Re:Chopin

[pianovlad1996]

The Chopin topic was a mistake because my intention was to post a video with a child prodigy I found on youtube. I didn't know how to post a video so I asked my brother to upload one but he posted a mp3 file with him at the St. Botolph Club in S.U.A playing Chopin's Etude Op.25 No.12. Hope you will understand my mistake.

[pianowolfi]

The Chopin topic was a mistake because my intention was to post a video with a child prodigy I found on youtube. I didn't know how to post a video so I asked my brother to upload one but he posted a mp3 file with him at the St. Botolph Club in S.U.A playing Chopin's Etude Op.25 No.12. Hope you will understand my mistake.

I listened to that recording, it was very fast, I mean *really* fast. That was all I heard. So fast. I mean like *really fast*. I mean like E = mc ² 

[pianovlad1996]

Yes. The pianist is romanian, 15 years old and as far as I read about him, it's one of the leading junior pianists in that country. 

[birba]

What are you people talking about?!  Where is it?

[pianowolfi]

What are you people talking about?!  Where is it?

Here:

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=45951.0

[birba]

Found it!
It was pretty good.  I don't think it was too fast - maybe a hair - it's just that we didn't pick up on the tremendous pathos of that etude.  I guess tipical of a child prodigy.

[pianowolfi]

Found it!
It was pretty good.  I don't think it was too fast - maybe a hair - it's just that we didn't pick up on the tremendous pathos of that etude.  I guess tipical of a child prodigy.

Well honestly...of course it's one of those cases where I might be only jealous of the raw speed, and honestly, I *am* actually jealous of the raw speed.
If that was the purpose of this interpretation, then bravo and well done.

 *yaawn*

*moves on* (as m1469 often says )

[costicina]

As worth(less) as my opinion can be, I'm with Wolfi here. No, this performance (as Pollini's, Lisista's, etc.) misses entirely the point. Too loud, too fast, too  noisy. I want to feel the 'maestoso' trait, the deep, powerful breathing of the sea....

As idyosincratic as it can be (and if you can forgive him his ponytail and his hideous jacket), here is a performance that IMO is nearer to this Etude's essence.....

[pianowolfi]

Indeed, costicina, that's a very interesting interpretation, very thoughtfully worked out! I like it very much!

[costicina]

   I'm sure you'll like the gorgeous version of this Etude  played by Lukas    Geniušas in the III stage of  the last Chopin competition (he won the II prize). You can find the video  in the Competition site (sorry, I don't know how to send you the link). He plays this Etude in the way both of us, it seems, feel it!!!

[pianowolfi]

Yes indeed I like Geniušas, I 'd have given him the first price, not the second.

[johnmar78]

Thansk Costica, This interpretation is 10X better than other ones. I like it very much, his is making music not speed. I mean playing fast to impress peopel which I think its wrong, unfortunately we have seen a lots during our life journey.

[iratior]

It certainly is a challenge, to perform opus 25 no. 12.  I think it's rather unfortunate that this piece came to be known as the "Ocean Etude";  the atmosphere of it seems much more funereal than maritime, especially since the measures 4 to 7 have, in the base, four notes that coincide with the melody of the Dies Irae.  I doubt if that's just an accident that Chopin didn't intend.  Yet on the other hand, the instructions are "allegro molto, con fuoco", and the text of the music is replete with fortes and fortissimi -- even fortississimi.  I would hope that performances would not have to be so loud that the beauty of the harmonies would be washed out like the colors of a flower garden under the  noonday sun.  It really is a profoundly sad piece;  when a B-flat sounds simultaneously with an F-minor chord, it is as if a man who was giving a eulogy for the deceased had his voice break into a sob.  In fact, for many years I abstained from doing this piece;  the sadness of it seemed positively morbid.

[birba]

It certainly is a challenge, to perform opus 25 no. 12.  I think it's rather unfortunate that this piece came to be known as the "Ocean Etude";  the atmosphere of it seems much more funereal than maritime, especially since the measures 4 to 7 have, in the base, four notes that coincide with the melody of the Dies Irae.  I doubt if that's just an accident that Chopin didn't intend.  Yet on the other hand, the instructions are "allegro molto, con fuoco", and the text of the music is replete with fortes and fortissimi -- even fortississimi.  I would hope that performances would not have to be so loud that the beauty of the harmonies would be washed out like the colors of a flower garden under the  noonday sun.  It really is a profoundly sad piece;  when a B-flat sounds simultaneously with an F-minor chord, it is as if a man who was giving a eulogy for the deceased had his voice break into a sob.  In fact, for many years I abstained from doing this piece;  the sadness of it seemed positively morbid.

You write beautifully and describe so precisely the mood of this piece.  They could be programme notes for a concert.  You really hit it right on the head.  (At least as far as I'm concerned.)