And that is what is refreshing! We've had enough of the Charlie Rose type who had to basically make himself the star of any interview; actually, refreshing he is gone and this man is here.
@@bloodgrss poor Charlie Rose you know few successful men from his generation could manage to detach themselves from that unfortunate double standard. I think he shouldn't have tried to come back from retirement.
What I like about Chopin's melodies on piano is how a lot of them are quite melancholious or desolate sounding, almost lonely. You kind of lose that feeling when they are sung.
Thank you for the interesting experiment. To me it shows one thing in particular, namely that Chopin likes to set long notes that get their beauty from fading away. Frankly, I find that a little difficult when singing a note is maintained over its entire length. In Chopin's piano music, the passing of time becomes tangible.
I teach Music History and the main points I give about Chopin and his legato obsession are: - he developed his style in Paris in the peak of belcanto opera, which he loved; - also in Paris, he was friends with Bellini, the king of belcanto composers; - in certain passages and even whole pieces, Chopin wanted the piano to sound like an italian belcanto style singer; I immediately illustrate this with two pieces: Casta diva by Bellini and Nocturne op. 9 n.2 by Chopin, and just add this: - Nocturnes were invented by the Irish John Field (then I show one of his awesome works, wich everybody should know) and the main idea is sounding like a troubadour (right hand) accompained by his lute (left had) under the balcony of his beloved by night (hence the name, as 'nocturne' means 'by night' in French). That's why in nocturnes we barely find counterpoint, shocking modulations or complex developments, as in other of Chopin's works; - despite this, a piano is not a singer, so Chopin takes advantage of its technical resources and "spices" the cantabile style with pianistic procedures such as out of range notes or 'cascades of notes' that the performer must make sound as natural and clear as a human voice. I would like to comment that when the soprano sings the piano concerto it strongly reminds me the beautiful Concerto for soprano and orchestra by Reinhold Glière, a work everybody should know, and obviously Vocalise by Rachmaninov. Sorry for my long comment. I've tried to summarize as much as possible.
8:00 You weren't kidding, it must have been a LOT of work to edit in all of those annotations, zoom ins, highlights of Chelsea's quirkiness, punctiliousness and funny interactions with you, finding the right clips and transitions to give a rythm to the video, and who knows what else... Voice music isn't particularly my thing, but this was masterfully done and very entertaining, bravo! Highlighting the breaths in the Prelude at the end was a fantastic idea, it really puts into perspective one of the challenges of forming musical phrases with the voice as an instrument.
She was so funny when the host told her in relation to the "Queen of the Night" - "I think that creature can sing Chopin", and her response was "I think that creature can sing Chopin. This creature (referring to herself) can't sing Chopin". Comedy gold. Great pianist, singer and person, I hope she gets a lot of concert engagements. I would love to see her perform Chopin 1 Piano Concerto and attempt to sign parts of it in a concert.
The recording takes I'm drawing from are exactly the highest recording quality (as you can tell). They're not so sharable! But I do love the idea (as others have also requested) of engaging Chelsea to prepare vocalises of Chopin melodies (and Mozart, Schubert, Debussy) and produce high quality performance recordings of them (audio and video).
Love the idea of someone who’s both an instrumentalist and a vocalist. Sometimes people make them see like they’re totally different worlds, but it’s so cool to be proficient in more than one instrument. Kinda inspiring as someone who studies voice but has a band background
A lot people I know both sing and play an instrument, including me. But most of them concentrate on one aspect or the other as their primary thing, unless they're a guitarist/singer.
This was so refreshing, original, and full of insights into both singing and piano playing -- and from the perfect exemplar -- someone so skilled in BOTH! Plus, you guys have the sweetest (and often funniest) banter -- mixed with the anxiety of having to give up the room -- all made for a perfectly delightful and thought-provoking 22 minutes. I agree with other commenters -- I'd love to hear a couple of these pieces (or least significant sections thereof) without interruption or commentary. Very glad that Mazurka (one of my favorite Chopin works) made the shortlist. A question for Chelsea: so, what pieces of Chopin do you find most would match your tessitura? And which would you most want to sing, even if they fell well outside your range? PS Props to the "Fifth Element" reference: saw that in the theater back in the day, and loved the alien diva: yes, get HER to do a vid!
