Improvisations by Great Pianists and Composers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- Nowadays, we can hardly see improvisation in classical music and general opinion is that improvisation is not acceptable in classical music! But before classical music became academic, all great composers and performers were great improvisers. Bach, Mozart, Weber, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovksy, Saint-Saëns, Mahler, Debussy, Scriabin, Bartok etc...
In this video, I show 13 improvised piano plays. Besides composers such as Saint-Saëns, Elgar and Albeniz, there are also great virtuosos such as Horowitz and Hofmann. Some improvisations are just a simple piano exercise, some a simple spontaneous prelude before starting the piece, some embellishment; I tried to combine all kinds of improvisation.
* I deleted Hofmann's recordings from this video. Although I still think that Hofmann performed spontaneously, but it is not possible to prove this, and when I evaluated the objections, I decided that it should not be included in the video. Hofmann makes it clear in his book that he hasn't worked before, and he tends to be very, very spontaneous at concerts. He recorded that waltz many times and never did anything like that. Hofmann came from the tradition of the 19th century; his teacher, Anton Rubinstein, is famous for making similar improvisations. Well improvised pianists like Horowitz, Cziffra, Rachmaninoff do not play spontaneously. Spontaneous piano playing is a different phenomenon; Pianists from the 19th century tradition such as Pachmann, Paderewski and Hofmann play each piece spontaneously in concert. That's why I judged it to be improvised, but that's a bit of a subjective opinion. I didn't want to host an imprecise recording in the video.
00:00 Vladimir Horowitz
This is Horowitz's kind of exercise improv rehearsal before the concert (Carnegie Hall, April 14, 1965).
02:37 Glenn Gould
This is an excerpt from "Glenn Gould: On the Record", a 1959 documentary. Taken during recordings of Bach's Italian Concerto, at Columbia 30th Street Sutudios, New York Jun.23～26, 1959. Here Gould is improvising freely, possibly on the theme of Debussy Clair de Lune.
3:33 Samson François
The date is 1968. I don't know the original Footage source. I got the video clip from "Clément Le Masson" TH-cam channel.
4:29 Moriz Rosenthal
Rosenthal improvises before entering his own cadenza. This is from 1929 Rosenthal's broadcast live Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 performance, should not be confused with the well-known studio recording.
5:12 Camille Saint-Saëns
1904, Cadenza for "Africa" (Fantasie for piano and orchestra, Op 89). He plays the themes and makes improvisational additions. But thankfully @Kris9kris warned me, there are some improvised parts here of course, but I need to point out that many themes belong to the original work. Piano experts like Jonathan Summers say it's improvised and it is also mentioned in some books, for example "The Cambridge Companion to the Piano". But don't take it all as improvised, more like improvised bridges over themes.
7:57 Enrique Granados
It is an improvisation on themes from Granados's "El Pelele", 1912.
10:58 Isaac Albéniz
Albeniz recorded three improvised piano performances in 1903. This is the second of those three recordings.
13:00 Edward Elgar
Elgar recorded five improvised piano performances in 1929. This is improvisation number four.
17:36 Charles Ives
1937, a piano improvisation by the composer Ives.
18:24 György Cziffra
Rec. 1960, in Paris.
20:00 Jorge Bolet
An improvisation from Bolet's private performance for his friends, 19 April 1987. I got the audio from "Helen and Herman in Lawrence" TH-cam channel.
22:28 Wilhelm Backhaus
From Backhaus's 1953 recital. Spontaneous prelude before playing the Chopin nocturne.
22:53 Dinu Lipatti
From 1936. Short improvisation on Bach-Busoni Toccata in C Major. - เพลง
** Details are in the description.
00:00 Vladimir Horowitz
02:37 Glenn Gould
3:33 Samson François
4:29 Moriz Rosenthal
5:12 Camille Saint-Saëns
7:57 Enrique Granados
10:58 Isaac Albéniz
13:00 Edward Elgar
17:36 Charles Ives
18:24 György Cziffra
20:00 Jorge Bolet
22:28 Wilhelm Backhaus
22:53 Dinu Lipatti
Horowitz is definitely early Scriabin in harmony, Rachmaninoff in richness and color, Liszt in virtuosic runs
I don't believe that Horrowitz improvised. It is a composed exercise that he usually repeats and knows but whose composition gives the impression that it is improvised on the spot but isn't because it's loosely composed but memorized.
