One of the most beautiful strings of thoughts anyone has ever had. Such music and the contemplation that comes along with it is, IMHO, a gift from God.
I'm usually not a big fan of Hamelin when he plays pieces that require lots of colors, rubatos or long lines of melody (for example Debussy). And yet, this is one of the best performances I've ever heard in my life. I guess I stand corrected about Hamelin.
If any of you fellow pianists desire to play this masterpiece of a song but are discouraged by the complexity and appearance of the sheet music, don’t be. My wonderful piano teacher helped me decipher this piece, and showed how logical all the parts are. First of all, you should obviously be using both hands for the kind of phrases found in the beginning. Also, most of the piece follows scales that repeat the same notes going up and down, the scales just change throughout the music. Most of the piece is not hard as if you inspect each “difficult” section like the part around the middle before the scale change when everything goes down, you’ll find all the patterns and tricks Liszt used to compose the piece. Good luck to all you pianists learning this intimidating piece!
@Devin Belver I would definitely recommend you watch musicians that play with an overhead view of the hands, such as Rousseau and Paul Barton for this piece. Just sit down with the sheet music in hand and take notes while making observations. It might be boring, but it will pay off for all the time you won't have to spend fiddling around with fingerings! :)
I remember the first time I heard this I made a new friend and she was a very skilled pianist and she began playing it and literally 2 seconds in I was blown away and completely mesmerized it's one of my most treasured high school memories
I learned this (very badly) as a 17 year old right before I entered music school, I even performed this at a recital by memory.... re-learning 7 years later & I still find it extremely difficult. But totally worth learning... multiple times over my life time. Maybe when I am 80 years old I will play it half as beautiful as this recording...
I dislike the ridiculous speed he played at and also the disregard for the triplet at measure 13 (that gave it a little sprightly zing). It's one of Hamlin's least clean records recorded under deplorable conditions where all the beautiful arpeggios are mushed into an incoherent mess while the final line literally took more than a minute. One of the things (I also don't really like how he played like Pletnev, it's the spontaneity where there are seemingly random, capricious rubatos and arbitrary fluctuations). He rushed so much in the fortissimo-bass-melody part (m. 30) you can't even hear the dotted rhythm. He should make the left-hand leaps on the second and fourth beat of m. 31 more apparent if he actually follow the dotted rhythm, but no, he didn't. He chose the easy way out. Instead of the proper flow and drama, he butchered it. If you want to hear the true potential of Hamlin, listen to many of his mindblowing live recordings and his incredible Alkans. He is one of the best technicians, not amature who uses an irrationally amount of pedal and mushes those delightful arpeggios
Grades is one method of motivating learning. But it rarely inspires, which to me is a more powerful force of motivation. It's rather disturbing to read "What good is a big heart when you can't play the notes correctly?" Which is really making the judgement "If you can't play notes correctly, big heart has no use." Well, Horowitz makes errors all the time without affecting his emotional output. To see technique as the end for musical experience really does insult to the art
Marc-Andre Hamelin, one of the greatest pianists of our time, playing the music of one of the greatest pianists of ALL time. And this is LIVE! Beautiful music wonderfully played. Thank you for posting this!
You know the music is extremely beautiful, when the sheet is looking beautiful as well. Just the first pages, you can see how perfect this left hand is...
Yes, but it wasn't written. And it doesn't sound like an alternative to what is written, it sounds like a bit which has been added on. Perhaps a different edition?
Ben Emberley "Liszt also wrote down... the following mysically hovering conclusion with major triads on each of the six degrees of the descending wholre-tone scale... to be performed ab lib. in place of the conclusion in the principal text."
@juantendo8 I think what he/she means is that music like Un Suspiro, Minute Waltz, La Donna E mobile, Companelle, Claire de Lune, was created out of joy and amusement not for money like present day musicians do with their music( Justin Biever, idk who else hahah)
at 1:35 I feel that the pianist somehow clips off the very high notes or he/she somehow plays all of those high frequency notes at the speed of light, because they are clearly missing. other than that, great performance.
can someone explain to me why he changes the ending? hes the only one that does a different ending lol... nontheless a awsome performance... at 1:25 i would had already given up LOL.... hard piece to play for sure
what version does Hamelin have? because he plays extra notes there on the couple last bars. Was he just improvising there? does anyone if anyone know what publisher he is playing from that would be greaat
I have loved this wonderful piece my whole life, but Hamelin makes me think I have never heard it before! Melting gold and sparkling diamonds. Amazing ...
@TamaNewb Well, otherwise the notes would run into each other, and the beauty of the piece would be somewhat marred. Also, the player is usually leans toward his/her own interpretation of the piece.
Liszt is never appreciated for his beautiful love songs. He could dole out sweetness and romance just as well as virtuosity (in fact frequently the two together).
