My friend was going to play this piece for his college auditions but was told not to by his teacher, as its gained the reputation of being so difficult, by coming into a college audition with it, it says you’ve played everything else already, which sends the wrong message. What a crazy difficult piece. Prokofiev struck the balance between beautiful yet punishingly difficult better than even Paganini in my opinion with this work
I'm absolutely fond of his music too. However there is one piece I don't appreciate, which is the first Piano Concerto. The second movement is wonderful, but I can't appreciate the rest.
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I just cannot imagine somebody playing this piece any better. These are downright stellar performances of everybody involved. The cello-playing is divine. I thought I knew this piece. I didn't. Never heard it sparkle like this.
@@kevinmelendez1460 ikkkkr , she’s really good , it’s probably bc her teacher was taught by rostopovich/danill shafran or at some point by the legend him self
Rostropovich is great, but there's something special about Chang's recording. The improvements are two-fold - she seems to have uncovered some greater understanding of many parts of the work, as well as applied her incredible technique to enabling other parts that were understood but not easily executed. This is especially clear in the second movement.
@@gearyg5649 Geary G do you have any other pieces that has the same style as prokofiev sinfornia and shostakovich cello concertos, i just cant find any, oh also shostakovich string quartet 8. if theres any that came to ur mind, tell me about it!
Samuel Yao hmm well I’m a pianist so I’m not too enriched in cello repertoire...maybe the prok piano concertos 2 and 3, his fifth symphony, rachmaninoff symphonies 2 and 3 and the symphonic dances. Bartok music for strings percussion etc and the concerto for orchestra are good too:)
@@samuelyao3811 Symphonies by Revol Bunin, Lev Knipper, Tsintsadze violin and cello concertos, symphonic works by nikolai peiko, string quartets by Alexander Mosolov, Roslavets, Levitin, Peiko, Lyatoshynsky Symphonies and geez ... uff i cant remember more but there are so much more actually. You can find some in my channel =)
i think that's actually one of the easier parts (*internal screaming*) because the cello's strings are fifths apart, so long distances are easier than on the piano. the left hand pizzes open strings so it's easier than one would expect, but still difficult.
Yes you should , as a cellist , seeing improvement in your own playing is one of the most rewarding thing ever , being able to nail a piece that in the beginning you couldn’t , it’s a amazing feeling.
Yes, a difference in where the composers are coming from, as in St. Petersburg and Donetsk. Babel (from Odessa) also noted the north-south difference of sensibility, though I could also differentiate between Prokofiev the chess player and Shostakovich the football fan. I will admit that, especially in the tempo and drive of the 1st movement, the recording is closer to Rostropovich with Kondrashin than to his versions with Sargent and Rozhdestvensky. I usually listen to this piece on recordings by Rostropovich, so I think of his versions as authoritative, but I'm extremely impressed with Chang's level of execution and engagement--even if there are times when I'm not altogether convinced it's totally in character. It's certainly better than the performance I heard live a couple of years ago in St. Petersburg--when the audience showed more enthusiasm for next piece on the same program--the Serenade by Leonard Bernstein. I went to the same high school as Bernstein (in Boston), but I felt few reservations about Russian musicians getting the character right.
It's really difficult to compare concertos of different instruments to eachother, but it's well accepted that this is easily in the top 3 hardest cello pieces in technique and interpretation. I know that probably isn't the answer you wanted, but it's kinda as close as you can get without being impartial. But as someone who has played this piece, maybe think even a bit harder in my opinion than rach 3.
Espirited oh I get what you mean, as a pianist it’s difficult for me to identify what’s technically challenging for the cello. Is the second movement the most difficult in this piece? The first seems lyrically challenging as well but I’m not sure lol.
@@gearyg5649 this double stop stuff, the speed, the super high registers, the smooth transitions between low and high registers, and overall how clean this sounds is beyond difficult. I'd say about 95% of cellists won't play this in their lifetime, and like 0.1% will play it this well. Basically just take the cadenza and it's a culmination of how hard this piece is
the entire middle section of the scherzo is just so gorgeous, my god. the pastoral air of it gives me Till Eulenspiegel vibes almost. 13:24 and on just gives me chills every time
Lol. "Most" cellists can certainly not play this. Only the best can make passable attempts on a technical level. And only the very few best of the best can actually deliver a true performance of the music.
