I have listened to dozens of pianists, thousands of hours of music, and ABM's performance of La Cathédrale Engloutie still ranks first in my list. He is so much better than any other pianist I've heard when he plays certain pieces (in particular Debussy's astounding preludes), no one compares to him in this repertoire. I think he is the only pianist of whose performances we have decent recordings to really have played this music as it should be played. It's as if the music was playing itself in absolute perfection.
Not True! Come on! More colorful beautiful piano sound than ABM=Wilhelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Ashkenazy Grigory Sokolov! More genius than ABM=Sviatoslav Richter Solomon Cutner Grigory Sokolov Maurizio Pollini Stanislav Bunin Maria Grinberg! More powerful louder than ABM=Mikhail Pletnev! The Second Loudest ever was Lazar Berman! The 3rd Loudest was Erwin Nyiregyhazi! Horowitz his technique attack better than ABM! ABM played the second-rated piano concertos like Mozart 13 Haydn G Major Liszt no 1! ABM never played the Best piano concertos like Mozart 24 Brahms 1-2 Chopin 1-2 Prokofiev 1-3 Rachmaninov 1-3 Saint-Saens no 2 Tchaikovsky no 1 JS Bach 1052 Beethoven no 4 Scriabin and so on!!
Che miracolo il timbro, il colore dato alle singole note ed agli accordi e la scomposizione delle note stesse ove indicate legate, con il "ritardato" e la prevalenza di una delle note. Magia unica del Genio ABM
Debussy used to write the title of his preludes at the end of the sheet, in these videos the same logic is followed. This music is a bridge to the centre of universe.
I'm sure he was touched by the spirit of every composer he played. He was so beyond all else - everything was so exquisite and elegant - what he did at the piano transcended the physical self to reach unearthly and wider,divine realms. What a blessing to hear this.... Phillip Wilcher (composer)
I'm in love with the way he interprets this. Debussy is my favorite composer and as such I find it difficult to listen to others' interpretations of this music that is so deeply entwined with my soul. Michelangeli is now my favorite pianist.
@@sherifbadawy8188 Clair De Lune is probably his most famous piece, but what most people don't know is that it is the 3rd movement in a suite. Suite Bergamasque. All 4 movements are brilliant.
@@Esam4217 Oh I never knew, I listened to it, never knew that Clair De Lune is part of 4 movements, its all new to me. Idid know the third and the fourth movements, the last one is amazing, the second clicked, I am already starting to repeat parts of it, I just don't understand what is it that he does, this specific one triggered a lot of childhood memories for me, Prelúdio para a tarde de um fauno, while "La Mer" was the most significant for me, some parts of it I find out of this world. I just don't know what he does with the speed or the instrument is playing in an unexpected time but it fits, I really don't know, I started to study piano hopefully I can understand. Thank you for your nice comment
He really knows how to play respectfully Debussy' s music. Listen to the sequence of chords after 2:25, the harmony is clear, the rhythm and the rubato are perfectly balanced.
The piece fits Michelangeli perfect I think. He really brings out the beauty and the style and the fairy tale which for me is inside this music. Wonderful!
The names come after each piece, as they do in the sheet music. If you view other videos in the series, you'll see that they also start with the title of the previous piece. Whoever cut this video up probably didn't realize that.
I've probably listened to La Cathedrale engloutie over 200 times, and I have never got sick of it. Such a stunning masterpiece. It's amazing how Debussy creates movement and motion between sections without V - I or VII - I progressions. And this performance by Michelangeli is fantastic. Thanks for posting!
Great interpretation of the piece. I like the way he uses the pedal, making some bass harmonies reverberate in different shades. I can't stop marvelling at the way he produces such beautiful sounds, so round and pearly, and shifts in dynamics without any physical strain. His body is perfectly in balance and all power comes from his fingers, subtle wrist movements and his chest. Brilliant.
In the Urtext edition, it is written that "Debussy played meas. 7-12 and 22-83 in double speed". Though this is untold in many other editions. That would mean the effects are way more important than the tempi ...
This is a wonderful interpretation of Debussy's most beloved piano composition. Michelangelilives up to his name and sets the highest of standards. Thanks to the person who uploaded this. Very much appreciated.
