Joseph Villa plays Rachmaninov Sonata 2 live (mvt 1)

Great yet little known pianist Joseph Villa and his quite famous recording of Rachmaninoff's Sonata 2. Unfortunately the compressed Youtube sound does little credit to the crushing weight of this reading, so to improve the sound please add the following text to the end of the video link above: &fmt=18

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Joseph
• Villa
• Rachmaninov
• Rachmaninoff
• Sonata
• Сергей
• Рахманинов
• piano
• genius
• recital
• classical

[lumbersandnetters]

what a great performace!

[tacitdynamite]

I like this more the more I listen to it. It's a very individual performance - it kind of reminds me of Michael Ponti's performance of the same piece ( though Ponti played the original version, not a hybrid ). Where did you get it? Did you see Villa play this? I couldn't find much information about Villa on the internet outside of his NYT obit.

[88alan8800]

how did he die? anyone know? 

[chiv78]

beginning was definitely very promising....then the harshness became annoying....

[chu71]

Isbrother - By those who ve heard it ... that is ...

[piano6861]

Magnificent!

[piano6861]

Bravo! Joseph Villa was a brilliant pianist and teacher. I had the good fortune of studying with him for seven years. His untimely death was a terrible loss.

[mrmolinodelahoz]

The pianist is fantastic but the piano sounds like a ton of nails being shot out of a cannon. Must be a Steinway.

[sultanov10]

Very, very fast.....mmmm, regular version. Check the Ashkenazy's version.

[mattandtrissy]

I guess Joseph Villa or whatever his name is must have a take a serious piss cuz he's rushing like it's running down his leg.....

[nosniborceda]

It's ok, kind of rushed though... can't say I truly enjoy it... I prefer Horowitz. You should try to get Zoltan Kocsis, his performance (of the original verson) is both technical and musically astounding...

And before I get replies like "I'ld like to see you play even half of this before you make such a comment"... I am playing it (my own rendition of the two versions), and a video is coming soon to a youtube near you...