I love how Kobrin (my teacher!) doesn’t exactly go for speed, but for sound. He produces a very organ-like sound here (and in the rest of Book I), which is better than just blowing through this
None of these recordings should be judged as direct comparison of the respective pianist’s abilities EXCEPT the live video performances. Pianist’s work (with varying degrees of performer’s complicity) are subjected to rigorous mistake-scrubbing. I know from personal experience in the recording booth. Even without my request, the tech was already busily deleting squashed notes and splicing takes to create a note-perfect performance. Let’s stop the brainless hero-worship of note-perfect recordings. They’re fake. We classical pianists are not pop musicians. The struggle of live performance is a massive undertaking: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Accordingly, I am delighted to find some fantastic feats in this excellently edited video, along with the telling and informative mistakes made by some genuinely consummate artists, all of which I have the utmost respect for. This piece is a BEAR. A terrifying, awe-inspiring beast. Clara Schumann’s ‘Hexenvariationen.’
Brahms called it "Studien für Klavier" witch means piano etudes. He wrote it for Carl Tausig, who played it often in concert. Clara Schumann studied the work, but never played it in public.
You forget how absolutely superb Zilberstein is just because she's not often mentioned in the same breath as Kissin or Argerich or Sokolov. That power! Like Richter at his best (which he unfortunately is not here, based on album cover it's late in life)
@FrankSmith It’s obvious you haven’t listened to the right women pianists (including Zilberstein in this video). Either that, or you’re just blatantly sexist.
@@markwilliamson8047 No, I have recordings of Idil Biret's Rachmaninoff Sonatas and Douze Grandes Etudes of Liszt and there is a fullness and power to her playing. I admire her very much, as I do other women pianists. It's just that men of equal technique play with more power. It's simple physics. I once saw Hamelin break a string while playing the concluding pages of the mighty fugue of Reger's Bach Variations. The power Yefim Bronfman brought to the cadenza of Rach 3 while I was sitting in the front row will always be with me - as well as to the Islamey in another concert I attended. Another great memory is of Garrick Ohlsson playing the Busoni Concerto in the late 80s. Colossal sound that I have not heard produced by a female pianist. I have attended concerts of several well-known female pianists in the Rach and Balakirev pieces mentioned, but they don't come close for big sound (as Bronfman). "Chords like cast bronze", as Busoni's Liszt playing was once described.
Have always loved Arrau's Paganini Variations. The articulation and quality of sonority are always connected to the expression of the music, even at its greatest intensity. And Gilels, though older here, played the Brahms Paganini Variations in the 1938 Queen Elizabeth Competition in which Michelangeli was also a contestant. It would be very interesting to have heard the younger Gilels play this work especially based on his other early recordings such as the Liszt Figaro Fantasy.
You should nickname this wonderful vídeos as a great Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues titled his chronicles in the newspapers "A vida como ela é" meaning "Life as it is". THIS is reality, a life taking risks in front of people, getting scratches, making mistakes and great music alltogether and above all showing deep sense of humanity. Congratulations🎉Great job!
Woah, Michelangeli. Too much pedal for my personal taste perhaps but absolutely incredible. He goes beyond technical feats and uses it to create something special that I've never heard in this passage
Zilberstein nailed it! Powerful and well articulated but still without rushing just through it. Other interpretations sound a bit mannered ... like they just want to let the world know that they have a unique musicality ;)
I like the different approach of Francesco Libetta. Jong Hwa Parks version is very good in the sense that the duck tempo brings out the melodic structure better.
The camera cuts in the Zilberstein are out of this world. I felt like I was watching inception, every two seconds a new cut. The entire video is so cool.
Kissin's 100% for me. Absolute machine in this. Would love to see what Lim Yunchan does with this one day. He has the chops for it surely, after demolishing Feux Follets
His Cliburn performance is astonishing. There is something though about this early performance that I am obsessed with - it is so POWERFUL, he goes for such a massive sound that no-one else really attempts despite never losing the clarity of articulation. In the Cliburn he lightens up slightly, maybe because of the piano or maybe just because over time he modified his interpretation.
@@ArgerichStan Can’t agree more! Kobrin had some mad phrasing and tone control. Not like others did not play the piece well but Kobrin gave more depth and resonance to the music. Thats what made him special in my opinion.
For me, it's Kissin. Not only is it faster than most, but he also brings the most amazing clarity. I was astonished i first heard his studio recording... jaw Dropped!! -Michelangeli- great speed, but is more muddy than the Ultra crispness of Kissin. (And that he cut out one of the harder bits!?.... I'm with You on this surprise is this realization! )
I did a blind test - classing as first, second, third, no. Three firsts; three seconds; four thirds; five nos. For the firsts: Kobrin, Zilberstein and Libetta in that order. Remark on Kobrin - 'command, he knows'. On Zilberstein - 'command, she wants'. On Libetta - 'sharp and punchy'. Of my three seconds I liked Pierdomenico. 'He's enjoying it'.
The Paganini Variations never cease to amaze me. Because in them Brahms showed that, had he wished, he could have written piano music on the same difficulty level as Liszt if he wanted to. He just didn't want to. His expressive goals lay elsewhere.
This is harder than liszt, 4 variations are bordering unplayable. Also the difficulties are quite original, many variations sound easier than they are actually, teach you how important is to place right your hands, in a manner i never felt with Liszt. Liszt difficulties are more about show than actual challenges( yes, a lot of octaves, very fast)
@@pianocontortions7038 No one said anything about it being hard to compose a technical difficult piece. But composers usually write for Piano only in the range of what their own technical abilities can manage. So if Brahms wrote this it means he could play it.
Katchen is divine in Brahms, possibly the greatest. It's a shame there is no live recording of him playing this...his studio is unbelievable as you say.
