Bartok: Piano Sonata

[msweeden100]

Wonderful playing!

[clarktowne]

Lovely. I too like the tempo - you can hear the harmonic nuances.

[daniel15671]

I agree with many of the comments given here. This works really gains from being taken down a few notches in tempo. Actually I feel that way about most of Bartok's works for piano. In general, most composers metronome markings are to be taken with several grains of salt.

[permacultureli]

I think this is the most sensitive and clear performance of the piece I've heard. excellent melodic tone always, textures, color...you are a great pianist.

[spamespame]

@permacultureli

Then listen to Zoltan KOCSIS's performance (which is not available on youtube at this moment because it has been deleted...)

[permacultureli]

@permacultureli well...this is pretty definitive as far as playing goes...excellent..great tempo...rich...controlled, natural....

(I played it when i was 18-19 at Oberlin...).  Let me know if the recording you mention gets uploaded. thanks

[chexg]

The recording quality was awful, but despite that I actually really loved this rendition! I usually just not want to listen to videos with bad quality, but this one caught hold of my ear somehow. great job.

[bertiethetoupee4]

Fantastic! Simply brilliant playing. You really brought the music to life!

[fredericfranc]

After listening to this, listen to what Lang Lang does with this, and what do you figure? You learned something about Lang Lang, and maybe even Bartok. What do you think Bartok would have thought of Lang Lang's playing?

[ThatRachGirl]

Where's the rest of it? :(

[Pianoloverbwv1008]

Very funny!!!!!!!

[seanmcmills]

This is by far my favorite interpretation of this movement I've yet seen. Also my favorite performance.

[Kitsua]

I honestly think that's the best performance I've yet seen of that piece. It made me hear it in a whole new light. Such rhythm and clarity! Such life and confidence!

Great performance, well done indeed.

[13243546abcdef]

I completely agree with you. There are many interpretations of this that I've come across here, but she just begins with such stability and confidence. Carries really well and highlights the dissonances beautifully.

[peidaer]

Wunderbar!

[sharknosediesel]

Eliane, this is terrific. I have always loved Bartok and this piece, but I've never heard it played like this. Brava!

[frogbuster20]

what a twisted narration. No beauty but disturbing and the listener is swept by the nevrotic esthetics of the collapsing sound (specialy at the end). The grotesque is what the 20th century is all about and Bartok nailed it!

[RaVe4EvR122]

@frogbuster20 Im glad you understand what this piece is all about =D

[Toccata123]

Wow, I did not enjoy this piece at all when I heard other interpretations until I heard this one! It's still amazes me how people can play the same piece so differently!

[mrbrianmccarthy]

Nice job eliane--Bartok isnt easy,ever!And you made a very dissonant piece come across well.Great dynamics. ANd you brought out the melody. I also liked that you DIDNT try to show HOW FAST you could play,like so many classical pianists do---Music isnt a contest,its communication.and you understand that!

[bcbdaggtrf75]

she's got the right tempo! other performers, including Kocsis, play this movement slightly too fast, only at this tempo can one enjoy the 'folkness' of the dance elements. You can't dance if it's too fast, can you??

[Messiaen28]

J'aime le caractere qu'elle donne a ce morceau,c'est ma version préférer

[KIRASUNISUTI]

この曲はもっと重々しく弾いたほうがいいと思います。

特にクラスターの多い曲とかはそうしたほうがいいんじゃないでし­ょうかね？

[dlipatti]

A true musician, she shows the dance elements in this notoriously difficult piece!

[konzolmester]

pathetic...But she tries.

[pianolitguy]

you're pathetic asshole

[ziziva]

i disagree- and i think Kocsis Zoltan's performance is flaccid compared to Ms. Lust's. The imbedded folktunes are well outlined, but more than that- she has greater power. Just listen to how mushy the beginning of the piece is when Zoltan plays it. You should pay closer attention.

[dlipatti]

Stunning - someone who makes music out of this - absolutely riveting!

[r88robert]

Fantastic!! Go Eliane Go!!!

[allarmunumralla]

I agree, she basically blows everyone out of the water. Can we hear what you can do with Scriabin 5?

