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I think it's a wonderfully insightful observation about Arrau's probing delivery of #2 to compare it to the way Callas delivered so many of the things she sang, not only because he more than once admitted to being a great admirer of Callas and her ability to shape and weigh those great bel canto lines, but because like her, he gives every note its full value within the phrase and every phrase seems both very considered and yet freely sung. "Getting inside the music" was an apt way to put it.

"trans-historical jam sessions" - perfect description!

Ben -- you CAN improvise already -- it's just a matter of degree of complexity. Start by laying out a chord progression and then noodle around in your RH. Done.

Ben please just be yourself

I like Earl Wild's Tchaikovsky Seasons recording. Reading a good book at the moment by David Brown on Tchaikovsky - the final, massive volume of his humungous, seminal biography. I haven't read any of the other volumes of it. earl Wild had some of the fastest fingers in the Wild West. As his Rach 3 amply demonstrates. I still can't bring myself to get too enthusiastic about any of the impromptus. Compared to Schubert's eight jewels in the crown of all piano literature, they are, well, rather plain. Like a plain girl wearing plain clothes. Except the Fantasy impromptu - which is my worst piece and reminds me more of a gaudily made-up prostitute. GREAT VIDEO as usual, Ben! When will you do a series of videos of every serious concert pianist and composer's favourite composer (Schubert)?

Improvising well to the style of a piece of music ,based on one's skill and understanding of harmony etc ,and is akin to tweaking a recipe based on how well you understand,through study and experience ,how the ingredients work together and from that ,how making your own additions or adjustments to it would work as an original creation .

No. 1 epitomises the raw power of Romantic music as it emerged in the 1830's, from the dissonant chords at the beginning to the thrilling coda, all in a classical frame. Pure genius.

Learning to play pieces by memory < Learning to read sheet music & learning improvisation.

György Cziffra's recording of the Impromptus is worth hearing!

A recording of the Fantasy Impromptu that I highly recommend is by Anatol Ugorski, featured on an album titled "Short Stories" for Deutsche Grammophon. The entire album is highly memorable, with works by Liszt, Debussy, Schumann, Busoni, Scriabin, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Weber.

I love Gabriela's music and the possibilities that it represents so much. The classical world needs more people like her who are brave enough to be their full selves on stage, rather than feeling that they must conform to the standard way that things are done. One extremely valuable life skill that I got from studying the violin as a child is the strong work ethic that pervades the classical world's culture, convincing students that if they work hard enough for long enough, they will get better at playing the music that they love. At the same time, pretty much every lover of classical music who hears what Gabriela can do reacts with the same astonishment expressed in the comments here, and many say they wish they could do what she does. So I find it odd that the work ethic that motivates so many musicians to develop their technique doesn't motivate more to develop their creative abilities. I don't know if Gabriela was a child prodigy or not, but that's irrelevant -- the fact is that anyone who seriously devotes themselves to mastering the art of improvisation for long enough _will_ get better at it (after all, many other genres are full of great improvisers, like jazz, Indian classical music, Arabic maqam, etc., and they can't all have been prodigies). Why do you think it is that so many say they wish they could do what people like Gabriela can do, yet so few try, despite the fact that they do have the right general attitude towards hard work? Is it that there aren't enough role models, or that there isn't enough encouragement, or is it something else?

As a young aspiring pianist, I was first introduced to the music of Chopin with the recordings of Claudio Arrau. Along with the Impromptus, his playing of the Barcarolle is especially magical…

The first recording/video that comes to mind is Cziffra's video of Impromptu #3. He is my all time favourite pianist - but unfortunately many people stereotype him as a "loud and fast" virtuoso. He was indeed a fiery virtuoso but also had an extraordinarily sensitive touch and rubato - the video of him playing this Impromptu is one of the greatest treasures I've ever witnessed when it comes to Chopin playing.

Love the series, greetings from Poland!

