When you add a Symphonic Etudes,, that although are true masterpieces, played by one of the greatest pianist of our time, fabulous and divine music naturally emerges. This compositions are of an incredible beauty that certainly does not let us remain indifferent, touching our sensibility deeply. What a amazing recording that gives us moments of deep and true pleasure.
@@antoinezygfryd Que voulez-vous dire par là ? Chopin et sa musique glutineuse m'ennuie profondément, de même que Bach ou Beethoven, très surestimés à mon sens, surtout Beethoven. On devrait cesser de jouer tous ces compositeurs passéistes, ou la musique classique mourra. J'ai fait un tour dans vos favoris, c'est vous le fanatique dans cette histoire.
This may be my favorite piano piece of all time. I've been listening to it nearly every day for the past few weeks. It's so hauntingly beautiful. The posthumous variations that start at 13:50 bring tears to my eyes.. each time the tempo comes close to reaching a hopeful climax it suddenly comes to a halt and falls back into melancholy and despair.
Not only that, but it's in the style of the French Overture. Particularly sounds like the overture to Handel's Messiah which would have been being revived around this time.
@ Calebuh I had never looked at things this way, but your comment is absolutely true. There is something a la française Indeed in this admirable variation. Note however that Schumann wrote "Sempre marcatissimo", which is not exactly the French style, which tends more towards grace and grandeur than sheer strength. Best,
For those who write comments like "this variation is the best in the world". I would like to share my feelings of this outstanding piece. Every variation is full of romantic spirit and schouldn't be choosen as "one of the best". For me the whole piece is one of the greatest piano pieces of the romantic period. I always back to this extraordinary performance 😊
No question that this is one of the greatest pianistic monuments ever composed. Amazing score on so many levels. Thank you for posting with the scrolling score!
I like every variation/etude of this piece. But especially all of Etude 3 (5:19), Etude 5 (7:30), Posthumous Variation 5 (16:34), Etude 7 (20:06), everything from Etude 9 to the end (23:45), especially in Etude 11 from 27:14-17:30, and in the Finale especially 29:47-30:01 and 32:04-32:18. Basically the whole thing.
Amazing work of Schumann, I think his best. So complex and such different sounds some like Scriabin. Richter is almost perfect here, I love the way he plays the repeats every so differently, very subtle. And his fantastic technique allows him to really express himself. I think this is one of the most difficult piano works ever because there are so many techniques that you have to change to in an instant. I tried to read thru this years ago but could not even get thru the slow ones because there is so much to do in every measure. Some of the rhythmic variations had such syncopations I found it hard sometimes to even follow the score. Schumann is quite underrated, such a true genius he is.
Time stamps for app users: 00:00 - Theme - Andante 01:36 - Etude I (Variation 1) - Un poco più vivo 02:41 - Etude II (Variation 2) - Andante 05:18 - Etude III - Vivace 06:28 - Etude IV (Variation 3) - Allegro marcato 07:29 - Etude V (Variation 4) - Scherzando 08:34 - Posthumous variation I - Andante, Tempo del tema 10:11 - Posthumous variation II - Meno Mosso 12:19 - Posthumous variation III - Allegro 13:50 - Posthumous variation IV - Allegretto 16:33 - Posthumous variation V - Moderato 19:12 - Etude VI (Variation 5) - Agitato 20:06 - Etude VII (Variation 6) - Allegro molto 21:16 - Etude VIII (Variation 7) - Sempre marcatissimo 23:44 - Etude IX - Presto possibile 24:33 - Etude X (Variation 8) - Allegro con energia 25:43 - Etude XI (Variation 9) - Andante espressivo 28:04 - Etude XII (Finale) - Allegro brillante (based on Marschner's theme)
Thank you for posting this fine performance from Richter, with the score. Schumann is complex, tender, dramatic, gentle, insistent, glorious, and dramatic. Such a vigorous piece of music, one of my favorites of the 19thC.
Schumann wrote more difficult stretches into his music than any other Romantic composer. Just full of 10ths and even bigger stretches that you have to arpeggiate. Variation 2 is full of them, there's the crazy left-hand leaps in Variation 5, and there are those staccato 10ths in the left hand in the finale, to name just a few examples. There's a reason Henle gives this piece its top difficulty rating.
@@calebhu6383Alkan stretches are weird because often the stretch happens because of notes inside. Like for example, symphony for solo piano 4th mvt has a chord in the RH that contains F# A B E F# (pardon my spelling if I spelled it wrong). It’s within an octave, but I can hardly do it.
This is one of the pinnacles of early romanticism without a doubt, with his Sonatas and Fantasy, Schumann affirms himself to be a master of the larger form.
When my mum was a young woman in the 1930s, studying the piano, she told her best friend that my dad had asked her to marry him. Her friend sat down at the piano and played the last allegro brillante of this, while she sang "I knew you would, I knew you would, you silly fat old fool!" It was a standing joke in our family, but now I play it for itself.
