La Divina del Piano Gabriela Montero improvises on Happy Birthday

La Divina del Piano shows again her unique talent to improvise.

To be honest, lately I've been wondering whether she belongs to the human race or simply a divinity fallen from the Olympus.
And guess what? I take the second one

Really, no kidding

This is more or less what she said at the very beginning of the video:
"Today is Johana's birthday a friend of mine and member of the orchestra. Probably she's going to kill me =)
Anyhow Johana this goes for you"

Having said that La Divina tossed the piano with a superb mixture of Chopin, Venezuelan waltzes and ragtime.
It's impossibled not to fall in love with her

Tanti baci Gabriela =)

Lorin Maazel - Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
Teatro Teresa Carreño
Ríos Reyna Hall
September 23, 2007

Category:

Music

Tags:

• gabriela
• montero
• la
• divina
• del
• piano
• classical
• clásica
• improvisación
• improvisation
• happy
• birthday
• teatro
• teresa
• carreño
• lorin
• maazel

[Angelillo36]

Gabriela Montero or Juja Wang? I recognize my ignorance. I didn't know Montero, I just found her she's so amazing! Actually I don't know whom I prefer?

[luiscar89]

Thanks Angelillo 36.

Well this is an amazing oportunity to get in love with her astonishing piano technique as well as her thrilling and unique style to improvise.

Take care buddy.

Regards from Caracas.

[gabsanju]

que exageracion y que cursi llamar a esta mujer la "divina del piano". Una buena pianista sin mas como hay muchas, pero con un marketing muy inteligente como el de Dudamel.

Ahora parece como si Montero hubiese inventado la improvisacion al piano...por favor! Pero los ignorantes como de esto...

[luiscar89]

En primer lugar tu argumentación me parece bastante banal y muy temeraria. En ningún momento se ha dicho que Gabriela ha inventado la improvisación, me preocupa que lo veas así, máxime cuando es harto sabido que artistas como Liszt, Teresa Carreño y Ferruccio Busoni lo hacían. Creo que caes en un círculo vicioso sin aportar mayor soporte a lo que dices.

[luiscar89]

En segundo lugar creo que debes diferenciar entre artistas producto del marketing y artistas con difusión mediática y si eres objetivo no puedes afirmar que Gabriela es producto del marketing. Creo que cualquier persona con un mínimo de criterio razonable distinguiría entre ambas situaciones. En tercer término a mi me parece que es "La Divina del Piano", y si no te gusta, no puedo hacer nada... y así la seguiré llamando toda mi vida.

[luiscar89]

Creo que representas muy bien a ese recalcitrante sector que artistas como Leyla Gencer con toda la razón del mundo llamaban: crítica "piú tosto aspera" caracterizada por la imbecilidad y estupidez gratuita en sus comentarios.

Por último hablas de ignorantes, supongo que tu los distingues muy rápido. Seguramente formes parte de ellos. En ello radica tu ojo clínico para divisarlos.

Pace a gioia a tutti quanti.

[Brusselsiris]

Someone should start scoring this stuff. Barbaro!

[BenMcCormack91]

Fabulous technique, fabulous control, fabulous mind. Sounds just as good as Horowitz in a lot of ways. Except she's improvising.

And wow. Even Keith Jarrett - who's great with improv and classical - doesn't hold a candle to this. This sounds like a composition, not an on-the-spot improv.

So yeah, I'm going to go download all of her recordings, now.

[TheItalianTroller]

why there aren't italians posting comments there? why are all those fantastic pianists not known in italy? we are full of allevifags...

i'm getting anger, i'm going to listen to her improvisation in koln, or maybe to stefano bollani.

[shindousan]

I've always felt that "Happy Birthday" needed to be played in minor chords to be a complete masterpiece! She's fantastic as always!

[aurelienpk]

@BenMcCormack91 You can't compare what isn't comparable. What she is doing here, is prepared. It sure does sound great and she has excellent time and technique but you can't compare this to the huge body of work of someone like Keith Jarrett who is one of the fathers of modern jazz piano playing, who has revolutionized harmonic concepts and chord/scale relationship, as well as defining a new standard for modern jazz piano trio playing.

[penguinshin]

volodos can do everything here and more

[afertyus1000]

i doubt if she just went and improvised it without any prior ideas and performance most comments here are obviously naive

[happyduke99]

Imagine you play this song during a birthday party, I am sure there are people will hate you for delaying their time to eat the cake which everyone is waiting for LOL~

But I am sure they will like the song ^_^

[Sophiestelle]

God bless Gabriela Montero, the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra, and Venezuela!

[bekacynthia]

beautifully done! that's what I would call perfection.

[Sophiestelle]

Gabriela Montero ¡La Divina!

...¡Te Amamos!

[RexKwondoSystem]

I read so many negative comments about Gabriela Montero. I assume that such comments come from people who:

(1) are jealous of her processing speed

(2) couldn't do what she does

(3) don't understand what she does

It's astonishing that she epitomises the notional classical improvising pianist described by Bill Evans in his video 'The Universal Mind of Bill Evans' (can be viewed on youtube). And I agree - for all his grunting, Jarrett can't match this.