Hofmann: Chopin Berceuse Op 57 (1918)

Berceuse in D-flat major Op.57
Fryderyk Chopin
Józef Hofmann, Piano

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Music

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• Józef
• Hofmann
• piano
• josef
• Chopin
• Berceuse

[virkur]

Comments should be disabled for this one: there are no words to describe it; it's simply....jaw-dropping and in a class far above all others.

[marcind1]

just genius (:

[Haioification]

A bit to mechanical

[W0lfman0]

@MISHA1119 Except that the piece was originally titled 'Variations Brilliante" by Chopin - it was his publisher that changed the title to "Berceuse".

[Noshirm]

It's difficult to suffer gladly the idiots who've hate-rated this magnificent performance. Perhaps they would have applauded it had it been twice as long? Hofmann had rules that only he could follow, and he was a genius. If Rachmaninoff stated that Hofmann was the greatest of them all, who are we to carp about this interpretation? Bravo, Hofmann!

[TheStatue1]

wish I could play at that amazingly fast tempo, but I like a much slower tempo for this particular work of musical art.

[2ndviolinist]

@virkur Have you listened to d'Albert or Paderewski for that matter?

[boxanova66]

I prefer Gieseking's touch better, softer sounds, flows better...

[MISHA1119]

Yes,Virkur, it's jaw-dropping, but you obviously don't know the piece well enough to realize that the lightning fast tempo seriously violates the sense of dreamy nocturnal fantasy and childlike serenity Chopin is trying to convey. The Berceuse is the wrong venue to demonstrate that you have one of the greatest mechanisms in pianistic history. Hofmann generally put that awesome technique into the service of high art, but this is not musical - it is simply bizarre.

[1fattyfatman]

@BreezyGraffiti Told to speed things up a bit to fit on record. 3 and a half minutes goal 4 minutes max

[HeifetzBeatsOistrakh]

I wonder if the recording mechanism could only allow 3 min and 20 sec. of music before it had to be flipped or changed... his usual phenomenal pulse and rubato seem less evident here...

[BreezyGraffiti]

Hofmann was one of the greatest pianists of his time obviously, but this is a travesty. Even if argued that he is playing at the Andante tempo of the ms., it's still way to fast. I cannot imagine the poet Chopin intending such beautiful melodies and variations to be tossed out with such speedy disregard. Hofmann makes it a technical display like as to an etude, when it is not that. Love Hofmann but Rubinstein/Ashkenazy were revelations on this piece. Hofmann is usually a consumate poet.