Support us on Patreon and get more content: / classicalvault --- Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No 3 in C major, Op 2 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, piano Toronto, 1970
Michelangeli’s left hand is so strong; he captures the marvelous dialogues Beethoven writes between left and right hand, and the fullness and complexity of sound Beethoven gets when he gives both hands the full measure of his genius at the same time. This playing of Sonata No. 3 is fantastic. I heard Beethoven saying things in this piece that I’ve never heard before, despite having played and performed it numerous times! Wonderful composer; wonderful pianist!
Until now I had never heard of this pianist. I am baffled. How come?. Also this is the first time I’ve heard these pieces from Beethoven. Halfway through the performance I muttered to myself “outstanding”! The right-hand exquisite. The left-hand unbelievable. This man must have ate, slept, lived and breathed for little else in life! To be honest if his bow tie was not slightly a-skewed I would doubt his being human!
I agree! He was apparently a rather eccentric personality, a perfectionist who would cancel concerts at the last minute of things weren’t absolutely right with his piano, and he travelled with his own two pianos. He had an absolutely incredible technique but it was always used for lyrical effect and never for shoring off, His concert repertoire was rather limited because he was such a perfectionist.
jazzflutist sprezzatura is the defining quality of the italian artists (according to calasso) a strive for perfection mixed with apparent contempt towards the difficulty of ir.. i guess
@@paoloantunes1283 "Ci sono i bravi pianisti, poi ci sono i grandi pianisti, poi c'è Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli!..... e poi c'e Beethoven" Mitici anche voi due!!!
Truly an inspirational artist. Pure motivation. Top quality at any cost, regardless of the marketing aspect that today strongly affects any artistic career. He's the proof that, at the very end, quality and dedication count, while other aspects that can make an artist's career successful don't overcome the time-barrier. Everybody should follow the magnificent example of this humble, extraordinary and totally art-devoted pianist
His control in the 4th movement amazes me. Such small and precise movements.. Like a swiss watch. Only now I realize how many useless movements I make playing this sonata..
God, it's those requirements of the left hand in seemingly all piano music--especially Mozart and Beethoven--that are the determinants of success. Michelangeli's Beethoven's 3rd is like a debate with a musician inside on a warm late spring night with fireplace and gin & tonic. It is so human.
Das haut einem sogar dann um, wenn man musikalisch und pianotechnisch ein Laie ist. Diese Leichtigkeit, diese Klarheit, diese absolute Perfektion. Gleichzeitig ist das Spiel unglaublich variantenreich, da ist kein "Absolvieren", kein mechanisches dahinspielen, in allem ist Gemüt und Ausdruck, und was Letzteren betifft, was für einer! Ich kann mich nur verneigen vor solcher Kunst und ihrer Umsetzung. Danke herzlich für das Uploaden.
@Möbius Strip If "a" listener's one and only interest is high speed, he deserves no better than falling asleep... (And waking up to Lisitsa, whose high tempo paired with shallow imagination make more refined listeners snore...)
If you experience Beethoven’s relentless development beyond any classical music preceding him then performances like Michelangeli’s become the living proof of this progression in art of the highest sort.
His precise technique, accuracy and consistency make people think his playing is too dry, too lacking in emotion. It’s such nonsense and it comes from people who feel left behind by the genius of this man. You only have to watch the intensity in his face as he responds to the music. What would Beethoven have thought? He would have been thrilled at the opportunity presented to him to write impossibly difficult music, knowing he had someone available who would be up to the task of playing it.
Sembra tutto semplice e banalmente scontato, ovvio e naturale: è questo il risultato della perfezione, e non è il risultato del caso. Dietro un'aria sprezzante c'è l'uomo che con spirito di sacrificio, ostinazione, dedizione e amore per la musica ci regala esecuzioni che non gridano, urlano, che non vogliono apparire; con umiltà e fedeltà Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli ci ha regalato esecuzioni da riferimento assoluto.
Sono pienamente daccordo con te: non ho affatto detto che era sprezzante, ho detto "dietro un'aria sprezzante" ovvero, quella che ai più può sembrare una persona sprezzante ma non lo è. Chiaro?
This even knocks you out if you are a layman musically and piano technically. This lightness, this clarity, this absolute perfection. At the same time, the play is incredibly varied, there is no "absolving", no mechanical play, in everything there is emotion and expression, and as far as the latter is concerned, an extremely artistic one! I can only bow to such art and its implementation. Thank you for uploading.
Yeah, the first mvt really is the golden standard, to be honest. I've listened to so many, even professional, pianists (imo) butcher this piece, especially with the Sforzandos and general dynamics. Some parts simply aren't supposed to sound as lyrical as one might want, since that is not the intent that they were written for. I adore this interpretation as Michalengeli fully sticks to Beethoven's ideas
Dire eccellente mi pare riduttivo.... fa capire e amare la Musica anche a chi di Musica non capisce niente. Un artista e divulgatore di questa levatura, con un incredibile carisma, è una perfezione ineguagliabile nel trattare lo strumento ne nascono molto raramente. Unico straordinario e irraggiungibile.
A wonderful film with a (famously) excellent and much-praised interpretation. What you never saw in black and white videos: ABM (born 1920) had red hair!
Quelle hauteur, quasi aristocratique, parce que quelle humilité au service du compositeur et de son oeuvre ! Avec M. Michelangeli le piano semble si facile...
@@gioelesanfilippo2965 ABM era un mito da vivo, ora ancor di più. Lang Lang non se lo ricorderà nessuno. Già adesso è appannato da fenomeni come Sokolov e Trifonov.
