This is special Beethoven, so peaceful and lacking the dark undertones. It is though this seemingly odd couple were, in fact, just the right couple to tap into Beethoven's post-purgatory source of inspiration for our great pleasure and spiritual enlightenment.
I love and respect Glen Gould as one of the finest pianist ever born and raised on our old planet, but being equipped with ears and brain able to testify the existence of such beauty as Sir Yehudi Menuhin singing from 14:49 til the end of the adagio "espressivo" with his marvellous instrument and gentle, maybe never witnessed again any more, astonishing talent, is something that always brings shivers or tear drops, Im afraid. And I know, listening to the respect Gould had answering with caution to these lines, that Beethoven himself also wished to hear both these great human beings.
I used to walk past Gould’s old apartment on St. Clair Avenue in Toronto quite frequently and wished it were decades earlier and there was a real chance of seeing him strolling around in July in his overcoat and mittens.
What an unexpected treat to see these two play together. Piano sounded never more equal in a violin sonata before. Glenn was a genius musician!!! Thank you for the upload.
Please avoid using the misnomer term violin sonata. Not a violin sonata according to Beethoven and his contemporaries. These are titled sonatas for Pianoforte with violin oblige. The pianoforte has top billing in these duo sonatas of the classical period. The same goes for Mozart’s Pianoforte sonatas with violin oblige. In his case sonatas for Pianoforte with the accompaniment of a violin. It is only in modern times that roles have been recast by celebrity violinist trying to find repertoire for their instruments outside of the concerto repertory. The composers never intended for these chamber works to be viewed as violin pieces. They are a masterful marriage of pianoforte and violin. True duos for both instruments.
@@coralreef909 your information is worth a separate post instead of replied under. I still think the weight of importance is more on the appreciation of their performance and artistry.
Pure gold here. This is how a duet is played. In one coherent piece. It's not solo + accompaniment. And only 222 people saw this. And 1 complete idiot.
Pianists don´t study the piano part of duos, trios, etc., unless they are part of stable ensambles, or if by one reason or other they have to do so. As a consequence, they need the score. So, it is incredible that Gould is playing from memory a work that was new for him. And he plays it admirably.
The Sonata was first performed in December 1812, by the renowned French violinist Pierre Rode, accompanied by Beethoven’s generous patron, the Archduke Rudolph. Rode’s playing influenced the style of the finale: “In our finales,” wrote Beethoven, “we like rushing and resounding passages, but this does not please R, and this hindered me somewhat.” The ethereal serenity of the work, however, is due entirely to Beethoven’s limpid classical muse, with a fascinating equality of dialog between the two instruments. The very first phrase of the Sonata, four simple notes with a characteristic trill, are passed from violin to piano and back before anything like a phrase or a theme develops. Very rarely does one instrument offer a new idea without the other dutifully responding a few bars later. The wandering arpeggios which pervade the movement are perhaps its most striking and original feature.
Excelente interpretación del Magistral Dúo ; establecen un diálogo con un equilibrio sonoro donde podemos oír con transparencia cada tema ; unido a un elevado nivel interpretativo .Gracias infinitas por compartir tan brillante Video de Dos grandes Concertistas.
"Never played it before, but I did take the opportunity to run it through a cross-cut shredder and understand the piece in more ways than anybody since the composer has."
The slow movement opens with a solemn hymn in the piano, but instead of repeating the melody, the violin offers a serene, and more secular, melody of its own. In the reprise the instruments exchange melodies. A brisk and jerky scherzo follows directly, with a smoother trio.
The finale is a set of variations on the lightest and prettiest of themes, with a neat lapse from the key of G into B major for its second half. After four variations, the fifth is an intense adagio. Before the sixth we hear a brief snatch of the theme in the wrong key (E-flat); the sixth variation itself is full of “rushing” if not “resounding” passages, the seventh is a lugubrious fugato, and the melody returns before a witty, carefree coda. Some of Beethoven’s greatest utterances are thinly disguised as jokes.
Au delà de l’émotion musicale, il y a ces deux immenses artistes dont la qualité première est qu’ils ont chacun le respect de l’autre, quant à leur instrument respectif, et la synchronisation parfaite de leur partition, avec de temps en temps un regard sur l’autre, c’est une magistrale leçon de musique et d’émotion humaine. Quand Menuhin au lendemain de la seconde guerre mondiale a interprété le concerto en ré de Beethoven, l’orchestre de Berlin était dirigé par W. Furtwangler.!! C’est là que toute la sensibilité humaine de Menuhin prenait une dimension exceptionnelle. Il disait encore à propos de Gould disparu hélas que le monde perdait le plus grand artiste du siècle. Menuhin ! une leçon pour certains « artistes « en mal d’humilité. P. R.
Wonderful video of two of the greatest. I always thought about how Gould's humming could have been a nightmare for the sound department. After watching this video I realized how much noise his old chair was making; almost as if it was about to break and collapse a few times while they were chatting. Can't hear any of the squeaking during the performance though.
Remarkable that even as late as 1966, when he was 50, Menuhin still had the essence of the facial features he had as a boy: there is something of an untrammeled wisdom about it. This is as good a performance as Menuhin ever gave past 1945 when his technique began to unravel. Perhaps meeting and playing with Gould inspired him. Alas they never again performed together.
