Fascinating. All the classic Bartok Idioms and harmonic devices are there. Only a genius could make something so discordant and complex so fascinating, engaging and simply listenable.
The dude from Become the Knight made a fuss about Despasito not being a diverse song because it was just in spanish but still used typical pop song cords and drums. So he made a list of songs that sound nothing like typical pop songs. We both saw that video and here we are.
Bartok is Absolutely a Genius. This set of Etude not only makes you to practice your technique, but also educates you the music notation/engraving, solfege. PLUS, this is enjoyable to listen to. Perfect Etude.
@@dylanl.3366 Hahaha I was not expecting to make that reply but then I saw the video and saw that I had written a comment 4 years ago which I didn't even remember making and I'm bored and don't want to do homework so I figured I would fix it and stuff. Also since then I learned the first movement of Out of Doors and it is one of my favorite pieces I have ever played!
Bartok is a genius. How is he able to produce such sounds? It just blows me away. That second etude is really something, the mysteriousness and eeriness just gets to me every time. But it should be impossible for me to play.
Kocsis is so phenomenal. This is one example of his phenomenal technique and polish. Another good one is his recording of the original version of the Rachmaninoff Sonata No. 2. Unreal!
These etudes... every once in a while I'm like "ahhh, this is so cool let's give it shot"... and hour later I'm like "good god Ligeti is easier". Besides the amount of chromaticism, difficult passagework, the rhythm is so damn complex... the third etude goddamn.
@@krypto360 the composer was known for a quite funny philosophy. He insisted that piano was a percussion instrument, and that’s what his music revolves around. You can literally hear the rhythmic play in the first etude. His music is very fun listening to
Only Bartok could combine this type of craftsmanship, rhythmic drive, and sonorous beauty. Look and listen closely; for music that is so frenzied, there are tonal relationships everywhere (etude #1 continually exploits and teases the F#-B, dominant-tonic relationship).
Sometimes I think, with a lot of practice, I could be a decent pianist. Then I look at stuff like this and get discouraged. Then I try and fail to play Baa Baa Black Sheep and I want to kill myself. Oh well.
arjens0 Absolutely right! And Zoltan Kocsis definitely had them all!! I particularly love his Rachmaninoff Sonata No.2, Liszt Piano Concerto No.2, all his Debussy masterpieces , and many more from other composers all the way from early Baroque period to the late Romantic period. I would love to listen to all the Hungarian folk music that he played if I could find it.
I always think of something diabolical when I listen to these, like gargoyles or demons dancing or something, especially the first and third. The second makes me think of something like stepping on broken glass or something...its very disturbing. The third is the true "devil's staircase" I think.
I believe Robert Fripp said "music can be a considerable friend at times" and so I have rediscovered Erik Satie's Gymnopedes and Gnossiennes, I may attempt # 3 on the mandocello. Which led me to Bartok's Three Etudes, not for the nervous to be sure. Then there's this Bill Frisell "Dysfarmer", distinctly American Music. and Hendrix of course. What are you listening to ?
Timothy Sweeney Conlon Nancarrow. Study no.21,Wyschnegradsky - Twenty-four Preludes in Quarter-tones; No. 3, Anything by Kaikhosru Sorabji, any piano work by Sciarrino, anything by Bach, Barkarole by Thomas Blomenkamp, Jessye Norman - Beim Schlafengehen by R Strauss, Electra by R Strauss, Cecilia Bartoli Vivaldi- Gelido in ogni vena, Berezovsky plays Liszt's Transcendental etudes, Robert Johnson- Crossroad blues, and quite a lot of Hendrix. (You can find most of this on RU-vid).
I'm starting to think these are even more modern, radical and impossibly difficult (both technically and intellectually) than Ligeti's fabled etudes. I don't think they could be played better than this. Kocsis was to Bartok what Larrocha was to Albeniz and Granados. Untouchable, in a class all of their own. I wonder if Kocsis would have given us the benchmark recording of the Ligeti etudes had he been granted more time.
Bartok was a genius . First he goes out into the countryside and discovers that the peasant's music is more harmonically advanced than "Western classical music, " then he adapts that into his style creating something wonderful and unique. By the way I love dissonance. Check out Jancek also please.
Thank you for sharing this awesome music and video with its wondrously difficult score. It’s beguiling visually as well as aurally, and there is a certain amount of synergy that this video creates. I have watched this over a dozen times, over the past several years, even shared this (link) on my facebook a few times, and it never gets old. I also kept looking up iTunes for this very fantastic recording by Zoltan Kocsis, but it never seems available. So here I am, revisiting this, for the Nth time. Thank you again.