OK, well, my mother as a young woman played the Moonlight Sonata in a piano recital. She was wearing one of those frothy white dresses, and at one point a bug got inside it and started running around. Her piano teacher told her later that he'd never heard the second movement played so fast in his life.
As a novice piano player teaching ones self to play, this is wonderful, being able to see the music and hear its interpretation by accomplished pianists! A new found youtube treasure. Thank you.
What can we say? Richter offers us a fabulous rendering of these symphonic studies. Each study or variation is a world closed to itself, and nevertheless the theme acts as an overarching unifying factor. Richter renders that perfectly.
Just got 2 disks of Richter playing nothing but Haydn sonatas on the Decca label, I took a chance not knowing how good it would be, it's absolutely wonderful, can't recommend them enough.
I was reading a review at Amazon to see what other people were saying about these recordings and one person said I liked it alot more than I thought I would, that is exactly what I was thinking. I remember reading from his book when he spoke of Haydn's music and I had a suspicion the recordings would be good. I think when a performer really likes the music it comes through in the sound. I have a huge box complete recordings of all Haydn's music but I wanted to get some quality recordings of his piano sonatas so I got Richter, Ax, and Hamelin. So far I've only listened to Richter and I'm really happy I got those disks. I tell you Haydn wrote so much good music I'm glad I have the huge box of recordings of all his music. It's nice to go from piano music to string quartettes and there's so much more. I have the complete Mozart Beethoven Chopin and Brahms boxes too. These guys are too important not to have everything they did. It's kind of like only looking at part of a painting.
Slobodyanik played the posthumous No ll for an encore in Los Angeles many years ago, I was in the audience. The LA times critic didnt know this piece, guessed it was Scriabin. People were enchanted & I decided to learn this myself & played it many times for enjoyment. I had the Ashkenazy record but didnt let his excellence deter me. It was at UCLA, decades ago.
Outstanding performance by Richter of this outstanding masterpiece! Thanks for sharing with the scrolling score(in Etude IX, Richter starts with a bar missing from the score!)
Who else thinks that the crushed octave at 24:54 is actually an improvement on the pure? Gives it a slightly demonic edge, maybe unintended but as someone said a while ago a lot of Richter's bad notes sound a lot better than the 'right' notes of some others!
Marvelous cocktail of pieces, whose first worth is to be composed as an organized system or chain of melodies which leads to converge and finish towards the monumental and final variation "Opus Posthuma", an exuberant melody, full of sympathy and humour.
É incomensurável! Cada variação é um universo musical! Simplesmente fantástico! Para o pianista é uma maratona onde ele enfrenta os mais variados desafios! Simplesmente estupendo!
Richter plays most of these variations faster than I'm used to hearing them. Who am I to say he's wrong? But I feel that most of them are shown to their best advantage at slightly slower tempi. Let the music unfold in a way that allows the listener to appreciate all the details of Schumann's genius, not just its overall sweep.
I’ve been listening to Richter for 55 years. He sometimes plays pieces much faster or much slower than anyone. The 2nd prelude from book 1 of The Well Tempered Clavier is played as fast as humanly possible. The June Barcarole of Tchaikovsky is played slower than anyone. I think the fast tempo of Symphonic Etudes suits the mania that Schumann must have had when composing them.
Just so happened to have stumbled on to Gilies DVD he plays this and Brahms op116 have been my top two piano compositions for a while now, well worth getting as an alternate recording.
So much better than his sonatas, which I don't care for much, at all. Many pianists revere the C Major Fantasy, which is also wonderful, but I prefer the Symphonic Etudes. I came to know the work from John Browning's recording.
The term etude to me evokes a concept of mechanical exercise with no musical content, something you practice but do not perform in a recital. This does not sound like an exercise to me it sounds like music that I find myself enjoying. I like how each variation varies so much in feel and tempo with an almost fun/playful like attitude, I like the hints of chromaticism also that add to the character of the harmony implied. I think this is some of his better piano music and an impressive exploration into a wonderful creative mind full of imagination. This is another victory for Richter displaying a great deal of warmth color and emotion, I feel like I am getting to know the artist side of him through your channel. I have many of his recordings but it was not until I started to come here that I started to hear what I thought I wanted to hear from him for the first time. Somehow with an artist that iconic, I find that strange. When I think of Richter I think the guy could and did play everything but I wonder about his life and how that affected his performances, I wonder about his love life and sence of happiness and I could be wrong but I think I know the answer without looking. I think inside a storm was brewing but most of the time it just didn't come out because of events in his life and his emotions. On a technical level I think he was dead on almost all the time, playing what was written, it is the emotional aspect and display of color I often find myself questioning. For one of the first times I what he was hiding inside. I'm sorry if what I said or you don't know what I'm talking about, some of these are harsh words for what is commonly known as one of the greatest, just speaking my mind about how I feel about his playing. I actually own the box complete Decca Phillips and DG recordings, while many times I don't feel anything I do find it interesting his delivery in terms of tempo dynamics and shaping the phrase, the musical conception is always there but it wasn't until I started to come here that I started to feel something. Instead of dull greys I started to see vivid colors. Recording I think affects people differently, it can be difficult the get the right performance recorded, one day you're just not feeling it and it gets recorded the next day you play a concert and things come out better than you could have imagined. In Richter I don't think many of his recordings showed how he really played, this is one of the few I have found so far. Sorry It took a lot of words to get out what I was thinking but I finally feel like I got it done.
