Alfred Cortot plays Chopin Sonata No. 2, Op. 35 (2/2)

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

what a GREAT idea play the bass at 4:10 one octave lower! that sounds like a heavy and dark bell calling from the reign of death

[MsSolonj]

With a voracious appetite for Beauty

I am most satisfied here ---> starting at 2:15

with Maestro Cortot.

[leo20789]

the video is freezes at 2:39 i dont know why

[leo20789]

funeral march is amazing, the best music ever

[mdr23]

Amazing. Vicious, I agree. OTT?

Picasso said "The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense." So it's not OTT, just amazing.

[ThePaczki]

Does anyone know the year of this wonderful recording?

[zhangensprachen]

Cortot had great taste. Good taste is hard to come by...

[cfwpiano]

Alfred... I don't care how people talk about you, you are one of the most original pianists ever.

I love how he drops the bass down an octave at the end, sounds so fucking sinister and bad ass!

[petrof4056]

The really best version of this sonata! Amazing!

[mf2101]

Who else hears Darth Vader here?!

[sealkingdaniel]

@mf2101

Lol, this could have been an influence for that Theme

[JimJimJimNL]

@mf2101

oh shit

youve ruined it for me

[TalonusX]

CLASSIC!!!!!!

[lovesGenet]

Horowitz had a mind and though he did spend some time with Cortot .I doubt that a Russian any Russians would give a. Rachm did not and it is infuriates me that anyone would think H . didn't have supreme confidence in his philosophy about Chopin. . Sokolov, many others I prefer but that's me and i lack much surely. Cortot is a different type of music making. There is wonderful sensitivity and dynamics ,and structure here but ...

[seremerow]

Cortot的演奏總是令我眼睛為之一亮!!

chopin sonata no.2在他手下...

音樂層次相當多變!!

不失為一介奇才。

[jcfs123]

In the Funeral March, Cortot's playing makes death come alive. A true poet.

[uhartchristian]

I know many interpretations of this sonata but this is the best one in style interpretation and technique. and the most virtuous one too.... I understand better now why Dinu Lipatti was so good in technique and musicalement also....

Cortot was a milestone in the history of piano teachers,

Eliane Richepin succeeded him.

[Overlapse1000]

Cortot and Hoffman had the better Chopin before Horowitz changed the standard of performance. unforgettable performances, "les deuces"

[Pischnaholic]

Comparisons are always odious. Horowitz was unique, but he never played this sonata quite THIS well. In fact it was obviously a great challenge to him.

Though few would acknowledge it, Cortot provided the foundation for many of Horowitz's Chopin performances. Cortot had, possibly, the most vivid and fertile imagination of any figure in the history of piano performance.

Novaes' recording of Opus 35 exceeds them all -- an absolute wonder.

[rwrsoares]

Muito boa interpretação embora o piano não ajude: Este nível de pianista deveria ser proibido tocar num instrumento tão ruim!

[Pischnaholic]

CORTOT gets more MUSIC out of this morbid masterpiece than anyone. His Presto with its unique spiked and spurred points of emphasis at odd, unpredictable intervals jars the nerves, then grabs and stabs at listener as as he gets whisked off and sucked down to hell in the dusky whirlwind.

There is something deliciously VICIOUS in Cortot's interpretation -- a quality I am certain Chopin fully intended.

[aardvaark069]

@Pischnaholic You are sooo right with your words. I would add 'remorseless' and 'relentless' too.

[morvensky]

Certainly very good. I think Rachmaninoff chooses the correct tempo for the funeral march. Cortot's is a good choice, better than most people who take it way to slowly (E.G. Nikolsky, Weissenberg). Sure it is lento but it is still a march.

[PavelAMamoushkin]

Лучшего исполнения я не слышал.

[hdfhjasdofibafa]

I disagree the third movement is like the soul of the person diseased traveling at the speed of light to eternal life or oblivion, and then end seals the finality of it.

[aardvaark069]

Anton Rubenstein once described the last movement as the night wind whipping through the gravestones. I think that's perfect.

[munkybrain]

this is really so well played i can't believe it. Cortot really causes me to dream, and i'm not just saying that, that's really the feeling

[ibclappin]

there is absolutely no way for me to describe what i just heard. oh this is the melody of life and death. this is the music that describes our lives. Cortot told us what Chopin wrote.

[chad410]

epic Chopin. passion and poetry in one. Thanks