Was für eine Entdeckung! Auf der Suche nach einer "wahren" Darbietung der Liszt-Sonate bin ich auf diese hier gestoßen. Und von da aus führte der Weg zu den Videos über die Tempo-Thematik anderer Werke, zu den Kompositionen von Bernhard Ruchti. Nochmals: Was für eine Entdeckung!
Worte können die Großartigkeit Ihrer Interpretation dieses Werkes nicht ausdrücken. Sie haben mich dazu gebracht, dieses Repertoire wiederzuendtdecken. Vielen Dank für Ihre Arbeit und all die Musik, die Sie uns anbieten.
Lieber Herr Desmeules, ganz herzlichen Dank für Ihr Feedback. Dass Menschen wie Sie Liszts Musik durch solch eine Aufnahme neu entdecken, ist für mich das schönste Kompliment und eine grosse Ehre. Danke auch Ihnen für Ihr kontinuierliches Interesse!
This is without any doubt...a monumental interpretation of this score,every one can identify each single note, every tone,semi-tones,arpeggios and this superb musicality make this interpretation of this beloved piano sonata, by Mr. Ruchti,...a wonderful piece of art, Many, many thanks.
Ich danke für das Teilen dieses hochinteressanten Projektes. Wie der Kommentar zuvor muß ich auch gestehen bis zu ihrer Aufnahme kein besonderer Kenner und Liebhaber von Liszt gewesen zu sein. Es hat mich sehr neugierig auf ein genaueres Studium gemacht ! Eine technisch perfekte Aufnahme kommt dem Ganzen noch zu Gute. Nochmals vielen Dank HW Spieß
Lieber Herr Spieß, herzlichen Dank für Ihren Kommentar, der mich sehr freut! Mir persönlich ist die Musik von Franz Liszt in den letzten Jahren zunehmend näher gekommen und ans Herz gewachsen. Seit ich die Interpretation nicht (mehr) auf vordergründige Virtuosität auslege, sondern den inneren, meiner Auffassung nach transzendenten Inhalt suche, entdecke ich Wunder über Wunder!
I can only read German so I'm sorry to reply in English but there is so much more to Liszts works than the most famous Campanella and Rhapsodie Nr. 2. I Would invite you to listen to works such as "Funerailles", "Hungarian Rhapsodie Nr. 3 and 5", The "Deux Legendes", the "Annees de pelegrinage" etc. his work is mostly very deep and religious in nature not just virtuoso
This is the first time I found Liszt interesting, beautiful, even lyrical and contemplative ! I usually can´t listen to Liszt and find his music unnerving, noisy and downright hysterical, and I wouldn´t recommend it to sensitive people. Congratulations, also, for using a Bösendorfer. _P.S.: I would bet 1000 € that Pogorelich is following your project closely !_
Thank you so much for your comment. I can understand your impression of Liszt's music. However, since I started playing it differently, looking mainly for profoundness and transcendence, his music has transformed into something visionary. It's extraordinary really, especially the Sonata. As for Pogorelich, he hasn't contacted me yet 😀 But who knows! I would certainly love to talk to him about these matters.
@@neilkilleen3911 The Petrarch Sonets are truly beautiful, indeed. To all who would like to listen to my performance of the entire Années de Pèlerinage: here it is: ruclips.net/video/8AU1ZdFJ9yg/видео.html
Einfach nur Wow! Ich hatte bis jetzt nie wirklich einen emotionalen Zugang zu den Werken Liszts. Beim Hören dieser Interpretation habe ich nun das erste Mal das Gefühl, dass ich verstehen kann, was Liszt mit dieser Musik erzählen wollte. Vielen Dank für dieses großartige Projekt! Edit: Existieren eventuell Planungen für die Auseinandersetzung mit Chopins Op.25 im Rahmen des a tempo-Projekts?
Herzlichen Dank, das freut mich sehr! Für mich ist Liszts Sonate eines der transzendentesten Werke, die ich im 19. Jahrhundert kenne. Im Moment bestehen keine konkreten Pläne zu Opus 25, hauptsächlich aus Zeitgründen, aber wer weiss, was die Zukunft noch bringen wird!