What you are reading is most certainly true because I can hear the 'shapes' of the cathedral in my mind. It reminds me a little bit of Monet's Rouen Cathedral painting, how the cathedral appears in the gentle, sweet mist of morning and all you can see is this outline and the tall spires and crevices in the stone walls...
At 2:25, at the church bell chords, he adds an extra c in the bass for more sonority; the pedal is a bit of a problem there (to hold the bass), he chooses for a blurred sound. One can also use the middle (sostenuto) pedal to hold the bass, and change r. pedal more often, but of course it isn't indicated by Debussy, maybe because he composed it while playing on an upright piano.
My mind will be drawn into the profound meditation while listening to his incomparable performance . From Tokyo in the dizzying Megalopolis ablaze with numerous neon lights Which national are you watching this video ？
Mi pieza favorita de Debussy!!! Casi todo lo que sé de composición lo aprendí analizando a Debussy. Definitivamente esta pieza es mi inspiración. Y apoyo a cga2000: Después de esto, el silencio es lo único que queda.
His playing face is very good and interesting. his play is excellent, marvellous and splendid, This song is one of my favorite song.:Whatnationality are you who are listening to this song ？
it is tonal because you can sing a tonic at all points in the music. However, it is not tonal in the traditional sense because it uses no leading tones and pentatonic/wholetone scales as well as constant structure. In order for something to be Atonal, you have to not be able to hear any tonic. Remember, whole tone scale can be used as a chord scale for dominant 7 with #5.
Thank you for posting all of the Preludes, Book I. ABM was, in my opinion, the greatest pianist of all time. People talk about his limited repertoire. Actually, if one goes to his website and looks up the complete discography maintained by Andrew Wilson, they will see that it is rather extensive. As far as his cancelled performances, Michelangeli suffered from ill health all of his life. He was a true genius and these performances are brilliant.
i assume it's cut from a bigger movie, where La Serenade Interompue was performed by Michelangelli before the "Cathedral". Debussy himself wrote the title in the end of the score, just as a suggestion of the image he liked to create
I'll tell you what's hard though. Having to analyze this in a Form and Analysis class. The life of a music major. Hard to identify where phrases end and begin w/o tonality and scales, but what can i say? Debussy paved the way to atonality.
Plongée en ondes musicales dans l'Atlantide selon Debussy. Au milieu de l'eau verte et trouble, “la cathédrale engloutie” se réveille sous les doigts de Michelangeli. Et la grâce surabonde. #Michelangeli #ClaudeDebussy #LaCathédraleEngloutie #MusiqueClassique #Piano
it's not identifying the piece as "The interrupted Serenade". Debussy used to put the names at the end of the score, that way, performers made their own impressions of the piece. In the recording, they made this as a rendition to debussy's idea
He has a whiff of Qui Gon Jinn about him. Perhaps Arturo is now in communion with the Force. Dancing with his lightsaber, executing endless leaps and dashes between the columns of the central nave, deep inside the sunken cathedral at the end of time.
Arturo makes it so easy looking. When I first tried to play this piece i thought it wasn't that hard. But the piece starting at 1:28 is very difficult when you want to play it at a good tempo and with the right intonation. I think I did at least 2 months over this piece...
Maybe it's not exactly as Debussy wrote it, but I really don't think that matters when it comes to music like this. The whole point is the "feel" of the piece, not the piece itself. In that regard, I think this is a terrific interpretation. The atmosphere conveyed in this piece is second-to-none, and this interpretation really captures it.
j adorais l interpretation CORTOT mais aujourd hui Quelque résonnance supplémentaire ? je ne sais mais cette interprétation ci est bouleversante d'expressionisme !
Of a nature referred to as Legendary.... music piece of one of the Noble And Great souls brings to mind some Buddhist writings, how the Buddha was absorbed in the state known as "The Great Illumination" at a time... That Aeon of music Da'ath was best called Eternity, and the divinity was Aphrodite, Friend Goddess of France, Belgiqa and Sweden; now it is her replacement P'zaaih, who is also now the Friend for this Land (formerly it was Thor)... Furthermore, this country and France were not Parallel countries, yet now they are. The Rasa, or evocative quality, best 2nd Decan of Beithe, Great Strength; the segment of a mandala, that of Watery Energy. Debussy was Gael Keltish, as also Satie was...