Oh, I loved that scene from 5th Element! The first part is actually the Mad Scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and then the more wild finale was composed by the soundtrack composer w/ voice synth. But yeah. It's great. I'm sure she could :D
I love that the Éric Serra tried to write impossible things so it would sound alien, and Inva Mula successfully sang much more than he was expecting to be possible
Chopin melodies are just something else you know. I've seen all kinds of instruments play them, nothing as good as a voice course. Loved the interaction between you two as well
That was a fascinating experiment, with rather surprising results. The prelude in particular came out really beautifully. Maybe you should consider doing it with some of Schubert's solo piano music as well, I think it would be just as interesting.
I'm reminded of a remark by Garrick Ohlsson, on transcriptions of Chopin's melodies to other instruments: "If you take [Chopin] and put it in an orchestral transcription or a violin solo... it sounds absolutely disgusting. When you can actually realize the sustaining quality of the sound, it loses all of its suggestiveness, it loses all of its chastity. It becomes pornography: the thing itself, rather than the poetic thought of the thing itself... It's just too Technicolor. It doesn't leave anything to the imagination, no matter how beautiful it may be."
This was so much fun. Reminds me of the way Villa-lobos - “bachianas brasileiras “ uses the orchestra / soprano voice to similar effect . Hauntingly beautiful melodic lines…
What a fascinating idea and performance from you both! Chelsea, I will be keeping an eye out for your concerts, both vocal and pianistic. I just retired after thirty some years in the Phil, and I spent my life singing the violin and viola repertoire to figure out what I wanted to do musically, unencumbered by bow and fingerboard. I think most good musicians do that; just not as well as you, and not on camera! I have some thoughts about specific moments in the video, which I’ll post separately (if I get around to it). 😊 Lovely and unexpected. It reminds me of the joy of just poking around in music, thinking how it works, experimenting.
Chelsea us extraordinary in every respect but for the next video we need to see her sing and play in a concert format - her range even to Broadway repertoire is uplifting - merci
Oh man. This is such a slice of heaven on earth. You guys have such good chemistry that you have to collaborate more often. Would love to see Mozart's Piano Concerto #20 in D minor, 2nd movement? Pretty please?
Oh my! She is really talented! I too sometimes sing the melodies of piano pieces to understand them better. Nocturne in Eb and Prelude in E sound very good with her voice! tonebase piano always surprises me with very unique content. Thanks so much! I really enjoyed it!
Chopin the Poet of the Piano was a singer by all means. His basic conception was formed by the influence of Opera and Meyerbeer whom he heard and Bellini etc.contributed to this no doubt. What is portatato and martellato is really a form of diction and also applies to the touch in piano playing. Diction in this case in articulation of the tones. Good to hear this kind of presentation to bridge the first art with playing the piano. Love to hear her solfege all these tunes. Lol 😮
I hope you also do this for Clara Schumann's piano works, especially the Nocturne, Mazurka in G minor and Ballade from her 'Soirees musicales' and also Rachmaninoff's Romance in A major. I find them really nice to sing along to, although i do sometimes find that my voice range lacks lmao.
Awesome video at 3.48 there is this guy named Dimash who is the type of creature that lives in space with those kinda runs and notes...i learn a lot watching this even tho i can't sing or play an instrument lol but i do appreciate passionate work by passionate people😍
Wow, what a charming mesmerizing lady! You two were really cute together. The E-minor prelude was cream-of-the-top music at its best! The voice with this prelude was a natural prefect fit. AAA+ video!
Thanks for the wink at 17:05 hahahaha Maryla Jonas is a REVELATION - so glad you (finally *cough*) found her and included her here!! Love how you're tying in the singing that Chopin loved in the presentation of his works.