+scottbos68 I think I know what you mean, some of Richter's recordings I find almost unlistenable (his Ravel for example... ugh), but other recordings like this one he's just fantastic. Check out his 1961 recording of Schumann's Fantasy Op. 17 for a Richter full of colour, warmth and depth.
After spending a few months rediscovering and getting to know his piano music a little more closely I find myself in love with the fantasiestucke equally with this piece.
After about 9 months of.listening to everything he wrote for piano the third sonata was actually my favorite in the end, this was my second favorite, third was kreisleriana, fourth was unexptedly intermezzo op 4 and fifth also unexpectedly was davidsbundlertanze op 6
Here to familiarise myself to this piece in anticipation of Kate Liu’s performance this Saturday at the 14th International Royal Kraków Piano Festival!
This has to be amongst the greatest piano works ever composed. Richter did it full justice by inserting the extra 5 variations in this 1971 recording. For me, it's the benchmark by which all subsequent recordings are compared, despite having been made more than 50 years ago.
totally wonderful! I've never heard these before - always suspecting they were more or less unplayable. Well they probably are - except for guys like Richter on best form. I'm guessing this was a studio performance: he did so few of these.
It's standard repertoire for concert pianists but definitely unplayable for the average pianist. Even if one can master the uncomfortable stretches and general awkwardness, there is still the huge challenge of creating a coherent musical whole within so many contrasting colors.
My bet is that Chopin's barely hidden disrespect for Schumann was the feeling that in terms of musical quality, he was his only real competitor. This cycle (and, IMO, op. 17 and Kreisleriana) shows that Schumann was getting close (if not catching up entirely).
Are you joking? Schumann is much more complex, look at the textures he comes up with, look at counterpoint, richness of dissonance, etc. Chopin could've never caught up to this in a hundred years. Schumann is on another level, another league.
@@garrysmodsketchesInteresting that you assume complexity makes music better. Chopin was extending the elegance of Mozart into romanticism with an auteurist flavor. Music is better with depth, true, but not with obscurity, and much of Schumann is obscure and inaccessible to people not initiated to his very particular style.
@@garrysmodsketches Uhm, no? Chopin's counterpoint writing is one of the high points of romantic piano literature and so is his harmonic language (rivaling Wagner in innovation) and use of dissonance and textures especially (just look at his prelude set). His disrespect for Schumann wasn't exclusive to Schumann; he looked down on German music in general.
i can recommend you check out the ghost variations, humoreske , kreisleriana and his piano sonatas if you haven't yet! he wrote so much amazing music for the piano but i have to agree that his chamber music is exceptional as well, the piano trio in Eb major is one of my favorite pieces ever
Wanted to re-emphasize this one, only listening to this once or twice just didn't do it for me, excluding any Rachmaninoff and the Brahms op 116, this is my favorite thing you uploaded. The sudden changes that vary so wildly have found its way into my all time solo piano hall of fame. In a way I find it similar to Rachmaninoff's Variations on a theme of Chopin not in tonality but in how each variation is so different from one to the next. Maybe it's the concept of sudden changes and a sence of the unexpected that excites me the most, a style I describe as progressive, or progressively traditional in this case - old fationed sounds structured in a progressive style arrangement, the same way i describe the Brahms op 116. This is a sound I always knew Richter had inside him, it was really nice to finally hear him let it out.
+scottbos68 Well this is one of Schumann's best pieces for piano, even though they are only called 'etudes'... composers like him, and Rach/Scriabin/Chopin etc. knew how to transcend a mere etude to something profoundly musical, especially when situated in a set like this. Did you listen to Richter's Fantasy Op. 17 recording already? That is perhaps my favorite recording by him.
I found a studio recording from 1961 and didn't make it very far through that recording, then found a different recording titled first London appearance or something like that from 1961 also. It's exactly what I was talking about, the studio recording was almost unlistenable but recorded well, and the live recording was completely the opposite, a horrible recording played with incredible expression and intensity. Recording quality doesn't mean a whole lot to me its more about what notes are being played and how much meaning is between the notes. Same piece recorded the same year and one is amazing and the other I couldn't really listen to very long.
+olla-vogala True, they're only 'etudes', but they're 'Symphonic Etudes', so there's that huge, almost orchestral quality to them. They're also fiendishly difficult to play - Etude VI's leaps are nigh-on impossible - so to hear a master like Richter is both amazing and infuriating, because you just don't know how he can do it!
+olla-vogala Also, when I saw that your channel had re-appeared, this was one of the videos that I was most looking forward to, so thanks for uploading it!
A l homme je ne demande pas quelle est la valeur de ses lois mais bien quelle est sa valeur spirituelle.Antoine de St Exupery.. Merci Mr Richter pour cette interpretation de Schumann...
