[Rare live] Alfred Cortot plays Chopin: 24 Préludes, Op.28 (1955) 

So did Pollini, Michelangeli, Gilels, Andsnes, Volodos...etc.

Nobody does it better

Prodigioso artista!!!!!!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

@@joe_fizz Tamas Vasary, Brailowski, Rubinstein, Ivan Moravec ...all on a par ..some even better. No? Tell me why. None of them play with mistakes like Fred here.

Are you sure? There are audience coughs and applause at the end

@@Marsmallos I didn't hear any coughs during - just some audience noise after, as well as the applause... but the Hunt label that first issued this on CD in 1986 had in other cases added applause to broadcast recordings, and that is most likely what happened here. Cortot made in-studio recordings for German radio in the mid-50 - you can hear two Schumann works on my channel - and these required quite a bit of editing ... I doubt that he was capable of playing as cohesively as he does in this Chopin cycle here without breaks and editing (it's really great playing!), so I suspect that given all these factors, this too was an in-studio no-audience broadcast recording.

Pretty amazing piano sound. Whoever engineered this knew piano well.

I counted 158 mistakes. What freshness ? This is a complete mess. Listen to Moravec.

Wie wahr ist das alles, was Sie schreiben.

@@luisademar8986 That's a true story. Kazuyuki Toyama "遠山一行" said so. Mr. Toyama (1922-2014) studied aesthetic art history and music aesthetics at Tokyo Imperial University's graduate school. He then went to France to study at the Paris Conservatory and the University of Paris. During that period, he also became familiar with the playing of Cortot and Furtwängler. Mr. Toyama's wife's name is Keiko Toyama. Mrs. Toyama (1934-2021) was an excellent pianist who studied with Cortot.

You write that the Raindrop Prelude is technically too easy. Could you explain more what you mean by that? I can think of a lot of music - slow Schubert movements, for instance - that are technically quite easy but make the most profound artistic points.

I'm Japanese from the Far East, so I read in a physiology book that different parts of the brain are used when listening to Western music. Also, since the music comes from a remote area, they are likely to view Western music history more objectifying than Westerners. Many of the Japanese students of Western music at the time of their introduction were talented in musicology and composition. If you do some research, you will find that there are well-established methods for absorbing knowledge, such as the high literacy rate of the Japanese people and the high standard of Japanese culture. On the other hand, the performance of Western music was incomparable and extremely low. Japanese music uses a pentatonic scale, but there is no concept of integer ratios of frequencies other than octaves, and intervals are traditionally taught from the so-called core intervals of C, F, and G, and the surrounding sounds of F and G. They were creating musical scales. This area is detailed in ``音楽の骸骨のはなし・The Story of Musical Skeletons,'' written by the avant-garde composer, educator, and essayist ``柴田南雄・SIBATA MINAO.'' Today's great performers of Japanese music are abducted by equal temperament, even on instruments like the violin where they can freely change the pitch. If you listen to old recordings from the past, you can see musicians playing to the pitches of ancient Japan. If I had to name one master, it would be 宮城道夫・Michio Miyagi. Let's return to the prelude to "Rain drops". A Japanese music publishing company had something called ``全音・Zen-on,'' and they had a series of piano pieces. This is a story from the past, but... Among them, this song was ranked ``the easiest/A'' in terms of difficulty to play. Japanese music had no concept of harmony, and of course counterpoint never occurred. However, the concept of heterophony was highly developed, and the charm of melodic melisma was also wonderful. I believe that Western music is not even close to Japanese music in these respects. However, I didn't pay any attention to the polyphonic elements of this song. Although the song was lyrical and had an attractive melody, they thought it had problems with its structure and was unnecessarily long. Things are changing now. It's not as difficult as 革命のエチュード or 木枯しのエチュード, but it's ranked as "difficult/D." The above-mentioned tendencies may also be reflected in today's technically excellent Japanese pianists. There is no player who can produce the kind of artistic sound from a piano that Cortot expresses. It's not limited to Japanese pianist... Schubert's later piano sonatas are very beautiful. They are the best musical moments that mankind has ever created. They were not pianistic, but the first person to bring them to the concert hall was Schnabel, who is also famous as a great performer of Beethoven. However, I don't think that modern pianists are bringing Schubert to the concert hall just because of the tradition he inherited. I feel a parallel relationship with "minimal music" as a compositional style. These composers include Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Stephen Michael Reich, and Sakamoto Ryuiti. As for current pianists, Alfred Brende's recordings are a good example. Although it is an extreme example, Valery Afanassiev's recordings are the highlight. Some people may feel that there are similar elements on the surface between the Rain Drops Prelude and Schubert's piano sonatas. As you can see from the above, I think they are different phenomena.

