not sure if folks know, but Seymour Bernstein is, in fact, from the Beethoven lineage: Beethoven taught Czerny, who then taught Liszt, Liszt taught Leschetizky, and Leschetizky taught Clara Husserl. Clara Husserl was Seymour's piano teacher (also my mother's). My mother and Seymour Bernstein were fellow students, friends. My mother was primarily an opera singer, a coloratura. Her piano skills were not on the same level as Seymour Bernstein or some of the other top students, but her voice was. And the top students, including Seymour would practice their accompaniment skills with her. Different era. They were all friends. They used to all get together and go to the park and have picnic lunches (Newark, NJ). Clara Husserl also taught Liberace. I once asked my mother if he really had the chops of a top notch concert pianist. or if he was just a showman. My mother said he absolutely had all the chops of top notch concert pianist. Mom passed last year. She was 95. Rest in peace mom...
@@jackoo666 You can't master someone else's pieces. But if you want to measure exceptions, you probably need about 99% approval rate. And if I can easily distinguish his mediocrity, other people can too. I'm not invalidating your emotions or your opinion, I just don't share your irrational opinion.
@@NattyD_Fergulicious Your comment is not thát envious.. It's just the pop way of playing classical music. Nothing wrong with it, nothing special either.
Wow it’s like hearing it for the first time. Hearing it played tastefully and skillfully, most people just poop it out as fast as possible with no damns given for the dynamics.
The transition from B back to A is the best I have ever heard. It's an awkward spot that students often get wrong with too many E-D#'s. In the second part of the A theme I love how Mr. Bernstein holds the bass note C longer and takes time with the C major harmony. Also holding the very low A with his pinky in the last section of the C theme while the thumb keeps the ostinato A's moving (to add resonance) is so great. I'm always going to play it that way from now on.
Wow, the touch... that's in the blood... Everyone can learn how soft and hard to play the piano keys, but the soul, the essence of the music, has to come from the performer. Bravo. A real master.
To be able to play at this high level way in your nineties as mister Bernstein does is a blessing, for him and us, people that admire him. His views on music are fascinating to me. I’m a fairly rookie classical music listener and the way he explains his views on how he likes the music played draws me into it. He’s often my guide in the music, how it’s made and thus what to listen for and how to listen. Thank you very very much Mister Bernstein 🙏
Wow, I have no words. I learned this piece when I was young and it didn’t sound anything like that. It was definitely faster and he was completely right it is a serious piece. I feel honored to have seen him perform it.
Mr Bernstein’s fingers are as arthritic as mine. Now I can no longer use arthritis as an excuse to play badly. Thank you so much for this depiction of a true master.
Wow! Mr. Bernstein unlocked the treasure chest called Fur Elise. Such a gorgeous understanding and performance of this wonderful piece by Beethoven. Thank you!
Agreed! It’s been nine months since you wrote this and I’ve just started seeing this channel recommended in my feed so hopefully it starts getting recommended more in other people’s
i love how he leads your ear to believe certain notes or sections are passionate, emotional statements, and it makes listening really enjoyable because your ear is always waiting to see where his fingers lead you. i've been regaining my passion for music, and i realize songs are not just phrases supposed to be corroborated by mindless repetition or what you think the ideal listener would want, but what your ears want because you are that listener, and the audience is subjected to your inner world, your vision, transpiring through beethoven. thank you, seymour bernstein.
When I hear this song I think of being trapped by a habit or pattern. For moments here and moments there you exist outside your prison but ultimately the theme can’t be escaped. I imagine Beethoven felt trapped or constrained in many ways and I sense a manifestation of it within this piece. Seymour’s somber rendition felt really earnest and reinforces my emotional impression of Für Elise
I feel a bit more of a loss of love or a painful event in his life. I mean his life definitely wasn't the greatest and he is definitely one of my favorite composers. I do like how music in general can make us interpret different scenarios and maybe events in the composers life. Music is just a language and a composer must speak through the instruments that are there
I love those passages, the rubato, the way he brings out the tension is just impeccable. This rendition is purely from the soul. It feels like I'm listening to a piano roll recording back from the 1900's (another certainty is like a music box, especially the A Theme).
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, no other words to describe it. I love how he plays the part that a lot of people I have heard play fast, and him play slower and so gracefully.
Amazing description and performance of this sublime piece. In fact, it is the most beautiful version I have ever heard. Thank you Mr. Bernstein and Tonebase.
The fact that you said that certain pieces of music and this is one of those pieces where people and performers view as child’s play is so true! … and is sad to me.. just because pieces are over played or sound simple doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look back at those moments when the muse in the Universe was whispering these notes into the great masters ears and the sacrifices they made for their art great or small. Can you imagine hearing this for the first time? How could one not hear the depth of this man’s sweet heart and love of music. Thank you Seymour, you warm my heart every time I listen to your presentations and performances. Cheers sir.
I love this piece. It's not technically difficult, but beautiful in its simplicity. I like things that seem simple on the surface but when you dive into them, you discover worlds you didn’t know could exist. He opens us up to this.