One of the truly greatest examples in this form. Schumann. along with Beethoven, Brahms and of course Bach and Rachmaninoff These variations I have known for decades and they are astounding. I know we all tend to rave a bit. but this music really does exhibit real genius-Schumann was one . How could he ever be underrated? Here they played to perfection :-) And thank you for not defiling this post with adds at inappropriate places like some others. I greatly appreciate it.
Schumann was often critical of Alkan, for example calling the latter's Trois Morceaux dans le genre de Pathetique a piece of "false...unnatural art ...a crabbed waste, overgrown with brush and weeds ... nothing is to be found but black on black." Schumann also criticized other etudes for having "weakness, vulgarity and a remarkable lack of imagination." However, he did praise Alkan for the work Le Mois: ""In this work we find such an excellent jest on operatic music that a better one could scarcely be imagined ...The composer...well understands the rarer effects of his instrument." So I'd say that Schumann wasn't a fan (probably due to his somewhat conservative tastes) but he probably held a great deal respect for him as a colleague.
![SCHUMANN - Op.13 Symphonic Etudes [Dimitris Sgouros] 1987 LIVE](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DqwKgUm7KCI/mqdefault.jpg)
![SCHUMANN - Op.13 Symphonic Etudes [Dimitris Sgouros] 1987 LIVE](/img/tr.png)
When you add a Symphonic Etudes,, that although are true masterpieces, played by one of the greatest pianist of our time, fabulous and divine music naturally emerges. This compositions are of an incredible beauty that certainly does not let us remain indifferent, touching our sensibility deeply. What a amazing recording that gives us moments of deep and true pleasure.
I have to say that EVERY single variation is a masterpiece of form and content. Bravo Schumann for making our lives brighter.
Sviatoslav Richter ...
Why are half of great composers barely known? Or at least badly underrated.
Because people are lazy and listen to the same old pieces by Chopin and Liszt
@@Alix777. "OLD pieces by Chopin"?? jesus christ! you are a fanatic
@@antoinezygfryd Que voulez-vous dire par là ? Chopin et sa musique glutineuse m'ennuie profondément, de même que Bach ou Beethoven, très surestimés à mon sens, surtout Beethoven. On devrait cesser de jouer tous ces compositeurs passéistes, ou la musique classique mourra. J'ai fait un tour dans vos favoris, c'est vous le fanatique dans cette histoire.
This may be my favorite piano piece of all time. I've been listening to it nearly every day for the past few weeks. It's so hauntingly beautiful. The posthumous variations that start at 13:50 bring tears to my eyes.. each time the tempo comes close to reaching a hopeful climax it suddenly comes to a halt and falls back into melancholy and despair.
The variation starting at 21:17 is absolutely devastating, heart-wrenching stuff. Schumann pouring his heart and soul into the music
Not only that, but it's in the style of the French Overture. Particularly sounds like the overture to Handel's Messiah which would have been being revived around this time.
@ Calebuh
I had never looked at things this way, but your comment is absolutely true. There is something a la française Indeed in this admirable variation. Note however that Schumann wrote "Sempre marcatissimo", which is not exactly the French style, which tends more towards grace and grandeur than sheer strength. Best,
@@calebhu6383 It reminds me of the 6th movement of Kreisleriana
For those who write comments like "this variation is the best in the world". I would like to share my feelings of this outstanding piece. Every variation is full of romantic spirit and schouldn't be choosen as "one of the best". For me the whole piece is one of the greatest piano pieces of the romantic period. I always back to this extraordinary performance 😊
No question that this is one of the greatest pianistic monuments ever composed. Amazing score on so many levels. Thank you for posting with the scrolling score!
I like every variation/etude of this piece. But especially all of Etude 3 (5:19), Etude 5 (7:30), Posthumous Variation 5 (16:34), Etude 7 (20:06), everything from Etude 9 to the end (23:45), especially in Etude 11 from 27:14-17:30, and in the Finale especially 29:47-30:01 and 32:04-32:18.
Basically the whole thing.
😂😂😂😂
The posthumous variation 5 is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.
It recalls the final variation of the Ghost Variations.
It sounds like Scriabin before Scriabin.
Amazing work of Schumann, I think his best. So complex and such different sounds some like Scriabin. Richter is almost perfect here, I love the way he plays the repeats every so differently, very subtle. And his fantastic technique allows him to really express himself. I think this is one of the most difficult piano works ever because there are so many techniques that you have to change to in an instant. I tried to read thru this years ago but could not even get thru the slow ones because there is so much to do in every measure. Some of the rhythmic variations had such syncopations I found it hard sometimes to even follow the score. Schumann is quite underrated, such a true genius he is.