I agree with you about the "directness", but it's also the way the recording was done, it sounds very bright, and there is an acustic compressor severely limiting the dynamic range to fit it into the television format. All of these take away the patina that for example the Gieseking recording produces so masterfully.
Just listened again. Sublimbe. Shame it's TV quality. Very different to the DGG LP I own by him. That is a very large on dynamics to the point of almost being silent at times. Here he almost seems to play for TV. The fortisimo being exactly that.
@nicoledelaplante sorry its 2 years after you posted but im soo glad more people like you are being turned on to this music. its people like you that give me hope for the human race.
...just like in the score of the preludes. Debussy intentionally placed the titles at the end of each prelude, allowing the performer to discover impressions for himself, without being guided by the composer's own thoughts.
The ruined temple is going to sink into the sea while emitting the creepy loud sound like 「The Fall of the House of Usher 」 From Tokyo in the dizzying Megalopolis ablaze with numerous neon lights Which national are you watching this video ？
I believe Debussy would have loved this recording since it is quite similar to they way the composer himself played it. The notation is an enigma however, and if one takes it too literally, one misses the music...
Michaelangeli falsely is why I don't play. I wouldn't be a false reason for 99% of those who do if they worried about such things. Although TV video quality somehow the dynamics are caught. DGG take note. How romantic that France and Cornwall are so similar in their sea legends. At 4.43 can anyone say how he gets that sound? Is he of this planet.
'How romantic that France and Cornwall are so similar in their sea legends.' Those legends could very well have come from the same source, given that France and Cornwall are both historically Celtic regions.
@cochicmcintosh I don't think this is atonal. Prokofiev maybe!? As though someone needed to 'pave' a 'path' to dissonance. Any two-year old hammering on a piano can show you that path.
I have listened to dozens of pianists, thousands of hours of music, and ABM's performance of La Cathédrale Engloutie still ranks first in my list. He is so much better than any other pianist I've heard when he plays certain pieces (in particular Debussy's astounding preludes), no one compares to him in this repertoire. I think he is the only pianist of whose performances we have decent recordings to really have played this music as it should be played. It's as if the music was playing itself in absolute perfection.
Not True! Come on! More colorful beautiful piano sound than ABM=Wilhelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Ashkenazy Grigory Sokolov! More genius than ABM=Sviatoslav Richter Solomon Cutner Grigory Sokolov Maurizio Pollini Stanislav Bunin Maria Grinberg! More powerful louder than ABM=Mikhail Pletnev! The Second Loudest ever was Lazar Berman! The 3rd Loudest was Erwin Nyiregyhazi! Horowitz his technique attack better than ABM! ABM played the second-rated piano concertos like Mozart 13 Haydn G Major Liszt no 1! ABM never played the Best piano concertos like Mozart 24 Brahms 1-2 Chopin 1-2 Prokofiev 1-3 Rachmaninov 1-3 Saint-Saens no 2 Tchaikovsky no 1 JS Bach 1052 Beethoven no 4 Scriabin and so on!!
@@RaineriHakkarainen Excuse me?
@@RaineriHakkarainen Not True
Che miracolo il timbro, il colore dato alle singole note ed agli accordi e la scomposizione delle note stesse ove indicate legate, con il "ritardato" e la prevalenza di una delle note.
Magia unica del Genio ABM
Comme elle est belle...comme elle chante de tout son désespoir...et pourtant elle chante, la cathédrale. ❤
Che sonorità, che colore!
Atmosfere oltre questo mondo, magia dell interprete...
Benedetti Michelangeli regala un'interpretazione solenne ed evocativa de 'La Cathedrale" - Debussy!
Debussy used to write the title of his preludes at the end of the sheet, in these videos the same logic is followed. This music is a bridge to the centre of universe.
La meraviglia legata alla perfezione mai scompare...
I'm sure he was touched by the spirit of every composer he played. He was so beyond all else - everything was so exquisite and elegant - what he did at the piano transcended the physical self to reach unearthly and wider,divine realms. What a blessing to hear this....
Phillip Wilcher (composer)
I'm in love with the way he interprets this. Debussy is my favorite composer and as such I find it difficult to listen to others' interpretations of this music that is so deeply entwined with my soul. Michelangeli is now my favorite pianist.
I got introduced to Debussy last year, my favorite is La Mer, would you recommend any favorites that I might be missing? Thanks
@@sherifbadawy8188 Clair De Lune is probably his most famous piece, but what most people don't know is that it is the 3rd movement in a suite. Suite Bergamasque. All 4 movements are brilliant.
@@Esam4217 Oh I never knew, I listened to it, never knew that Clair De Lune is part of 4 movements, its all new to me. Idid know the third and the fourth movements, the last one is amazing, the second clicked, I am already starting to repeat parts of it,
I just don't understand what is it that he does, this specific one triggered a lot of childhood memories for me, Prelúdio para a tarde de um fauno, while "La Mer" was the most significant for me, some parts of it I find out of this world. I just don't know what he does with the speed or the instrument is playing in an unexpected time but it fits, I really don't know, I started to study piano hopefully I can understand. Thank you for your nice comment
My God!! This piano sound is out of the music!!! Incredibile beauty !!! Michelangeli at the top ....
Debussy and Michelangeli the perfect team, thanks Maestro
Cela est tout à fait étonnante. Un des meilleurs.
«La musique doit humblement chercher à faire plaisir, l'extrême complication est le contraire de l'art.»
Claude Debussy
He really knows how to play respectfully Debussy' s music. Listen to the sequence of chords after 2:25, the harmony is clear, the rhythm and the rubato are perfectly balanced.
The piece fits Michelangeli perfect I think. He really brings out the beauty and the style and the fairy tale which for me is inside this music. Wonderful!
The names come after each piece, as they do in the sheet music. If you view other videos in the series, you'll see that they also start with the title of the previous piece. Whoever cut this video up probably didn't realize that.
Fantastic performance.Divine.
I've probably listened to La Cathedrale engloutie over 200 times, and I have never got sick of it. Such a stunning masterpiece. It's amazing how Debussy creates movement and motion between sections without V - I or VII - I progressions. And this performance by Michelangeli is fantastic. Thanks for posting!
Great interpretation of the piece. I like the way he uses the pedal, making some bass harmonies reverberate in different shades. I can't stop marvelling at the way he produces such beautiful sounds, so round and pearly, and shifts in dynamics without any physical strain. His body is perfectly in balance and all power comes from his fingers, subtle wrist movements and his chest. Brilliant.
Majestuosa obra. Me maravilla poder escuchar, sentir y disfrutar.
Mis pianistas favoritos en Debussy: Gieseking, Cortot y Benedetti-Michelangeli (en ese orden). Son tres dioses.
In the Urtext edition, it is written that "Debussy played meas. 7-12 and 22-83 in double speed". Though this is untold in many other editions. That would mean the effects are way more important than the tempi ...
Marvelous Claude Debussy ❤❤
Couldn't have put it better. Debussy's amazing music performed by an amazing pianist, a real joy to hear.
The interpretation of this piece is so varied with each performer.
It isn't possible to wish for any more performance ！
The best music which quivers
the soul of the person .
Such a stunning performance. Without a doubt my favourite rendition of this piece.
This is a wonderful interpretation of Debussy's most beloved piano composition. Michelangelilives up to his name and sets the highest of standards. Thanks to the person who uploaded this. Very much appreciated.
What you are reading is most certainly true because I can hear the 'shapes' of the cathedral in my mind. It reminds me a little bit of Monet's Rouen Cathedral painting, how the cathedral appears in the gentle, sweet mist of morning and all you can see is this outline and the tall spires and crevices in the stone walls...
Amen. Combine a mind-boggling performer with a mind-boggling composer, and we are blessed with this musical magic.
Super interprétation ! Rien à en dire si ce n'est que le talent d'un virtuose y est présent ! J'en tire mon chapeau, bravo !
Marvellous performance!
A totally brilliant performance with everything perfect including the tricky timing and tempo and control.