The Horowitz one was breathtaking from the first second - it's a mix of Scriabin, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff - but still mystical and unique
The decorative scale-like runs were a bit hokey, but the melodic sub voices, progressions, and harmonic colors were sublime. Horowitz was my favorite pianist growing up. I remember seeing him perform in what became his famous "Horowitz in Moscow" recital, back when the Cold War was very real.
@@stalkerstomper3304 Oh my god, i envy you.. Sir, how was that? Can you tell me about that moment?
More like Liszt
@@tajimahal661 I think he means on TV
@@jeremyd1021 No. In Moscow my friend. I was 15 back then and remember it well... I'm not THAT old that I'd have forgotten. 😆
Horowitz's improv could be his own composition and should be treated as such. Absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous, wonderful technique, and is signature sweeping runs and massive dymanic range. Horowitz was truly magical.
I get the impulse to treat it as a composition, but then again, that simply continues our "perverse" Modernist-derived tendencies to deify musical works and treat them as museum pieces, especially as fixed in a score, whether originally written or transcribed. RATHER, we should be returning to the idea that the PERFORMANCE is not only the prime example of the given work, it is vital that the performance be CREATED in part by the performer, using the written music as instructions, NOT "holy writ". The score is merely the BEGINNING of the "MUSIC itself", in my opinion.
@@jjgeoffphhcinkkllee Some composers would disagree with that, as some prefer their music be performed as written, but yes, interpretation and being able to look beyond the score is essential.
@@evifnoskcaj But very few before the 20th century would have had such an unreasonable and even delusional outlook about themselves lol. Somewhere in the later Romantic era (and I LOVE this music best of all, the post-Wagner stuff especially, but my GOD, the egos.....), composers consistently began to conceive of themselves as these little prophets or gods, and ironically that led to the extreme ANTI-Romanticism of the post WW1 Modernists despite the fact that the deification of the composer and his intentions at that point could ONLY have come from Romanticism, and it held sway among the "authoritative" music elite until the 1980s, at the very least. The sort of Urtext worship and view of academic composers as a kind of authoritative scientist-at-work really didn't slip into irrelevance for good until the age of the internet, I think. Now everything is sort of equally accepted and available, and every interpretation is just out there awaiting selection by listeners and music lovers according to taste, for better or worse. I say it's better than what we had for many many decades, anyway. Except for the fact that live music in all kinds of genres is still very much desired and available, most of what we do as listeners confirms what Glenn Gould speculated would happen by now, back in the mid '60s.
@@jjgeoffphhcinkklleecouldn’t agree with you more - one of the reasons I grew so disillusioned with music academia (both performance and composition) was this attitude of “score as work”. The idea that the printed score itself represents the “music” and the performance of said score is just a reproduction of said score. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth, as the score is just a set of instructions - the real music, the real art, only exists in the performance itself. No other genre would disagree with this.
In the world of composers I feel as if many should know better - so many times we need to make changes and have second thoughts in rehearsal or performance, that renders this idea immediately obsolete. The score is just an idea of a piece at one particular time - the piece itself doesn’t exist until it is performed, and you can see this in all the editorial annotations in works of Liszt and Chopin and others; how often they performed differently to the score or changed things here and there between performances. And yet with contemporary composers there has been often such a deep fetishization of the printed score that the visual presentation of the medium takes precedence over how it actually sounds. See channels on here such as Score Follower for an example. (although plenty of the music is lovely!)
I find the Gould improvisation really interesting. He was clearly extremely talented and quick thinking, and has a completely unique style
His sounded a lot like Debussy.