Time stamps for app users:
00:00 - Theme - Andante
01:36 - Etude I (Variation 1) - Un poco più vivo
02:41 - Etude II (Variation 2) - Andante
05:18 - Etude III - Vivace
06:28 - Etude IV (Variation 3) - Allegro marcato
07:29 - Etude V (Variation 4) - Scherzando
08:34 - Posthumous variation I - Andante, Tempo del tema
10:11 - Posthumous variation II - Meno Mosso
12:19 - Posthumous variation III - Allegro
13:50 - Posthumous variation IV - Allegretto
16:33 - Posthumous variation V - Moderato
19:12 - Etude VI (Variation 5) - Agitato
20:06 - Etude VII (Variation 6) - Allegro molto
21:16 - Etude VIII (Variation 7) - Sempre marcatissimo
23:44 - Etude IX - Presto possibile
24:33 - Etude X (Variation 8) - Allegro con energia
25:43 - Etude XI (Variation 9) - Andante espressivo
28:04 - Etude XII (Finale) - Allegro brillante (based on Marschner's theme)
Thank you
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12.
the extrem dificult & extremely beautiful best piano work by R.Schumann
magnifica vers, me gusta + k la de Polini
penult estudio antes del finale 1 poco demasiado rapido
Thank you for posting this fine performance from Richter, with the score. Schumann is complex, tender, dramatic, gentle, insistent, glorious, and dramatic. Such a vigorous piece of music, one of my favorites of the 19thC.
05:18 The 3rd etude is probably one of the best things Schumann ever wrote. So weird and yet brilliant.
Agreed
Ok, but same for Etude VII !
Sounds like depression, just waiting for the seconds to slowly pass , and laments in between.
Feels a lot like the texture of Paganini caprice 1 (this texture was adopted in Liszt's Paganini etude No.4 too)
Richter's interpretation is sublime!
Oh, Robert Schumann, how grateful I am that you were born and existed in the world.
Schumann wrote more difficult stretches into his music than any other Romantic composer. Just full of 10ths and even bigger stretches that you have to arpeggiate. Variation 2 is full of them, there's the crazy left-hand leaps in Variation 5, and there are those staccato 10ths in the left hand in the finale, to name just a few examples. There's a reason Henle gives this piece its top difficulty rating.
Him, and Charles Alkan. At least Liszt wrote ossias for his big stretches.
Sviatoslav Richter divine plays
@@calebhu6383Alkan stretches are weird because often the stretch happens because of notes inside. Like for example, symphony for solo piano 4th mvt has a chord in the RH that contains F# A B E F# (pardon my spelling if I spelled it wrong). It’s within an octave, but I can hardly do it.
I’m just discovering Schumann now and he is full of surprises.
Posth variation IV just got me. Completely silent. Wow. Such beauty.
This is actually amazing.. How come I never heard these before
A tour de force performance. Incredibly difficult music played with such apparent ease and beauty.
This is one of the pinnacles of early romanticism without a doubt, with his Sonatas and Fantasy, Schumann affirms himself to be a master of the larger form.
Posthumos variation 5 😍 those harmonics are gorgeous
Best piano music ever written, this is...
Such a great piece and Richter was amazing too.
My favourite Schuman piece.
finally found it, 28:40 is the piano sample from revolution 9 - the beatles
Ty
I've been looking for that song forever. Glad we could find it.
So breathtaking!.. Schumann was definitely the black sheep among other Romantic Era composers when it came to composing music.
DeVonte Glass
I'm not the biggest Schumann fan but this is incredible
When my mum was a young woman in the 1930s, studying the piano, she told her best friend that my dad had asked her to marry him. Her friend sat down at the piano and played the last allegro brillante of this, while she sang "I knew you would, I knew you would, you silly fat old fool!" It was a standing joke in our family, but now I play it for itself.
Haha what a funny story, thanks for sharing that :) I always really like to learn about people's personal relationships with certain pieces of music.
OK, well, my mother as a young woman played the Moonlight Sonata in a piano recital. She was wearing one of those frothy white dresses, and at one point a bug got inside it and started running around. Her piano teacher told her later that he'd never heard the second movement played so fast in his life.
olla Cigala you are a crack
That's such a lovely story!
Incredible. The first time I've heard these, and with Richter playing them! Superb.
As a novice piano player teaching ones self to play, this is wonderful, being able to see the music and hear its interpretation by accomplished pianists! A new found youtube treasure. Thank you.
In my opinion No. 11 is also amazing! Schumann has really a lot of awesome piano works!
What can we say? Richter offers us a fabulous rendering of these symphonic studies. Each study or variation is a world closed to itself, and nevertheless the theme acts as an overarching unifying factor. Richter renders that perfectly.
I am glad to meet you with this record, Schumann.
Just got 2 disks of Richter playing nothing but Haydn sonatas on the Decca label, I took a chance not knowing how good it would be, it's absolutely wonderful, can't recommend them enough.
+scottbos68 Thanks, I'll check them out!