Dear Mark, thank you for all the work you do unearthing all the great treasures of pianists past! Everyone should check out Mark's article on Maryla Jonas, and start exploring The Piano Files! www.thepianofiles.com/the-maryla-jonas-story/
It is interesting that some piano melodies work better than others. Listening to this makes me appreciate how well Monty Python sang Chopin's Heroic Polonaise.
Oh you young, whipper snappers - it wasn't Mozart's der hölle rache from KdN, but a remix of Donizetti's Il dolce suono from Lucia di Lammermoor, but I guess I see what you're saying about it being KdN-esque. This is my favorite online rendition I could find...I thought there was a better one, but I can't seem to find it now. ruclips.net/video/3XKQaw-37XA/видео.html
Chelsea , you are amazing. I was at your recital in Singapore tonight. I can’t believe someone can manage both piano and voice in a such high standard. Bravo again
If the melodies were coupled with lyrics with natural rhythm and tonality that went with these melodies, it would’ve been 100 times more natural to sing. Singing complex melodies with just Aaaaa is much more difficult than singing with well written lyrics.
I like the calm way in which you do the interviews and how you give the guest room to express themselves ✨✨, excellent journalism and excellent dynamics with the guest, don't change!!, that's what I really like, it's somewhat annoying to hear people on youtube who don't let speak to the interviewee and do not transmit peace and clarity in the interview ✨✨So never change ur dinamic🙏✨✨
Look the reason the classically trained voice sounds so well ridiculous and comical to the majority of the 1st world is that once upon a time before electricity and high fidelity amplification the only way to get the human voice to the back of the Opera House was Classical vocal technique. But God almighty get that fat vibrato away from me. You know I'm a Jazz Pianist who's spent time teaching music to kids and when trying to get kids to take Western European Art Music seriously there's always someone in the back of the room who produces their fake Opera voice(come on we all got one) to cascades of laughter.
Very interesting and quite engaging. Well done, Chelsea! A whole 20 minutes! Watching this video I couldn't help but wonder how Edita Gruberova might have sung those parts.
That was in response to a "slurred staccato" marking, which Seymour B suggested is Portato. I'm a violinist. String players think of portato as a bow stroke used to give the effect of slightly separated but connected, slurred notes, created by "carrying" the bow from note to note, often marked with lines rather than dots. For the referenced repeated- note passage, I'd suggest it be played or sung "Cantando," or expressively spaced as in a sung style, or "Parlando," as if in a spoken style. Not sure about Portato in this case... 🤔
Oh, Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that vídeo too much! All musics are amaziling singing, but Prelude 4th touched me more No doubt that your suport and conduction were fundamental in this job 👏👏👏❤❤❤
Chopin has composed many songs... He preferred these melodies to be played on piano. he had a reason. of course some pieces are ok to be song, but most of them don't sound good.
what is the guy doing taking credit for anything whatsoever? His presentation skills are null, and nobody gives a damn. It's all about her, surely. She should front it.
That was really interesting and fun to listen to. Thanks for showing all of the difficulties and challenges in singing the parts. Chopin created such beautiful melodies that sound like they were meant to be sung, but are quite alien to a human voice. Good shout out to the movie "The 5th Element" and the incredible performance. The movie is actually quite entertaining.
How can you concentrate doing both at the same time? I alway get amazed with people who can sing at the same time play an instrument like guitar etc ( in pop music) but with classical piano you really have to listen your own piano sound with enormous concentrations more than pop music, I don’t understand how you can do both!!
So beautiful. This soprano singing opens a secret door to the greater beauty of Chopin's art. The voice brings out much more than a piano tone can (for certain passages). Now, I know what Chopin had meant by imitating the operatic singing style on the piano. A violin or a cello rendition of a Chopin nocturne also sounds good too. By the way, I've long concluded that Bach's Goldberg piano variation sounds best played by a quartet or a small orchestra. But I think the Prelude in E minor should remain just for piano to keep things simple, dry, and w/ no emotional burst.