And Rachmaninoff
The first 2 chords were definitely a shoutout to Debussy, then he improvised on the theme, love it
The Horowitz improv is spellbinding. You hear his major classical influences (Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Liszt, & Scarlatti), but even a touch a modernism: it has Romantic-era & early 20th Century Russian Classical harmonic development but some structural elements similar to the work of Thelonious Monk & Art Tatum, who Horowitz was a big fan of. Early jazz developed concurrently with Impressionism, and both styles echoed each other at times, with Ravel & Debussy emulating the “blue” chords of jazz, & jazz borrowing the whole-tone language of Impressionism. Horowitz had his ear to both scenes. This improv shows a well-developed musical language; you hear his inspirations, but it also sounds distinctly Horowitz. Part of that owing the his style of playing, but a larger part of that to the improv itself. Interestingly, he did always say he wanted to be a composer more than being a concert pianist. It just happened that his technique, sound, and style were so prodigious and groundbreaking that the path of concert pianist was most lucrative, and took his time & creative energy away from composition. I also think opportunities for a working composer weren’t as prevalent as they’d been in the years before him. The world was changing and finding a patron to support him as a composer wasn’t as easy, especially in the turbulent times of the Russian Revolution and early 20th Century. Yet composition was close to his heart, and it showed. Even beyond the Carmen Variations & his Stars & Stripes Forever arrangements, he would often add changes, replacements, reworkings, and additions to pieces by other composers, and those changes displayed a brilliant awareness of musicality and pianism. All in all, this is lovely improv, and I’ll definitely be adding it to my playlist to hear more of it.
Thank you!
I don't believe that Horrowitz improvised. It is a composed exercise that he usually repeats and knows but whose composition gives the impression that it is improvised on the spot but isn't because it's loosely composed but memorized.
Cziffra was an absolute madman and pique Modernism and Post-Modernism and I love it.
His speed, accuracy, and absolutely immense sound still scare and intimidate even the best pianists.
It takes a crazy person to see a Liszt composition and to think "How can I make that harder...just for fun?" ❤
I recognized Horowitz immediately even though I hadn't heard the performance before. I think he had the most unique sound I've ever heard, although it may be that I've spent more time listening to him than anyone else; It may also be due to his piano acoustics.
I DID see/hear him in concert twice. Incomparable. Gorgeous tone. Unique
I thought it was Nyiregyhazi
@@toucc9638 it could have been - the only other possibility besides V. H.
@@walterprossnitz3471 no
the horowitz improvisation was sooo good
Damn... I feel like horowitz should have used this improvisation and actually publish the piece as his own... It's too good to be just an improvisation
What a great collection! So much excitement. Let us hope improvisation comes back it's so needed. I know that when Liszt was a young touring virtuoso part of the concert would be he'd take two or three tunes given by the audience and create a fantasy out of them weaving them together on the spot. At that time all pianists were judged for their improvisational abilities, but I think also at that time all performing pianists were also composers which is an interesting difference to our present day. Thank you for another great collection.
Your welcome... Yes, as the pianist-composers decreased, some of the interpretative features and the culture of improvisation disappeared. There are pianists who improvise nowadays, but they are really a minority. As a tradition, I think only organists continue to improvise.
@@OzanFabienGuvener I am an improvising organist as well as composer (I usually compose for voice or voices, or piano though, not organ). And I consider myself very much part of an older, classical-romantic tradition, pre-score-worship haha. The score is VERY important and I think hard about the details I put into mine, BUT at the same time preparation for a performance ALWAYS reveals possibilities or improvements beyond what I could have conceived just during the writing process, and THIS is what leads to the actual music, the performance, that is so much more profound than the little black shapes on paper that we somewhat erroneously call "music". I think the academic-based literalism in music of the post-WW1 20th Century, up to about the 1980s, was so poisonous and stultifying to creative minds, quite apart from the styles of the time though!; I think there is MUCH Modernist music especially involving 12 tone technique that was great, and much that wasn't too, like ANY era. But that doesn't mean I think the aesthetic APPROACH used in playing that music (and ALL music of any era during that time really) was good or even really human, in a way. Anyway, as Richard Taruskin has said, all that is behind us now haha
Wonderful Horowitz!