At 2:25, at the church bell chords, he adds an extra c in the bass for more sonority; the pedal is a bit of a problem there (to hold the bass), he chooses for a blurred sound. One can also use the middle (sostenuto) pedal to hold the bass, and change r. pedal more often, but of course it isn't indicated by Debussy, maybe because he composed it while playing on an upright piano.
My mind will be drawn into the profound meditation while listening to his incomparable performance .
From Tokyo in the dizzying Megalopolis ablaze with numerous neon lights
Which national are you watching this video ？
this is beautiful like a mother nature
Mi pieza favorita de Debussy!!! Casi todo lo que sé de composición lo aprendí analizando a Debussy. Definitivamente esta pieza es mi inspiración. Y apoyo a cga2000: Después de esto, el silencio es lo único que queda.
excelente..amo a michell....
His playing face is very good and interesting. his play is excellent, marvellous and splendid, This song is one of my favorite song.:Whatnationality are you who are listening to this song ？
I love this piece! I just finished learning it!
I don't think anyone but Michelangeli gets the sonority of the bronze tolling bell around 0:39.
I think it wonderful how the Noble and Good pianist doesn't speed it too much; even the beginning could be a little slower, I think...
I love the impressionistic Debussy!
His hand movement is truly divinity in motion... even if you have mixed opinions about his portrayal of Debussy's work you've to give that to him...
it is tonal because you can sing a tonic at all points in the music. However, it is not tonal in the traditional sense because it uses no leading tones and pentatonic/wholetone scales as well as constant structure. In order for something to be Atonal, you have to not be able to hear any tonic. Remember, whole tone scale can be used as a chord scale for dominant 7 with #5.
There is something immeasurable to us .
incomparable ！
Thank you for posting all of the Preludes, Book I. ABM was, in my opinion, the greatest pianist of all time. People talk about his limited repertoire. Actually, if one goes to his website and looks up the complete discography maintained by Andrew Wilson, they will see that it is rather extensive. As far as his cancelled performances, Michelangeli suffered from ill health all of his life. He was a true
genius and these performances are brilliant.
Great Debussy prelude videos, hadn't ever seen them, thanks
awesome... fantastic... beautiful...
A very wonderful performance...a bit too quick for my taste, but as was mentioned before, this piece varies greatly between professional performers.
Meraviglioso
This is correct. I second this. It's like in the music sheets.
sublime
this an inspiring place to play the piano
i assume it's cut from a bigger movie, where La Serenade Interompue was performed by Michelangelli before the "Cathedral". Debussy himself wrote the title in the end of the score, just as a suggestion of the image he liked to create
I'll tell you what's hard though. Having to analyze this in a Form and Analysis class. The life of a music major. Hard to identify where phrases end and begin w/o tonality and scales, but what can i say? Debussy paved the way to atonality.
HERMOSO TEMA
Plongée en ondes musicales dans l'Atlantide selon Debussy. Au milieu de l'eau verte et trouble, “la cathédrale engloutie” se réveille sous les doigts de Michelangeli. Et la grâce surabonde.
#Michelangeli
#ClaudeDebussy
#LaCathédraleEngloutie
#MusiqueClassique
#Piano
it's not identifying the piece as "The interrupted Serenade". Debussy used to put the names at the end of the score, that way, performers made their own impressions of the piece. In the recording, they made this as a rendition to debussy's idea
The eerie and creepy atmosphere is well expressed ,
From
Tokyo of the Land of the Rising Sun 🇯🇵
He has a whiff of Qui Gon Jinn about him. Perhaps Arturo is now in communion with the Force.
Dancing with his lightsaber, executing endless leaps and dashes between the columns of the central nave, deep inside the sunken cathedral at the end of time.
intriguingly paced, just this side of driving forward, as if the cathedral were engulfing itself.
@Isayiwill Early 70's fashion, true. But timeless music !
Arturo makes it so easy looking. When I first tried to play this piece i thought it wasn't that hard. But the piece starting at 1:28 is very difficult when you want to play it at a good tempo and with the right intonation. I think I did at least 2 months over this piece...
Maybe it's not exactly as Debussy wrote it, but I really don't think that matters when it comes to music like this. The whole point is the "feel" of the piece, not the piece itself. In that regard, I think this is a terrific interpretation. The atmosphere conveyed in this piece is second-to-none, and this interpretation really captures it.
