La Campanella Liszt-Busoni Performed by Lhevinne 

this was the first recording I heard that made me think that all the talk about a lost art of piano-playing wasn't just talk.

I've owned an LP of this recording for years, and to me it's the "gold standard" of technique and interpretation of this piece. I once asked pianist Daniel Pollack (who studied with Lhevinne's wife Rosina at Juiliard) if Josef Lhevinne really played in live performances with the kind of unbelievable delicacy and accuracy one hears on the piano rolls. His response: "I heard Lhevinne play many times, and yes, he played exactly as one hears on the recordings." Unbelievable!

1:37 The Greatest Double Thirds Run In Recorded Piano History .

Nobody plays like this anymore. This is top teir piano playing.

Wow, it's even more amazing than Busoni's own (piano roll) recording. . .no wonder Busoni held Lhevinne in such high regard. I've been a fan of both for years, but the sense of whimsy, bounce and poise with which this is performed surpasses anything I've ever expected from the piece.

Within 10 sec better than every other version I've heard. Fantastic playing.

Just like butterflies and humming birds dancing across the piano keys in short just amazing.

This performance is beyond compare. I know of no one else who plays it with such finish and ease, and most of it is done pianissimo, which is much more difficult to achieve in such rapid passage work than it is to play it loudly. The tempo never flags due to the technical demands, which is characteristic of most other performances I have heard. Piano playing does not get any better than this, not even by Hofmann or Rachmaninoff.

its well known that Busoni thought Lhevinne was way above the capcities of his peer group (of very talented pianists at the time) … and this, even though there is a machine involved, rather bears out why Busoni thought the way he did! Breathless, non chalant, technical mastery was Lhevinne's hallmark - incredible by any standard.

Adele Marcus has said that when Lhevinne played Liszt's Feux Follets in recital, the listener had the impression of a bee buzzing around his head, so light and etheric was his playing. Hearing this recording of La Campanella, I regret once again that I never heard the mighty Josef Lhevinne in concert.

Alexander Siloti (aí think it was him) said that once whilst playing the glissando octaves in the Brahms-Paganini, Levihnne played actual octaves with a nervous micro articulation of the wrist, to the utter disbelief of the people who were present to the concert and of those who weren’t!

I do urge everyone commenting here to bear in mind that it is a piano roll. Lhevinne was incredible, as his conventional recordings testify, and Ampico did a great job of "recording" many famous pianists, but the technical design of piano rolls is much more primitive than microphone recording, and we just don't know how much tinkering went on in order to correct slight "fluffs" in performance, or even accelerate tempo to superhuman levels - which was entirely possible.

Unquestionably without peer, as are so many of the great Lhevinne recordings.

The recording is properly pitched in G sharp minor, the key in which Liszt originally composed La Campanella. Glad you enjoyed the performance.

music making at the highest possible level. Lhevinne turns this etude into meaningful music. we should never forget the masters from the 20th century -- almost all of them played with such musicality, understanding, artistry, imagination, marvellous taste, not to mention that the sheer accuracy and CLARITY of this performance is still unmatched -- not a single note is out of place, without its proper meaning within the composition. and what is left today of this tradition? almost nothing... only Mikhail Pletnev and a few other (rather unknown) musicians who could match this level come to my mind. but the large majority of celebrated "musicians" are simply uninteresting, tasteless, without artistry or personality.

Lhevinne nous offre à chaque interprétation la quintessence de la musique. Jamais de virtuosité facile, toujours de la délicatesse... des pianissimos magnifiques... soutenus par une technique brillantissime. Il est parmi les plus grands !

One of the great pianist! I've read that Anton Rubinstein praised him, even conducting and Lhevine as a pianist! Shame there is no any video recording about him

This is one of the best performances of this piece ever. It could be compared only to those of Barere, Hofmann and Friedman

I am so impressed by his divine phrasing technique interpreted the true essence of this piece. After knowing his performance on this work, all others’ faded.

A great book says he (Lhevine) uses to play like the stars shining in the morning sky!

I have literally NEVER heard a greater performance of this work -- in this version or Liszt's original -- by any artist, living or dead! "WOW!!" is an inadequate descriptor.... 😮

So light! And he uses techniques I don't even know . I would vist your performances if you were still here today.