Seymour Bernstein is from the Beethoven lineage himself. After his own career as a concert pianist, Seymour Bernstein became a master teacher of other concert pianists. I think this is the correct lineage, but not 100% positive: Beethoven taught Liszt. Liszt taught Czerny. Czerny taught Leschetizky. Leschetizky taught Clara Husserl. Clara Husserl taught Seymour Bernstein. Clara Husserl also taught her daughter, who became a profound concert pianist. She taught my mother. And she also taught Liberace. I once asked my mother if Liberace was more of a popular musician or if he had the skills to have become a major concert pianist. My mother said that he absolutely had all the professional skills to have become a major concert pianist. In 2014, the actor Ethan Hawke did a documentary about Seymour Bernstein. Called "Seymour: An Introduction." Really a must see for all classical music lovers and lovers of a beautiful, gentle aesthetic.
My mother played piano and this was her favorite song to play when I was a kid. I still like this song, despite hearing it played hundreds or maybe thousands of times, with very....very....slowly increasing proficiency over time LOL
If I had to choose one word to describe this rendition, it would be "free." Mr. Bernstein's interpretation for tempo, phrasing, and dynamics is so free and bucks orthodox interpretations, it's extremely refreshing. If you liked this interpretation, I would suggest listening to Lang Lang's Fur Elise as well. There are similar voicings. I will certainly be taking a fresh look at this piece the next time I'm at my piano. =D
Honestly... Played like I've never heard it before! Thank you hugely Mr Bernstein. ❤ My dearly departed Aunt (a concert pianist) taught me this beautiful masterpiece in my mid 30's (I am now 62). I loved the piece but played it poorly, as any beginer would, and still do! 😮 To hear it again... played so Beautifully, with such gentle respectful tonal expression is simply Heavenly to my HeartSoul. Thank You Mr Seymour Bernstein ❤ Thank You my Beautiful Aunty Barb ❤ Thank You Beethoven ❤
Amazing! Have heard this piece ever since a young child, and NO ONE ever suggested the b and c sections could go slower. Everyone always portrayed this should be played generally fast, and I never could get certain sections lightning fast. This proves how much better it sounds slower and more expressively, rather than whipping through it. So beautiful, Mr. Bernstein!
For some reason, those few times that he gave both hands to that E and rolled over it has me feeling some way. I have a rigid mindset and I know that I couldn't make myself do that; and yet I feel like I'm getting carried along with the romance of the song and its charm is coating everything in sweetness.
Happily listened to this piece for many years and have heard all manner of playing from student to professional. Never heard it played with such thoughtfulness, precision and sympathy. What a great post! Thanks, tonebase and Maestro Bernstein.
This is how this piece should be played......A man after my own heart playing musically in response to the phrases and musical structure and in a way disregarding the written notes. 👋 Playing music is what its all about not playing notes mechanically.
One sunny afternoon my Son, his Auntie Gramps & I where walking about a large Orangery. Then I heard this peice 🎶 coming in the distance… I wandered toward the piano 🎹 music. I found my son sitting there playing this…. He only learnt the beginning but it was beautiful.
Wonderful interpretation. I'd love to hear it played, possibly also re-interpreted, on an instrument that Van B. could have used/lplayed during his lifetime, rather than on a modern piano.
I'm so inspired by this, and actually quite relieved. I've taken up piano as an adult because I'm beginning to realise, in my 30s, that no, I'm not invincible. I will grow old. And I won't be able to play hockey anymore, or do serious woodworking anymore, and I want some art and hobby I can take with me to the very end. While it's kind of obvious: "well duh, of course older people can play piano" it's just nice to see it in practice.
@@noscop444 Stop deciding to be offended for no reason and consider how many people over 70 you see at the rink each week. Because at the Curling sheets it's probably 15-20% of everyone there.
@@Mackinstyle Gee, sorry you got offended, I was joking if that wasn't clear enough. I get your point. I'm even surprised that you said over 15 percent of them are over 70. That's a lot.
All of it aside I think playing the piano is a good choice of you because it helps relieve stress, I play the piano and it helps me when I'm burnt out studying for a late night exam
Lying in the soft, cool grass of a river bank, underneath the shade of lovely Willow tree as the water flows softly by. Perhaps your beloved is there with you and softly strokes your cheek. Bliss….
Very expressive. I'm sure that Beethoven would approve. It would be great to see those old artists sit down at a modern piano for the first time. I'm not sure that the pianos of their day could go that soft. The technology has improved.
Well I don't know what I'm talking about. There's more difference in loudness capability between 18th and 19-20th century pianos I guess. I'm sure a Beethoven expert knows what pianos he played and how well he could hear them. A ressurected Beethoven with perfect hearing on a Steinway would be something to witness. Who knows, he might turn straight into a synthesizer junkie overnight.
Beethoven went through several pianos. His favorite while he could still hear, seems to have been made by Johann Andreas Streicher. They were called Fortepianos at the time. Read about it on Wikipedia here: 'Beethoven's pianos'. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven
