Legendary musical feats

[pianoplayjl]

Hopefully this thread can be a compilation of musical feats by pianists. If there are earlier threads also with a similar focus, I'm sorry. I can't find them. Sometimes a thread deserves to be reincarnated.

Here is/are the best known feats that I know of: Liszt sight reading the Grieg PC at full speed. Richter learning the Prok 7 in 3 days (please correct me). Richter learning WTC II by heart in 1 month. I only know these. There are tens, if not hundreds of legendary tales of superhuman feats accomplished by old masters. Post them here.

JL

[thalbergmad]

I recall Josef Lhevinne being able to play the octave glissandi in the Brahms Paganini Variations from the wrist staccato.

Thal

[ahinton]

I recall Josef Lhevinne being able to play the octave glissandi in the Brahms Paganini Variations from the wrist staccato.

I assume ytou to meant that you've read about this (as indeed have I) rather than recall it personally; I daresay he managed the same with the white note octaves in the finale of the Waldstein sonata (and maybe even in the same in the first movement of Haydn's late C major piano trio - who knows?).

Anyway - Jonathan Powell playing Opus Clavicembalisticum from memory.

Actually, I made that one up. Still, maybe the same pianist playing the same composer's Sequentia Cyclica super Dies Iræ in its entirety at one sitting would count (and I'm not making that one up).

Best,

Alistair

[rachmaninoff_forever]

I heard that Nikolai Luskanasy learned Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto in three days!

Forgive me if I spelled his last name wrong

[49410enrique]

[49410enrique]

oh wait you meant feats not fee...

[thalbergmad]

Still, maybe the same pianist playing the same composer's Sequentia Cyclica super Dies Iræ in its entirety at one sitting would count (and I'm not making that one up).

Yes, that does count and so would listening to it in one sitting too.

Thal

[ahinton]

oh wait you meant feats not fee...

Oh, please don't let's get onto the work of a certain Japanese gentleman...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Yes, that does count and so would listening to it in one sitting too.

Not in any sense as the performance would, or rather did; I was there when it happened, so I can vouch for this and, in so vouching, I can tell you that Mr Powell cut short his second interval in order not to disturb his concentration and, much as this decision might momentarily have worried some of those assembled to listen, it did nothing to compromise the cogency and compelling nature of the performance.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

I can tell you that Mr Powell cut short his second interal

Ohhh, sounds painful.

Did he recover in time for the finale.

Thal

[pianoplayjl]

And another one I discovered: Saint Saens. At 10 years old after a concert he offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 sonatas from memory.
Ulynova learnt Rachmaninoff's 2nd concerto in 4 hours notice.

JL

[j_menz]

Liszt sight reading the Grieg PC at full speed

I thought it was the Violin Sonata, and the feat was combining the violin part into the piano part and giving a running commentary on the piece as he went. 

[rachmaninoff_forever]

And another one I discovered: Saint Saens. At 10 years old after a concert he offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 sonatas from memory.
Ulynova learnt Rachmaninoff's 2nd concerto in 4 hours notice.

JL

WHAT?!?!!!?!?!

The WHOLE Rachmaninoff's 2nd in FOUR HOURS?!

[korlock]

This isn't really a time feat, but Stephen Hough's recordings of Saint Saens' 5 piano concertos pretty much revived them. They are drastically different from any other recording. If you listen to any others, you would think Saens to be an idiot. But after listening to Hough's recordings that changes. I've heard people talk a lot about how Saint Saens' wasn't a good composer. You just need to find the right recordings and Hough is a perfect example.

[rv]

Scriabin composing the Poem of Ecstasy.
I have no idea how, but it really did happen.  

[sevencircles]

WHAT?!?!!!?!?!

The WHOLE Rachmaninoff's 2nd in FOUR HOURS?!

Ogdon never practiced the Brahms 2 before he performed it live. He sightread everything and thought it was easy to play it  since he had heard it many times 

[werq34ac]

Horowitz's Carmen variations have to be considered legendary...

[jtguru]

Apparently Liszt could play Chopin's Op. 25 No. 2 with octaves in the right hand.

[ahinton]

Did he recover in time for the finale.

Since the "finale", as you describe it - i.e. part three, comprising the last few variations and the fugue that end the work - were what followed that second interval, "recovery" of the kind about which you ask (albeit presumably rhetorically) didn't come into it!

Best,

Alistair

[pianoplayjl]

Birba mentioned a relatively unknown pianist: Gieseking, who learnt new pieces away from the piano. I did some researching myself and found that he was able to learn some concerti off by heart in one day. And he was able to master difficult repertoire with little practice. He committed to learning new stuff while on a trip via train, plane or ship.
And also I read somewhere, Rubinstein learning a Beethoven concerto on a car while table top practicing. I've tried learning one or two measures of music but never worked out for me.

JL

[ajspiano]

Birba mentioned a relatively unknown pianist: Gieseking, who learnt new pieces away from the piano. I did some researching myself and found that he was able to learn some concerti off by heart in one day. And he was able to master difficult repertoire with little practice. He committed to learning new stuff while on a trip via train, plane or ship.
And also I read somewhere, Rubinstein learning a Beethoven concerto on a car while table top practicing. I've tried learning one or two measures of music but never worked out for me.