Cortot is far and away my favorite Chopin interpreter, but I also like Backhaus's interpretations of the Etudes (and Richter's). But for op. 25 no. 1 there is a recording by Berezovsky played along with the Godowsky variation that is magical except for the unfortunate interruption of the clapping of a member of the audience here on TH-cam. th-cam.com/video/CThu4kjkFkc/w-d-xo.html

I like that! So maybe I can contribute a little to this, which seems so natural to me since many years. At minute 30 he tells us, that to improvise is a natural urge for the young musician, before he becomes "educated" ( my choice of words). Classical trained musicians lost about 150 years of playing creativity, being condemned to read just the ( long ago written "holy") notes. I loved the beauty of the classical music, but one day I started to play in a new Swing-Dixieland-Jazzband. It wasn't difficult, to play rhythmically variated themes ( I was a trumpet player then), but if I had to play a solo on the chorus changes I got lost every time! ( There's a wonderful little story by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, when he for the first time was playing in a college Jazzband. After playing the first tune, he thought "oh that went terribly wrong and sounded just awful", and wanted to immediately stop it. But the teacher said : "Why, that was great!" Young Wynton : "I played so many mistakes". The teacher, with total serenity : "That's Jazz !") After maybe 3 - 4 weeks I began to notice, where I was at in the chorus and started to enjoy it a little. One of the younger guys ( we were between 17 and 23 yo) came up after 2 or 3 months, we had to play a little gig for the birthday garden party of his older brother. I said, hell no, I'm still playing so badly. But they like overran me and all the sudden things went on really fast: soon we played nearly every weekend ( this was like the 3rd revival of Dixieland in the 80ies in Munich and there were lots of Dixieland or Swing Jazzbands with many opportunities to play, even for likewise good money). Because we were very young, we had over 200 gigs in the following years, before I decided, to leave the band to go to the well known Jazzabteilung at the Grazer Musikhochschule in Austria. I was a little to old to try ( again), to be accepted at a "normal" Musikhochschule, but the teachers there knew after a few seconds of listening, that I was already an experienced performer and improviser. In Graz we had to absolve double studies of Classical and Jazz music, which was awfully hard work, but I made it, even skipping one year ( because I was already playing in a concert big band in France). Because I had forgotten to check the many possible different stipendia, I wouldn't get one in my last two years (for bureaucratic reasons), but I already had managed, to earn my own money with playing piano in restaurants and hotel bars - while practicing Preludes of Rachmaninoff in the practice rooms ( till then I never had had a good piano to work on). Before my student's time in Graz I had only once been playing bar piano ( exactly 3 pieces) in a tiny Munich bar. Someday an older student came up to me and asked me to overtake his bar piano job in a very good restaurant ( people knew already, that I wasn't just a trumpet player). FIRST I asked, how long it would be to play and how many pieces he would usually play there. He said : " 4 hours, but I play just 24 tunes, then I start again from the beginning...". I accepted the job and practiced about 3 days like the whole day long and went to the job with 60 or more pieces, which I could play. ( Later I was engaged to play this job...) So I became after a while one of the most asked piano players in town. The REAL reason was the same as for young Bach, when he started playing publicly : exactly like him, because I had to! There are these t - shirts, saying: "Just do it!" But I never thought about that in those days. Improvisation is much more simple, then most people think. just do it.

I'm in shock at learning of this - that first theme... so beautifully realised! Even she is surprised! This video is a treasure :)

I love the middle voice in Yunchan’s Op. 10 No. 7. Reminds me of the Godowsky study on this etude. I think Horowitz’s 1989 Op. 25 No. 5 is very clean and restrained for him. Cortot’s 1933 Op. 10 No. 3 can’t be beaten for me. I like Cziffra’s recording of the whole cycle, because it’s less textbook and more idiosyncratic.

Professor Walker's story of Chopin's losses made me cry. Of course, Chopin can do that with only two measures of music.