I disagree, the prelude was already used for making a song, with amazing results: ruclips.net/video/PHIe9B5plDI/видео.html&ab_channel=ThiagoBerr%C3%AAdo
As a composer, getting my Master of Music in Film and Television Scoring, I like to use vocalists a LOT in the music I compose. I have learned, through the years, some ways to better use the voice, but it has all been worth it. James Horner loved using vocals in his film scores, especially in Titanic, where some of the solos are a bit tricky, but the sound is incredible. This lady did very well at the singing. Even when she goes from chest voice to head voice, she still keeps the notes forward, and her piano skills are incredible. P.S., it is musicians like her that give me hope that musicians won't be drowned out by sound libraries. The trained musician puts incredible amounts of time into EXPRESSING the music, and each time sounds different. Humans performing music is something I value. Yes, musicians are far more expensive than using sound libraries, but to me, the results are 100 times better.
Oh, this lady sings so beautiful! (Well, not as good as Glenn Gould did, but still pretty good :D ). E moll prelude sounds incredible! This vibrato on vocal sounds like a huge CHEAT! Without it this composition is so poor... i dont know how I'm gonna play it without singing like this lady... Presonally I heard a real reincarnation of Chopin pieces - this vocal interpretation... Amazing job, WE DEMAND MORE! MORE OR RIOT!
All romantic music is like singing. Some pianists can sing vocally (like Guo) and it helps with playing. Those who can't sing should have a vocal phrase in their heads and feelings
Chopin's writing is aimed directly at the piano, which is hammers on strings. But the human voice is such a extroardinary instrument that it handles the lines of Chopin well.
I play piano. I also hike. Often I would find myself trying to sing Chopin on the trail. I could never do it. I'm so happy to know that I'm not the lone ranger.
Juillard or not, I don't think Chopin's piano lines were meant to be sung, or played on an ocarina for that matter. However, there would be layers of voices (not like the 4 choir voices however) where the inner ones should absolutely be played cantabile, or with a song-like quality. It's no wonder that singing makes little sense when the melodic line is chromatic or high cardinality tuples. Bach lends himself better to singing, as demonstrated by Glenn Gould.
This is amazing, but I just wished I could listen to the sung nocturnes uninterrupted instead of have a break for comments every 10 seconds. I appreciate the comments very much, but then I'd also like to close my eyes and just listen to the music without them.
I would love to hear more complete melodies, like in the segment with the E minor prelude. This was obviously quite a feat, and a lot of the passages must be terribly hard to sing, but stopping every bar or two to comment on that wasn't useful.
I think you should listen to Callas sing the cavatina "Col sorriso del innocenza" from the mad scene if Il Pirata. She does some of these Chopin-like runs in the second part of the cavatina (ruclips.net/video/6uzIfpWzEec/видео.html starting at 2:10) . Actually, her singing of these passages remind me very much of Guiomar Novaes's version of the Chopin piano concerto (ruclips.net/video/BGyjI6NwrMg/видео.html). There is something about the way both these ladies handle the complicated passages that seems very similar to each other. They both manage these passages nonchalantly and "under the breath" that makes them sound natural and inevitable and not a feature in themselves. In one of the masterclasses, Callas told a student to sing those passages as if they weren't even there.
Ms. Guo, you have a very beautiful voice and you apply it beautifully!! Thank you! I am currently completely immersed in Chopin's 19 Nocturnes. Why not? 6:57 So funny, right after I commented the ^ above: "Let's do Nocturnes." Yeah! Let's do Nocturnes!!!
that seems to be a general conclusion from the experiment! But what did you think of the E minor prelude? for me, it preserves the internal, intimate elements... with just one dramatic outburst
As a baritone that sings musical theatre and opera, I can say that being a proficient musician adds so much to a performance. You don’t need to be performance level in piano or anything, just being able to sight-read and analyze music takes your art to the next level. Not to mention what it can do for your acting.
Lovely voice Chelsea, your lucky to be gifted with more than one instrument. If you thought Chopin has problems with intervals etc think again, you should hear the soloist singing 'Eight songs for a mad king' by Peter Maxwell Davies! I only ever played once with him thank goodness the piece was minimalist compared to this score. It's a brilliant piece, could call it one of the greatest compositions of the 20th Century.