Big nice!!!
debussy would be proud.
part-time Jedi outfit
j adorais l interpretation CORTOT mais
aujourd hui Quelque résonnance supplémentaire ? je ne sais
mais cette interprétation ci est bouleversante d'expressionisme !
Timeless
GRAN OBRA DE DEBUSSY
Senza ombra di dubbio è il più gra nde interprete della musica per pianoforte di Debussy
Beautiful !
Thanks a lot
w Michelangeli!
beautiful... =')
Great ^.O
Nice!
@TheKedrum Oh! I LOVE that comment! And the music, certo.
amazing
Debussy had as Dreamtime friend one of the Holy Ancient Ones, the H.A.O. of Compassion he is called...
Perfect
Of a nature referred to as Legendary.... music piece of one of the Noble And Great souls brings to mind some Buddhist writings, how the Buddha was absorbed in the state known as "The Great Illumination" at a time... That Aeon of music Da'ath was best called Eternity, and the divinity was Aphrodite, Friend Goddess of France, Belgiqa and Sweden; now it is her replacement P'zaaih, who is also now the Friend for this Land (formerly it was Thor)... Furthermore, this country and France were not Parallel countries, yet now they are. The Rasa, or evocative quality, best 2nd Decan of Beithe, Great Strength; the segment of a mandala, that of Watery Energy. Debussy was Gael Keltish, as also Satie was...
I agree with you about the "directness", but it's also the way the recording was done, it sounds very bright, and there is an acustic compressor severely limiting the dynamic range to fit it into the television format.
All of these take away the patina that for example the Gieseking recording produces so masterfully.
I assume this is the video take of the studio recording from 1978, Deutsche Grammophon. Not sure about the location, maybe in Hamburg?
@cga2000 No, you can listen to Coltrane's 'wise one' if you want.
das müssen wir für Musik machen und Takt 266 beginnt bei 6:22 für euch
Just listened again. Sublimbe. Shame it's TV quality. Very different to the DGG LP I own by him. That is a very large on dynamics to the point of almost being silent at times. Here he almost seems to play for TV. The fortisimo being exactly that.
@nicoledelaplante
sorry its 2 years after you posted but im soo glad more people like you are being turned on to this music. its people like you that give me hope for the human race.
...just like in the score of the preludes.
Debussy intentionally placed the titles at the end of each prelude, allowing the performer to discover impressions for himself, without being guided by the composer's own thoughts.
The ruined temple is going to sink
into the sea while emitting
the creepy loud sound like
「The Fall of the House of Usher 」
From Tokyo in the dizzying Megalopolis ablaze with numerous neon lights
Which national are you watching this video ？
Ys - the first person who sees the church's spire or hears the sound of its bells, will become king of the city and all of its territory.
-- Michelangeli, et la magie Debussy opère --
at 1:58 I expected a church cadence...Debussy tricked me! :)
That would be so barbaric concidering the fact that debussy almost never goes tonal
@@wiktorialatos1157 Wait, he uses plagal cadence very often..
I believe Debussy would have loved this recording since it is quite similar to they way the composer himself played it. The notation is an enigma however, and if one takes it too literally, one misses the music...
❤❤
@Isayiwill NP.. I saw the original comment & knew where you were coming from....:)
What is the influence by which this music gave it to you ？
to fast, listen the interpretation of Claudio Arrau, perfect tempo...
Michaelangeli falsely is why I don't play. I wouldn't be a false reason for 99% of those who do if they worried about such things. Although TV video quality somehow the dynamics are caught. DGG take note. How romantic that France and Cornwall are so similar in their sea legends. At 4.43 can anyone say how he gets that sound? Is he of this planet.
Nothing special on that sound you say at 4.43, what's the point?
'How romantic that France and Cornwall are so similar in their sea legends.' Those legends could very well have come from the same source, given that France and Cornwall are both historically Celtic regions.
@cochicmcintosh I don't think this is atonal. Prokofiev maybe!? As though someone needed to 'pave' a 'path' to dissonance. Any two-year old hammering on a piano can show you that path.