Op. 25: no 1 - 00:00 no 2 - 02:26 no 3 - 04:05 no 4 - 05:47 no 5 - 07:21 no 6 - 11:08 no 7 - 13:03 no 8 - 19:33 no 9 - 20:38 no 10 - 21:38 no 11 - 26:21 no 12 - 29:42
Sokolov offers one of the most charming and delightful versions of the Opus 25, no. 3 that I've ever heard. Thanks again for sharing the music of this great pianist with the rest of us.
I completely agree! I feel like I've heard 25/5 thousands of times but this interpretation is so refreshing. He doesn't rush the middle section, his playing is both powerful and with the lightest and most effortless accentuation
Someone has uploaded a concert encore of the final etude, it might just be one of the best live performances of that piece ever recorded. I occasionally go back and watch it sheer awe of his prowess. Go watch it...it's unbelievable.
@@tombennettband1485 i didn’t say that, I said not every note is super clear, which is of course intentional, to create atmospheres and not banged notes, and he may create strong sounds but they’re never strident or loud.
@@maelcanicatti5907 I was agreeing with you...he's not a banger....but every note is clear and precise with the exact dynamic he wants to produce. Def one of the best if not the best out there.
When Grigory plays Chopin, he is Chopin. And when he plays Beethoven, he is also this great man. And for all, for all the Genius, he becomes all them. I love him !
First part of this works well as an introduction to "Someday I'll find You" by Sir Noel Coward....I know this as they have done in various productions...
Un impitoyable virtuose. Ne laisse la place à personne. Un cerveau èpoustouflant + une main gauche qui n'a d'égale qu'avec sa droite. Russe? Non, non Sokolov doit être extraterrestre. Jamais rien d'entendu de pareil, ni techniquement ni musicalement. Comment peut-on jouer du piano de la sorte? Son hiver, c'est la Sibérie. Son océan un tsunami...
Geez... I started taking piano lessons when I was 6, went to college for it, and it's been a few years since that. I've lived with the piano for over 20 years and have heard SO MANY people complain about coughing. And yes, sometimes as an audience member it can be a little frustrating when someone is coughing repeatedly and is clearly not even trying to suppress it whatsoever. However, sometimes a cough really does just come upon someone suddenly before they realize. It's always best to give the benefit of the doubt, especially when you aren't even present to see what's happening. That being said, at some of the "highest level" performances I've been to (Cliburn competition 2009 and Rivinia festival come to mind most readily for me), it was clear that at least 50% of the coughs were pretentious, rude people who weren't agreeing with or enjoying the performer's interpretation of the piece at hand, and were coughing to make it known that "this music is being performed poorly." Long comment to say, maybe the classical music community could stand to lighten up a bit in general. (Edited because damn autocorrect made "Cliburn" into "Clinton". Ugh.)
Я надеюсь , ты помнишь СОКОЛОВА АЛЕКСАНДРА ИЛЬИЧА ? Которого вы бросили помирать одного безногого и слепого ? И даже не были у него на похоронах ! Это написал Богданов Виктор Петрович , проживающий в Израиле по адресу : Бат-Ям ул. ГЕРЦЛЬ д.10 кв.4 . Всегда к Вашим услугам ...за прекрасного и светлого человека СОКОЛОВА АЛЕКСАНДРА ИЛЬИЧА !!!
+Enrico Lumetti I think he is pressing both pedals at the same time. An absolutly fantastic and incredible pianist. Never heard anybody like him. Could be a martian...
+MardkoMBR yeah, I figured as much after thinking about it. The way he gradually inserts the prima corda though... It never occurred to me before that this was possible
Although he can be a bit fussy in his interpretive approach to anything he plays, he's one of my very favorite pianists; however, I find his playing of these enormously difficult pieces a bit too 'etude like'. But still, in terms of pure technique, I think that #'s 3 and 11 would be hard to surpass...I just wish he would go back into the studio to re-record both Op. 10 and 25.
So? He had a wrong note? Rubinstein and Horowitz were well known for frequent wrong notes but they are seen as the greatest interpreters of Chopin and certainly among the greatest pianists in history!
I think I enjoy Murray Perahia's Etudes better. Sokolov plays with a clunkier/heavier sounding hand. Perahia's are much more even, consistent, controlled. Sokolov does have a nice way of making the melody lines sing brightly. For me, Perahia edges him out on the Etudes.
Grigory Sokolov (born April 18, 1950 in Leningrad) In the 40 years since the 16-year-old Grigory Sokolov was awarded first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow in 1966, the world has been blessed with what one American critic recently called "a kind of pianism, musicianship and artistry one thought had vanished forever". Championed at a young age by Emil Gilels and a prominent figure on the Russian music scene since his early teens, Sokolov has gained an almost mythical status amongst music-lovers and pianophiles throughout the world. He is considered by many today to be the world's greatest living pianist. Ever since his first major piano recital in Leningrad at the age of 12, Sokolov has amazed everyone again and again with the enormous breadth of his repertoire and his huge, almost physical musical strength. Using little pedal, and thus superior finger-work, he draws from the concert grand an immense variety of sounds; he has an unlimited palette of colours, a spontaneous imagination and a magical control of line. His interpretations are poetic and highly individual, and his rhythmic freedom and elasticity of phrase are perhaps unequalled among pianists today.
@@alexismandelias Honestly, I don't even remember writing this comment. And listening it isn't bad at all. I don't know what was running through my mind! XD
Is it me, or is the piano too much out of tune? This performance itself, I think, is quite enyojable, even though his playing doesn't seem to be very consistent interpretation-wise here.
His sound resembles a digital reproduction. He achieves this (what people below are calling "clarity") by banging the keys, disaggregating the notes, and ignoring the musical progression from phrase to phrase. Too often he exaggerates accents and, for a professional pianist, has a completely cockeyed notion of rubato. His "sound" ends up "stressed" and ugly. The passage 17:10 - 18:20 illustrates. To be clear, I don't dispute that Sokolov has good technical skills: his musicianship, however - at any rate in this performances - is second rate.
I've just checked again to see if I was in a bad mood of something. But no, you have got to be kidding! I am incredulous. But perhaps you are being tongue in cheek, like Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.H.O.O.Q.
David and the Angels hi - Pollini's is really famous: Richter gives another terrific performance. I'm not trying to be smart Alec but seriously, youtube is full of 'better' performances.
And just checked again (for the second time). Oh my, 17:10 - 18:20 is a doozy of a lousy passage. As I said 5 months ago. Given the hyperbolic adulation he gets, one is certainly entitled to get more music and less sound. His interpretations are as intolerable to the ear as they are, I suspect, to the piano. I'm only sorry he doesn't play quicker, and so get the ordeal over and done with faster. As it is, I've never heard a pianist bang so many notes per unit of time. Stunning. All the same, there is nothing to be heard in these interpretations that taking a jackhammer to the keyboard wouldn't produce.