Hmm. Actually you right. I've just started this masterpiece 2 weeks ago. Just one week after the comment. If you memorize the hand moving and arpeggios, it's not actually that hard. La campanella seemed impossible to me, and sure most of pianists thinks in that way. But after working on huge jumps, now i can play it %70-80 speed...
Who the hell said music is all about level? It is true that music is mostly about soul and passion but those alone won't let you master a piece like this. Levels are there to give guidance to students about the difficulty in terms not just techniques but also emotions and musicality. If you are a very passionate student who is currently playing the sonatinas or basic sonatas, you still need much training in both technique and musicality(which might take another year or two if you are good enogh)
I just created a youtube account and the first thing I did was come to this video so I can like it. A great performance of an even greater composition. Liszt definitely got it right by naming this piece "A Sigh". I don't know about you guys but I always find myself sighing at the end of this piece because of the sheer beauty i just heard.
Grades/levels give pupils the skills they need to execute more meaningful music properly. If you told your student to play passionately, they would have no clue where or HOW to start. Soul - passion - heart - all the things you mentioned can only be achieved through mastering the fundamentals. You cannot simply jump into Liszt or Rach and expect to play with emotion, without the basics.. No need to be so cynical Scrooge, grades are just the baby steps on the path to true musicianship.
How long do you think it would take me to learn a piece of this caliber? The most difficult piece i have learned up to now is Beethoven's Sonate Pathetique Mvt. 1. If this piece is a bit out of reach for my level and experience, what would you guys recommend for me to learn? I self teach now since i don't have enough time because of school. (I passed ABRSM grade 8 with distinction last year, if that gives approximate experience representation)
To give you an idea of the difficulty of this piece's difficulty compared to the pathetique, this makes pathetique look like a piece written for a two-year-old. However, idk when you would be able to play it because I don't know you or what other pieces you are currently studying.
+Jaqueline Nazareth Pereira I know, I wasn't stating that the sonate pathetique is more difficult than the Etudes. I was simply saying that the pathetique is the most difficult piece i have played thus far.
+TheFishGoesRoar This piece looks & sounds extremely daunting but once you get started, you will find the piece isn't that difficult other than the odd section. After completing my grade 8, I then completed my ATCL the following year, after that, this piece took me around half a year to learn & perform. It is definitely possible with consistent practice :)
I don't understand which part is the title and which part is the composer's name. Liszt Three Concert Etudes S.144 No.3 "Un Sospiro" (Marc-Andre Hamelin) Someone please help
@BNstudios1 Ideal fingering depends on ur hand size and shape. I use 5321 for the left. Someone with smaller hands might use 5212. Ideal is what's ideal for ur hand.
@TamaNewb @tangycheezexists There is sustain pedal used. Most professional scores don't include it because specific instructions for how to pedal is very amateurish.
Also, I'll add to what everyone else has said and say that if you look at music history, Music has nearly always been about money. Bach was paid to write a new cantata every week for the church. They wrote just to pay bills and within that they found some passion and love for it. But to think that money and music have nothing to do with each other, I'd seriously suggest looking back at music history.
We need to realize that there is a difference between technique and emotions, and that technique to some extent is necessary to make music. But I, somehow, understand - I have met so many people who think music is all emotion and that the necessary technique - in any degree - comes from the heart :-) Maybe it does! But still, if it does not, a piano teacher may help; more or less, of course. There is no such thing as a Complete Piano Course ♬ (tm)
Violins playing nel cor piu no mi sento: Since when violins have to lines Pianist Playing Un Sopiro: Since when pianist have to reed 3 lines Orchestra:
again, just my opinion, but some pieces are as much visual as they are audio. The crossovers, when done right, are just gorgeous and can add a whole lot to the experience when watching it performed. When you remove the crossovers, it just looks, and can even sound like another "pretty song"
34 people don't understand that if we are to ever reach for the stars and discover anything beyond this planet for ourselves we will be doing it listening to classical music.
omg can't believe this is a Canadian pianist. Also something about the melody of the song during the first part of the song sounds very east asian, which is interesting because this was performed in tokyo! Amazing performance.
No, he could only just cover a 10th. Liszt once said to a pupil about his hands that he could only barely cover the last chords of the slow movement of the Hammerklavier Sonata, which are 10ths. It's because he made such huge jumps in his music that people credited him with far greater hands.
I cannot get see the ossia stave on my sheet and I prefer it. Furthermore that 'duh' ending seems a kind of humourous anticlimax but I think it should resonate more.
@ShinichiKudou2008 It is a for a lot of the piece. What you do for the beginning bit and the rest with that same general theme going on is that you alternate which hand plays the melody. Left plays while the right does the upper half of the arpeggio and the right hits the melody while left plays the lower half of the arpeggio. You'll notice this if you check out the direction of the stems
