Byron Janis plays Rachmaninov - Paganini Rhapsody (3/3)

[kakviogyrte]

S. Rachmaninov - 18 variation from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini...

[Hoosierfiddler]

I am researching how Byron plays now with his arthritis. He spoke and my sister heard him speak and play this week. She is a worker at the Atlanta Arthritis Headquarters. Does anyone know where I can find a video of his adaptive playing while he suffers from this horrid disease? He has made accommodations, according to her. We are discovering him together!

[drjaadmdlra]

what a interpretation by Janis....He shows Horowitz how far he went with his teachings ....the student excels the teacher or at least as good....

[berlinzerberus]

Great, Byron Janis loved Rachmaninoff like his famous teacher. In fact it was most fateful for him not to free himself from Vladimir Horowitz, he was always in his shadow, but i suppose that Horowitz was not really interested in a continuous career advancement, self-centred as he was!

[okbookguy]

My dad is a gifted wizard of the piano who plays Rachmaninov by ear. I grew up hearing the best musicians in the world and my Dad says Earl Wild #1, and Byron Janis #2. He was such a fan of Byron Janis that he named my brother "Byron" after him. Byron Janis came to our town in 1957 and played with our local orchestra. My dad went back stage after the concert to meet him and took my baby brother with him. Byron Janis held my brother Byron and later gave my dad one of his recordings.

[byronjanislover]

what petty criticisms! You should hear more of Janis' early recordings (on vinyl). Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Brahms. Shorts (piano only sans orchestra) ---stuff from the truly romantic period. He is amazing. His interpretations are the finest. Way better than Horowitz. or Richter or even Van Cliburn. Do your homework!! Listen to more than just U tube snatches..

[TJFNYC212]

@byronjanislover Janis had it all................. interpretations of the Rachmanivov concerti worth those of Horowiz, Argerich and Sergei himself.

[ssprokofiev]

The conductor appears to be Louis de Froment? Janis, an excellent pianist, turns in a fine performance but rushes the famous 18th variation.

[day7pettersens]

brilliant...some of the best cartoon accompaniment music I've ever heard

[AndreicaGabriel]

how can wrong at this piece when he was Horowitz student ..... imposible .... his teacher was and it is the gratest pianist of 20th century !

[misspeckpeck]

so many wrong notes...........

[modlicht]

No words...

no words...

nothing, nothing that could describe:

R A C H M A N I N O V.

ans grandios realization by the musicians!

W.T.

[raven797]

It so reminds me of the most wonderful person, my elder sister, who cared for us all through thick and thin..VIV, I love you!!

Duggie!

[playgued]

A wonderful performance, simply wonderful.

[Gozaburo1]

he is such an amazing player, I love his interpretations.

[refrmcetsryt]

Rachmaninov was the Michael Jordan of composers.

[dirigentkomponist]

@refrmcetsryt Or... Michael Jordan is the Rachmaninov of basketball stars?

[febsot]

This is a very pretty piece of Rachmaninov but Byron Janis does a lot of wrong notes. Earl Wild and Benno Moïsewitsch play it better. It's why BJ is not as acclaimed as Rubinstein or Richter: this pianist does a lot of mistakes!!!!!!!!!!!

[op83bdur]

There are live recordings of Richter and Horowitz with many more wrong notes than here. Janis's career suffered becasue of his illness (artritis) - that's the only reason. Pogorelich called his Rachmaninov 'best of the best', by the way. My advice: don't care about wrong notes only, it's very childish and immature ;-)

[Gozaburo1]

Yes, I agree. listen to some of Horowtiz's stuff, he was supposed to be the best in the world at a time, and maybe still now..and he made tonnes of mistakes.

[nbambi1990]

Its more about the feeling the music conveys than the technical accuracy, the only time you should worry about wrong notes is when it gets in the way of the message you are trying to convey with your music. A fantastic performance, i still think Pletnev's is more to my taste though. Plus, even the machine, Evgeny Kissin, makes the odd mistake.

[arturon111]

This performance is MUCH better than Pletnev's, both technically and musically

[saullouis]

Arthritis. Ouch. Terrible.

