Alfred Cortot - IMPROMPTU 1 (CHOPIN)

[rubestuh]

One of the most extraordinary Chopin performances I've ever heard. Cortot is truly unique ... almost eccentric. But when it works, there's no one to match him.

So much life in this performance.

[manymanero]

@rubestuh

eccentric? he plays like people did back in the 19th century. We are eccentric and extremely boring today , just a lot of notes... lol

[KapustinIsGOd]

This is so spiritful, so slender and yet so deep, so meaningful ! A Marvel.

[bosseed]

cortot look likes louis jouvet!!

[puccinifan]

Divine. Chopin's sensual dream is only captured by Cortot.

[paevo2010]

Wonderful phrasing, too often neglected (though absolutely essential) in this piece.

[lupessa]

YES!!!

[MrDesperateArtist]

OMG!

Now I KNOW CHOPIN!

[juanluengo]

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!5*****

[flarbton]

great, but people focus too much on the player, not the genius of Chopin the writer. Why not feature pics of Chopin instead?

[manymanero]

you hear Chopin as he should be played. That's enough

[issakerrna]

@ 1'05. That's Cortot, Faure, and who were the two other men?

[manymanero]

that was the great Trio:

Cortot, Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals

[issakerrna]

Thanks!

[AllaBreve3]

CORTOT was a student of Émile DESCOMBES, himself CHOPIN's student.

[Katamanteuomos]

Dobre rubato. Nic poza tym.

[Jamesgs007]

Amazing performance.

Thanks a lot for posting this video.

[hymntonight]

Cortot at his best. Most interpreters treat this piece as a pastoral bagatelle, which is fine - but Cortot turns it into a breathtaking epic.

[jewgienij131]

But is this pastoral bagatelle for me, not epic piece.

[petrof4056]

c'est absolument parfait! Son rubato est unique au monde!

[joanabanyeres]

Magnifique.

Envoyé a mes amis pianistes.

[alexongcs]

Hi! May I know which year this was recorded? This is just simply superb!!! Amazing!

[manymanero]

only for making a stupid question

[Shaghayegh11]

love it. the middle section is wonderfully interpreted

[GBV1961]

Grande Artista.....vero interprete.....

[paulostroff99]

One of the greatest Chopin players in one of his best Chopin performances. Bravo! TY.

[MACONOBECHIMAPLECLUB]

art is the most expensive thing in the world.

that is it

[libetta]

his sound is totally different, i was surprised that no pianist has this quality of tone that he produces.

[aewanko300]

Each pianist has their own distinct tone. Not today anymore.

[chad410]

Cortot liked a singing sound always and he was a poet of the piano. never dull and mechanical

[francescaemc2]

Bravo Maestro Cortot. Bravo Frederick.

Thanks for posting

[spiramus]

Cortot gives real meaning to the word INTERPRETATION...How flowing...musical...surprising­...fusing so many emotions ...colors of expession....I bless my stars for having been instructed by a great greek graduate student of his Eve Pana...Respect to one of the very greats!!!

[ArbiterElegantium]

C'est magnifique...

Je ne sais souvent pas quoi ajouter lorsque tout est parfait,l'émotion sublime,le toucher d'une sensibilité qui vous transporte...

Alors merci!à Cortot...et à Chopin!

[Ankhsnammon]

Et je trouve vous ici.N'est pas magnifique aussi?

Nina

[galapz]

There is no words to describe this interpretation. The most fascination about Cortot is unique flawless time. I am afraid that generation of pianist today can not even comprehend it. The secret is the most natural way of expressing.

[nietzschemasterclass]

Can you imagine a human being composing the etudes at the age of 20 years old? While most of young people around the world at that age in these days are just getting drunk, doing drugs, or playing nintendo all the time?

Chopin was such a great composer, a genious out of this world and should be a clear influence for this generation who is lost just in vanities.

[manymanero]

and two of the greatest piano concertos ever written...

[aawhiterabbit]

Unfortunately, feel-good times and time wasters transcend only these days... but your comment is perhaps a much needed reminder to constantly search ourselves for something much deeper and more profound. There will always be people whose lives both Chopin and Cortot touch, and through this way, genius will live forever - ageless, timeless, and limitless.

[xujia1001]

I agree with you. Whatever the time is, at some time in our life, we will always need to search for something deeper, eternal, in our own soul.

