rubestuh's channel

He's so phenomenally musical. He had a great career going in the 1960s and 1970s, iirc, and then he seemed to fade. Unaccountable. He was so beautifully identified with Chopin's music, his tone was so beautiful, his taste was impeccable, and he always put his fine technique modestly in service of...

Dreadfully noisy, but it does give a sense of VH's luminous sound.

@muslit

Well, I'd like to give him that much ... but to each his own. I find stuff to admire but little to like, I've never bought a Rosen recording, for example. (I like what he says about music, however. Good musicologist.)

Yes, this was one of Richter's warhorses. I too find it hard to choose between them.

PianoForteAndrew, could you tell us the year of this performance. Is this from the 1959 album? I always like to know these things.

Stupendous playing ... a natural pianist, on the Lhevinne level.

As remarkable a man as he was a musician.

It's wonderful to see just the sheer joy he takes from playing.

@tuberobotto Actually, I think his interests were broader than many people realize. He played a lot of 20th century repertoire ... Hindemith, Schoenberg and Grieg, for example ... recorded several Beethoven sonatas and the five piano concertos, and even once turned in an (execrable) recording of ...

Younger in 1968? You and me too, Scott.

Beyond belief. Such wonderful rhythm and sense of style. Sometimes, for all his perfection, he leaves me a little cold, but here Michelangeli's just perfect.

The heart bleeds watching that.

Such dreadful sound that I can't listen.

Sometimes I would like a little more bite in his tone (only occasionally), but has there ever been a more musical pianist than Trifonov? Such deep and natural feeling and wonderful taste.

Harasiewicz convinces so completely when he plays Chopin. A curiously uncelebrated master. Really, there are only two or three pianists, imo, his equal in Chopin.

The voice sounds awfully dark for Caruso in 1909. But it's a great voice.

No one, but no one, could phrase like Schnabel.

Wow. He is as good as Lhevinne. Now I begin to understand the Friedman mystique.

Interesting, but I cannot get past my moment to moment sense that the playing is overwrought. I find the rubato spasmodic at points and the accents far too emphatic. I think more subtlety would actually be more powerful, imo.

@chadmaster410 I'm more in Rubinstein's corner than you are on that one, chadmaster. I think he had one of the great touches of the 20th century ... but to each his own. BTW, the hair spray just made his fingers less inclined to slip on the keys, a problem aggravated by his very thick fingers.

Very nice ... the phrasing, the tone, the technique, the brusque Brahmsian 'feel.'

@belialah Excellent, belialah. I appreciate it.

This is from 1971, when AR was 84. Some people claim that his energy lags in this performance, but to my ears, this movement at least is superbly played.

He's totally at one with the music, imo.

The Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy gives wonderful support.

I love the long line, the gentle rubato, and the felted tone.

Rubinstein's Brahms, imo, was every bit as good as his Chopin. When he played either composer, it was with total conviction. In the moment of listening, you feel he has found the way the music HAD to be.

An illusion, no doubt ... other...

Rubinstein used to say he liked meat on the bones of his Debussy. For me, there's a bit too much meat. I like something slightly more ethereal.

That said, the playing is marvelous.

@meredith218461 To each his own, but I cannot imagine calling this performance cold. Rubinstein somehow always took it from both sides -- accused from one corner of being emotionally overwrought, and from another of being emotionally sterile. This suggests to me he was doing something right.

@djangosteph

Gould did not consider Bernstein's remarks in any sense a put-down. In fact, in 1982, he said: "Soloists and conductors disagree all the time. Why should this be hidden from the public, especially if both parties still give their all?"

There are just a bit of rhythmic unsteadiness and some sudden rushings that I don't quite like, but I find these quite fine performances.

1995 was the year Cherkassky died. I find it wonderful that, in his mid-80s and only months from death, he could still play so well.

He was one of the most cha...

You are a courageous young man with wonderful integrity and, apparently, a wonderful father.

You are enhancing everyone's humanity through posting these videos, Randy.

I thank you and congratulate you.

Very best to you.

I think Rubinstein's mastery is evident here as in so many other composers. I don't think his Beethoven was as masterful as his Chopin, say, or his Schumann, but he still served the music well. The crispness of tone, the spontaneity, the long melodic line all do as much for Beethoven as for any o...

@gtimny Not to mention, Yiddish.

Rubinstein was born Artur Rubinstein but chose to use Arthur later in life. In fact, Arthur was the name he used on his two volumes of autobiography.

It was his agent, Sol Hurok, who insisted on using Artur for his concerts and recordings, feeling that audiences would find the Polish spelling att...