Katsaris

[franzliszt2]

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I would love to know why people worship this guy. It is very "interesting" playing I admit, but only interesting in the sense I didn't realise that it was possible to play that many inner voices. But apart from that....it is really unmusical...it is impossible to follow the melody! It's like the melody...then a random inner chromatic scale, or 3 notes, or something totally pointless...then melody again.

And how can you play this movement with a smile on your face? My only explanation is he's thinking...muhahaha I bet they don't see this one coming....tenor voice!!

[opus10no2]

Grow up.

[tompilk]

it also really really looks fixed. There's no way he played and video'd that in one take. Notice that when there is a shot of the audience and the piano, he's always out of sync, and that for hand close-ups, the audience is never in shot. It also sounds recorded from an empty hall...

[franzliszt2]

I read Lang Lang's carnegie hall dvd was....but I really don't know if that is true.

[tompilk]

well... on the katsaris, clips show the audience and the piano, without any cameras present around the piano, and yet it immediately zooms in to his hands...
I didn't notice it on LL's carnegie DVD, so he must have done a good job, although I imagine it would have been very difficult on the more furious pieces. Perhaps he just re-recorded over wrong notes in the clips when his hands aren't being shown?
It's a sad sign of wrong priorities, with these "digital technique" pianists...
Then again, Weissenberg's dubbed Petroushka is phenominal. It still bothers me though.

[franzliszt2]

I'm sure I heard a few wrong notes in the Lang Lang recital....but I havn't listened to it for agesss.

I think Lang Lang played very well that night.....shame he's turned into what he has....he has a lot of talent

[pies]

a

[thierry13]

Haha sometimes his technique is a bit sloppy, it has some flaws musically also, but anyways I don't think it is completly unmusical.

[sharon_f]

Not a big fan. Makes some strange and eccentric choices that I'm not sure I always understand.

[furtwaengler]

Katsaris' Messiaen is like totally amazing:

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I really do get a kick out of listening to Katsaris's, "Eh...look what I found," ideas in some music (Chopin's 1st Ballade), but this Messiaen is way too fast and is completely contrary to the spirit and ethereal beauty of this masterpiece (almost; the end *is* impressive). It's amazing he can do it, though...

I guess I take the messing with some repertoire much more personally than the messing with other repertoire. I've felt the same way with Sinopoli's Mahler.

[thalbergmad]

I do like his playing myself, but perhaps it seems strange to some as he has not got a metronome stuck up his butt and he has not been converted to midi.

Thal

[nick]

I like his playing very much, and don't follow the complaints. I like that he keeps an unaffected tempo mostly, musical, and brilliant technique! What's left?

Nick

[cherub_rocker1979]

Katsaris is an amazing pianist.  I don't know what some of these people are smoking.

[sharon_f]

Not playing metronomically doesn't bother me. I adore Rubinstein and find Cziffra thrilling to listen to. (And they have to be two of the most non-metronomic pianists who ever lived.)

My problem with Katsaris is that for all his "personality" he doesn't really, at least for me, bring anything I would call significant to his interpretations. I don't listen and go "Ah, that's interesting. That's another way approach that piece." Or "Wow, the architecture of that section now makes sense to me." Or "Of course, that's how Chopin wanted that played." I just listen and think "What the hell is he doing here? Is that in the score?"

Someone I know heard him in a recital a few years back and said she found the whole thing quite "boring." I was surprised because the last word I would use in regard to Katsaris is "boring." She explained that he had so many "moments" that after awhile she just started drifting off. There was no anchor. And he lost her.

[franzliszt2]

When I listen to opera, or any singing, I would swiftly become offended if a different voice with something uninteresting to say, piped up.

That is my problem with his voicing. It distracts me from the essential....like a bad cough.

[akonow]

I can appreciate Katsaris for being unique in that he doesn't necessarily follow the dynamics written. While his performances are sometimes tremendously unnatural, I find that there is nothing wrong with experimenting a little bit with pieces that have been played thousands of times by thousands of people the exact same way. There's no reason to play classical music if everyone plays the same way.

[pies]

but this Messiaen is way too fast and is completely contrary to the spirit and ethereal beauty of this masterpiece (almost; the end *is* impressive). It's amazing he can do it, though...

If I remember correctly, Messiaen himself said something along the lines of Katsaris' Vingt Regards being the best performance he had ever heard...

[lau]

i hate his hair

[thalbergmad]

He probably hates yours

[nyonyo]

I will pay for Katsaris and Kissin to get a hair cut.

Why do they like big hair like that?

[lau]

it forms that gross triangle shape. it just reminds me of sick.

[furtwaengler]

If I remember correctly, Messiaen himself said something along the lines of Katsaris' Vingt Regards being the best performance he had ever heard...

I'm sorry; It's really unfair what I said concerning such a small portion of Vingt Regards. It was a stupid comment on my part. I'd love to hear the full performance.

Katsaris Messiaen's favorite? He may have said it, but I think he gave the same endorsement of Roger Muraro (who I've not heard), and I wouldn't be surprised if he said it also of Loriod, Aimard, Peter Hill, Peter Serkin, and others...I've heard the composer criticized for giving undue praise to anyone who touched his music (understand I'm not applying criticism to Katsaris in this statement).

Now, I do remember a great variety of profound liberties taken from performance to performance when comparing Yvonne Loriod's own output of live performances and recordings (and she truly owns the piece), and I'm sure Loriod was Messiaen's *true* favorite. (My current favorite is Aimard in case you wonder.)

I love experiencing and comparing many, many performances, and I go through stretches with certain pieces that regardless of how good is the last performance I experienced,  I want to experience it in a new performance. Katsaris is always someone to bring something different to the table whether it's an enlightening choice or not. I don't know if he's looking at a piece as an organic whole, or just trying to find more tricks for his magic show, but I suspect more often than not it is the later, but sometimes it results in the former (My favorite recordings of his are the Chopin Ballades). What I feared from the Messiaen clip was similar to the first impression I received from Michel Beroff's recording of the same...that more than using himself as a vehicle to bring to life a transcendent, ethereal work of art, he instead was using Vingt Regard to bring to life his outstanding virtuosity (a point of emphasis...and some wonder is there anything wrong with this? And I don't know!). I'm more than likely dead wrong in both cases (I now have good reason to revisit Beroff's recording!) I would *love* to hear Katsaris's performance.

(Phew...wordy...)

[furtwaengler]

I will pay for Katsaris and Kissin to get a hair cut.

Why do they like big hair like that?

Kissin's 'fro is absolutely no match for Yakov Kasman's old 'fro, and I have to emphasize Kasman's 'fro was awesome, one of the wonders of the world. Now he's cut it all down, and balding, he has a natural yamika!

[general disarray]

I know for a fact that Kissin's hair is a polyester wig purchased at the very chic Wig World on 14th Street in NYC.

As for Katsaris, I also know for a fact that his hair is the end result of a $500 Japanese hair straightening technique performed at a salon in the Soho Grand Hotel in NYC.

Scoff all you like, but these boys have style.

The rest of you are simply jealous.   

[akonow]

I know for a fact that Kissin's hair is a polyester wig purchased at the very chic Wig World on 14th Street in NYC.

As for Katsaris, I also know for a fact that his hair is the end result of a $500 Japanese hair straightening technique performed at a salon in the Soho Grand Hotel in NYC.

Scoff all you like, but these boys have style.

The rest of you are simply jealous.   

I know for a fact that Kissin's hair is real for 2 reasons. Firstly, he sweats in such enormous proportions that a wig would surely slide off his head right onto the piano. Secondly, I have noticed a 2-3 cm growth into the universe each year.