What is never addressed by either musician is that the modern piano was never used by Chopin. He played mostly Viennese fortepianos on the continent except in France. In France, Chopin preferred the Pleyel piano because it had a lighter mechanism. Using the English action, Erard had invented the double escapement action that Chopin considered to be too heavy even though it allowed the pianist to play faster repetitions and more reliably because it shaved off a significant rise in the release of a key before it would repeat. The Viennese action key dip measures 6 mm while the English action requires between 11 and 12 mm of key dip. Also, the Viennese action is half the weight of the English action. As soon as the Viennese action weight became the same as the English action it became unfashionable and eventually disappeared from the market even in Vienna. The pre 1840 Viennese fortepiano action is virtually perfect in every way and superior for flexibility and lighthess of touch to the English action, modern piano or otherwise. The fortepiano is the instrument on which all of virtuoso piano playing was developed and cultivated and on which the greatest composers for the piano conceived their music, which is true up to the end of Brahms' life. Liszt was the end of the fortepiano based piano playing culture. By 1856 when Steinway introduced the modern piano the end of the fortepiano culture began to disappear.

I hear coping coping coping. I cant play Chopin. That doesnt make Chopin easy. It’s just me incapable of playing Chopin.

The way everyone learns language begins with wanting. Wanting is a mental aim to have what you want. Without wanting no one will ever learn language...period. Next, as adults we forget what just wanting feels like because our wanting is much more sophisticated. To begin improvising: first limit yourself to wanting no more than 5 to 8 notes. Practice by always wanting by singing internal, mentally in the imagination and at first always limiting. There is no one who can't do this. If 5 note is too many, want only 3. Learn to play the pitches (notes) that you wanted. As soon as you can accurately play the 5 to 8 notes that you imagine or sing out loud , then gradually add more notes to those first 5-8 notes. Babies learn to get what they want by repeating by pointing at first. From pointing, they progress to grunting and whining and whimpering. This is the beginning of singing, speaking or communicating what you want. Gradually you are coached by parents to say the word belonging to the thing you wanted. Words in music are merely mini-phases. Eventually these micro or mini phrases are combined with other similar phrases until eventually short sentences emerge. But always sing in your imagination what you want before you play the notes. At a certain point the wanting becomes boring and you will want to add more than what you can sing in your head. At this point you have to form in your imagination exactly what you are wanting to say or communicate...as in a feeling or a thought. Anyone using this approach will be able to learn to begin improvising. Since you are always working in the least complicated manner there need be no fear involved, just a babies never naturally fear talking. Fear is something that must be learned by being punished.

Glenn Gould made Brahms (at about 6:15)sound exactly like Rachmaninov

What's great about improvisation, especially when given a framework under Chopin's style for example, you have such nice representation of the improvisor's own experiences. She brings so much Latin and Spanish charm while still Chopin-like!

Great stuff, so much that Noam says is wonderful. Does anyone know where you can find the quote of WF Bach about his father's improvisation? I've read the New Bach Reader which has many of the well known anecdotes about him, but that particular one isn't in there.

There's a lot of us improvising out here - from our own impoverished intellectual environments (I like lerippletoe's use of the term 'impoverished'). There is a kind of classical 'lo-fi' subgenre out there in the algorithm, but a lot of the results are mixed with people more interested in jazz developments than western classical musicology. The concept that classical improvisation has died mostly comes from the concept that the pedagogy died. The pedagogy enabling mastery level improvisation/composition was never available for the masses in the first place. Improvisation in the live 'classical' non-religous contexts has massively declined which also contributes to the sentiment of death of classical improvisation. Noam is correct - the spirit of improvisation is undying. Improvisation has always been necessary in the churches, but perhaps it's also become less necessary since composition has become less necessary in the churches (you need improvisation to churn out compositions - a rare problem for a composer to find nowadays). I was a rather unconscious child. I did have a few months of lessons at 8 from local baptist gospel church lady who's catch phrase was 'GOOOooooOooOOOD'. From the moment music came back into my life in 9th-10th grade, I was completely interested in the concept of being a composer/writer/producer - being the person who can always tap in and generate something new. My ultimate goal has always been to unlock a level of fluency that allows for combinatorically inexhaustible improvisation. Funny thing is, I now realize that I have reached a type of 'inexhaustible fluency' far before I've figured out how to reliably keep the quality high. Fluency becomes as much about culling the poor realizations out of one's playing as it is about adding constructs to one's playing. This has been my experience from my practice. The concept that improvisation has died is a smelly proposition. A lot of us are out here improvising, but we aren't at the quality that would find us being embraced by the gatekeepers of our inherited secular 'classical' institutions. For my situation (living in North Alabama), it is on me to go into my community and see if the established classical scene wants to embrace me at my current level. This idea of a negative modern opinion of improvisation in class music is weird. It is us people who are in love and obsessed with music, composition, and improvisation who must reach out in our communities and recreate the context for live improvisation. We must simply be unafraid that we are worse than Beethoven and Chopin and the audience is going to have to put up with it until the situation improves.

