Pollini

[liszt-essence]

What say you?

[opus10no2]

Very nice playing, proves this is a great piece - LangLang plays at half this tempo and both sound vally gud.

[counterpoint]

Very nice and sensible playing.

But at the same time, I always have the feeling, that Pollini has a great fear of getting sentimental. But what is a Chopin Nocturne, if you don't get sentimental... 

[pianohenry]

hmm strange - pollini plays very well here, it sounds extremely nice.

but i have a recording of him playing beethoven and i think it sounds awful?! not just interpretation but it sounds like hes stumbling through half of it. funny how performers vary according to what they are playing so much.

[liszt-essence]

I also think he plays this nocturne very well.

The tones are all crystal clear expressed, he controls the dynamics of this piece to a mastery degree; he knows which sections need to be expressed fast and which ones don't. 

Yes I'm happy with this performance. I'm going to a chopin recital of pollini in feburary so he'd better be playing this good! Or else he leaves me no choise but to throw rotting fruit at him

[sharon_f]

I'm a huge fan of Pollini, but I don't really like this interpretation. It seems like he is trying so hard not to sound sentimental that there's no "magic" in his playing. And he misses the beautiful voicing of the last two chords.

I do like Lang Lang's interpretation, as well as Rubenstein (even though his tempo is so erratic). But currently my fave is Nahvah Perlman. (Itzak's daughter.)

[debussy symbolism]

I also think he plays this nocturne very well.

The tones are all crystal clear expressed, he controls the dynamics of this piece to a mastery degree; he knows which sections need to be expressed fast and which ones don't. 

Yes I'm happy with this performance. I'm going to a chopin recital of pollini in feburary so he'd better be playing this good! Or else he leaves me no choise but to throw rotting fruit at him

Greetings.

Throwing rotten fruits at him? That should be quite a scene: the ebullient audience giving hearty applause and a sole person tossing fruit at poor Pollini and issuing forth grunts of dissapointment. This made me laugh.

[liszt-essence]

Greetings.

Throwing rotten fruits at him? That should be quite a scene: the ebullient audience giving hearty applause and a sole person tossing fruit at poor Pollini and issuing forth grunts of dissapointment. This made me laugh.

lol

[jas]

He's looking so old now, I always think of him as being much younger.

I'm in two minds about Pollini's nocturnes. Part of me thinks it's nice to hear an interpretation that's unsentimental and not quite so "parlour music" as a lot of others. But the other much prefers Pollini when he's playing stuff of a more percussive nature. For me this nocturne is almost on a par with the Berceuse for its lovely, sweet lullaby-like quality, and it just doesn't do it for me when it's played so dramatically.

But Pollini is still one of my favourite pianists. For him, unlike for most of us, this slightly "harder" quality is more of a stylistic decision than a simple incapability of playing it differently, and that's something for which I have huge respect. I love his etudes and preludes - the virtuosity is so clean - but I actually think that it's in the polonaises that his playing is really at home. They're so fiery and defiant sounding, they're totally underrated.

Jas

[minor9th]

I want to see a video of him playing Boulez's Sonata No. 2.

[liszt-essence]

I love his etudes and preludes - the virtuosity is so clean - but I actually think that it's in the polonaises that his playing is really at home. They're so fiery and defiant sounding, they're totally underrated.

Jas

Now I'm really looking forward to that recital