Someone should really transcribe the Horowitz one on score. It’s the most profound thing I’ve heard in my life so far.
Very interesting, thank you!
So sad that Chopin died before recording. He was one of the best improvisers of his time in Europe, contemporaries said his improvisations were almost better than his compositions (hard to believe).
The Elgar recording is out of this world. WOW. just WOW
I wish there was a transcription for the Horowitz improv. Not that I would be able to play it completely, but It's so beautiful I'd just like to read it.
id like to note that there *are* pianists in this day and age who improvise (regularly, even). noteworthy names include Cyprien Katsaris and Gabriela Montero. that being said, the quality of the improvisations are ultimately subjective, ofc.
The fact that Glenn Gould is singing along with his improvisation puts him on the same level as the great jazz pianists and improvisers. Gould was so brilliant, and his performance of Liszt's arrangement of Beethoven 5th for solo piano is incredible and wonderfully voiced.
The one by Saint-Saens is neither an improvisation nor a cadenza, but a solo piano reduction of several excerpts from his concerto called ‘Africa’. I uploaded it on my channel with the score not too long ago. I know record companies labelled it as a cadenza, but it is incorrect. Josef Hofmann plays an arrangement of Chopin’s minute waltz where the right hand is in thirds and sixths - which was a common showpiece for golden age pianists at the time (the closest approximation I could find on IMSLP is Rosenthal’s version). By the way, your compilation videos are awesome and revelatory research material, keep up the good work! 😎
Dude I was thinking "DAAAMN thats an improvisation wtf" thanks for clarifying and stopping me from thinking Saint säens was a fucking alien.
@@marcossidoruk8033 oh wow, exactly the same. I was listening in astonishment to how incredible this was. Of course it's still incredible, but he was still mortal and it wasn't all improvised!!
Firstly, thank you. I know it's not all improvisation, but it's true that we need to open it up a little more. But in many music sources it is said to be an improvisation, Piano experts like Jonathan Summers say it's improvised and it is also mentioned in some books, for example "The Cambridge Companion to the Piano" or "Great Pianists of the Golden Age". It's not just record labels saying it. He is already one of the greatest improvisers of his time, comes from the organ improvisation tradition. But you might be right, I put it on without much thought. I will listen carefully to the piece and I will add information. Here I think the themes are from the original work, then there are some improvised bridges. If this is not specified, it can be misunderstood.
@@OzanFabienGuvener Thanks for the added info! To Jonathan Summers’ credit, it’s entirely plausible that Saint-Saens ad-libbed/improvised the structure of the shortened version - as he did with the 2nd Piano Concerto, but recording audio footage was a precarious process at the time (4-minute time limit, a single take, etc.) and you had to plan out how you would go about things in advance, that’s why I find it less likely. th-cam.com/video/2UO_Fj_jxA8/w-d-xo.html Here is my attempt at synchronising the score to the music, I can hear one improvised bridge, at 0:40, and many sections where he combines the orchestra with the solo parts. Though the section of the piece Saint-Saens starts with is labelled as “Cadenza, ad. lib” and maybe that’s where the confusion began. There also exists a solo piano reduction (supposedly made by the composer but in all likelihood prepared by someone else), but the recording matches the orchestral version much better. I would also love to hear an explanation of what the chatter is about at the end of the recording. I heard that it’s supposedly Saint Saens asking the engineer if the recording was successful. 😄
@@marcossidoruk8033 I still think he was a fucking alien while listening, it sounds so difficult (although I don't like his pieces)
His improvisation is better than my year long composition
Besides Horowitz, the Bolet one was breathtaking
Great, thank you for this marvellous collection :)
Thanks for the video!
:DDD great video! Love it!
This is possibly the most pure recording of these composers playing to ever exist...
