Maria Yudina plays Schubert Impromptu As-dur Op. 142 No. 2

[bach5861]

punctire is too sharp. Middle part is too fast.

[paulostroff99]

TY T,C.for posting and gullivior for sharing.

[etiam161036]

Merci!

[rubestuh]

For me, this is one of Yudina's least successful performances.

Yes, it has her power and originality ... but she's really at odds with appropriate Schubert 'style.'

Of course, one can play appropriately in many styles. But sometimes an interpretation runs so counter to the natural grain of the music that one has to rebel.

The style here would better suit Beethoven.

This reminds me of Glenn Gould's Chopin ... just not what the composer, or most listeners, would want to hear.

Arbitrary, I know.

[goodguysdoll]

oh did the piece write itself? don't you think you could have mentioned Schubert in your video title or info section?

[tzjc24]

I like many of Yudina's interpretations, but I don't like this one. I much prefer the way Schiff plays it, for example, in which in becomes a divinely flowing and gentle piece.Of course it's all purely subjective, and I'm glad to see some find beauty in this interpretation. But it's not for me. Such a wonderful piece by Schubert though! I don't think it's simplicity should be cause for it to be under-appreciated as a work - a beautiful work is a beautiful work regardless of the number of notes.

[NotAgain90]

Thanks for uploading this recording, it is so out of the ordinary that it makes some listeners long for the comforts of something they are more used to.

Do you have the Op. 90 Impromptus with Yudina? #1 of that set is my favorite in her rendition but the third is also very good... It would be great to add them to your fine channel.

[seriously111]

well...it's passionate alright. Still, i think the standard on youtube is the Andras Schiff version.

[NotAgain90]

@seriously111 too bad though, as it is such a boring recording...

[goslinga]

I am not sure whether the note values in this playing are quite as the composer wrote them... but when you play at this level you can pretty much do what you want and you probably have no interest in reading the newspaper columns of your critics. A truly great artist.

[Stavver1]

oh.............. wonderfull!!!!!!!

[happygolucky2000]

not good rhythm/timing at all. not a good performance. Quite a difference between her and Sofronitsky.

[enecee13]

I think that it's also this simplicity which makes it really a challenge to play Schubert, it's not just playing the notes but making them live, and the technical simpleness can easily seduce to just play the pieces without any sensibility. It's also very difficult to stay so gentle and quiet like in this piece but still make a world the listener can sink in. If anybody want's to play Schubert like this, i guess first of all he or she must develop a love to the nuances of piano.

[suzettegm]

Maria rocks!

[AndreiKrakovsky]

Today when pianists have been homogenized and pasteurized into a boring likeness of one another, Yudina stands as a true original, a unique artist whose interpretations give us daring insights into the depths of these works and into the depths of her soul as well!

[Ridicolosamente]

What an incredible performance!

[Eulenhexe]

Wonderful!!!! I like that piece very much!

But for me it sounds so sad...

[amadeuslu]

Does it have to been intended a happy piece?

;o)

[PortaProHPH]

This is definately the worst interpretation of this piece i ever heard. It's really so exaggerated i can hardly listen to it. the record sucks too

[truecrypt]

Well... often the first reaction to something new and unusual is fear and aggression. Your comment is a good example of it.

[tchebinai71]

J'aime aussi . Le début n'est pas exécuté de façon banale . Ensuite j'ai trouvé trop rapide,mais bon .

[amadeuslu]

Mon petit aimé, le plus préf.... est-ce qu'on sait jamais trouver le morceau à 100% parfait? Mh? ;o)

Nèanmois une très, très belle interprétation. Merci pour partager, ap-tt :o)

[antoinezygfryd]

Une autre version non conventionnelle s'entend sous les doigts de Rosalyn Tureck,mais peut-être certain parlerait-il à son propos de "licence américaine"??