Your performance is really amazing. The Wikipedia website about Liszt's B minor sonata presents a recording with Jorge Bolet with a duration of less than 30 minutes. Although many parts (the slow ones) are of absolute beauty and tenderness, the fast parts often turn into a vortex of indistinguishable notes. Your interpretation is very clear and shows all the beauties also of the fast passages. I don't understand the importance of the last chord (not the last tone). Could you please explain?
Thank you so much - I really appreciate it! What do you mean in terms of the importance of the last chord? I don't understand what you mean by your question.
@@bernhardruchti If I understand the last part of your German introduction correctly, you say that the last chord unifies the two main prinicples of the sonata. This point is the one I would like to get an explanation for.
You can hear voice and nuances that are impossible to understand when most pianists aim to "amaze" the listener with speed. I am convinced that Liszt's playing was totally different from what most people think. Liszt probably had an extremely delicate and loving touch in the melodic parts, while he showed off a destructive power (he often broke the strings of the pianos) in the dramatic parts but, without necessarily using extreme speeds which he probably reserved for other parts. Obviously a very personal idea.I can assure you that I am a true Liszt junkie!! After Ad nos, this one also really deserves all my compliments. Simply magnificent, clean, precise, dramatic, impeccable!! ps: Some may think that it is much easier to play at this speed. It's not like that at all. It is extremely more difficult. In fast, you can even hide small mistakes, but this way, you can hear every single note! This is true virtuosity!
Hello Bernhard - thankyou for the fascinating a tempo project with its research, musical philosophy and performances. I’ve listened to much of your output and enjoyed finding how I react to the slower tempo With this performance there is great beauty and power. You discussed in your intro how power and transcendence don’t have to translate into speed. I agree. However, speed does have its place to convey certain musical and emotional ideas. Much though I like your clarity, my reaction to your performance is that the musical impetus is sometimes lost. I *want* the music to continue more quickly sometimes (not always) to have more drive and hence more arrival power because that works for me emotionally and musically. I suppose part of that is excitement and it’s ok for music to be exciting as well as beautiful because that’s a basic human emotion. So for me, after a couple of listenings, it does not work as a whole - I kind of lose track of its thematic evolution and structure (maybe repeated listening will change that) There is no doubt though that you imbue it with great beauty and a fierce lyrical intensity I know you don’t believe there is a right or wrong and that the A Tempo is all about exploring the musical “what if” so I know you won’t mind how it impacted me - and nor should you be of course - diversity in response is to be expected. Congratulations on a fabulous project and fascinating ideas and performances!
Dear Neil thank you for your feedback. You are right: I don't believe in right or wrong when it comes to music, in fact to art in general. There is way to much "canonized" tradition in classical music. At the same time, research in the field of historical performance practice is fascinating and most inspiring and has transformed my approach to music entirely. I very much appreciate your continuous interest in my work and obviously I don't mind at all you saying that the Liszt Sonata doesn't work for you as a whole. De gustibus non est disputandum, as the old Romans said! However, I would like to suggest one thing: how about you come back to this recording in, say, 4 months and listen to it again and tell me if you still feel the same? All the best, Bernhard
@@bernhardruchti I’ll listen again in a week or so. I am, to some degree, programmed in my expectations since I’ve heard it so many times times with a 30min duration. However, those brilliant and scintillating passages and big passionate climaxes are, I think,, key parts of it. Now a piece I think I’d like to hear you play is the Liszt Benediction. It is my favourite of all Liszt. So profoundly contemplative. I think the standard tempos are pretty much ok, with the shimmering passage work supporting the beautiful tunes - I don’t know if you would choose to slow any of it anyway, but I’d like to hear what you’d do with it! I wish I could play it myself but my arpeggio technique is rubbish !! Do we have any direct Liszt performance information on this one ?
Very respectful reply and I do understand your point and there are moments to which I agree with it and moments where I do not. I guess the fluidity of tempo is something that needs to be returned to the playing field as well but that perhaps is another discussion outside of the a tempo project or other proponents of similar thoughts.
