Richard Kastle: Thoughts

[learner of liszt]

So, I went to youtube to watch Hamelin play HR2, and I read some comments, and I find mikecaffeys comments. I look at his Kastle interview video, and I'm shocked. I thought he was right, but then I realised: how idiotic is it to assume that Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is the "highest level of technique".

I don't have a YouTube account, but I wanted to state my opinion on this matter: Mikecaffey has insulted Horrowitz, Gibbons, Hamelin, Cziffra, Kissin, and several others, and gone so far as to call Mozart simpe. He claims that RK is the only pianist who can play HR2 correctly, but won't post a video of the whole thing, rather just the "Octave Scramble". When I was 11 years old, with very little past mucial training, but a lot of determintation, I learned this piece, and had no trouble with the ending. So I have come to this conclusion:

Mike and Richard (if they are not, indeed, the same people, are arrogant people. Kastle needs to stop calling himself (even if not directly, but you can tell he thinks it) the best pianist ever. There's no doubt that he has some talent, and isn't and awful composer, but his behavior is completely idiotic and rude, and he does not respect that pianists who can play insanely difficult music effortlessly (notably Hamelin, Cziffra, Kissin, just about any pianist you can think of who is famous), perform until a very old age (Horrowitz/Rubinstein), learn dozens of very difficult songs and major concert works by ear (Gibbons), are the true masters of the concert hall. So he wrote a concerto at 14? Gibbons wrote one at 13. Hamelin can play insane works (part of Opus Clavic... to name one). I would love to hear Kastle play OC. Or rather, I wouldn't, as I hate that work, but that's another matter entirely. The point is, Kastle needs to go home and learn how to play piano, and Caffey needs to stop calling him the master of all music.

To paraphrase a youtube user (I think, I don't remember where I first heard this): The only way Kastle will be getting into Carnegie Hall is with a ticket.

BTW, feel free to state your opinion.

[webern78]

Kastle is an idiot. The end.

[thalberg]

learner of liszt,

there was a thread about this a long time ago on this forum, and many members here went to the youtube video and left very nasty comments.  We have blasted him for you. 

[thierry13]

Kastle IS an awful composer, as well as an awful pianist, and an awful person. He, in my opinion, deserves to die.

[retrouvailles]

Kastle IS an awful composer, as well as an awful pianist, and an awful person. He, in my opinion, deserves to die.

Agreed on all counts.

[learner of liszt]

True that his music is not by any means good, or even okay. It has a melody if you search really carefully, and is repetitive. Just about any pop music is something like that. I'm just saying, it isn't completely and totally terrible. I hate it and him, and think he needs to go to another profession... he could... well, actually, no, he has no potential whatsoever. He needs to go away.

[thierry13]

I hate it and him, and think he needs to go to another profession... he could... well, actually, no, he has no potential whatsoever. He needs to go away.

My point exactly. He deserves to die. 

[concerto_love]

yeah.

[tanman]

 

[learner of liszt]

Nevermind about his compositions being okay. I just listened to his titanic symphony, and it filled me with this surreal sense, and a desire... to rip the speakers out of my monitor. Not to mention, I watched his claymation film, the one where he mocks just about all musicians who have ever lived. Absolute arrogant ass, that's what he is.

[indutrial]

I saw Kastle's excremental and insulting video about Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and he promptly fell off my radar. My attention gave him a stay of execution and I checked out some of his compositions, only to be horrendously underwhelmed and insulted by the baseness of his approach. His cocky demeanor and his crowd-pleasing antics (on par with Charlie Sheen's character in the first Major League, which to Sheen's credit, is at least a fictional character and something that actually made money) amount to him being pure garbage in the music world.

He reminds me of Yngwie Malmsteen, who I consider a enormous (literally) malignant cancer on the ass of the guitar-playing world. Only a douchebag of biblical proportion would call a woman the dreaded c-word and tell her that she's "unleashed the f**king fury", become an overnight sensation as the recording is passed around the internet, only to ultimately play it off like it was legit by releasing an album called....(drum-roll)...."UNLEASH THE FURY."

I would love for Yngwie to be shot in the balls and thrown from a plane, only to land on Frank Kastle, breaking every bone in his body and incapacitating them both for good.

[Etude]

Yeah, constant shredding does get old fast.

Some of his claims/behaviour seem to be bordering on the psychotic at times.  For one thing, the last page is if anything one of the easiest parts of the friska, and another, that incessant capitalisation of the first sentence in every *** comment.  He needs to stop obsessing over a single page in this one piece that gets way too much attention anyway.