Ici je ne parlerais ni de massacre ni de bouillie,mais d'énervement inquiet, qui tranche merveilleusement avec la tristesse du premier thème.Peu importe.

Dans cette pièce les versions habituelles m'ennuient singulièrement.

[antoinezygfryd]

voilà peut-être un sommet dans l'art de l'interprétation,--je l'ai joué des centaines de fois,cet impromptu, et jamais je ne l'ai entendu comme Yudina me le donne à entendre.

Gratitude et reconnaissance envers truecrypt.

[marcussalieri]

moi aussi mais je l adore par aldo cicolini

[ibclappin]

what happens is; a woman plays a piece better than anyone and people have trouble accepting it, like how it happened with Argarich so many times.

[ellandelachapelle]

I just meant that this Impromptu is a rather unsophisticated piece! (the B major sonata though is better suited for this grand dramatic playing.)

[truecrypt]

"rather unsophisticated..."

Sometimes I have a very strange feeling - someone would say a relatively correct thing and I still can't accept it...

[yMew88]

When a very young Barenboim played in Moscow in mid-60s, as encore he chose one of Schubert's Moment musicaux (the f-moll from D. 780) after having played Hammerklavier in 2nd half of the recital. On the way out of the Great Hall, I heard one lady telling very loudly to another lady that technically, this piece was not a very difficult one. She said: "my son in 5th grade of music school plays it just as fast". I think "ellandelachapelle" comment above is entirelly on the par with that!

[Mortimer123]

ellandelachapelle - you may not know this: in 1968, the then 86-year-old Wilhelm Backhaus had a stroke onstage (in the middle of Beethoven's op. 31 no. 3). He could still function, but he knew a catastrophe had occurred. He took a brief break, then played two pieces: first Schumann's "Warum?" and then this Schubert Impromptu. It was the last thing he ever played. He died two days later. Ask yourself: Why did this great man depart from his instrument, from music, from his life, with this piece?

[punkpoetry]

Or could it be that you fail to recognize Schubert's complexity? Must say I hate to see the greatest artists labeled with such offhand simplicity. Nothing could be less helpful or illuminating than attaching fixed characteristics to that which is by nature deceptive and amenable to differing approaches

[enecee13]

i think Schubert did write simple songs if you compare it to the later romantic works, but his songs were very well structured, they were also not innovative about the harmonic progression, but if you look exactly you can find so many tiny but very effective details which just confirm that Schubert was a great composer.

[ellandelachapelle]

Her Schubert B major sonata is wonderful though. She is my new IDOL! (I think she prefered pieces on a larger scale.)

[marcussalieri]

le passgae rapide est un vrai massacre de la bouillie russe

[ellandelachapelle]

Frankly, I think she didn´t quite understand Schubert´s simplicuty! (she dramatizes him.)(this kind of playing is of course perfect for Beethoven.) About Volkov: I think he stole my idea about the relationship between Stalin and Shostakovitch! (I wrote an article about "The King and his jester". And a year later his book about S. and S. appeared!)(well well we musicologists have to be generous. And inspire each other!)(I just wish he wouldn´t pretend I don´t exist...)

[truecrypt]

Why do you think Yudina didn't understand Schubert's "simplicity"? It's a bold statement and would be nice to hear any justification for such one.

[weikko79]

Quite simply beautiful.

[truecrypt]

Comrade Stalin loved Sofronitsky (used to take him to conferences)and later Richter. Despot had a good taste though...

[suzettegm]

Not so unusual. So had Hitler. Listened to a lot more than he let on...So sad.

[smithsherman]

Obviously they could empathize with their own feelings...but not the feelings of others.

[suzettegm]

Yep. Hitler seems a little sneakier though.

But otherwise...

[smithsherman]

Hitler preferred Hollywood Westerns and Busby Berkely's Gold-Diggers Review.I'll give the Edge to Stalin here.ALTHOUGH Hitler deserves a Star for contrasted Levity.