JL

I tried this out today..  I attempted to learn chopin 10/8 on a train ride. I can't play it thisevening - I obviously did get alot of memory work done though, I found that I didnt need to look at the score for large portions, or only needed a short glance reminder. Pretty cool I think, I felt like I could make it work for a much simpler piece - maybe when I'm better in general it will work better?

[haydnseeker]

Birba mentioned a relatively unknown pianist: Gieseking, who learnt new pieces away from the piano. I did some researching myself and found that he was able to learn some concerti off by heart in one day. And he was able to master difficult repertoire with little practice. He committed to learning new stuff while on a trip via train, plane or ship.

A Gieseking anecdote I once came across: he visited Hindemith's home to play through a newly composed sonata.  A few days later he was invited round again, to play the sonata to another guest.  Gieseking repeated the earlier performance from memory, and failed to spot that Hindemith had meanwhile replaced one of the movements!

Does anyone know if this story is true?

BTW, I wouldn't describe Gieseking as relatively unknown: he was one of the most prominent German pianists in the inter-war years, on a par with Backhaus.  His Debussy recordings are still regarded by many as classics (though some people despise them).

[pianoplayjl]

I tried this out today..  I attempted to learn chopin 10/8 on a train ride. I can't play it thisevening - I obviously did get alot of memory work done though, I found that I didnt need to look at the score for large portions, or only needed a short glance reminder. Pretty cool I think, I felt like I could make it work for a much simpler piece - maybe when I'm better in general it will work better?

I think I just found the next Gieseking.

JL

[gep]

 maybe the same pianist playing the same composer's Sequentia Cyclica super Dies Iræ in its entirety at one sitting would count (and I'm not making that one up).

Best,

Alistair

While this is a piano forum, this remark makes me put in 'playing the same composer's Second Organ Symphony as was played not once but twice within the space of two weeks by Kevin Bowyer. The 2nd performance on an organ with mechanical traction rather than electrified. OS lasts NINE hours, as compared to the 'mere' seven hours of SeqCyc; Mvt 2 alone lasting 4,5 hours (played in one go). To top it of, playing an organ requires both feet as well as both hands. Kevin survived magnificently, as did that part of the audience that sat through either of the the whole performances!

Ogdon never practiced the Brahms 2 before he performed it live. He sightread everything and thought it was easy to play it  since he had heard it many times 

Proof of both his outworldish technical prowess and his great modesty, I think!

all best,
gep

[fftransform]

Very famous (skip to 3:10 for the passage in question).  The story is in the description:

This is a legendary recording.  In his book "Horowitz," Glen Plaskin writes, "the French master (Cortot) did give him (Horowitz) occasional lessons and assignments. These began in 1928 and continued sporadically for the next few years. Cortot was struck by the clarity and projection of Horowitz's tone but showed distain for the idea of making a career on temperament and technical brilliance. 'Horowitz has a great genius for getting things ready for performance' Cortot would tell his students. But Cortot made no secret of his reservations about Horowitz's intellect, and was never convinced that as a performer he desired to be a re-creator in service of the composer. A Cortot pupil, Thomas Manshardt, remembered that Cortot believed Horowitz 'came to study in order to discover how he, Cortot, managed the double notes in the Etude en Forme d'une Valse by Saint-Saens, which Horowitz concidered a miracle of velocity and light brilliancy as played by Cortot. Cortot thought this an inadequate reason for studying. Years later he gleefully declared, 'I never told him how it was done.'"

[ahinton]

Quote
Ogdon never practiced the Brahms 2 before he performed it live. He sightread everything and thought it was easy to play it  since he had heard it many times
Proof of both his outworldish technical prowess and his great modesty, I think!

Indeed so, although I have no evidence that he ever claimed that it was actually "easy to play"!

Best,

Alistair

[pianoplayjl]

Reportedly Hamelin was learning some parts of OC when he was around 17. Had he embarked on the quest to finish it, he would have learnt the who thing by now. It is jsut only a matter of memorising the 200+ pages.
And also Cyprien Katsaris was able to trill octaves like no other pianist can, in one of his transcriptions of Bach music. Probably that is because he has large hands. Personally I think he is not that well known has Kissin or Lang Lang. He deserves more fame. 

JL

[ajspiano]

I think I just found the next Gieseking.

JL

Ha. sure.

I think perhaps my process is a little more indepth than yours - there was multiple steps that revolved around memorising visually (look of the score and actual note names), aurally (kind of as if to sight sing the score, though I did it in my head), keyboard (matching the visual of the score to the visual of the keys) and physically (processing how to play the notes, working out fingering and observing what notes are played LH/RH together, which are separate, and some initial 'table playing' to practice coordinations between hands).

It was very mentally draining. However, I think I could just about write out a reasonable portion of the score from memory now (maybe i'll try to later). Playing it is a different thing.