You forgot Chopin nocturne in c sharp minor (op. Posth) and etude op 10 no 4

I have been enjoying this series So muchit is a cornucopia of liquid jewels. Please play on.

Hi Ben. I love your channel. This comment has nothing to do with your video haha but I’m in love with Moszkowsky’s second concerto. Have you heard it? Do you know why there are no famous soloist playing it??

Outside classical music I am blown away by Oskar Perterson’s piano playing. It’s like Liszt, just Jazz

I was going to say a two words single word but instead I'll just say: - my brother could always improvise - was it excellent? no... was is good? no... was it improvised music? yes. was he trained at all? no...

I'd always show my piano students how the melodies (in the Bach minuet or Schumann scene) they were playing were related to the supporting chords and how they could potter around with chord progressions they liked and to hear the melodies inherent in the chords. I've improvised since the age of 6 in my own style (take on the language) which is the basis of my composing. I learned about pastiche at Uni and it was easy because I already knew my way round the language. So it all comes down to just letting the fingers play what the ears want to hear.

Great video again Ben! I wish I knew the impromptus better - then I could gauge how good Noam's improvisations are. Would it be possible, Ben, to have you ask Noam to do a podcast devoted to him doing Beethoven improvisations? I would dearly like to hear him improvise on Beethoven's Waldstein sonata, for example. Or the Appassionata. Or op 111. It seems to me obvious that it would be much more difficult to do than with Chopin. I think Gould had a good point about Chopin's works as being in some way inferior (to Beethoven and Bach). More susceptible to frilly, frothy trills, scales and arpeggios. But then again, there are a fair few scale passages in Beethoven, and a fair few trills in Bach. So I guess just putting such things at different points in the improvisation with relation to the opening / main theme of the piece would probably produce much the same effect of apparent similarity to the original masterwork....THIS WAS A GREAT VIDEO and did much to confirm what I already suspected....by the way - what you and Noam says about how the finished piece is not 'the only way it could have been' (and was instead simply one spermatozoon amongst many spermatozoa) does go slightly against what we were all brought up to believe about Beethoven's masterpieces. Take for example the Andante Favori - was it or was it not considered superior to the minimalist trash that we know of today as the Waldstein second movement by Beethoven himself? When Beethoven said he let his muse speak to him - was that just one muse amongst millions?

That was a truly beautiful interpretation of the piece. Nothing superfluous in the ornamentation.

Why are Chopin and Liszt pointing a gun?

Another great episode in this series, and this one ranks among the very best. I have been aware of Gabriela ever since I saw a documentary about her some 15 years ago on the public service TV channel in the country that I live in, but I admit that I had somehow forgotten about her and her wonderful art. Great to see her receive some well-deserved love. Her advice on not relying solely on talent but working hard on the craft and finding one's voice without getting in the way of the message is pure gold and it applies not just to improvisation but to many facets and areas of life. I am reminded of a gem of a documentary about the great jazz pianist Bill Evans, called The Universal Mind of Bill Evans. What Bill Evans has to say in that documentary about improvisation and the importance on building a solid base before advancing to the next step aligns very well with what Gabriela is saying here and with what Noam Sivan says in other episodes in this series. And as is well known, Bill Evans was trained as a classical pianist before he moved into jazz. He was respected even by Glenn Gould, who famously disliked jazz.

