A More Serious Discussion on Interpretation

[classitope]

I'm back!
Yesterday I shared a video I had made about piano interpretation. I named it "Your Favorite Pianist Sucks!", a bit too provocative perhaps. I asked for feedback and sure, that's what I got. I was relieved to read some thought-out comments under my forum post. Most of you said the same thing, the comparisons were too obviously different, comparing David to Goliath.
I immediately got to work and made a version containing a bunch more recognized pianists, hopefully this causes a discussion about the interpretation rather than the video.(what I was originally aiming for )

In the end (8:29) I put a mystery pianist whose name I'll reveal later, let's see who can guess him/her!

[brogers70]

I think this is very interesting. Good examples and clear explanations. If you are going to do more of these, I'd vote for picking one passage and analyzing five or six different pianists, all of them at a high level. There are youtube channels that will show the same piece played by 2-3 pianists with the score, but it's so interesting to hear the same passage side by side, as you do it. Great idea.

[frodo4]

Nice video.  I enjoyed the samples and written discussion.  Nice selection of pieces and pianists. I tended to agree with most of your points.  I personally prefer the Frederick Chiu performance of the Chopin op 10 no 4.  It fit my ear perfectly having never heard him perform the work until now. 

Mystery pianist - I cheated here.  Lang Lang?  He can be very musical!  I heard the audience and a quality modern recoding sound- so this narrowed my search to live modern recordings.  The first that came up on YouTube that I thought had a chance was the Carnegie Hall in New York, 2003 of Lang Lang - pure dumb luck!  I did not double check this, so maybe this is not the recording. 

EDIT:  I took a 2nd listen to the Frederick Chiu excerpt of the Chopin op 10 no 4.  Still my favorite over the other 2  "bat out of hell" performances.  Chiu's "sf" (suddenly with force) needs a little more "sf" in my opinion.  But Chiu still fits my ear well.  I agree Richter is superior to Cziffra.

[crystalhawley]

I think this is very interesting. Good examples and clear explanations. If you are going to do more of these, I'd vote for picking one passage and analyzing five or six different pianists, all of them at a high level. There are youtube channels that will show the same piece played by 2-3 pianists with the score, but it's so interesting to hear the same passage side by side, as you do it. Great idea.

rooftop snipers

I have the same feeling as you. Listening to the same piece of music side by side makes it easier for me to notice the differences.

[xdanielyj]

Really nice video!
I believe that Cziffra was going for a very wild interpretation for the torrent etude since the word torrent can be associated with words like uncontrolled or turbulent. Personally I'm not necessarily a fan of any of Cziffra's interpretations of chopin etudes. I actually found Bruce Liu (most recent winner of Chopin Competition) had a really nice performance of Etude no. 4 op. 10.

I personally love eccentric performers such as Pogorelich or Glenn Gould, but I can't get myself to like Khatia Buniatishvili or Lang Lang because I can't see a sense of direction or purpose with their playing. Lang Lang, I believe, is too submissive to his own feelings and it creates a foolish, non-philosophical performance. On the other hand, I think Lang Lang, a slave to his feelings, is able to create (although rarely) truly beautiful moments that cannot be explained with logic. This is my take on Lang Lang.

I really liked your comparison between Trifonov and Ovchinnikov. Trifonov's playing for this etude was too vertical than horizontal. Your comparison between these two pianists was really great for explaining what makes a good performance to anyone who may be less knowledgeable about piano.

[classitope]

Really nice video!
I believe that Cziffra was going for a very wild interpretation for the torrent etude since the word torrent can be associated with words like uncontrolled or turbulent. Personally I'm not necessarily a fan of any of Cziffra's interpretations of chopin etudes. I actually found Bruce Liu (most recent winner of Chopin Competition) had a really nice performance of Etude no. 4 op. 10.

I personally love eccentric performers such as Pogorelich or Glenn Gould, but I can't get myself to like Khatia Buniatishvili or Lang Lang because I can't see a sense of direction or purpose with their playing. Lang Lang, I believe, is too submissive to his own feelings and it creates a foolish, non-philosophical performance. On the other hand, I think Lang Lang, a slave to his feelings, is able to create (although rarely) truly beautiful moments that cannot be explained with logic. This is my take on Lang Lang.

