Schumann's Tocatta op.7

[hodi]

i'm looking for the FASTEST performance of this piece
any cd's recommended?

[decadent]

Not sure if its the fastest (heard only about 30 different versions so far), but Barere's is legendary, and the fastest I have heard so far

[thracozaag]

  Cziffra's or MT's, I think.  Barere starts out faster, but ends up slowing down.

koji

[Goldberg]

Cziffra clocks in at 4:54 on my recording, and I don't know the time on my VHS of him playing it but it's probably about the same.

[etudes]

Cziffra..............

[thierry13]

MT must be at least as fast as Cziffra no?

[maxy]

Some interesting times:


Barere:  4:27
Horowitz: 4:40 (he also did it slower at other times)
Cziffra: 4:50 Studio... I assume there may be a live one faster...
Richter: 4:50  live in the 50s  (I started the clock at the repeat)

But just to let you know, Barere tends to speed up the easy parts...
Horowitz will speed up the hard parts (in a slower version, but very entertaining)
Great "fireworks" in Cziffra
Richter plays it almost like a machine, but it does work well.


I heard that some legendary performance of the Schumann toccata would have been Pogorelich at the Montreal international piano competition.  Someone told me he never heard it played any faster... and it was the main subject of conversation in the audience.

[espresso]

Kuzmin clocks at 4:32

outdo almost every other pianist..

btw, who is MT?

[etudes]

MT = Meiting sun

[espresso]

sorry, i have never heard of him before (feel like im missing out on something here...), is he that famous that his name can be abbreviated??

[mikeyg]

He's a member here, and he won an E-competition a while ago.  I don't know much acout him, but I'm sure the other members do.

[sevencircles]

Cziffra's or MT's, I think.  Barere starts out faster, but ends up slowing down.

In the version I heard Barere almost speeds up in the end and clocks at 4.27. An amazing feat indeed with a stiffaction keyboard.

Barere has to have strongest fingers of any recorded pianist.

[etudes]

In the version I heard Barere almost speeds up in the end and clocks at 4.27. An amazing feat indeed with a stiffaction keyboard.

Barere has to have strongest fingers of any recorded pianist.

strongest....... how can you know.......

[steinwaymodeld]

strongest fingers and weakest heart.

BAAAD combination. 

[sevencircles]

strongest fingers and weakest heart.

BAAAD combination.

Exactly.

Rachmaninov called Barere a genius. In his lifetime Rach only praised 3 other players then himself and thats Horowitz,Hoffmann and Barere

Barere was propably one of those players that could a play a lot more works and better then the recordings indicate.

[maxy]

Exactly.

Rachmaninov called Barere a genius. In his lifetime Rach only praised 3 other players then himself and thats Horowitz,Hoffmann and Barere

Let's not forget Gieseking. There is also at least one more.... can't remember the name.