I'm in total awe that someone could play this. Zoltan Kocsis must be one epic pianist, right up there with Hamelin in the raw technique to deal with the seemingly impossible department. My finger tips hurt just thinking about it.
For some reason i've been taking a liking to atonal pieces and i found this. This is very interesting to listen to and impressive bartok was able to write this. Atonal pieces are hard to make well.
La Campanella on steroids is Liszt's "La Clochette" fantasy, which includes the La Campanella theme and runs for about 15 minutes, presenting various extreme difficulties; far more difficult than any of these etudes, if majorly considered.
@@paeffill9428 Any of them are arguably harder than La Clochette, depending on the pianist; likewise, La Clochette is arguably harder than any of them depending on the pianist/keyboardist.
@@paeffill9428 I really don't get it. La Clochette and these etudes can generally be considered to be in the same realm of difficulty and it's different for every individual (it's more difficult than any of the etudes for me personally for example); using a Sorabji-Haydn outlandish analogy here doesn't make any sense. By the way, I shouldn't call you a nut because you seem rather musically knowledgeable and I've seen you around youtube on the obscure and relatively popular music videos.
honestly as a pianist I love challenge like when I heard the liszt sonata I was like I could so work hard on this and feel good after. the first glance I took at these etudes repelled me in such aggravating fascination. but its a piece i know ill never bother with because my im just gonna have a nervous breakdown trying
These are some really challenging studies, musically and technically biting and neurotic. I've always found them more fascinating than much of Bartok's other piano music. He wrote these in a transitional period of his career (along with The Miraculous Mandarin), and understood the limited appeal these would have to the general public. The older Paul Jacobs recording still resonates in my ear strongly, though the performance here is staggeringly good.
Szervusz. These are three beautiful pieces that we can enjoy thanks to the mastery of such a great interpreter of Béla Bartók's music like Mr. Kocsis. Bravo!
Thanks for posting. Bartok and Kocsis are extraordinary. I'm sorry your video comments have been attacked by trolls. If people aren't interested in these pieces, why don't they just go somewhere else? Nobody is forcing them at gunpoint to listen. I'm interested in these pieces from a pianist's perspective.
You've got a fantastic channel. Very interesting music. And one can really appreciate the technical difficulties when there is a score to follow. Like with Rachmaninov, you would not want to have small hands attempting this sort of music.
regardless of what anyone says, there's a melody there, and beautiful music. bartok heard it, and wrote it, so it's there. he didn't waste his energy writing music he didn't like. try and find it. its not in any major scale, thats for sure
@PSNDemonwing i suppose thats the problem for casual listeners and music enthusiasts - if you dont know what youre listening for, it makes it difficult to appreciate beyond the 'for its time' rather than as an isolated piece of music, irrespective of genre. When you learn a piece by Bartok at the piano you start to hear things differently and it is so amazing. His music will live on for a reason, and its not to annoy those who live in the strictly diatonic world of harmony - he was a genius.
Remarquable interprétation de ces études de Bela Bartok vraiment très difficiles. Très peu de pianistes actuels ont cette vélocité et éclat sonore, ce piqué qui détache toutes les notes sans user trop de la pédale. On est vraiment sous le charme.
Really need to remember that this is not your typical 'Classical' music. This is from a much later period when composers were experimenting with many different ideas in music, from alternative scales such as whole tone scales, to harmony and dissonance, and even the idea of sonic textures and more. The early 20th century composers are often much harder for the general public to appreciate, in my opinion, due to the complexity of the music in general.
@PSNDemonwing you are right though - there are people who will defend the mass produced, consumerist, capitalistic, 'culture industry' music of Justin Beiber because it makes them feel good (though its been proven the idolisation is an important psychological factor to one having an inclining to a particular music/s out of fear of what people may or maynot think of them as a result). I Heart Bartok and i dont care what people say about him :P
I read, Ligeti tried to write works like Bartók. Now, I understand, why they write in the book, where I read it. :) This is fantastic, thanks for upload!
Oh my gosh, this was the first time I ever heard this. Absolutely disgusting and AWESOME and sick, and ridiculous. This is probably going into my list of favorite pieces. This is TOO cool!!
@Sveccha93 and you are the perfect example of what the world of today is. You are still supporting something that you cant admit. Someone is bound to like the song. If it does turn out that this writer actually came into deep thinking about this song. Thats good for them. But even so, it cannot match that of the true geniuses.
Incredibly effective renditions, the best since Paul Jacobs' Nonesuch recording back in the day (which I still prefer for his use of rubato, especially in #2)