Bellissimo. Grazie. ❤
Thanks buddy, this is a great collection.
Once again, your videos provide great insight into the minds of the best of musical geniuses. Thank you very much for making my day!
What a gem !
Wonderful video, fascinating to hear how these pianists thought in musical terms. Many thanks for sharing this!
That Saint Saens recording is perhaps the closest we'll ever get to knowing how the giants of the 19th century played.
It is so impressive. Virtuoso
By posting such valuable videos you keep the legacy of piano playing alive !
Hi thanks for your wonderful work! Today is the first time I watched an video.of your channel. Keep going.
This has to be the most important video on classical music improvising I have seen. Bringing together some wonderful footage! 🎻🎹
So wonderful! These are the demigods of the piano. I don’t know whether to be inspired, or discouraged. Thank you for posting this!
I think we should all improvise more as pianists because I believe that improvisation and experimentation are the vehicles that allow us to develop our own interpretations of the repertoire - and make them sound more musical, rather than just a slight variation for the sake of it. These recordings are gems, thanks very much for making this compilation.
Delightful!
Incredible video! Highly informative! 🙏
Excelente!!
My favourites were Samsom François, Albéniz, Cziffra and Bolet. Thank you for the video.
basically astounding
All these pianists are amazing, the first and last are my favorites
Very refreshing to hear all this! Thank you for sharing:)
Ben de yorumunuz için teşekkür ederim Hakan Bey!
OMG Lipatti playing Bach Toccata is out of this world.
Fantastic compilation……Horowitz…wow! Glenn Gould…my idol! And so many more.
Horowitz pianissimos are totally awe inspiring and dazzling. It is a real treat to all these composer's improv's none of which I've heard before.
Enrique’S improvisation is simply amazing!!
I’ve forgotten the existence of Francois snippet after I had searched the melody for hours. Thanks to you I’ll search for the name of the melody for hours but ultimately find nothing. :(
Cannot thank you enough dear Ozan Fabien Guvener for this most fantastic compilation and for your channel. So much I discovered and learned deeper about these great people. Millions of thanks.
You are very kind. Thanks a lot!
Do NOT ignore Gabriela Montero for present-day classical piano improvising facility!! Leading to her (strongly requested!) encore at The Nashville Symphony several years ago, she explained that any decent classical composer in previous centuries had natural facility to improvise. She then requested someone in the audience sing her a melody to improvise on. Before anyone beat me with a Johnny Cash melody, I stood up and sang the "Promenade" From Mussorgsky's "Pictures At An Exhibition." She repeated and confirmed the melody with me, She then proceeded to mesmerize EVERYONE with a good six minutes of multi-layered and interwoven playing on that theme that Keith Jarrett would ALSO have enjoyed!!
I did not know Montero, of course there is improvisation nowadays, but it is very rare. Maybe I'll compile current examples as well. Thanks for adding.
And now we need someone to clean all these recordings of noises to listen to these maestros properly. Awesome
Fantastic. One of the best uploads...
Thank you very much!
@@OzanFabienGuvener do you have the complete Rosenthal recording (the 1929 version)? That would be great.
@@jorislejeune Yes I have. I can upload it, but I got that recording from the "Classical Piano Rarities" youtube channel, he shared it with me, it would be more ethical for him to share it.
@@OzanFabienGuvener thank you for your reply, I understand completely.
"Nowadays, we can hardly see improvisation in classical music and general opinion is that improvisation is not acceptable in classical music! But before classical music became academic, all great composers and performers were great improvisers. Bach, Mozart, Weber, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Tchaikovksy, Saint-Saëns, Mahler, Debussy, Scriabin, Bartok etc..." this really echoes that one documentary of Bill Evans, I forget the name but its quite famous, from 1966 i believe
I quite like Bill Evans, I'll check that out.
Wow!
Good compendium!
No glennnnn! Keep going 😭
Wonderful video! Interesting you say that few improvise classically now, and very true,, sadly, but it's actually one of my favourite things to do, and I have quite a few of my own live improvisations that I recorded / filmed on my own channel! Thanks for putting this wonder together!