Dear Neil expectations or listening habits form indeed a significant part of our listening experience. Since recordings are literally available everywhere, they tend to be engraved in our perception, creating a feeling of "that's how it's supposed to be". It's interesting to see that already during Liszt's lifetime, where there were obviously no recordings, people accused him of being too inconsistent and varied in his different renditions of certain pieces. However, it's not the only part of our listening experience. Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude is indeed a wonderful piece. Some of Liszt's students talk about it and report some aspects of performance practice. I would have to look into it with more detail in order to profoundly comment on it. But it's certainly a good idea to maybe one day record it! 👍
"The fluidity of tempo" - I like that expression and I think it is very "Lisztian". You are absolutely right that this is somewhat independent from the actual tempo. However that fluidity becomes more and more crucial the more you actually moderate the tempo.
Bernhard Ruchti plays Liszt's sonata with conviction and always the same concern for beautiful sound. However, his bias towards much slower tempos than usual is not very convincing. How can we imagine Liszt, considered the greatest virtuoso of his time, playing the octaves of prestissimo with such little brilliance. Moreover, there is a recording by Arthur Freidheim, cited as a source for the metronome indications, which is much faster (around 25 minutes instead of 43 here): ruclips.net/video/nDzZeg7rXIs/видео.html&ab_channel=pianolainstitute
@@bernhardruchti It's not so much your octaves that I don't like, but rather the tempo with which you play them in the prestissimo. If you were to play Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 or No. 6, with octaves played this slowly it would be boring to death. Don't you think ?
In my opinion, it all depends on how they're played. The more I delve into the aspects of tempo, the more it occurs to me that it all comes down to the "spirit" of a performance, as Liszt himself put it and his pupils elaborated it. This insight leads me away from (definitely interesting) theories and dogmatism towards an actual content of an interpretation. And that's as individual as it can be. As a matter of fact, I've had the idea for a while to record some of the Hungarian Rhapsodies for exactly that reason: "spiritual virtuosity". For now it's only an idea mainly due to time and finances. But we will see what the future brings! I talk about this aspect in part III of my introduction to the B minor Sonata: ruclips.net/video/lpA4PrwUiGo/видео.htmlsi=V5w9WWKiW-jSF4t8 Thank you for your comment and interest!
Was für eine Entdeckung! Auf der Suche nach einer "wahren" Darbietung der Liszt-Sonate bin ich auf diese hier gestoßen. Und von da aus führte der Weg zu den Videos über die Tempo-Thematik anderer Werke, zu den Kompositionen von Bernhard Ruchti. Nochmals: Was für eine Entdeckung!
Das ist wunderbar zu hören - ganz herzlichen Dank für Ihre Anerkennung und Ihren Kommentar!
Worte können die Großartigkeit Ihrer Interpretation dieses Werkes nicht ausdrücken. Sie haben mich dazu gebracht, dieses Repertoire wiederzuendtdecken. Vielen Dank für Ihre Arbeit und all die Musik, die Sie uns anbieten.
Lieber Herr Desmeules, ganz herzlichen Dank für Ihr Feedback. Dass Menschen wie Sie Liszts Musik durch solch eine Aufnahme neu entdecken, ist für mich das schönste Kompliment und eine grosse Ehre. Danke auch Ihnen für Ihr kontinuierliches Interesse!
👊🏼🎯👍🏼
What a voicing!!!! 03:11
This performance is sooo *GOOD* !!!!
Thank you so much - I'm happy to hear that you enjoy the performance!
Finally I can hear all the colours in this piece. Masterfully executed and even better, played in the correct tempi!
Kudos Bernhard!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! Happy New Year!
Beautiful. Dramatic. Invigorating. It’s like hearing the piece for the first time again
Thank you so much for your appreciation!
Another triumph for the A Tempo Project. Vielen Dank!
Herzlichen Dank - auch für Ihr kontinuierliches Interesse am A Tempo Projekt!
This is absolutely superb! Warmest thanks for sharing this with us!
