Fastest Octaves Ever!

[alzado]

I have started playing a version of the theme from the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1.  This is sufficient for me, since I'm not ready to purchase all 80 pages of the original score.  This arrangement is hard enough for me, to be sure, with plenty of runs of octaves.

This morning I dug back into my old CDs and found a Red Seal (old) recording of Horowitz playing this concerto with -- I think -- the NY Philharmonic.  Sound quality was not too great, but the performance was quite amazing.

How can ANYONE play octaves that fast?  Lord, I got dizzy just listening.  It was at an IMPOSSIBLE speed.  The notes are also crisp and clean, not muddy like some "too fast" renditions.  If he had hit "clinkers" you would have heard them.

As a bravura performance of sheer technical mastery, I have not heard it bested.

That concerto is a vehicle for virtuosity, and Horowitz really did an amazing performance.


When Horowitz was at the top of his form, he WAS something!

[sevencircles]

Havenīt heard that recording please post a link.

Hamelinīs octaves in the cadenza during HR2 are fast indeed.

Vododosīs octaves I love in general. He has got the ear for dynamics and and when you should do an  accelerando.

[thalbergmad]

Josef Lhevinne used to play the glissando octaves in Brahms Pag Variations as actual octaves from the wrist.

I guess that would be pretty fast.

Thal

[mephisto]

I don't know if this is your version, but here you can hear Horowitz play insanely fast octaves in Tchaik 1:

https://www.sendspace.com/file/l2686q

[tompilk]

i uploaded this... listen to the chords about 3/4 the way through this... where he goes in and out... stunning... and yes they are chords, not octaves... on the score it says "as fast and loud as possible"!

Also, about 7 mins into the movement is even more furious octaves... but buy the dvd for them!
Tom

[pianowolfi]

i uploaded this... listen to the chords about 3/4 the way through this... where he goes in and out... stunning... and yes they are chords, not octaves... on the score it says "as fast and loud as possible"!

Also, about 7 mins into the movement is even more furious octaves... but buy the dvd for them!
Tom

Wow that one is...WWWOW, i mean But i can't understand how he can stay so calm. If I could play like that I would probably fall off the bench or explode or something.

[opus10no2]

best octaves -

Yundi Li

Lang Lang

Hamelin

Horowitz

Argerich

Cziffra

Uematsu

Yingdi Sun

Katsaris


best sounding?

yundi li for control, cziffra for wildness, hough has great sounding powerful octaves too

some awesome octaves in this:

Katsaris is amazing.

[dnephi]

Horowitz/Toscanini is the legend as far as octave speed goes, methinks, althogh Yundi Li's octaves are almost as fast as Horowitz's at times

[mephisto]

How about Sokolov?

[opus10no2]

Prime Gavrilov also, he still holds the record in the Chjopin Octave etude.

[opus10no2]

ummmm, I think we may have a new octave champ :


Jeff ~ Da Chill dizciple

[pianodude90]

What about the octaveruns in Prokofiev's Toccata in D-minor, right before the glissando in the end of the piece, in right hand. It's not long, but that is so fast!

[richard black]

There's something about the way Horowitz plays virtuoso stuff, though, isn't there? Even when he might not be the fastest (by the metronome) he gives it a pizzazz which for my money has never been excelled.

[m]

There's something about the way Horowitz plays virtuoso stuff, though, isn't there? Even when he might not be the fastest (by the metronome) he gives it a pizzazz which for my money has never been excelled.

Indeed, there were a lot of sportsmen who could play faster than Horowitz. So far however, I have never seen anybody to match him in elegance, musicality, bravura, and just sheer electricity--something what along with his striking musical personality makes him unique and standing out, as opposed to all those others who just blend into one gray ball, altogether.

Best, M