For all of my decades of loving and listening to Horowitz, including one live concert in Dallas, in the 1970s, I had not run across actual improvisations by him. I noted a long time ago, the high hopes he had of being a composer. Apart from his famous transcriopted arrangements, this is the closest I have come to him, als Komponist. John Benson, MD
PRICELESS....what a 🤑 treasure
Incredible, especially the Saint Saens one 😃
Claro! Parece, por algunos comentarios, que lo único o más importante es que lo que se toca sea improvisado. Yo creo que lo realmente admirable es la técnica de ejecución.
Thanks a lot for your incredible effort to upload interesting and quality content. I find all your videos extremely useful and I enjoy them a lot. As a proffessional pianist myself and improviser too, this is just a delight. Don't stop sharing! Amazing Channel!
It's my pleasure, thank you very much for your supportive comment. I listened to your improvised piano recording, it's really beautiful!
Amazing recordings!! My question is why there are no improvisations in concerts or auditions nowadays
Horowitz my favourite, rachmaninoff-impressionist bridge, Busoni Bach sequence etc
Cziffra...wow
Harika 🙏🙏🙏
Woah The description is really detailed 😮 you should probably pin a comment saying to look at description for information 🙃
Thanks for the recommendation, I will :)
Wonderful compilation, Thanks a lot🤩👍 “but” impossible not to include in that list of masters of improvisation the two greatest ever, imho: Cziffra and Katsaris. But probably these two deserve a “post apart”…🤔😉
Actually Cziffra was in the video, but I accidentally deleted it. I'm also considering a second version, I'll add
I added back Cziffra, I found how it's done!
@@OzanFabienGuvener 🤩👍👏👏👏
All of them are similarly impressive just in different ways. I just find it interesting how all are playing in styles that suit them. As an example: Horowitz dark and late romantic. Samson francois a lot more light, relaxed with more colorful harmonic progression. Cziffra flexing technique
Heaven....
Thank you. So great to hear. Beautiful. And...where are the women?
Don't worry everyone! I am bringing improvisation back to life as much as I can! It was a hard process but I've now got the whole thing working perfectly.
Horowitz is in a class of his own. Again.
Bolet's is underrated asf, almost made me cry, and i don't know why!
Messiaen's famous organ impov video is uploaded in TH-cam too!
Yes I know but thanks for adding it! I saved it for the second part :)
Horowitz was a friend of Art Tatum, probably some genius rubbed off. ;-)
Would you please list the artists and the musical selection that inspired the improvisation?
I made several additions. Some of them are not exact, we can say only guesses. For example, Cziffra's improvisation is similar to the Bartok piano concertos, but it may not be relevant. If anyone has any info, I'll fix it :) Some improvisations are also done without a specific theme.
Amazing video. Thaks for sharing! May I ask where do you find this recordings?
Thank you! All of the recordings are from different albums and video footage, my own compilation. I wrote some of them in the description of where I found them, if you are wondering, I can tell you which album I got them from.
wow i think inever heard this Cziffra improv before, where did you find it? it's so damn amazing
Good heavens How did you manage to get all this material together??? Sound is great . Like 24 bit remastered. 😊
Also, what’s the best cd of Rosenthal? Thanks!
Thanks, it's not a special research for the video, it's the examples I've listened to for years :). I think all Liszt and Chopin recordings of Moriz Rosenthal are very valuable. Especially in my opinion he is one of the best Chopin pianists.
Anyone who seriously claims to enjoy classical music and have the guts to say there's no room for improvisation... You can't be a composer and not be able to improvise to some degree...
Why anybody speaks about Saint saens? Whaa, this music is extreme. Bravo duro cazzo
Somewhere there is also ABM improvising in a London rehearsal from the late 1950's. I would love to hear that, apparently it is astonishing.
