3. Blind Man's Bluff - Schumann

The third piece from the Scenes from Childhood, a collection of 13 pieces written by Robert Schumann about an adult looking back on his childhood. Performed by Benjamin Shapiro.

German title: 'Hasche-Mann'

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• piano
• benjamin
• shapiro
• benjpianist
• robert
• schumann
• hasche-mann
• blind
• man's
• bluff
• scenes
• from
• childhood

[LoveleyVideos]

i think it should be slow down, cause nobody can concentrate on the music. Even in very fast pieces the audience must understand and "feel" the music. In you "interpretation" this is not possible.

Its very nice that you can play fast, but unfortunatly you play it TOO fast. I hear it and when its over I think "wrwrwrwwrwrooawr". :-)

You know driving a Porsche by 200 km/h is funny. But driving a Porsche by 300 km/h is exhausting. You cant see the landscape out of the window. You understand?

[benjpianist]

Hmm. I understand your view. I think maybe your problem with it is not quite that I played it too fast... but that i may have been able to make the message a bit clearer... You see, this tempo is what I feel conveys much of the mood, the mood of a chase and playfulness and the mood of the Blind Man's Bluff, and I feel like a slower tempo would not be quite as in character. In fact, I think this helps the audience understand the music through vision in this piece, emotion coming with the vision.

[LoveleyVideos]

no, sorry, i cant agree with this. even you play for a audience which is "trained" to listen to classical music, you dont make the song transparent to them. for example if you listen to other interepretations of this song (Argerich, Horowitz, Moiseiwitsch etc.) you will see that they play is fast but understandble. Of course there is not "the one and only" interpretation and i dont like players who imitate other pianists.

[benjpianist]

I said nothing about transparency-- What I'm trying to say is that I believe the audience understands this piece through vision, and that this tempo invokes the correct vision. Any slower, I think, would not produce a vision of Blind Man's Bluff. Understanding, is, obviously, what every performer is aiming for-- this is one of the ways I accomplish it with this piece.

[benjpianist]

also, you'll find many recordings of this in 30 seconds or less (most are 20 or 29 seconds) while mine is more like 34 seconds... I tried very hard to keep to Schumann's tempo.

[LoveleyVideos]

too fast, even for this (fast) piece. Especially the ending here is to abrupt.

[benjpianist]

I don't know... I happen to like this tempo, and it's fairly close to what Schumann specified. Why do you think it should be slowed down?

[xxxCalmstorm]

That's the perfect speed!! Great job.

[xxxCalmstorm]

That's the perfect speed!! Just a few mistakes otherwise it's great.

[backsowackso7]

It is too fast, the notes seem blurred.

[dogtransport]

Don't worry. It's not too fast.

[peterchopin22]

not a chord a tone please loud!!