I was reading a review at Amazon to see what other people were saying about these recordings and one person said I liked it alot more than I thought I would, that is exactly what I was thinking. I remember reading from his book when he spoke of Haydn's music and I had a suspicion the recordings would be good. I think when a performer really likes the music it comes through in the sound. I have a huge box complete recordings of all Haydn's music but I wanted to get some quality recordings of his piano sonatas so I got Richter, Ax, and Hamelin. So far I've only listened to Richter and I'm really happy I got those disks. I tell you Haydn wrote so much good music I'm glad I have the huge box of recordings of all his music. It's nice to go from piano music to string quartettes and there's so much more. I have the complete Mozart Beethoven Chopin and Brahms boxes too. These guys are too important not to have everything they did. It's kind of like only looking at part of a painting.
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS MUSIC!!! SCHUMANN IS A GOD!!!
Slobodyanik played the posthumous No ll for an encore in Los Angeles many years ago, I was in the audience. The LA times critic didnt know this piece, guessed it was Scriabin. People were enchanted & I decided to learn this myself & played it many times for enjoyment. I had the Ashkenazy record but didnt let his excellence deter me. It was at UCLA, decades ago.
Wow, these are really technical and demanding pieces - a challenge!
5:18 this recalls Paganini's first caprice
Outstanding performance by Richter of this outstanding masterpiece! Thanks for sharing with the scrolling score(in Etude IX, Richter starts with a bar missing from the score!)
Who else thinks that the crushed octave at 24:54 is actually an improvement on the pure?
Gives it a slightly demonic edge, maybe unintended but as someone said a while ago a lot of Richter's bad notes sound a lot better than the 'right' notes of some others!
Una de las mejores composiciones para piano de la Historia.
What an exquisite piece of music! Thanks for posting
My pleasure, glad you like it :)
Marvelous cocktail of pieces, whose first worth is to be composed as an organized system or chain of melodies which leads to converge and finish towards the monumental and final variation "Opus Posthuma", an exuberant melody, full of sympathy and humour.
That's truly a glorious performance, rich with powerful playing. Immensely satisfying tone.
É incomensurável! Cada variação é um universo musical! Simplesmente fantástico! Para o pianista é uma maratona onde ele enfrenta os mais variados desafios! Simplesmente estupendo!
33:29 is the reversed piano loop in revolution 9
thank you)
You are a god
omg i was looking for it haha
Best comment on TH-cam
you are a hero
Для Викторины:
Тема - 0:00
Этюд 1 - 01:36
Этюд 2 - 02:41
Этюд 3 - 05:18
Этюд 8 - 21:16
Этюд 11 - 25:43
Этюд 12 - 28:04
Richter plays most of these variations faster than I'm used to hearing them. Who am I to say he's wrong? But I feel that most of them are shown to their best advantage at slightly slower tempi. Let the music unfold in a way that allows the listener to appreciate all the details of Schumann's genius, not just its overall sweep.
I’ve been listening to Richter for 55 years. He sometimes plays pieces much faster or much slower than anyone. The 2nd prelude from book 1 of The Well Tempered Clavier is played as fast as humanly possible. The June Barcarole of Tchaikovsky is played slower than anyone. I think the fast tempo of Symphonic Etudes suits the mania that Schumann must have had when composing them.
Schumann had the richest of all music from his contemporaries. 100 characters and harmonies in a few minutes. Horribly underrated.
So false
Bloody typical
@@HerodatticusOh shut up, He was the hidden gem of Romantic music.
bravo@@oritdrimer4354
I personally like Brahms more, but yes Schumann always strikes me as this pure, stately music
Who underrates Schumann???
Just so happened to have stumbled on to Gilies DVD he plays this and Brahms op116 have been my top two piano compositions for a while now, well worth getting as an alternate recording.
Err that is Gilels
Just got my hands on the Gilels DVD every note is wonderful from beginning to end.
Schumann’s greatest work for the piano
So much better than his sonatas, which I don't care for much, at all. Many pianists revere the C Major Fantasy, which is also wonderful, but I prefer the Symphonic Etudes. I came to know the work from John Browning's recording.
Symphonic etudes #1, Davidsbundlertanze #2!!
Kreislerianer No 1
That upward scale in 17:50 is heavenly
maravilhoso e eterno esses estudos! perfeito!
Kate Liu brought me here. She performed an epic rendition at the Singapore Esplanade Concert Hall, 18 July 2023!
The term etude to me evokes a concept of mechanical exercise with no musical content, something you practice but do not perform in a recital. This does not sound like an exercise to me it sounds like music that I find myself enjoying. I like how each variation varies so much in feel and tempo with an almost fun/playful like attitude, I like the hints of chromaticism also that add to the character of the harmony implied. I think this is some of his better piano music and an impressive exploration into a wonderful creative mind full of imagination.