Noone really nails it. Kissin wins, however, the overall prize. Never heard Yuja Wang hit so many wrong notes. But honestly: kind of fun to hear this passage that brings even the world's best pianists beyond their limits.
16:35 and special thanks and respect for the very dominant female Mrs. Zilberstein. I love this kind of boxing Brahms knock-out instead playing it with mourning grimaces.
Wang starts off strong and then starts to derail. Her studio recording is (obviously) much stronger - and given her technique I’m positive she could give a better live performance on a different night but it’s a shame that the one video we have of her doing it isn’t her best
Michelangeli is an extraordinary pianist but the Brahms Paganini Variations are the the weakest I've ever heard him (in part because of the cuts). I'd rather hear his Beethoven or Chopin.
@@alhfgsp You must be kidding! His version, despite all the cuts, is unsurpassed. Only Kissin came close, but in the studio. Michelangeli was able to play this live without a single false note at a demonic speed and without ever losing control of sonority and of the big line. Pianistically it was and still is a miracle, revered by generations of students and critics.
@@daniele8716 I've never heard another instance where a pianist (or any classical musician for that matter) cuts a large section of the music for a reason other than a memory slip. It was disappointing since it was one of my favorite moments in book 1. As I've stated, he's a great pianist. His rendition of Beethoven's 5th piano concerto is incredible. But that nonesense with intentional cuts is just ridiculous.
@@daniele8716Michelangeli plays flawless, in a great speed, but not at all demonic. One hears a lot of things, but certainly not the devil. As is usual with his versions of almost anything I heard of him.
A good few years back a performance by the late British pianist David Parkhouse of the Paganini Variations was selected as the best by Piano Quarterly. Luckily the inimitable Procopolis has transferred it from his huge collection of LPs and posted it. Parkhouse stands up well in this steller company. A 'studio' performance but the 'studio' conditions were so poor that it might have been easier to play live.The real point is: how do the closing sections work as a culmination to the set? I remember Yuja Wang played each book as one enormous wave, with only a little breath in between. I also think it should be noted that the cuts are made mostly by pianists of the 78 era - and may not be their choice. The 78s of Michelangeli were a very odd mish-mash, superlatively played but cut about ruthlessly. Here I can't help thinking that the women do best: especially Kolesova. But Pierdomenico, whom I'd never heard before, is extremely fine.
That is correct about the cuts in the 78 versions - there were record company imposed time limits that forced those decisions (as well as tempo considerations in many recordings)
Nothing interesting in it. He just struggles to - and succeeds in - not making a mistake and pressing (almost) all the correct notes. A feat by itself, don't get me wrong, but music is not gymnastics - and not everything is for everybody to perform.
And yes, Mr. Kobrin, absolutely great. (just a little too young for the toxic inspiration of the piece, but don't worry, he will be soon depressive-agressive as all and play the work heavenly)
I don't trust any pianist who doesn't reach for the A0 at the climax of Var. 14, bar 22 of the variation. When Brahms wrote these variations in the 1860s, he hadn't yet received his glorious Streicher instrument with the last three bass keys.
I like Silberstein and Kissin. Silberstein has the right idea but the form is not so apparent.... and Kissin has crisp fingering but was played a tad fast though.
Judging by the strained facial expressions of these brilliant pianists, you can imagine how fucking bizarre this is. I know that Brahms was an extremely virtuoso pianist, but did he match Lizst and Chopin?
This piece in particular is IMO even harder than the vast majority of Liszt and all of Chopin's pieces. It's pretty well known as one of the hardest works in the standard repertoire.
All very cool versions, but I really like the one by Francesco Libetta. Many of these interpretations fail to play the top notes _ben marcato_ as Brahms asks for, instead they drown everything in lots of pedal. Kissin is great and articulate (unless in the end where the pedal kind of get’s out of control in one spot, but it is too fast. At this tempo the trills in the bass just do not make sense anymore. Yuja Wang is quite clean and articulate, but a bit too heavy on the pedal.
I cannot believe it! Why the hell didn't you include the fabulous recordings by Julius Katchen. To me he is toweringly superior to everybody presented here, mavbe with the exception of Kissin. And you also left out the remarkable version of Agustin Anievas.
No there isn't. Richter learnt this very late, which is curious. He also disliked Michelangeli in this piece (it's in his diaries). I adore Richter but his version is pale and I very much prefer Mchelangeli's or Kissin's. Gilels learnt this as a young man and it is really a pity that no early vesion survives.
I agree that kobin is best here. He maintains control throughout and keeps the phrasing clear and musical. That piano though: horribly harsh tone and certainly not the pianist´s fault.
This is marked Allegro. Brahms groups at the 32nd note. Kissin, Michelangeli, Park and Zilberstein play it much too fast and it shows with their mistakes. One cannot bring out the harmonic phrasings at that speed.
Petri's is the most polished. This thing weighs 800 lbs, you're going to see veins bulging. Jong Hwa Park has a true feeling for the piece, pianistically.
Muy diferentes unas de otras las interpretaciones. La mayoría me gustan, menos tres, dos de ellas de dos monstruos sagrados del firmamento pianístico, me refiero a Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli y a Wilhelm Backhaus, estoy extrañado por la velocidad, obviamente eran muy jóvenes en esas interpretaciones, se nota que daban prioridad al lucimiento técnico en detrimento de las ideas de Brahms, en estos casos las velocidades arruinan todo; y la otra es la de Ivo Pogorelich, por razones obvias, es un pianista muy bueno, pero su creatividad a veces se vuelca por el libertinaje y las interpretaciones suenan casi irreconocibles. Creo que Sviatoslav Richter es el más equilibrado.