Thank you so much!
This is without any doubt...a monumental interpretation of this score,every one can identify each single note, every tone,semi-tones,arpeggios and this superb musicality make this interpretation of this beloved piano sonata, by Mr. Ruchti,...a wonderful piece of art, Many, many thanks.
Thank you so much. I feel honored reading this!
Spiritual virtuosity!
I am happy that you feel that way!
Ich danke für das Teilen dieses hochinteressanten Projektes. Wie der Kommentar zuvor muß ich auch gestehen bis zu ihrer Aufnahme kein besonderer Kenner und Liebhaber von Liszt gewesen zu sein. Es hat mich sehr neugierig auf ein genaueres Studium gemacht ! Eine technisch perfekte Aufnahme kommt dem Ganzen noch zu Gute.
Nochmals vielen Dank
HW Spieß
Lieber Herr Spieß, herzlichen Dank für Ihren Kommentar, der mich sehr freut! Mir persönlich ist die Musik von Franz Liszt in den letzten Jahren zunehmend näher gekommen und ans Herz gewachsen. Seit ich die Interpretation nicht (mehr) auf vordergründige Virtuosität auslege, sondern den inneren, meiner Auffassung nach transzendenten Inhalt suche, entdecke ich Wunder über Wunder!
I can only read German so I'm sorry to reply in English but there is so much more to Liszts works than the most famous Campanella and Rhapsodie Nr. 2. I Would invite you to listen to works such as "Funerailles", "Hungarian Rhapsodie Nr. 3 and 5", The "Deux Legendes", the "Annees de pelegrinage" etc. his work is mostly very deep and religious in nature not just virtuoso
A wonderful christmas gift to your subscribers. I thank and congratulate you on such a clear and beautiful performance!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
Beautiful, thank you
Thank you so much!
The dynamics of Liszt, most aptly rendered. Very modern!
Thank you for your appreciation!
Absolutely superb!
Thank you!
Sublime.
Thank you so much!
Der Flügel ist aber auch phantastisch und die Aufnahme tontechnisch hervorragend.
Herzlichen Dank! Das Instrument ist ein Bösendorfer VC280.
Sehr schön und super leidenschaftlich gespielt ❤❤❤ 😍😍😍
Ganz herzlichen Dank!
Very interesting! I am impressed!
Thank you!
I'm so excited to listen to this!
Thank you! It's an extraordinary piece of music, for sure!
YESSSS! Suspenseful and sinister!
😀 Thank you!
This is the first time I found Liszt interesting, beautiful, even lyrical and contemplative ! I usually can´t listen to Liszt and find his music unnerving, noisy and downright hysterical, and I wouldn´t recommend it to sensitive people. Congratulations, also, for using a Bösendorfer.
_P.S.: I would bet 1000 € that Pogorelich is following your project closely !_
There is so much beautiful music by Liszt. You are really missing out. Try listening to the sublime Petrarch sonnets… or the Benediction…
Thank you so much for your comment. I can understand your impression of Liszt's music. However, since I started playing it differently, looking mainly for profoundness and transcendence, his music has transformed into something visionary. It's extraordinary really, especially the Sonata.
As for Pogorelich, he hasn't contacted me yet 😀 But who knows! I would certainly love to talk to him about these matters.
@@neilkilleen3911 The Petrarch Sonets are truly beautiful, indeed. To all who would like to listen to my performance of the entire Années de Pèlerinage: here it is: ruclips.net/video/8AU1ZdFJ9yg/видео.html
@@neilkilleen3911 Au Lac de Wallenstadt, The Consolations, Romanze, the Fountains of the Villa d'Este. Weinachtsbaum, too many to mention them all.
@@gerry30 preaching to the converted !
Einfach nur Wow! Ich hatte bis jetzt nie wirklich einen emotionalen Zugang zu den Werken Liszts. Beim Hören dieser Interpretation habe ich nun das erste Mal das Gefühl, dass ich verstehen kann, was Liszt mit dieser Musik erzählen wollte. Vielen Dank für dieses großartige Projekt!