This is magic! I came to listen to this after hearing Trifonov play. God, people prefer to listen to a fake pianists nowadays.

i have tried outa few of these Busoni passages and they have mostly eluded me for several years.

Absolutely lovely! I only wish there were a recording!

I can't put my listening experience of this interpreation into words.

It is impossible beautiful

So great,so perfect...and so musical!

utmost perfection.

it is really supernatural. this is the only pianist, in my opinion, who makes a dance (and who can make it..the speed) in the finale at 3 min 41 untill the end. i guess that only the young Horowitz could do that. what octaves!

Amazing!!

Sensational! Bravo! TY

Awesome.TY for posting.

"... I could put you all into a melting pot. But you wouldn't make one Joseph Lhevinne" -Busoni to a group of his students.

I thought John Ogden's performance was cutting edge virtuosity until I heard this. This is a different level. Incredible

I didn't know that a Busoni-version of la campanella exists. Wonderful

Wow! Beauty!

La de Lizst Busoni es la que aprendí. 🎹❤️🙏

The articulation is hair-raising.

Beyond human....

You are right. That is why I only have only posted two piano roll performances on my channel, both by Lhevinne. His Ampico roll of the Schulz-Evler Blue Danube Waltz is so similar to his recording (except toward the end) that I assumed that his Liszt-Busoni La Campanella was also a fairly accurate reproduction of his performance. (The Blue Danube roll also has the florid and demanding introduction that was left out of his recording and was the main reason that I posted it).

hey what perfect trills !!!!!

this is so special than the normal style!!

everytime i listen to this...im just so shocked by how...perfect it is. its mind-blowing; the clarity, delicacy, the interpretation. almost makes me sad.

Haha right with ya. Genius and mind-blowing are some words that come to mind, but they are understatements!

OH. MY. GOD!!!!

Wow 😗

me too!! it's more far that i have imagined

1:39-1:40. WTF!?!?!?!?!? are those chromatics ascending in thirds!?!? how the fuck does he do that with one hand?!?!!? it's unreal!! i've never even heard Liszt's pieaces like that.

brillant

In my opinion, out of the thousands of top-notch pianists, only Liszt, Lhevinne, Paderewski, and Rachmaninoff have reached the zenith in pianistic excellence.

bluematrix109--I understand your amazement. Lhevinne was famous for his double thirds, sixths, and octaves, and he was unrivaled in this regard. The finish of his playing is phenomenal, and he makes it all sound so natural and so easy. Technical difficulties did not exist for him. In my opinion, Lhevinne is, at least, the equal of the more famous Rachmaninoff and Hofmann. The piano truly cannot be played any better.

I studied with students of both the Lhevinnes. The one that studied with Josef, told me that he used to say that playing the piano was a choreography, that if it happen to fall before a piano, would make music.

Yes,and Padarewski as well!

brilliant

Wow.

hugely creative - ah, the romantic era! very interesting departures in some of the fioritura - anyone know if those were original to lhevinne?

Simply incredible - I think that this is even better than Josef Hofmann's recording of the same compostion.

@gtimny There's a slight relation - both Leschetitzky and Liszt were pupils of Czerny. The question of course becomes: who "taught" people like Liszt, Lhevinne, Hoffmann or Horowitz? Liszt's refusal to teach Rubinstein (no matter what history may say) was most likely something personal - those kinds of things always are, particularly among rival musicians.

Best

Here is the link to the 2 page (!) article, promised long ago to “My Early Years” by Josef Lhevinne .... detailing his earliest teachers, his having been a classmate of S. Rachmaninoff, and A. Scriabin, his positive (and one negative) interactions with A. Rubenstein (sp?) ) reader.exacteditions.com/issues/33563/spread/9 P.S. if you should encounter any problems with reading a page, simply navigate ahead or back one page then go back to the page with the difficulty and the impediment should be no longer present.

wtf ....human playing ? the masters abilities are beyond words..

If you look up about Ampico piano rolls you find that they are all fitted with hand levers for the performer to vary volume and speed to imitate a live performer. As such they may be regarded as the first truly interactive acoustic music making machine ; something without any parallel until only the past half-decade with the advances in modern computing technology and software. In others words, tempi and dynamics can be "fixed" by the player.

grande grandissio grande velocita' e tecnca il fraseggio impeccabile.questa versione penso sia ancorz piu' difficile dell originale busoni uno dei piu' grandi pianosti di tutti i tempi non a caso italiano come paganini :PPP

@Bret6464 You're absolutely right in your history of these amazing pianists and their later lives in New York. What I meant was that there was no teaching link to Liszt in the Lhevinnes background since neither of them *studied* with Siloti (though Rachmaninoff did). Incidentally, for a time in my early 20s *my* teacher was Kyriena Siloti, Alexander's daughter, then in her 80s and quite a character!