I really liked your comparison between Trifonov and Ovchinnikov. Trifonov's playing for this etude was too vertical than horizontal. Your comparison between these two pianists was really great for explaining what makes a good performance to anyone who may be less knowledgeable about piano.

Thank you xdanielyj!
We seem to have similar taste, Pogorelich and Glenn Gould happen to be among my favorite pianists! I haven't been able to experience that special moment in Lang Lang's playing you're talking about. Could you name a recording where this would be the case for you?

Classitope

[xdanielyj]

Thank you xdanielyj!
We seem to have similar taste, Pogorelich and Glenn Gould happen to be among my favorite pianists! I haven't been able to experience that special moment in Lang Lang's playing you're talking about. Could you name a recording where this would be the case for you?

Classitope

Hey, thanks for the reply Classitope. One performance I can think of is his performance of Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3. I found this performance strange because the phrasing as well as the dynamics sounded very unbalanced to my ears. The tempo was also a fair bit slower than other performances and the rubato sounds strange to me, but Lang Lang is able to create a atmosphere that almost feels like time has stopped. Is it my favorite performance of this piece? No. But nonetheless definitely a special performance.

Here is the link:

[frodo4]

Hey, thanks for the reply Classitope. One performance I can think of is his performance of Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3. I found this performance strange because the phrasing as well as the dynamics sounded very unbalanced to my ears. The tempo was also a fair bit slower than other performances and the rubato sounds strange to me, but Lang Lang is able to create a atmosphere that almost feels like time has stopped. Is it my favorite performance of this piece? No. But nonetheless definitely a special performance.

Here is the link:

Couple points to start with:

1) I suspect that Classitope and xdanielyj are the same person.  Just a strong suspicion of mine that I will never be able to prove and Classitope will not be able to disprove.  No problem though.  So no need for further discussion as far as I am concerned. 

2) I never look at Lang Lang when he performs.  Not even for a second. This allows me to give a fair opinion of the performance based only on sound.

This performance of Chopin op 10 # 3 is maybe a little too clownish for me.  But it has definitely grown on me after hearing it a couple times.  Fine control of sound is shown here.

Here is a link to what I believe is a fine performance.  Here Lang Lang works with conductor Eschenbach.  I suspect that Eschenbach had a huge impact on Lang Lang's interpretation of Beethoven piano concerto #4.  This performance is excellent and fits my ear well.  My GUESS is Lang Lang knew that Eschenbach would not tolerate any of the clownish things that you hear from Lang Lang at times.  The Lang Lang performance of the Beethoven #4  shows that Lang Lang can be VERY musical - if he works to control some of his clownish impulses.  All just IMO.

EDIT: Clownish as in playful, or humorously exaggerated.  Maybe I'm picking the wrong word here.  Lack of subtlety is part of it.  No disrespect intended.

[xdanielyj]

Couple points to start with:

1) I suspect that Classitope and xdanielyj are the same person.  Just a strong suspicion of mine that I will never be able to prove and Classitope will not be able to disprove.  No problem though.  So no need for further discussion as far as I am concerned. 

2) I never look at Lang Lang when he performs.  Not even for a second. This allows me to give a fair opinion of the performance based only on sound.

This performance of Chopin op 10 # 3 is maybe a little too clownish for me.  But it has definitely grown on me after hearing it a couple times.  Fine control of sound is shown here.

Here is a link to what I believe is a fine performance.  Here Lang Lang works with conductor Eschenbach.  I suspect that Eschenbach had a huge impact on Lang Lang's interpretation of Beethoven piano concerto #4.  This performance is excellent and fits my ear well.  My GUESS is Lang Lang knew that Eschenbach would not tolerate any of the clownish things that you hear from Lang Lang at times.  The Lang Lang performance of the Beethoven #4  shows that Lang Lang can be VERY musical - if he works to control some of his clownish impulses.  All just IMO.

EDIT: Clownish as in playful, or humorously exaggerated.  Maybe I'm picking the wrong word here.  Lack of subtlety is part of it.  No disrespect intended.

I can promise you that we are not the same people. I am going slightly crazy from practicing these Bartok Etudes, but I'm not crazy enough to talk to myself after making two separate accounts.

I've actually never heard this specific performance, but after listening to it, it most definitely is a great performance by Lang Lang. It actually slightly reminds me of Rudolf Serkin's performance of this piece.