Horowitz here is fabulous, it has rather changed my opinion of him
I didn't know, it sounds great, I'll look into it! I guess the 1957 London concert? I can make a second version. There were some names I forgot later on (like Poulenc) and of course there are great organists who improvise. Horowitz has other improvisations, if you're interested, I recommend it too:). Thanks for information!
You can also checkout Charlie Albright for a living concert pianist who does a lot of improvisation too, even improvising entire sonatas on the spot.
Thanks Ozan 😊
What made Volodya Horowitz so great? Articulation & Dynamics.
The fact that the reason he got seriously into music was scriabin, who told to vladimirs mother that he was extremely talented.
Horowitz was also a really good friend of Rachmaninoff.
23:08 seems quite similar to Hamelin's "thirds" version of the same waltz, maybe this is what he was inspired by?
I thought Hamelin did it in seconds? There are many arrangements in thirds, including Moszkowksi.
@@cziffra1980 Yes, you are right.
Es una absoluta lástima que se haya perdido la costumbre de improvisar en los conciertos de música académica. Al escuchar esto, me doy cuenta de que aún se hace, pero en privado. Qué enorme humildad de estos genios del piano, de no considerar importante su improvisación y darle todo el protagonismo a la genialidad escrita de los compositores consagrados pero,no estoy de acuerdo. Se debería de volver a esta costumbre. Reservar una parte de los recitales para la improvisación. Qué maravilloso sería.
off the top is crazy
2:32 "aight imma just stop"
Lipatti is apparently playing (practicing?) BWV564, but not the Busoni transcription. Is this his own transcription?
That's what the publishing company said. But you might be right, I'll check it out though. Thank you
Great! But I think Arrau just practicing Beethoven's 3rd Concerto.
@@OzanFabienGuvener this got me thinking that maybe a video of great pianists practicing may have some pedagogical value. Or at least be entertaining lol
Con solo Horita es suficiente.
Arrau part actually seemed to me to improvise very lightly while practicing. But I think you're right and that part can be misunderstood, I deleted it from the video.
Ask for more info about the Lipati piece. I don't think that's an improvisation. It sounds very close to a Bach organ prelude, not a chorale prelude but a prelude and fugue. I distinctly remember the pedal part that was exactly what he was playing in the left hand.
Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue in C major, BWV 564. Since everybody seems to want to talk about Horowitz on this thread, here's a link to the rehearsal for the comeback performance in 1965. This piece led off the concert. The concert performance has a very significant error in the first bar while the rehearsal run-through does not. th-cam.com/video/PAK6lIB3G_w/w-d-xo.html
Who says Improvisational Music is non-existent in Classical music today. I, for one have performed widely ( Pianos Recitals of Improvisational Music ) in North Cyprus, Turkey Europe and in the UK From Ibiza, to Bucharest, From Ankara to North Cyprus, from Vienna to London. I will perform soon, hopefully once again in London my Improvisational Space Music works.
I was very moved by the Horowitz. Where can I find this recording?
You can search it like this, it's in an album: "Exercises in Free Improvisation Part II"
why can't i add it to my list?
Treasure
Sacrilegious though it may sound, like most improvisations these ostensibly illustrious ones suffer from the same fate as their brethren, and appalling lack of structural integrity, and an attention deficit mindset.
Well as a lifelong composer and creator I love improvisation dearly, and it can be one way to access the muses on a deeper level, it is, by it's very nature and essence, a creature of the moment, perfect they're in perhaps, but seldom fit for eternity.
However, given all the improvisers I've encountered, both classical and non-classical, I would have to rate Gabriella Montero as one of the truly most integral and deeply felt.
horowitz unreal; gould hilarious; elgar stands out too
I don't believe that Horrowitz improvised. It is a composed exercise that he usually repeats and knows but whose composition gives the impression that it is improvised on the spot but isn't because it's loosely composed but memorized.
In my next life I want to be a pianist in the 19th century.
It sounds like these were compositions they were working at. Not really improvisations. But awsome just the same! In one take! (They don't do these things these days anymore).
OMFG