Sono grata ad Alberto Savinio e a Giovanni Testori per le loro belle parole... io non mi azzardo ad esprimere la mia commozione! Il video è particolarmente prezioso poiché ha molteplici inquadrature.
He played all the movements more slowly except for the second one which was played faster. And I think this is the perfectopect version of this. I lovedd it
This performance was half of an intended program, and he was supposed to play the Beethoven Emperor Concerto a few days later with the Toronto Symphony. After this piece he walked off the set, and refused to play the rest of the program, and left town, leaving CBC high and dry for the intended Concerto broadcast. He made some complaint about distracting cameras or something, but I always suspected that he was just pissed off that he hit some wrong notes in the Sonata and decided he had enough. Glenn Gould subbed for him in the Emperor, and that broadcast went ahead as planned. When the CBC program manager went to Karel Ancerl to tell him that Gould not Michelangeli would be playing the Concerto with him Ancerl said "Gould, Michelangeli...where do you find these nuts?
Gould was talking to someone from the CBC the night before, and he mentioned the situation, and it was Gould who suggested it, with great delight, apparently, given both his and Michelangeli's reputations for canceling. He did not rehearse with the orchestra before the broadcast, but he did go through it verbally with Ancerl, and he practiced it the night before, because the last time he had played it was for the recording he had made in 1966. Pretty amazing story.
@@warrencohen8246 ... I intend to watch the Gould "Emperor" right after this finishes. Whether ABM was pissed at the cameras, or lights, or the instrument... or any of the other myriad things that would occasionally distract him... this is a genuinely great performance. Thanks for the stories!
In particolare, ascoltando il IV mov. ci si rende conto... anche osservando le mani con attenzione... che a suonare sia davvero un Arcangelo venuto dal cielo.
I'm sure, Beethoven would be surprised, listening such a magistral execution, about the beauty of his own sonata. But Michelangeli does not know the beauty of the simplicity, and Beethoven would be surprised once again.
You know... Michalegeli was ALWAYS suppose to be sooo fussy about pianos... I believe he was also a really first rate piano technician as well (is that true...?) and yet the slight clicking noise from these keys doesn't seem to bother him the least bit... all that being said... what an astonishingly BEAUTIFUL performance... sheer heaven...
Yes he was. But he also had technicians with him. He was so demanding and had such a knowledge of the piano as an object that, once, some specialists had listened to an audio of Michelangeli trying to get the sound he wanted with his technicians, and they said bravo when getting to the end of the audio : Michelangeli truly changed the sound, but noticeable only for a very well trained ear. It wasn't fanaticism, it was devotion for the public and the music. At least that was his conception.
I read in the Gould literature that when Gould got the call to perform the Emperor Glenn he said that they got the number one pianist to sub for the number two.
Scarlatti, Ravel, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, List,…sicuramente pensavano a chi potesse eseguire alla PERFEZIONE il loro brani. ABM sarebbe stato sicuramente il loro perfetto esecutore.
se avesse suonato bendato, con i tappi alle orecchie non sarebbe stato diverso perchè le sue dita e le sue orecchie erano la naturale appendice dello strumento il tutto attivato da misteriose e meravigliose sinapsi.
If you place a bottle of Pino Griggio in front of a speaker playing Michelangelli's Piano Sonata #3 in "c" major by L. V. Beethoven,,, miraculously,, it will change into ""Dom Perignon""~!~
Tra tutte le altre eccelse qualità c'è da sottolineare l' espressività facciale ridotta al minimo... questo dettaglio per me è immenso. Il mondo è pieno di cd. pianisti che sembrano degli autentici clown... anche fra altri grandi. Inguardabili per me.
solo per alcuni attimi si nota la sua sfrontatezza (in senso buono) a metà tra la soddisfazione e un po' di esitazione da "e mo? che facciamo? come la mettiamo?". Non si vedono tutti i giorni. Tutto il dolore lo esprimeva tutto nei tasti con una enorme vena di simpatia... si rispettava profondamente e sapeva perfettamente cosa voleva: raggiungere l'essenziale ("invisibile agli occhi" come ebbe modo di pubblicare Saint-Exupéry). Un esempio. Attraverso l'ascolto, coloro che vogliono suonare, capiscono che bisogna entrare nei tasti, nell'ascolto di sé, nelle nostre gioie e nei nostri dolori e sedervisi accanto e camminare affianco ad essi. Saranno loro a guidare. Questo è quello che mi trasmettono le sue esecuzioni. Assolutamente razionali, logiche e, insieme massimamente espressive. La valanga di emozioni che possono uscire solo... con la calma.
Très belle interprétation que j’avais écoutée en concert avec la chaconne... interprétation très didactique pour sa clarté quand on veut s’attaquer à cette œuvre dont le premier mouvement est presque écrit comme un concerto!
Hier hört man den besten Pianisten aller Zeiten - nicht nur mit dieser Interpretation. Das Pedal ist im allgemeinen ein Artikulations-Killer - Gott sei Dank: Nicht so bei ihm. An Ästhetik, Durchsichtigkeit der Stimmführung, Klang und Ausarbeitung des Inhalts unübertroffen. Interpretationskultur auf höchster Ebene, die Maßstäbe setzt.
Thank you for posting this. Love the interpretation and the interpreter [and the composer too of course]. But must say: why did the cameraman have to change angles at 26:10 and miss seeing his hands do the triple trill at 26:18. Amazingly fast and even.
What mistake? The F-sharp in the left hand might be slightly suppressed in the engineering of the recording, but for the life of me I can't hear any mistake at 23:02