@Barbosapiano -- "The sound behind his technique reminds me of Rachmaninoff, quite fairly since they belong to the same "school". In fact they graduated together at the Moscow Conservatory and it was Lhévinne who won the gold medal. And, a couple of years later, Rosina Bessie won the gold medal and married Josef the same year. He considered her every bit his equal, and the recordings she made prove that out.

How much I've learnt by watching / listening to this video .... I think Listz would turn over in his grave if he heard some of our masters playing this today ... they've changed the whole feel of it. Something to be said about the loss of the old masters performances. I wonder how it will be played in 100 years from now ... will more be lost by speed? Such a shame.

1:37

there are very much pieces for example don juan paraphrase. chopin even wrote a third study (op 25 6) if you are interested to seek the limit =)

Aside from the fact that this is played with great musicallity sensitivity and poetry, can anyone find a better example of raw technical brilliance. Dwarfs hoffman kissin and horawitz. ( not that the best tec is the best pianist)

Seven clowns have disrespected my teacher’s teacher’s teacher!!!!

Lizsr could not have played it better

G E N I U S

The way he really plays this is kinda similar to Jorge Bolet's approach- even though his isn't fast, he makes a lot of music with the same notes.

This is my favorite version AND performance of La Campanella..... just out of curiosity, is this a Bechstein concert grand on which this recording was made?

well you where speaking about his piano :-)

Why is this version different from the one i've got?Are there different Liszt versions?

Busoni's arrangement is also beautiful - more delicate than the original Liszt. I know there is some skeptisism about the authenticity of reproducing piano roll recordings. However, they were widely recognized and praised by the music establishment of their time.

me too...i don't know! even haven't the smallest idea :) it's superhuman. i know only Horowitz who could do something the same

Oh i just read the post form Eristhenes...XD so it wasn't from the original Liszt arrangement.

no, horowitz was still in russia when der busoni died - though v.h. had wanted to study with him.

Don't forget that piano rolls were "correctable" in the same way that digital recordings can be edited today.

it´s actually in g sharp minor!

If Ashkenazy and Rubinstein would get a baby, he would look exactly like this. Great playing ofc, so leggiero and elegant.

I never heard of Lhevinne. But his profile looks much like the great Vladimir Ashkenazy.

matt bellamy also plays it very well ^^'

Actually the Lhevinne line (both Josef and Rosina) does not go back to Liszt. Both were influenced by the great Russian pianist of their youth, Anton Rubinstein, and were pupils at the Moscow Conservatory founded by his brother Nikolai. Both Lhevinnes studied there with Vassily Safonoff who had been a pupil of Teodor Leschetitzky who himself had been a pupil of Beethoven's student Karl Czerny. No Liszt in there at all, in fact Liszt famously refused to teach Rubinstein.

Yet, Liszt was famously TAUGHT by Czerny. The Lhevinne line may not directly descend from Liszt, but they are connected. I however, am directly descended from the Lhevinne line.

Rapsodia Húngara nº 2 o "La Campanella" de Liszt :)

@brassmonkeyjew you're joking right??

you never heard of JOSEF LHEVINNE? :-O

The great problem with Ampico rolls was that they could be doctored (with regard to note accuracy and dynamics) and also speeded up. We really have no way of knowing if JL could PLAY the piece like this, but it is certainly exciting to HEAR it like this.

Wow. What a performance. Such clarity and reliability of sound. To me, it sounded like someone playing bach; not too much dynamic variation. Not romantic. Perhaps played in the way that Bartok is performed. Da? Thank you Beckmesser 2.

No, Kasyapa. It's Busoni's arrangement of La Campanella, not the original Liszt. Delicious isn't it?

ye xD!

Then why did he see him many times. Was a second opinion not enough?

this is more simple than the paganini liszt version

essuno ha eguali

Alicia de Larrocha's version is superb too.

I usually hate this piece because people play it so obnoxiously. This is so tasteful and unpretentious despite being utterly virtuosic.