What a pity we didn't have recording devices to capture the improvisations of Chopin

As my reaction to this very exciting and informative episode, I watched a video published by Noam Sivan. th-cam.com/video/hnL-7JJayfY/w-d-xo.html This is very interesting. His inspired performance (fully improvised sonata in romantic style) has some beautiful elements and moments, definitely from the romantic music vocabulary. It sounds good, showcasing the artistry and knowledge of Noam. His technique and repertoire of phrases and rhythms are rich; voice leading and harmonization are pleasing. It is not an imitation-it is a genuine expression of Noam’s character through the means of music from the epoch. It is impressive. However-yes, you have been waiting for however, so it comes. Even though Noam knows by heart the structure of the music he is playing, the flow-or shall I say the pacing and stepping-evokes in me a specific tension, as if I were watching a marathon runner who knows that the finish is far away, but each step needs to be made here and now, and the breath is short. He must be careful not to put his foot into a hole, nor to stumble or go the wrong way, which could lead him into a dead end. His attention is strained as he does not know exactly what will happen in the near future, so he must take the distance one step at a time. Under such circumstances, his ability to take risks is limited because the goal is to come to the finish without stumbling or falling, and with as much grace as possible. It can be just me feeling this way about such performances, because I really don’t like suspense-never did. To get satisfaction, I need to know that all ends well and nobody is hurt on the way. Noam has mastered incredible skills as a performing artist, composer, and improviser. His music wants to fly, that is sure, but in this case, the cage is relatively small. Any time he spreads his wings, a new formal or structural demand forces him to take a turn. Watching his performance, I realized that I never had such feelings when consuming performances of written music. The knowledge that virtuosos are well-prepared and each note rehearsed millions of times, and that they will be flying on the wings of the great composers, just makes me happy-no need to fasten the seat belts. On the other hand, the value of knowing the art of improvisation for virtuosos is not for me to judge. I just recognize the difference between Chopin improvising his music a priori and those who do so on his motifs a posteriori.

Very inspiring. Thank You!

Hi Ben,You have no idea how much I appreciate your presentations of Chopin's music with such excellent guests;thanks a million.

I met Gabriela Montera once in Montreal, several years ago. What an incredible soul and an hypnotic yet alluring musician. That kind of talent is rare, very rare.

This is so interesting. To me improvisation has always been 1000 times easier than reading piano music

Many improvisations sound like random wandering. But some people achieve improvising that sounds like finished pieces. It's like they don't try to cram too much music material into a space. Many of Gabriela's are like that. I suspect that that's the secret to successful improvisation.

I find the intercourse example humorous and unforgettable (and valuable). I will never look at Chopin's work the same way again.

35:19 you can’t judge the artwork alone by its method of production . Form and content are still more foundational categories of the judgement. The judgement here ( in the case of prioritizing the method and procedures of creation ) is about the status of the one who improvises, not the artwork.

Plato puts the best question for us: why having an imperfect copy when you can have already the original?

Schemata is an overrated trend in the USA. This trend takes place in the narcissistic context of our attention seeking era; this is why many virtuosos want to move into improvisation . I gave an improvisation concert recently in Vienna. I also play the tridentine mass, that is 80% improvised music and 20% no music. No „scheme“. And by the way: historic improvisation in the concert hall is a an academic trend that has nothing with the „Geist“ of that early music era they talk about. You just need to read Dahlhaus Foundations of Music History to get enough critical about Gjerdingen’s historicist approach . The authentic compositional approach to improvisation is the only that matters. This requires, however, to develop an artistic and creative personality. Only this gives musical substance to the improvisation. Without this the improvisation is a narcissistic display of charicatures and techniques that have nothing to say. The schemes are ineffective of the useful tools for musical analysis. When we speak about romanesca, this helps us to understand patterns so good as the word transitus for figures. But this is not the thought process to focus on: if you can use the romanesca, this means you meet he requirements to care about way more valuable things, like not repeating yourself in every improvisation. This is the most important difference between a clown of the improvisation and a composer who expresses ideas with improvisation :he doesn’t stop acting as a composer. This means: he doesn’t repeat himself as infinitum in every public occasion. * i teach Music History (1-4) in Vienna

These series of podcasts was my gateway to experiencing Chopin, am so glad

It strikes me that it is easier for a soloist to improvise than for a group, like a symphony orchestra. The latter strikes me as a prescription for chaos. Having said that, jazz ensembles manage to pull it off, albeit typically by focusing on soloists from within the ensemble.