@Steven Moore YM's first recording of the Beethoven concerto, which I believe dates from 1947, finds him in better form than the later one that you cite. I am unfamiliar with the Furtwangler collaboration on the Bartok but grew up on the Dorati collaboration of a few years later (1957 I think). M was drawn to, mesmerized by Bartok and the latter's writing for the violin seemed actually at times to DRAW on the roughness and lack of full control that had befallen M's bowing. Menuhin and Szegeti were the greatest Bartok players--and partially for the same reason.
@@sebastiandangerfield9933 Yes, I agree totally. This myth of Menuhin's technique, and in effect his playing, 'unravelling' in some final and unstoppable downslide is a strange generalization that has become entrenched as some kind of self-evident truth. It is in fact patently untrue. Witness his post-War recordings with Furtwangler, his performances in Russia just after the war, the inspired Brahms on BBC and then inspirationally on disc around 1958, his Japanese recordings from the early 1950s, his cycles of Bach and Beethoven sonatas with Louis Kentner and the stunningly impassioned Kreutzer from 1958 with Hephzibah, the superb Beethoven concerto with Constantin Silvestri from the early 1960s, the unmatched Swan Lake collaboration with Efrem Kurtz, the 1947 Chaplin studio recordings on film (RU-vid), and of course these wonderful collaborations with Bach and Beethoven on the menu with Gould, as also the Bach double concerto with Oistrakh (here on RU-vid)...one could go on and on. It's true that Menuhin faced some serious challenges of a neuro-physiological and (perhaps psycho-emotional) kind which can have to do with exceptional artistic sensitivity and which sometimes shadowed his playing. Some of the problems were indeed of a technical nature exacerbated by physical difficulties, as in the management of the bow arm. This did make his playing occasionally (though not chronically) uneven and unreliable. He was amazingly candid in talking about these issues and courageous in dealing with them in full worldwide view. But when dealing with a towering genius you look at the best work and there is so much there that is frankly humbling and awestriking. In some ways he became a much deeper and nobler player than the wunderkind of the early days. Some generosity is due to geniuses as well - they too are human and subject to the difficulties and the struggles of our mortal coil, and in some ways perhaps even more so. One cannot disproportionately foreground the difficult or uneven patches to cancel in its entirety an enormous corpus of great work that offers profound musical experiences.
@@pashaazeem1 Every professional fiddle player knows Menuhin's bowing left a lot to be desired - Menuhin acknowledged that himself. He sought advice from a couple of teachers in Chicago but to no avail. There is NOTHING strange about this fact - it is a fact. That does not mean he became a second rate player - he remained a world class fiddler and musician but with less finesse in his bowing. His left hand was still immaculate.
I love their discussion at the beginning and I love their insights. I do find Gould's playing a little too brilliant and angular. And his humming -- one thing when he's the only performer but I think it's disrspectful when he's playing chamber music with another person. I think modern interpretations are maybe a little more gentle and subtle and restrained. This is a bit on the romantic side though probably for the time it was very restrained. I love how Menuhin opens it. There's really no right answer.
Only Menuhin could create and then "pull off" such an accent. Completely contrived, yet absolutely natural to him. Not a typical San Francisco accent! He was from everywhere and no where in particular. It's gorgeous, and he uses it with passion and clarity. I enjoy hearing him speak as much as his playing!
Glenn Gould spielt den Klavierpart auswendig, für einen Klavierbegleiter ist generell die Begleitung mit Noten schon sehr anstrengend. Das ist einmalig und beindruckend, mit welcher Leichtigkeit und Musikalität er mit Menuhin musiziert. Eine grandiose Leistung beider Künstler.
Isn’t it amazing?? I saw in a very early documentary that Gould would study the score of a piece he’d never played on his flight from Toronto to recording sessions in New York, and he would not only have it completely by memory, he would also have worked out exactly how he would play it! And it’s a short flight! The thing which also astounds me is that I never have heard Gould play a wrong note in any of his live television programs like this one, and I’ve watched them all! Always from memory, never a wrong note….imagine it!
@@voraciousreader3341 Er ist das gleiche Phänomen wie Friedrich Gulda, der in 2 Tagen das 2. Klavierkonzert von Brahms in den Fingern hatte. Diese Menschen lesen Noten so leicht wie wir die Tageszeitung.
1:22 There's something almost spooky in the way he plays here... you can see it in Menuhin's eye! Just hilarious... As though he's thinking "oh damn this guy is something else..."
I'm violinist , this sonata is difficult for to speak at the audience , Gould is sublime Menuhin less (for me). Once I see Menuhin live playing Bach's partita in d min and Beethoven's violin concerto. I don't remember his playing because I was a beginner student , but now I recognize when a player is not in the spirit...but in his bank account.
Sonata per pianoforte e violino mi sembra , dunque . E anche se suono il violino ,e questa è una delle mie preferite , va bene così Menuhin non la sa valorizzare Gould impeccabile come sempre.
Il pianoforte e' troppo "solista" per suonare questa sonata per violino e pianoforte. Troppo solista. Della serie "se e' cosi te la canti e te la suoni".