[suzettegm]

A man of wide tastes, but I was also referring to music he publicly reviled, like Russian composers and/or Jewish musicians as records were discovered last summer in the attic of a house outside Moscow owned by a former Soviet intelligence officer...

[smithsherman]

It's an amazing phenomenon how Hitler's stuff has become more sought after than holy relics.

Why do you think he captures our fancy so?

And what does this say about us?

[suzettegm]

Maybe we feel better about ourselves, when we are "stunned" about this discovery?

[smithsherman]

I think that we can't get over Hitler because

of the sheer ambition of his plans to redraw the humanscape fires our egos with admiring disbelief.

[suzettegm]

I think what occupies our minds (still) is the question whether it was all a big conspiracy from the start or something else, say of milder intention, that got horribly out of hand. Not so easy to get one's mind around it.

[smithsherman]

When someone has an state of mind,& when others can find reasons to make that state their own,then this becomes a phenomenon...

like a Tsunami.Who is Hitler?He's just a

poster boy for a phenomenon that included 10s of millions who found something very poignant in his state of mind.

[suzettegm]

Where does one find reasons to make such a state of mind one's own?

[smithsherman]

In 1's self...like the need to elevate 1's life & or distract 1's self from 1's life by indentification with national aspirations or a "Crusade"...just a few of the dangers of the ego unwittingly yearning to capture a heightened joy of self-esteem.

[smithsherman]

I'm sorry every musician doesn't play (OR EVEN TRY TO PLAY)with this kind of Expressive intent and focus.She carves empty Space like a Samurai.And she never fails to make an honest attempt to give each phrase it's own individual due. MOLTO BRAVISSIMO!!!!!!!!!

[smithsherman]

If this is Joseph Dzhughashvili's favorite musician...then this may be the 1st reason of which I can think,why he should be paroled from hell.The fact that he didn't let Beria execute her for her anti-communist insolence

is the 2nd reason.

[weikko79]

That sounds to my ears like a rumor dissipated by one Solomon Volkov.

[smithsherman]

Dear Weikko,I've never talked a Finn before...and you're point interests me.

Care to elaborate?Best Wishes,Smith

[weikko79]

Certainly. Volkov repeats in his "Testimony" the (probably apocryphical) anecdote about Yudina being Stalin's favorite performer.

[smithsherman]

Dear Weikko,I know nothing about the evidence,but the circumstantial points to...If she went around wearing a Cross and doing impertinent things like that during the time of Beria...and she didn't wind up in a Gulag...somebody high in the party must have liked her very much...eh?

[truecrypt]

The truth is - Stalin did like Yudina very much and respected her openly anti-stalinist and religious views. She sent several letters to him begging for his "mercy" upon persecuted artists. For anybody else but Yudina such actions would end up with disappearance forever... but Stalin somehow admired her courage!

[truecrypt]

Well known story when Stalin heard live broadcast of Yudina playing Mozart concerto. He liked it very much and called immediately to the radio station asking to send him a recording.

Nobody dared to say there was no recording... That night at 4 a.m. Yudina and full orchestra were recording under KGB supervision! ;) Early morning comrade Stalin had a brand new LP!

[paulostroff99]

smithsherman-And it was and could only be Uncle Joe!(Stalin)

[Indigoscence]

GO AWAY FROM BAROQUE MUSIC,MARJUANA SMOKER, MOTHERRAVISHER.MUCKING WACKO Dear Smithsherman. i AM SICK OF YOU.

[yMew88]

There is absolutely no reason for Koba to parolled from Hell. He started and ended his life a thug and a gangster. He made life and death hell for uncounted millions. Whether he liked Yudina and Sofronitsky, admired Bulgakov and recited Pushkin from memory (all documented, btw), does not make a smallest difference. A monster? a conflicted tragic figure? No, a tyrant, a murderer, a personification of EVIL (and yes, there are such things as good and evil) & should never be let out of hell.