@@Blue-beautifulLife-sv2oh Thank you. You write, "Japanese music uses a pentatonic scale, but there is no concept of integer ratios of frequencies other than octaves, and intervals are traditionally taught from the so-called core intervals of C, F, and G, and the surrounding sounds of F and G." But these "core intervals" are obviously built on the integer relations 3:2 and 4:3. Therefore, your statement that Japanese music has "no concept of integer ratios of frequencies other than octaves" appears incorrect. Please explain. You are correct, of course, that Schubert's and Chopin's compositions are profoundly different. I mentioned Schubert merely to point out the existence of music that is both technically easy and artistically profound. You wrote in your initial post, "The ``Raindrop Prelude,'' which forms the centerpiece of the collection, is technically too easy." You still have not explained what you mean by "technically too easy." How can a piece of music be "technically too easy"? What exactly do you mean by this? What standard of technical ease or difficulty are you using? And how do you account for the technical accomplishment of different pianists? A piece may be technically difficult for me, but very easy for a professional pianist. Finally, as I said before, these is a lot of music, by Chopin and others, that is both technically easy and musically profound. You seem to object to my using Schubert as an example. So let me use Chopin. His Prelude No. 4 in E minor is technically attainable by any intermediate student. It is therefore "technically too easy"?

His take is very interesting and delightfully original _(so why should that be a shock ?)_ but so far I prefer Pogorelich _(I think that's 1990)_ , a version by Sokolov _(you can find it on here with a forest landscape stillframe)_ , Cyprien Katsaris _(Sony 1993)_ and in some sense even Aimi Kobayashi during the third round of the 18th Chopin Competition.

@@TheSoteriologist voir aussi Beatrice Rana

@@antoinezygfryd I have heard her version before, found her excellent and have her bookmarked. But she's not among my top 4. I love her Goldberg Variations ! For Chopin op. 28 I should add Sergio Fiorentino 1959.

Samson François by FAR better than any of this inane list

@@weerawanchantanavanich5518 hahahaha

34:08 no 24

Yeah, sad, really.

@@TheSoteriologistCortot made an EMI recording of the prelude’s as late as 1957 only first published 2017 . He is in surprisingly good shape, better than this one. It is also on you tube.

@@ulfwernernielsen6708 Thanks, I see one vid here with a Jugendstil image as stillframe, I hope it is the right one. I am pretty impressed by the interpretations I compare Cortot _(now in three versions)_ with, including, in ascending order, Aimi Kobayashi _(18th Chopin competition, third stage)_ , Katsaris _(1993 with Sony)_ , Sokolov _(Paris, June 1990)_ and the well known studio version Ivo Pogorelich _(my favorite, needless to say)_ . Even though I find Cortot's rubato and musical understanding of the highest order, I think he wouldn't be able to compete today. That is similar to Wilhelm Kempff _(whose Brahms Intermezzi, for instance, I absolutely adore !)_ and really a bit sad because today sensitivity and understanding is often sacrificed in the altar of technical perfection.

@@ulfwernernielsen6708 I am not sure whether the 1957 version I found is the EMI one, but I described it via the stillframe. If you would care to check it out, No. 3 is a let down already, not that I would blame an 80 yo, but even the 1933 version cannot compete with Rubinstein 1946 I am hearing, even though Cortot was roughly 3 years young than the latter. I would love to find a complete op 28 with Horowitz, didn't find it on yt.

@@TheSoteriologistIt is the 1957 EMI recording. He is in better shape than in this one. Very interesting to hear all 4 EMI recordings from 1926. 1933. 1942 and 1957 . Listen to no 15 . Only in 1933 he played as written. In the others he added a lot of deep notes short before the first theme comes back for last time. Horowitz only recorded no 6 and 15 for a mixed Chopin Album for Columbia. When I was younger I preferred Rubinstein to Cortot but I have changed my mind. But in the Polonaise A flat major I still prefer Rubinstein. My absolute favorite in the preludes is the 1973 Arrau Philips recording .

*beautiful

I'd gladly sit through many more dropped notes than exist here in order to experience music making of this level of inspiration and heartfelt beauty. Our musical 'ideals' are a bit materialistic and decadent (and who can wonder?) I think if I were presented with this as a novice to piano music and piano playing I'd find it more inspiring than many more accurate 'interpretations'. Indeed I fell in love with Cortot's playing at the age of twelve and my feelings have not changed - maybe backed up with a bit more knowledge sixty years on from that time.

@@flonzaley6092 Well said! I wholeheartedly agree!!!