Recordings

[.COM]

I have always wondered if there is a recording of a solo piano song that actually has mistakes.

Not mistakes in dynamics, but a situation where the pianist actually plays a noticable wrong note or misses one. Especially a pianist that makes a recording of La Campanella.  

I know that I certainly haven't or maybe I haven't noticed it. Do the pianist have to play whatever piece they are playing perfectly without the mistake I just explained above. How many times do they practice!

Have any of you recorded yourself without making a mistake that I just stated?

-Dot out  

[xvimbi]

I have always wondered if there is a recording of a solo piano song that actually has mistakes.

I'd venture to say that most recordings of a piece of the caliber of La Campanella has at least one mistake, i.e a wrong note. The question is, do you really hear it? Most often not. Anyway, often, only those who are extremely familiar with the piece may hear it.
The second question is: Does it matter? No. In most cases, mistakes are absolutely tolerated. Modern recordings are often patched to remove mistakes, but many performers or editors don't care about one or more mistakes. If everything else is great, a couple of wrong notes are not the end of the world.

[Nana_Ama]

I'd venture to say that most recordings of a piece of the caliber of La Campanella has at least one mistake, i.e a wrong note. The question is, do you really hear it? Most often not. Anyway, often, only those who are extremely familiar with the piece may hear it.
The second question is: Does it matter? No. In most cases, mistakes are absolutely tolerated. Modern recordings are often patched to remove mistakes, but many performers or editors don't care about one or more mistakes. If everything else is great, a couple of wrong notes are not the end of the world.

It could be pretty amusing though... to find a recording like that... or it could be irritating  :-/

[.COM]

Does it matter?

I know it doesn't matter, but I'am only saying it out of astonisment.

Oh, and yes I'am very familiar with the La Campanella. I guess I have a different recording. I even attempted it. That was dumb.

-Dot out  

[in_love_with_liszt]

Yeah I'll agree with Xvimbi that there are many recordings by many different performers, even greats like Cziffra and Hamelin, that have mistakes that are noticable. I won't lie, I find it somewhat annoying to hear subtle mistakes in Hamelin's recording of Alkan's Concerto, but that's mostly because many of these pianists are big headcases.

[DarkWind]

Only live performances ever have mistakes. Most normal recordings done in a studio never have mistakes. They usually have the pianist do retakes, sometimes of certain sections. Then they piece the whole things together with high end technology to get your cd. An example we could use would be Lang Lang's live at Carnegie Hall cd. He had microphones all over the piano. However, after the performance, the mikes were still setup to do a few retakes of somewhere that he though he had made an error. Technology is very powerful nowadays!:)

[joell12068]

I think the "mistake factor" was also much higher years ago  when recordings were usually done in "one take".  The advent of digital technology also brought about a much easier method of "splicing and editing" to produce recordings of seemingly flawless performances.  

[liszmaninopin]

It also depends upon the pianist.

I know that the pianist, Michael Habermann (known for his Sorabji) has released nearly all of his discs without editing of any kind.  They are live performances, but honestly, Sorabji's music being what it is, I don't notice any of the mistakes.

In general, though, a majority of discs are error free.  Many easier pieces can be played through without need for editing-but I've never heard a live performance of a really difficult piece that was completely error free.  The discs achieve such a level of polish, as stated above, through careful editing and retakes.

[Motrax]

Though wrong notes are somewhat rare (Horowitz is an exception, though it was once said his wrong notes sound better than other pianists' right notes  ), fudging passages is somewhat common. You can't hear what isn't played, so a single note missed in a dense passage of chords will be practically invisible, no matter how intimate you are with the piece.

[liszmaninopin]

Yeah, many pianists cheat occasionally, including myself...

For example, if you're familiar with Prokofiev's toccata, you know that there's a big glissando at the end.  There are also some left hand notes to be played during that glissando, but I just leave them out.  You can't hear the difference, and I can concentrate instead on making it a very smooth glissando.

In a live performance, I'll sooner forgive a few wrong notes than a boring interpretation.

[DarkWind]

I have a live recording of Martha Argerich playing Gaspard de la Nuit, and I can't hear any errors whatsoever. I don't know if she did any retakes, but it's still pretty amazing. I just hate the audience because there's always this one damn person coughing all the time.

[Motrax]

Hum. That reminds me - possibly the worst recording of Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto ever created is graced by the name of Martha Argerich, in my oh-so-humble opinion (I don't know if she made more than one recording).  In the second movement, she simply blasts the hell out of the piano, holding down the pedal and - I swear - misses every note in two consecutive measures. I don't know how to describe the section - it's just loud chords starting in the high register and moving down to the bottom of the keyboard. She simply rushes through this like she's racing a time bomb.

In other parts of the concerto, she misses notes very audibly. Either that, or she just holds the pedal down so much everything flows into one large soup of noises.

Perhaps she was feeling ill or something, but that's one recording I wouldn't pay money for.

[liszmaninopin]

I can attest to the quality of Argerich's Gaspard-it is an excellent recording.

I don't know if I'd say her Rach 3 is one of the worst, but I like it less and less.

[bachmaninov]

Mistakes during a performance?

I consider everything Horowitz plays a mistake!

[dlu]

Mistakes during a performance?

I consider everything Horowitz plays a mistake!

HOW DARE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just Kidding,
DLu

[mh88]

horowitz made many mistakes...yes....but he did many things right.......when he was younger

if you're wondering about liszt...sean bennett crucifies la campanella...especially the ending, the first few pages he plays quite well...but he loses it once we start hitting the repetatively played notes in the right hand and then the octaves with the right as well....the end where the mood kinda switches.....sigh

but then again, he was only 13 or 14 when he made the recording

[IllBeBach]

IMO,

    Wrong notes even on recordings don't really matter so much.  The thing that is important to me is a living expression of the piece that says something unique.  Sometimes I'd much rather listen to an old recording from the days before redubs and touch-ups over one of the robotically perfect recording that you often hear today.  I have a wonderful re-release of a recording of Harold Bauer that is full of clinkers.  The playing is however fascinating, personable and---incredibly beautiful.    

    A recorded live performance or unedited recording makes the pianist seem more human, and presents a more realistic picture of him/her as an artist IMO.  It seems to me audiences and pianists (who should know better) as well have developed expectations of perfection from artists due to note-perfect recordings that is simply inhuman and harmful to artistic development.  (Of course, recordings aren't alone to blame for this trend, I could say something about competitions as well....ahem.)  I by no means think that pianists should cease to work for perfection, I just think that they should be freer to take chances, express themselves, and be human!  Who cares about wrong notes! Move me!  Interest me!  Play from the heart!  

     Finally, if great artists such as Cortot (and there is one for wrong notes  ) and Schnabel made wrong notes than perhaps there is hope for me  .

[rosie]

I totally agree.

rosie

[super_ardua]

Older recordings tend to have mistakes.

Newer ones tend not to as they are editted out.

Sometimes you can hear a few flaw though,  for example a few notes in an arpeggoi which are unclear