[FuFu4ever]

you cant compare him to us.

life time was shorter at his time and today we are pressed into an already planed system of life (roughly: school, highschool, job).

ofc he was a genius, but you really cant compare the situations. today we have so many opportunities in life that most of us dont wanna spend their whole life for just one thing (in this case music)

[daughtersprince]

Delacroix, famous painter and friend of Chopin wrote:"I approached the big house of George Sand in Nohant.  One could hear Chopin's improvisations and at the same time the singing of a nightinggale."

Chopin wrote lots of masterpieces here, even the Polonaise op. 53 and the impromptus. The chateau and environment of Nohant are deeply romantic. Maybe it was the only place were Chopin felt such a lot of warmth, humour and freedom.

Gerben Wouda

[Amatherasu1789]

Youre right!

Nohant was a authentic refugee for many romantic artists, like a culture centre!

[PhillipLWilcher]

That's a sweet thing to say, thank you! Happy Holidays to you too - and let's hope the spirits of these wonderful musicians continue to reign supreme in our lives and lend their beauty to the world. Truth and beauty - they complement each other well. Such blessings.....Phillip Wilcher

[PhillipLWilcher]

You are welcome! There are so many wonderful things in the world to take into one's heart and hold close and it's thanks to artists like Cortot we can do this. Cortot playing Chopin's Preludes - incredible! Blessings and endless beauty your way...

[stan724]

I've always imagined that hearing Cortot's playing is as close as we will ever get in this life to hearing what Chopin sounded like. Especially the Sonata Op. 58. I think he recorded the preludes three times; I like the 1933 version best. Thanks manymanero.

[PhillipLWilcher]

I adore this Impromptu - Chopin's flights of fancy and the sheer beauty of his sound. And then added to it all is Cortot's own passion and poetry and beauty of sound. They were meant for each other.One of my most cherished possessions is a 16 page essay on the music of Cesar Franck written in Cortot's hand! Wonderful things.....

Phillip Wilcher

[mlleprufrock]

Wow, I'd love to read his thoughts on Franck's music. His recordings of Franck are among my favorites.

[ibclappin]

the occasional wrong keys happen because this is very risky playing. he's not afraid to perform to the limits of his physical ability and that's true art.

[haioforler]

Very good. And sometimes better (though not technically) than all the todays asians swarming here around, who reminds me more circus artists than pianists.

[donthuis]

For Lang Lang I heartily agree, he is just a clown with a virtuoso piano technique he's not using in the right way. But for me Yundi Li is quite different and sometimes even very close to Cortot's heritage. I still hesitate on who provided the best Chopin Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise...

[donthuis]

I agree when speaking of Lang Lang, he's more a circus artist who happens to posses pianistic powers, but loses out on expression. But do try Yundi Li, I find him very close to Cortot in Chopin's Andante Spionata and Grande Polonaise. And there's an upcoming Taiwanese girl of 13 years old, Chang Chin San: very promising already....

[PhillipLWilcher]

But you know - even when Cortot played the odd wrong note or two or when his technique faltered, the sound was still there and that's the thing : his sound was like no other - rich and penetrating. Such sonority! Even his wrong notes were beautiful! More than any of this, it was the ineveitability of what he did. Wonderful - really wonderful!

[AndreFrancois22]

I appreciate that comment. i think that since the age of doctered recordings, many have become schizophrenic in their aversion to the occasional false note.

[snaaptaker]

This is as good as it gets.

Mille de merci.

[snaaptaker]

This is as good as it gets. Mille de merci.

[acortot]

there is no other pianist who made chopin sound like chopin on the modern piano.

[lhiram23]

le phrasé est incroyable. chaque note a un poids précis qui s'inscrit dans l'élan de la phrase musicale, lui donnant tout son sens poétique. et tout ça avec naturel ... on ne joue plus du piano comme ça de nos jours..(sauf Pogorelich, à mon sens) à regret. mais qui sait? ca reviendra peut-être? d'une autre manière..

[rhadamanthes82]

entieremen d'accord

Cortot est le numéro 1 de la poésie au piano

[Kuisert]

Thanks for the Music Mr Cortot !

What a beautiful sound and interpretation...

much more than playing notes.

Cortot really captures the spirit of Chopin.

Much better than the best you can hear today...