Edit: Existieren eventuell Planungen für die Auseinandersetzung mit Chopins Op.25 im Rahmen des a tempo-Projekts?
Herzlichen Dank, das freut mich sehr! Für mich ist Liszts Sonate eines der transzendentesten Werke, die ich im 19. Jahrhundert kenne.
Im Moment bestehen keine konkreten Pläne zu Opus 25, hauptsächlich aus Zeitgründen, aber wer weiss, was die Zukunft noch bringen wird!
Your performance is really amazing. The Wikipedia website about Liszt's B minor sonata presents a recording with Jorge Bolet with a duration of less than 30 minutes. Although many parts (the slow ones) are of absolute beauty and tenderness, the fast parts often turn into a vortex of indistinguishable notes. Your interpretation is very clear and shows all the beauties also of the fast passages.
I don't understand the importance of the last chord (not the last tone). Could you please explain?
Thank you so much - I really appreciate it!
What do you mean in terms of the importance of the last chord? I don't understand what you mean by your question.
@@bernhardruchti
If I understand the last part of your German introduction correctly, you say that the last chord unifies the two main prinicples of the sonata. This point is the one I would like to get an explanation for.
I am a piano teacher in Japan.
Thank you for your wonderful performances.
I would be very happy if you could also play Chopin's Etudes Op25.
Thank you very much for your appreciation! A recording of Chopin's Etudes would be a great project indeed. Let's see what the future brings!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Thank you
You're welcome!
You can hear voice and nuances that are impossible to understand when most pianists aim to "amaze" the listener with speed. I am convinced that Liszt's playing was totally different from what most people think.
Liszt probably had an extremely delicate and loving touch in the melodic parts, while he showed off a destructive power (he often broke the strings of the pianos) in the dramatic parts but, without necessarily using extreme speeds which he probably reserved for other parts.
Obviously a very personal idea.I can assure you that I am a true Liszt junkie!!
After Ad nos, this one also really deserves all my compliments. Simply magnificent, clean, precise, dramatic, impeccable!!
ps: Some may think that it is much easier to play at this speed. It's not like that at all. It is extremely more difficult. In fast, you can even hide small mistakes, but this way, you can hear every single note! This is true virtuosity!
The amazement that many of Liszt's contemporaries expressed about how unusual his playing was, certainly points towards that direction!
Hello Bernhard - thankyou for the fascinating a tempo project with its research, musical philosophy and performances.
I’ve listened to much of your output and enjoyed finding how I react to the slower tempo
With this performance there is great beauty and power. You discussed in your intro how power and transcendence don’t have to translate into speed. I agree. However, speed does have its place to convey certain musical and emotional ideas.
Much though I like your clarity, my reaction to your performance is that the musical impetus is sometimes lost. I *want* the music to continue more quickly sometimes (not always) to have more drive and hence more arrival power because that works for me emotionally and musically. I suppose part of that is excitement and it’s ok for music to be exciting as well as beautiful because that’s a basic human emotion.
So for me, after a couple of listenings, it does not work as a whole - I kind of lose track of its thematic evolution and structure (maybe repeated listening will change that)
There is no doubt though that you imbue it with great beauty and a fierce lyrical intensity
I know you don’t believe there is a right or wrong and that the A Tempo is all about exploring the musical “what if” so I know you won’t mind how it impacted me - and nor should you be of course - diversity in response is to be expected.
Congratulations on a fabulous project and fascinating ideas and performances!
Dear Neil
thank you for your feedback. You are right: I don't believe in right or wrong when it comes to music, in fact to art in general. There is way to much "canonized" tradition in classical music. At the same time, research in the field of historical performance practice is fascinating and most inspiring and has transformed my approach to music entirely.
I very much appreciate your continuous interest in my work and obviously I don't mind at all you saying that the Liszt Sonata doesn't work for you as a whole. De gustibus non est disputandum, as the old Romans said! However, I would like to suggest one thing: how about you come back to this recording in, say, 4 months and listen to it again and tell me if you still feel the same?
