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Debussy's Clair de Lune

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emma84

This music is so romantic.

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Chopin's 'Marche Funebre' -- Arturo Michelangeli

Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra

A genius playing the work of another genius:

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18th Variation
Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Abbey Simon, pianist

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Chopin's Etude in Cm, Op. 10 no. 12 (The Revolutionary Etude)



One of Chopin's more dramatic etudes.

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Chopin's Etude No.11 Op. 25 'Winter Wind' (Sviatoslav Richter)



This one hard to play on piano.

VEGANGELICA

Very impressive!

My favorite Chopin Etude is still "Waterfall," which I love because of its powerful lower hand contrasting with the delicate, wild rush of higher notes. The combination of solid strength and tender delicacy makes the song beautiful to me, as the piece draws upon the capacity of a human to feel both.

Chopin - "Waterfall" Etude Op. 10, No. 1
Ashkenazy (observed by proud wife, according to one of the comments about the video)
I especially like the way he makes the higher notes more staccato at 0:42, 1:09, and 1:52 to increase their lightness and water-drop feel. You can also see his intensity while playing the left hand, so I feel his emotion behind the playing (as well as see it in his body motions, such as at 1:26 when the power behind the lower hand climaxes).




And if one can't get enough (as I can't), here is another performance of the "Waterfall" Etude, by Richter. I give the prize to Ashkenazy on this one, for reasons described below:

Chopin - "Waterfall" Etude Op. 10, No. 1
Richter, piano
Although Richter played it very well, I felt more hesitancy and less determination in his performance compared to Ashkenazy's version. I also felt Richter introduced some tempo reductions that may not be part of the score. Overall, his tempo didn't feel as solid to me as when Ashkenazy played. This must be an incredibly difficult piece to perform flawlessly!

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Yes, Ashkenazy wins the youtube comparison.

VEGANGELICA

I've started to listen to piano pieces by Franz Liszt after a conductor mentioned that Liszt composed piano pieces as if the piano were an orchestra, while Chopin composed orchestral pieces as if an orchestra were a piano. This comment made me curious about Liszt.

While randomly listening to some of Liszt's music online, I found this cello - piano version of one of his famous "Liebesträume" piano pieces (Liebesträume - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Below is a lovely video of Liebestraum No. 3 with cello and piano, followed by a video of the piece with piano alone, as Liszt originally intended.

Wikipedia says Liszt wrote the three Liebesträume pieces about saintly, romantic, and mature love, with No. 3 inspired by a poem by Ferdinand Freiligrath about mature, unconditional love: "Love as long as you can! The hour will come when you will stand at the grave and mourn" ("O lieb, so lang du lieben kannst"). Depressing but good advice.

Franz Liszt - "Liebestraum No. 3" -- cello and piano
Performed beautifully by Cellist Seeli Toivio and her brother, pianist Kalle Toivio.




Franz Liszt - "Liebestraum No. 3" -- piano
Performed by Justin Lamb (Justin Lamb), who created the following video that he said was played by "me." I thought that was cute and it made me want to learn more about who this "me" is. Justin Lamb's last.fm account says, "Justin Lamb is a composer, pianist, and guitarist. He writes primarily piano works, however, he also writes orchestral works and progressive rock pieces. He is influenced by both classic composers (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin) and by modern composers as well (Philip Glass, John Williams, Carl Orff, Jean Sibelius)."

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