions that if Stalin liked something it should be really bad. There is actually nothing to argue about...

[truecrypt]

I dont find your comments and our exchange very productive.

Your logic (at least what you demonstrated in your first comment) is simply wrong.

This is 5 y.o. way of thinkng:

Stalin was bad = Stalin had a tin ear

Stalin liked Yudina = Yudina is a bad pianist.

You are touching very complicated matters and Im not sure you are ready to do so.

Calling yourself pianist and music critic doesnt add much to your arguments.

[truecrypt]

I don't find any consistency in your observations. Personally I was shocked by your comment and took it as an insult to Yudina's memory (I don't care about Stalin in this case). If you find this performance "unlistenable", one could easily have some doubts about your professionalism.

[filokmar]

He didn't understand anything in classical music.

[truecrypt]

Your previous comment implied that Stalin had "tin ear" (i.e. no musical abilities, poor taste)and Yudina's playing is "consistent" with Stalin's taste (i.e. her playing is bad too).

Stalin's "political interventions" in musical life are well known. Yet, you make a great mistake comparing political persecutions with personal musical abilities. As for Yudina's performance, you are completely off target.

[truecrypt]

I'm afraid you are neither a pianist nor music critic...

[truecrypt]

FYI - whatever monster Stalin was, he had pretty good taste in classical music and could appreciate great performances.

You also might find interesting that practically all Georgians (and Stalin was a Georgian) have exceptionally good musical abilities. Little research on Georgian polyphony may enlighten you regarding Stalin's "tin ear".

[rubestuh]

@vysehrad Sviatoslav Richter revered Yudina. Stalin himself once burst into tears hearing a performance by Yudina of a Mozart Piano Concerto. You may not have known that Stalin, as a teenager, wrote poetry that entered anthologies long before he was elevated in the Communist Party. Stalin was a brutal man and one of history's monsters, but he was not without fine taste and esthetic perception.

[vysehrad]

@rubestuh I erred in conflating comments about Stalin with my opinion of Yudina's playing.

[paulostroff99]

Strataspheric! Brava! TY.

[pianistmusic]

Genius. No other words describe this mindblowing performance.What a thrilling performance.....something from a different spirutual depth and herculean intellectual texture.

[jsbach12345]

great!!!!!!!!

[Noshirm]

I've now listened to the Grainger and to the Solomon recordings of this piece. Both are very fine and have many points of interest, but I find Yudina's version rather raw and compelling. There is a 'raggedy' quality to her playing here, perhaps - she can sound quite 'strident', too. But she wrenches at my insides so! I must atone for this outburst of ungentlemanly passion by listening to some more Solomon now...Erwin! Or maybe some Kempff in Schubert?! (;-D) Mea culpa!

[suzettegm]

Yes, i agree with Noshirm, it's riveting.

[Noshirm]

The organ has its place, as do the harpischord, clavichord, and fortepiano. The piano transcription of this piece is indeed thrilling; the original work on a magnificent pipe organ must be no less magnificent. Yudina was a fascinating and eccentric personality. This performance is riveting. Also beautiful is Horszowski's.

[pianopera]

I don't know the Horszowski -- maybe you could post it?

I responded with Solomon's recording of it, which is more introvert and less rough, but very beautifully played.

[Noshirm]

Greetings! I am afraid I cannot post it, because I do not own a recording of it myself. I had heard it on a CD in Oregon some years. He was at least 90 when it was recorded live. I adore this man's work. And I will check out the Solomon soon. Many thanks.

[stmaurmusic]

Absolutely thrilling! Thank you so much. Who needs an organ when you can make a grand piano sound so grand. The ending is positively cosmic!

[Eurofer]

"Who needs an organ?" Do you sat that really?? I hope not. Certainly, this piano version is amazing, but I think that the original version is better.

Best regards.