This is another victory for Richter displaying a great deal of warmth color and emotion, I feel like I am getting to know the artist side of him through your channel. I have many of his recordings but it was not until I started to come here that I started to hear what I thought I wanted to hear from him for the first time. Somehow with an artist that iconic, I find that strange. When I think of Richter I think the guy could and did play everything but I wonder about his life and how that affected his performances, I wonder about his love life and sence of happiness and I could be wrong but I think I know the answer without looking. I think inside a storm was brewing but most of the time it just didn't come out because of events in his life and his emotions. On a technical level I think he was dead on almost all the time, playing what was written, it is the emotional aspect and display of color I often find myself questioning. For one of the first times I what he was hiding inside. I'm sorry if what I said or you don't know what I'm talking about, some of these are harsh words for what is commonly known as one of the greatest, just speaking my mind about how I feel about his playing. I actually own the box complete Decca Phillips and DG recordings, while many times I don't feel anything I do find it interesting his delivery in terms of tempo dynamics and shaping the phrase, the musical conception is always there but it wasn't until I started to come here that I started to feel something. Instead of dull greys I started to see vivid colors. Recording I think affects people differently, it can be difficult the get the right performance recorded, one day you're just not feeling it and it gets recorded the next day you play a concert and things come out better than you could have imagined. In Richter I don't think many of his recordings showed how he really played, this is one of the few I have found so far. Sorry It took a lot of words to get out what I was thinking but I finally feel like I got it done.
+scottbos68 I think I know what you mean, some of Richter's recordings I find almost unlistenable (his Ravel for example... ugh), but other recordings like this one he's just fantastic. Check out his 1961 recording of Schumann's Fantasy Op. 17 for a Richter full of colour, warmth and depth.
After spending a few months rediscovering and getting to know his piano music a little more closely I find myself in love with the fantasiestucke equally with this piece.
scottbos68
Yes that's a very good piece too!
There's a documentary called "Richter: the enigma". It's on YT if you're interested, I liked it a lot.
After about 9 months of.listening to everything he wrote for piano the third sonata was actually my favorite in the end, this was my second favorite, third was kreisleriana, fourth was unexptedly intermezzo op 4 and fifth also unexpectedly was davidsbundlertanze op 6
This is one of those works where words simply do not suffice.
Posthumous variation IV - Allegretto 13:50
Posthumous variation I - Andante, Tempo del tema 8:34
Posthumous variation III - Allegro 12:19
Here to familiarise myself to this piece in anticipation of Kate Liu’s performance this Saturday at the 14th International Royal Kraków Piano Festival!
How superb! No words about this perfect performance..
sublime
I have no word to describe how marvelous this is.
An excellent performance of an amazing piece of music. Recommend also the Pollini version, which I find marginally more melodic.
This has to be amongst the greatest piano works ever composed. Richter did it full justice by inserting the extra 5 variations in this 1971 recording. For me, it's the benchmark by which all subsequent recordings are compared, despite having been made more than 50 years ago.
totally wonderful! I've never heard these before - always suspecting they were more or less unplayable. Well they probably are - except for guys like Richter on best form. I'm guessing this was a studio performance: he did so few of these.
It's standard repertoire for concert pianists but definitely unplayable for the average pianist. Even if one can master the uncomfortable stretches and general awkwardness, there is still the huge challenge of creating a coherent musical whole within so many contrasting colors.
My bet is that Chopin's barely hidden disrespect for Schumann was the feeling that in terms of musical quality, he was his only real competitor. This cycle (and, IMO, op. 17 and Kreisleriana) shows that Schumann was getting close (if not catching up entirely).
Are you joking? Schumann is much more complex, look at the textures he comes up with, look at counterpoint, richness of dissonance, etc. Chopin could've never caught up to this in a hundred years. Schumann is on another level, another league.
@@garrysmodsketchesInteresting that you assume complexity makes music better. Chopin was extending the elegance of Mozart into romanticism with an auteurist flavor. Music is better with depth, true, but not with obscurity, and much of Schumann is obscure and inaccessible to people not initiated to his very particular style.
@@garrysmodsketches Uhm, no? Chopin's counterpoint writing is one of the high points of romantic piano literature and so is his harmonic language (rivaling Wagner in innovation) and use of dissonance and textures especially (just look at his prelude set). His disrespect for Schumann wasn't exclusive to Schumann; he looked down on German music in general.
Why is he in such a rush? I feel we miss out on some of the sumptuous beauty of this piece.
Ponga anuncio fijo. 🇮🇷😘 demasiado fino. 🎹🌹 una gran obra de piano solo.
Absolutely lovely!
Var. 5 is simply out of this world.
wow, that last variation and finale
I absolutely adore SCHUMANN, Not my favorite piece of him, but it's still pretty good.
Stupenda composizione
Gracias 🇮🇷. Bellísimo !!!!!bien hecho. 🌹🎹🥇
thank you....olla-vogala....i love it
Gracias por ponerlas 🇮🇷 México.
Gratulations,
perfectly displayed and with Richter is one of the best choices. ( Emil Gilels plays also very impressive) Thanks!
Loving the canonic motion in var. III - brings Franck to mind.
i really really love this etudes
🎧Викторина по Шуману. Таймкоды:
1:37 - 31. Этюд I, Вариация 1, Un poco più vivo
2:42 - 32. Этюд II, Вариация 2, Andante
6:28 - 33. Этюд IV, Вариация 3, Allegro marcato
7:29 - 34. Этюд V, Вариация 4, Scherzando
20:06 - 35. Этюд VII, Вариация 6, Allegro molto
21:17 - 36. Этюд VIII, Вариация 7, Sempre marcatissimo
25:44 - 37. Этюд XI, Вариация 9, Andante espressivo
28:04 - 38. Этюд XII, Финал, Allegro brillante
One of my all time favorites.
