No matter all the ludicrous comments abounding like a storm of solid hail, We are lucky and fortunate to still have Pogorelich with us today, still playing these great classical opuses, still giving his unique interpretations and virtuosity to this generation to hear and study and even meditate on. Once Pogorelich is gone from this plane of manifestation, all that the critics will be able to do is go off to find a new victim to castigate, excoriate and belittle ad infinitum. ❤❤❤
All of the greatest artists have been very controvertial subject matter for critics, as well as being themselves, misunderstood simply because their gifts are, to some extent, not quite comprehensible to the ordinary, run of the mill humanity that do not have any comparable gifts...at all. These great artists are avatars, beings who have descended from spiritual planes and spheres outside of the range of mortal men, to teach us someting, leave humanity with a legacy, and create another step up, a higher platform for future generations to continue to evolve from. ❤❤❤
One can love or hate Ivo, but he is neccesary in music world to remember that experimentation and a personal approach to the music is good as long it sounds logic.....
Ivo now shows his audience all the beauty of music. He playes matured and he takes care to give transparency to the architecture of all compositions. It's great! No more need to speed up. For my taste and compared to his successful past when he was very young, today he's more "successful" . Love it! Thank you for uploading this!
Wow my wise commentator: I fully agree with you as a graduate from the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and the University of Toronto Artist Licentiate program. Kudos to you and what a joy to hear your comment. Rich blessings to you and yours
I’ve worked on this piece for some time and have listened to dozens of recordings. Everyone plays it way too fast, including the young P. of the 1980s. This is a great tempo…probably the slowest I’ve heard. It’s a marvel that he can sustain the staccato for so long. Probably my favorite performance overall. Richter’s live performance available on RU-vid is also great. Among the studio recordings, Peter Frankl plays it probably closest to how I hear it in my head. Horowitz’s Toccata was also pretty amazing.
this is practise tempo schumann wrote this for his friend and college student ludwig shunke and aspiring piano virtuoso . it's meant to be a fierce test of one's ability. albeit ivo is "reading".
+drumier, many of Schumann's metronome markings are misunderstood. Schumann often used what is called the "double-beat" understanding of tempo. Many composers of Schumann's time and before (especially Beethoven) often mean't that one should hear two "ticks" of the metronome to signify one beat, much like a conductors 'up-down.' For instance, much of Kinderszenen is played much too fast and would benefit from playing it in this manner. People often accuse Schumann of being a poor judge of tempo for his works, but that's only because people don't realize they are actually playing many of his works twice as fast as he suggested.
@@drumier Ivo used to play it much faster, his technique has declined. This is a piece that grows exponentially in difficulty depending on the tempo one takes.
It's amazing to see him making a comeback. This Toccata is good. Not as great as his recorded version he made when he was at the height of his power which has the most stunning swift right hand octaves (05:02 part). No one does it like him. Quite surprising him performing this with a sheet music. Like Richter with Chopin Etudes, it's not the kind of music you would expect to need sheet music.
He's probably crazy as a loon. Watching him play in these later years feels like staring at the homeless yelling person. Whatever made him great is only present as an echo now. Its like the adoration that the old wreck Nyireghazi gets from some. It's underserved
In his youth Maestro Pogorelich used to play all of his concert pieces from memory, including "Gaspar de la Nuit"(!) I am just wondering when he began taking the sheet music onstage. (Not that there is anything wrong with it. Richard Goode and some other recitalists do it as well.) Was it when he returned to the concert stage after his long absence following the death of his dear wife?
@Jordan Schlansky yes, I agree with you. That is why I said that it happened to Richter as well. Playing with the score in my opinion does limits interpretation. And I notice this with Pogorelich, Richter and other pianists. If you compare the performances they sound way better without the score like if the piece is of their own. I am no professional pianist but I did study piano at the conservatory of Madrid, and let me tell you that memorizing a score is easier that you may think with the right technique.
Bruno Escoto I 100% agree. I used to struggle with memory on stage but few years ago I discovered Karl Leimer method, also used by his student Gieseking very successfully. I started using this method of visualizing the score and my hands playing the piece in my head before I play on the actual piano. John Browning also taught this as well as well and his teacher at Juliard. It is hard at first but eventually becomes a habit.
What a nonsense of Willem Boone, Andrew Kennaugh and Andrea M. It is gast enough. Very clear, transparant and easy to follow. Hey want so many to make this peace dead by rushing like formula 1!!
What do the critics and the comparers with his earlier performance not hear that I hear? Not understand that I understand? What I hear is relentlessness and structure. This is not what fashionable Schumann interpretations "within the accepted norms of interpretation" (as one Pogorelich downsizer once stated) expect, but that is definitely also Schumann: both the relentlessness bording on insanity (inherited from Beethoven) and the macro- and microstructure of the argument (inherited from Beethoven). This is what Pogorelich brings about. Turning the Toccata into XXth-century music. Or, as he himself says, bringing to the fore what is behind the piece, what made it possible at all - to that young Schumann of an op.7. No embellishments, no swooning into a gratifying detail. The core of it, and with an unhalting drive.
Gosh, what happened to him? He played this so magnificently when I first heard him (1981) and now it's all so sloooooow and tiresome... It really saddens me!
Dr. DM H It also doesn’t say in the score whether performer should be allowed to wear pajamas on stage, perhaps we should!? There are responsibilities in regards to romantic style, virtuosity, search for the unattainable, etc. It definitely seems to me as if he’s trying to claim glory without the guts in this performance. Otherwise great pianist, I have great respect for him.
Must admit have never really understood the hype about Pogorelich. Went to a concert of him back in his good days and came out completely disillusioned. Very harsh tone and strange tempi that made the pieces completely lose their structure. Not for me thanks.
Yo nunca pude escucharlo en vivo , siempre note un toque latoso y metálico , por ende duro. Me lo confirmas vos , pero si lo llego a plasmar como crítica , me saltan a la yugular ,nunca me gusto ni su técnica ni su manera de interpretar , no se como Argerich ( mil veces superior ) se entusiasmó tanto , llamándolo genio , los videos de ese concurso , los escucho igual , sonido latoso , como que le saca lágrimas al piano.
Sounds like some kind of attempt at a pop music approach - exaggerated ugly syncopated accents everywhere. All very charmless and emotionally superficial and yes, also pedestrian.
T G A bunch of people like you are commenting about how bad this performance is yet none of you know the struggles pogorelich had to endure to get to this point. When he was 38 his wife died in a way that Pogorelich never fully recovered from, he sold his piano and stopped playing for three years because he broke down every time he thought of her, so next time you criticize a performance you could not even compare to, understand the circumstances behind it.