[darkone131]

Fucking comments! I love this piece! Good job

[nellieoneill]

love this

[peterlunow]

all this talk about"wrong notes".as if it fucking matters! Its not virtual reality ,its life ,real people ,real artists ,GOD it infuriates me , computernerds ,who dont know what music is about.Study your history,LISTEN ,LEARN and keep your goddamn comments to yourself !!!!!!!!!!

Great...:got that of my chest

[lmyshkin]

There was only one comment about wrong notes and a follow-up question, and neither of them were critical of the performance.

hey ,why do you put spaces in front of your commas ,like this ,your punctuation is hard to read for a computernerd like me ,from the VIRTUAL REALITY!!!!!!!!!

[hotdiva111]

lmao!

[peterlunow]

Imao.....whats that??????

[hotdiva111]

laugh my a** off

[peterlunow]

good! :-)

[Grigor99]

Janis wasn't the most accurate player, but had great style and flair and was certainly accurate enough.

[JPaulDiLucci]

brilliant

[horatiodreamt]

Rachmaninoff, in this piece, sounded more like a 20th-century tonally-strident composer than even Prokofiev or Shostakovich. What super piano & orchestral writing!

[viulu11]

That's because Janis hits quite a few wrong notes and the orchestra is pretty messy, for that matter.:)

[selfpraisepomp]

Hey, Viulu! Where are the mistakes (quite a few wrong notes)? He plays this quite well.

[nekidspaceman]

He plays it well but there are a few silly bum notes hit.

[peduzzi89]

bad break of videos - should have been a few seconds earlier

[jaywbe]

absolutely. was waiting for the tune, and it just cuts off, i click the next part, and the first note's missing... :(

[NOSEhow2LIV]

Marvellous feeling & romantism.His early recordings still influence me.Wonderful that this was filmed at a time when Rach was rather scorned in France;he brings the dry, stiff orchestra into his expressive world,almost against their nature and escapes disaster from the ghastly false entry of 1st vile-in!(var 16).What a fascinating document.Thanx.

[horatiodreamt]

Wonderful performance! Pianists like Janis, Horowitz, Lhevinne and Rachmaninoff all had such powerful octave technique...and it certainly gave them such tremendous digital dexterity.

[natjohnson2007]

It really doesn't get any better than this! Read the wonderful article about Janis in today's Wall Street Journal

[LgN945]

My most favorite piece!

[Malaka57]

Thanks for putting this on the tube!! Janis is such an extraordinary pianist. If I remember correctly, he did the Strauss Burlesque as well, a fabulous recording of that piece.

[martin2288]

beautiful and beautifully performed!

[Verityseo]

18th variation, most beautifully sung among the majority of recordings out there.  janis knew how to make piano sing

[ThePiano1991]

I love this piece! My favourite of Rachmaninoff and it was so well played here! You can tell this man was a pupil of Horowitz!

[assindiastignani]

Byron Janis' teacher was Adele Marcus. He had a some lessons with Horowitz.

[jaywbe]

you can have more than one teacher during your time of musical studies...

[assindiastignani]

No question whatsoever. You're absolutely right, one can and should have many musical influences in one's life and career, and Byron Janis did indeed coach with Vladimir Horowitz. However, his main teacher - from the time he was a child - was Adele Marcus. I mention it only because someone asked.

[psychspirit]

what a wonderful video! By far, I've never seen such an expressive pianist...until now. He was really speaking without words.

[gymnasticsgrl12]

Gives me goose bumps! Need I say more?

[sagalat]

Of course, it's puerile to compare The Greats, so much depending on our personal, subjective preference (I dare not use the word "taste"). I always prefer heavy slow ponderous unrelenting performances (Weissenberg's & Richter's Rach 2; Pogo's Brahms Intermezzi). Now to hear Pletnev!

[sagalat]

No one loves Janis more than I. But I'm disappointed in this famous variation. Somewhat matter-of-fact. His Rach 3, however, is the pinnacle

[DJhang99]

His Rach 3 is amazing...like Mozart concerto

[billyguns2]

Byron Janis is one of the greatest pianists of all time; all of his recordings are beyond sensational. He had a marvelous feeling for the music of Rachmaninoff; how wonderful to have this treasure! I hope it is kept forever on YouTube!

[chad410]

now this is a pianist I would pay to see.aren t many left I would....famous that is ;)