[davis1337]

If Kocsis and Lust would make a baby, it would play the best version of this song.

[dinosaur521]

BEST VERSION EVER!!! Bartok would be proud!!! I bet he wanted this piece to sound like this!!!

[WNM52]

Ms. Lust was a passenger in my San Francisco taxicab today. Told me to check her out on youtube. Bravo, Eliane! (I also liked her Chopin nocturne.)

[ProkofievFanatic]

I like how she playes 3:00 - 3:10

[ProkofievFanatic]

I actually like this interpretation a lot better for some reason. But at the same time Kocsis kind of captures the time period. I guess I like bouncy music ^_^

[ProkofievFanatic]

Or bouncy players in that sense...

[konzolmester]

Shes playing it in stacato how nasty....no one can play it better than Kocsis Zoltán

[Kalen1457]

Why dont I like her?

[ziziva]

Hi Kalen- The reason I think hers is better than Kocsis is because Kocsis mushes those low notes as if they were unimportant. She bangs them the way Bartok wanted. She is more expressive- Kocsis's interpretation is sissy. Who cares about the video quality?

[Kalen1457]

I hear many mistakes in this interpetation. Kocsis is literally flawless. To be quite honest, it all comes down to opinion. if we actually heard Bartok play it then, other people who play it would have to play it the exact way Bartok did. Since I dont think we have a recording of this piece by him, then we have to be the judge of what sounds right. You know what I mean?

[paolohudson]

even at that, what is right anyway? it's all relative. and with this and all music, it's hard to be "right" (whatever that means).

[ziziva]

I hear you, man. Funny though- some of the interpretations of pieces aren't even as good when the actual composer plays them. Ever noticed that? -But I agree... it's all opinion. I like the way that crazy short-hair chick is banging those low notes. Kocsis seems too full of himself to me. - with his big tux and crazy hair.

[ziziva]

Hey again- I went through the score- she didn't make mistakes- those are slurs- they are there to give the music a more natural feel. Bartok wrote them in.

[ProkofievFanatic]

I've been playing this and I actually find some of her interpretation to be more by the music. But on that note, isn't it hard to judge a song based on interpretation. I mean technically someone touch exactly the "fearful" emotion that some people talk about, but then again a person with a mor "robot factory" idea of the piece would think of that interpretation as morbid. just some food for thought?

[konzolmester]

The only pianist who plays Bartok the most similar and the way bartok wanted to be played is Kocsis Zolán. Even hes personality is like bartoks,No respect before music ..music comes after him. Dont listen to trash,in time You'l hawe a sence of quality.

[ziziva]

whatever dude, Kocsis is a sissy- you just think Eliane Lust's interpretation is "nasty" because of her last name. ;-)

[konzolmester]

Holy Shit Now I see it too "Lust" LOL XDXD

[Kalen1457]

Look at Kocsis's interpertation, trust me its alot better! Plus the video qaulity is better.

[ziziva]

This is the best interpretation of this piece I have encountered.

[Summelduple]

This isn't like Sorabji at all!? I'm biased as I've been brought up on Kocsis, but this would be good if it was better quality. In my opinion it's ever so slightly behind tempo.

[ziziva]

Like Scott Joplin said- "Ragtime should never be played fast- it's always wrong to play it fast." She's digging in- it's the best version on the net.

[tigrankalevian]

bravo. Impresionante interpretación

[Kalen1457]

This is a bad quality video

[GreetingsAmerica]

bartok almost always begins with low acords.

[xiphoid13]

like sorabji better but this is okay.

[Glissan]

Solo quello pero'..LOL

[Glissan]

Ottima tenuta dei tempi! Very good ;-P

[jannokas85]

I wondered what music is most suitable for her fiery technique...and here's the answer!

[jannokas85]

Shame about the video quality...:(

[simonandtheghost]

Bartok was a visionary. a genius

[sanjosemike]

Brava!! An actual musical portrayal of a piece that requires pounding. If I were to practice this piece, my wife would divorce me!

sanjosemike

[Solivago]

BRAVA not BRAVO she's a woman so BRAVA AND NOT BRAVO. It's italian and, thanks to god, we have name gender in our tongue!

