Craig Ewens - Prokofiev Piano Concerto no 2 op 16 - Cadenza

[rgresham01]

Outstanding, right up there with best of this on youtube

[vortex481]

Wonderful gem. Thanks for sharing.

[ForeverIsis]

relly beatifuLLLLL

[superstition222]

Amazing. I broke out into a sweat and started crying. I do not do that.

I have a suggestion, though. Please re-upload this so the section where the orchestra comes in is not cut off. It's truly horrible to have the music end where it does.

I hope there is a CD of this available. The micing isn't ideal, but the performance is spectacular.

[AngelinaTaylor]

This is probably the first cadenza interpretation I've discovered that I actually liked!!!!!! Finally!

[dgaranin]

***** for this outstanding performance! Craig Ewens is one of my major discoveries on youtube. A real heavyweight, no wonder that the retarded music business evidently does not want him.

[TatTwamAsi]

I wish I could play like you ... than I wouldn't.

Wonderful music, but it is ment POETIC and not as a slaughter party (and THAT is the challenge!)

Sure, it is one of the most difficult pieces in the piano history; that is no excuse to encounter it as a speed and max volume contest.

Still I love it because it is my most wonderful music piece.

[zykonxt]

This cadenza is poetic, passionate, dark, brooding, fierce and virtuosic. It's not an early Chopin or Faure nocturne and shouldn't be played like one, half the score is marked ff or fff with markings of pesante, colossale, precipitato, con tutta forza. I didn't play it like a slaughter party but relished all the elements, prettiness not being one of them.

[ssprokofiev]

ON the basis of this spectacular performance I would say that Mr. Craig Ewens should be (and should have been) better known. His comments show that he understands the piece, and his playing shows that he can bring off in brilliant style everything he suggests in his comments. Bravo!

[AngelinaTaylor]

Are you kidding? This is the craziest, darkest, most haunting cadenza. It's not poetic at all, I don't think - still musical but poetic definitely does not describe it. The beginning of Chopin's 2nd ballade is poetic.. this isn't. It's such a heartbreaking, devastating cadenza - there was absolutely nothing wrong with this interpretation! If anything, it's one of the best.

[archiloquedenaxos]

I think you misunderstand the word poetic..in words it might mean something like...creating a juxtaposition of well known words that in their new relationship with each other evoke or evince a new meaning..that is what the poet does when s/he isn´t actually inventing new words...poetry is not prettiness nor romanicism nor elegance ..nada disto...it is invention of words in a new order...and this music is exactly that!.notes in a new order.evoking something completely beyond their old meanings.