All the best, Bernhard
@@bernhardruchti I’ll listen again in a week or so. I am, to some degree, programmed in my expectations since I’ve heard it so many times times with a 30min duration. However, those brilliant and scintillating passages and big passionate climaxes are, I think,, key parts of it.
Now a piece I think I’d like to hear you play is the Liszt Benediction. It is my favourite of all Liszt. So profoundly contemplative. I think the standard tempos are pretty much ok, with the shimmering passage work supporting the beautiful tunes - I don’t know if you would choose to slow any of it anyway, but I’d like to hear what you’d do with it! I wish I could play it myself but my arpeggio technique is rubbish !!
Do we have any direct Liszt performance information on this one ?
Very respectful reply and I do understand your point and there are moments to which I agree with it and moments where I do not. I guess the fluidity of tempo is something that needs to be returned to the playing field as well but that perhaps is another discussion outside of the a tempo project or other proponents of similar thoughts.
Dear Neil
expectations or listening habits form indeed a significant part of our listening experience. Since recordings are literally available everywhere, they tend to be engraved in our perception, creating a feeling of "that's how it's supposed to be". It's interesting to see that already during Liszt's lifetime, where there were obviously no recordings, people accused him of being too inconsistent and varied in his different renditions of certain pieces. However, it's not the only part of our listening experience.
Bénédiction de Dieu dans la Solitude is indeed a wonderful piece. Some of Liszt's students talk about it and report some aspects of performance practice. I would have to look into it with more detail in order to profoundly comment on it. But it's certainly a good idea to maybe one day record it! 👍
"The fluidity of tempo" - I like that expression and I think it is very "Lisztian". You are absolutely right that this is somewhat independent from the actual tempo. However that fluidity becomes more and more crucial the more you actually moderate the tempo.
Vere es philosophum musices!
Gratias ago tibi 😀
Now we know why Bhrams fell asleep 😉
😂 probably cried himself to sleep because HE didn't compose it.😘
I thought the same thing LOL
Bernhard Ruchti plays Liszt's sonata with conviction and always the same concern for beautiful sound.
However, his bias towards much slower tempos than usual is not very convincing. How can we imagine Liszt, considered the greatest virtuoso of his time, playing the octaves of prestissimo with such little brilliance.
Moreover, there is a recording by Arthur Freidheim, cited as a source for the metronome indications, which is much faster (around 25 minutes instead of 43 here):
ruclips.net/video/nDzZeg7rXIs/видео.html&ab_channel=pianolainstitute
Thank you for your comment and appreciation - even if you don't like my octaves 😀
@@bernhardruchti It's not so much your octaves that I don't like, but rather the tempo with which you play them in the prestissimo. If you were to play Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 or No. 6, with octaves played this slowly it would be boring to death. Don't you think ?
In my opinion, it all depends on how they're played. The more I delve into the aspects of tempo, the more it occurs to me that it all comes down to the "spirit" of a performance, as Liszt himself put it and his pupils elaborated it. This insight leads me away from (definitely interesting) theories and dogmatism towards an actual content of an interpretation. And that's as individual as it can be.
As a matter of fact, I've had the idea for a while to record some of the Hungarian Rhapsodies for exactly that reason: "spiritual virtuosity". For now it's only an idea mainly due to time and finances. But we will see what the future brings!
I talk about this aspect in part III of my introduction to the B minor Sonata: ruclips.net/video/lpA4PrwUiGo/видео.htmlsi=V5w9WWKiW-jSF4t8
Thank you for your comment and interest!
Monumental interpretation that stands amongst the giants like that of Zimmermann or Richer.
Thank you so much for your appreciation!
Now I get where Brahms was coming from!
The way visioned it
Honestly, not a bad half-speed performance.
but it's ok, he could be just practicing at slow/medium temp before he goes full speed.
you learn what to sound like when practicing slowly
Slow practise, a bit like admiring a Roger Federer match in slow motion. Why?
Good exercise. One day you’ll manage a tempo, lol.
I hope that you somehow derived some benefit from the "good exercise". I am honored that you listened to it.