[PhilippeL]

Bravo Eliane! You rock, man! There is a noble Hip-Hop quality to this music when played by this great artist. In comparison (see ibidem), I think Kocsis does not serve that music well, although he is self-proclaimed as THE Bartok specialist. He is unable to sustain the steady pace this music requires and struggles badly to restitute complex rythms while failing to bring out crucial voices. In addition, all that becomes murky as there is way too much pedal in Kocsis' playing. Eliane Lust rules!

[skotoseme]

this is fantastic. i love she realizes some of bartok's more irregular rhythms (meters?) jaggedly and vividly...some pianists might "instinctively" smooth them over a bit more, but it works so well for this music.

[FinaleFantasy]

Cool.

[incrediblub]

This rendition is less rythmic and more musical. I think I like it played this way.

[Hindemth]

This might be better performed  than Argerich

But I've never heard of her.

[Johnnynoir333]

BELA BARTOK

A Composer with BRASS BALLS!  the best!!!

[musicguy111]

Magnificent playing

[musicguy111]

Incredible.

[Pipepiano]

magistral interpretacion..tal vez no tiene la fuerza de Kocsis, pero ¿quien dijo que exsite una sola forma de hacer nusica?. GREAT

[hmt144]

Yes, I've read your comments on Kocsis too. You have the arrogance to claim to know what Bartok intended yet you don't seem to notice when there are major mis-counts on the first page. Actually I quite like this performance too

[pianoguy111]

Wonderful playing! (Why all the discussion?) This does it for me, a marvelous musician at work here, and she makes it look so damn easy, a real feat.

[hmt144]

Anyway there is one greater authority than Sebok. I refer of course to Bartok himself. Presumably you know his recordings? Do you in all seriousness think Kocsis doesn't?

[florencebercut]

I watched the great Hungarian pianist Gyorgy Sebok both perform and teach this Sonata movement over 20 times - with an incredible dance sense, and yes, the rhythmic freedom that very few pianists bring to this or many Bartok works - To play this work with real musicality takes real technique and musical refinement. No one but Sebok, to me, has the last word on Bartok performance techniques which are often misunderstood only dissonant and muscular displays.

[croakden]

Needs to count a bit better, generally check the text and give it a technical overhaul though! Still, agree basically.

[florencebercut]

Amazing playing - anyone who knows this Sonata is impressed by how she does it! All music, no banging or crashing, just dance, playfulness, amazing playing, the music is first!

[richterfreak]

For more than a second I thought I was listening to ragtime. This is un-Hungarian and sedate, not to mention rhythmically inaccurate. Funny that you should be critical of Kocsis, who nails all the difficult cross-rhythms as if possessed. As they say, to each his/her own.

[Norbeone]

very good, but not vicious enough. Bartok the Barbarian might laugh at her lol.

[xgianpatrick]

It's stunning playing. Why is Bartok a Barbarian? Because he's Hungarian? Because he wrote a piece called "Allegro Barbaro", which, by the way, he himself was not particularly fond of? Listen to the 44 Duos for Two Violins...or the Improvisations. Also, he was apparently not one to laugh too terribly much at anyone, particularly not at other people. Read "The Naked Face of Genius."

[benjaminux]

I think he meant that Bartok had done something unusual when he compounder music. Somethin never heard before, so yes, we might call him a barbarian (norbeone wasn't saying that bartok made bad music, just that the interpretation didn't match with bartok's essence).

Hope i've made myself understood, cause i don't know the right words for everything (i'm just french, you know)

[sextetband]

Yeah, I think it might be some sort of cultural misunderstanding, in argentina barbaro is positive slang, It has a much more negative context in english I think.

[benjaminux]

actually, in france it usually is negative. But basically, it is used to talk about people who don't talk your language (during the roman empire, it was about people which didn't speak latine)

[sextetband]

I think in english it might imply a little more primativism. It's pretty far removed from it's origin in english and often implies just rough ignorant brutality. The word doesn't technically mean anything different but the cultural value attached to it seems slightly more negative in english.