Fabulous music! Never knew Schumann's keyboard music was this great! Very familiar with his exceptional chamber music. Very mature Romantic music.
i can recommend you check out the ghost variations, humoreske , kreisleriana and his piano sonatas if you haven't yet! he wrote so much amazing music for the piano but i have to agree that his chamber music is exceptional as well, the piano trio in Eb major is one of my favorite pieces ever
28:53 revolution 9
Incredible! Thank You Very Much For That!
Wanted to re-emphasize this one, only listening to this once or twice just didn't do it for me, excluding any Rachmaninoff and the Brahms op 116, this is my favorite thing you uploaded. The sudden changes that vary so wildly have found its way into my all time solo piano hall of fame. In a way I find it similar to Rachmaninoff's Variations on a theme of Chopin not in tonality but in how each variation is so different from one to the next. Maybe it's the concept of sudden changes and a sence of the unexpected that excites me the most, a style I describe as progressive, or progressively traditional in this case - old fationed sounds structured in a progressive style arrangement, the same way i describe the Brahms op 116. This is a sound I always knew Richter had inside him, it was really nice to finally hear him let it out.
+scottbos68 Well this is one of Schumann's best pieces for piano, even though they are only called 'etudes'... composers like him, and Rach/Scriabin/Chopin etc. knew how to transcend a mere etude to something profoundly musical, especially when situated in a set like this. Did you listen to Richter's Fantasy Op. 17 recording already? That is perhaps my favorite recording by him.
I found a studio recording from 1961 and didn't make it very far through that recording, then found a different recording titled first London appearance or something like that from 1961 also. It's exactly what I was talking about, the studio recording was almost unlistenable but recorded well, and the live recording was completely the opposite, a horrible recording played with incredible expression and intensity. Recording quality doesn't mean a whole lot to me its more about what notes are being played and how much meaning is between the notes. Same piece recorded the same year and one is amazing and the other I couldn't really listen to very long.
+olla-vogala True, they're only 'etudes', but they're 'Symphonic Etudes', so there's that huge, almost orchestral quality to them. They're also fiendishly difficult to play - Etude VI's leaps are nigh-on impossible - so to hear a master like Richter is both amazing and infuriating, because you just don't know how he can do it!
+olla-vogala Also, when I saw that your channel had re-appeared, this was one of the videos that I was most looking forward to, so thanks for uploading it!
Cameron Yule
Thanks, and I'm happy that you're back!
Excellent!
Fameuse interprétation de Schumann piano !
STUPENDOUS!
Variatiunea 5 post. Este.. de la Dumnezeu direct!
Schumann Is a very good composers and this piece is very incredible and depressed.
A l homme je ne demande pas quelle est la valeur de ses lois mais bien quelle est sa valeur spirituelle.Antoine de St Exupery..
Merci Mr Richter pour cette interpretation de Schumann...
0:06 Тема
1:36 1 этюд
2:41 2 этюд
6:28 4 этюд
21:16 8 этюл
25:43 11 этюд
28:04 финал
an absolute masterpiece
One of the truly greatest examples in this form. Schumann. along with Beethoven, Brahms and of course Bach and Rachmaninoff These variations I have known for decades and they are astounding. I know we all tend to rave a bit. but this music really does exhibit real genius-Schumann was one . How could he ever be underrated? Here they played to perfection :-) And thank you for not defiling this post with adds at inappropriate places like some others. I greatly appreciate it.
Junio 20-------_-23
No deben mencionarce. a otros genios ,solo al ejecutante y autor. ❤️
Perfecto. 🇮🇷🏆😘🌹
Richter ?
16:34 🎶❤
Thick with expressive and intricate harmonies, symphonic in every way.
Posthumous variation III (12:19) is a miracle
The short piano clip in The Beatles’ Revolution #9 is taken from the final variation of this work.
I love 14:00
I actually hear a lot of Alkan in a couple of these.
Does anybody know of any link between Schumann and Alkan?
Schumann was often critical of Alkan, for example calling the latter's Trois Morceaux dans le genre de Pathetique a piece of "false...unnatural art ...a crabbed waste, overgrown with brush and weeds ... nothing is to be found but black on black."
Schumann also criticized other etudes for having "weakness, vulgarity and a remarkable lack of imagination."
However, he did praise Alkan for the work Le Mois: ""In this work we find such an excellent jest on operatic music that a better one could scarcely be imagined ...The composer...well understands the rarer effects of his instrument."
So I'd say that Schumann wasn't a fan (probably due to his somewhat conservative tastes) but he probably held a great deal respect for him as a colleague.
Who could play this as good as Richter did?
Try the Pollini version, which for me is a touch better than this magnificent performance
@@jimsammann Pogorelich?
Cortot
Infinito!