Pollini Liszt Transcendental Etude X

A very recent concert of Pollini who is playing an unusual piece for him!!!!
It is very interesting to compare with the same study played by Boris Berezovsky

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Pollini
• Liszt
• pianoMaurizio

[demosj]

He launches into each phrase immediately after the previous one ends. There's not a single moment where the music breathes comfortably, and he finally lost control at the coda.

Granted, this is a Liszt showstopper, but somehow there's more excitement when there's a modicum restraint. Pollini usually understands this. I'm very surprised to see this kind of playing from him.

[meredith21846]

Not impressed I'm afraid, he's basically saying metaphorically- 'look how fast and loud I can play!'. Textures are muddy, tone raw and clangerous, tempo rushed to the point of not allowing the music to breathe.

For an artist of Pollinis reputation this performance does him little credit.

[istvan283]

Brilliant! Pollini brings out clearly the connection between Liszt and Debussy.

[abmsghost1]

@onlymusiciansallowed Ladies and Gentlemen..Please welcome..MARCEL MOMBEEK...THE PSYCHOPATH IS BACK!!!THIS TIME UNDER THE NICKNAME "ONLYMUSICIANSALLOWED".MM canceled his account because to many people  spoke out against his horrible and denigrating comments about these 2 pianists.A 47 Year old man hopping from one pollini/richter forum to another pollini/richter forum leaving no chance alone to vomit on these two giants of the piano.BTW its "to cook"and not "to cooke".:)

[onlymusiciansallowed]

one of the 6 times he tried to be creative, the other 5 times was when he tried to cooke something for dinner...

[chairrest35]

I agree this a bit rushed and certainly not Pollini at his best but I don't hear him losing control at the end. A couple of wrong notes doesn't equal a loss of control. Also, Pollini may play too fast and harshly sometimes but he is no show-off!

[utubuser10]

@MashnestMojo ya think?

[MashnestMojo]

Even for YouTube, what I have read here is taking nonsense to new levels.

What each and every person's review does is say something about THEM, and nothing at all about Pollini's interpretation. We can't even know whether we're all hearing the same thing. The human brain - never mind human auditory apparatus - is infinitely complex and variable.

This is art, the realm of the totally subjective. So any opinion (rather than FACT) about this subjective performance is necessarily subjective.

[abmsghost1]

@geertdehoux I dont know he read books about them but he did win the Chopin competition for your information.Given the thundering applaus there must be a zillion people that know nothing about piano/music.Thank God we have people like you and MM to enlighten us on how to enjoy and correctly appreciate music.After all..what would the piano world be without the Leo and Martin duo to guide us.

[mebbio]

I do like a lot Pollini's analytic rendition of Beethoven. He is a genius. But I find this Liszt unbearable. The result is just chaos, and metallic, horrible sound. It seems that Pollini wants to prove that his technique is better than Kissin's, or Valentina Lisitsa's, or Yuja Wang's, or MA Hamelin's. Actually (sorry for the very rude comment, but it is what I think) he is just ridiculous. I guess nobody asks from him for such hammering fingering on the piano. Just my opinion.

[5hellmat]

Une superbe version de cette étude ! Pollini a un talent extraordinaire, même là où on ne l'attend pas forcément.

[forgottenbooks]

Liszt's transcendental etudes are the best. I love Pollini's fieriness.