This is great! I love that she sang the Chopin Nocturne op 9 no 1, which is not as well known as #2 but gorgeous. One of my favorites to play. Fabulous singing and piano playing!
At least this vid shows how ingenious Chopin would use the piano for its ideomatic power, its own power. Taken as a demo it is hervorragende, this video. It would be interesting to have a discussion about what suits the piano best and how Chopin caught that even if he also wrote songs, and even if it is known that his friend Pauline Viardot sang Chopin's Mazurkas: The soprano and composer Pauline Viardot was a close friend of Chopin and his lover George Sand, and she made a number of arrangements of his mazurkas as songs, with his full agreement. He gave Viardot expert advice on these arrangements, as well as on her piano playing and her other vocal compositions. Chopin in turn derived from her some firsthand knowledge about Spanish music. [Wikip.] Except for salon or cabaret use, never accompany yourself singing - thereby bereaving the audience for the experience of concentrated song :)
gives us an idea of what Schubert would hve sounded like as he sat and sang his own works (as he did when he went through Wintereisse for his friends. I am from the same line as Schubert and Beethoven - both of whose singing teacher was Salieri.
10:30 I know some Polish, but still let me offer a word that is in-between Polish and English: "caramel" (karmel in Polish, too short, I know). Any ideas for longer words that _want their syllables to be emphasized_ ?
Yeah because singing = phrasing (knowing where to reach in the melodies, slight rhythm changes because of it, thinking of the melody as a constant flow rather than "attacks")
Very beautiful. Personally, I don't sing Chopin while playing: I whistle it! That way it's much easier to breath because I can still whistle while inhaling.
Most definitely agree with the choice to sing, not skip, the ending of Op.28 No.4 (the "decaying prelude," as I like to call it). That was throat-clenchingly beautiful! Fred
This works so well with so much of Chopin's work; there are others, though, that come to mind. Of course, one of the most beautiful is Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, mvt. 2 in A♭ major. That would be incredible. It makes me try to sing it when I play it.
This man is like furniture. Could just prop a broom up next to her and it would be the same content.
ruclips.net/video/oPDSoFgivPA/видео.html
@@tonebasePiano😂😂😂
And that is what is refreshing! We've had enough of the Charlie Rose type who had to basically make himself the star of any interview; actually, refreshing he is gone and this man is here.
😂😂😂😂
@@bloodgrss poor Charlie Rose you know few successful men from his generation could manage to detach themselves from that unfortunate double standard. I think he shouldn't have tried to come back from retirement.
What I like about Chopin's melodies on piano is how a lot of them are quite melancholious or desolate sounding, almost lonely. You kind of lose that feeling when they are sung.
Good point , you point it out !
She recorded this in her debut album “Chopin in My Voice”.
Thank you for the interesting experiment. To me it shows one thing in particular, namely that Chopin likes to set long notes that get their beauty from fading away. Frankly, I find that a little difficult when singing a note is maintained over its entire length. In Chopin's piano music, the passing of time becomes tangible.
then you should listen to Nina Koshetz singing his op 74 no 2. this might change your mind
@@stunugh it is because the entire Op.74 were composed for singers, not for piano.
She should make a CD of vocalized Chopin pieces.
Her album Chopin in My Voice has both her piano playing and her singing of Chopin songs.
@@PianoMiffy OK, thanks I'll check that.
Mans talking about compact disks😂
Superb idea and beautifully sung and played. I also try to sing Chopin 😁 -- at least when nobody is listening.
😂😅
Yes, his melodies have a tendency to stick to our minds, don't they?
This is a genius idea - finally to hear all this sung by a real soprano and not just the imaginary (and bad) singing voice in our heads!
I teach Music History and the main points I give about Chopin and his legato obsession are:
- he developed his style in Paris in the peak of belcanto opera, which he loved;
- also in Paris, he was friends with Bellini, the king of belcanto composers;
- in certain passages and even whole pieces, Chopin wanted the piano to sound like an italian belcanto style singer;
I immediately illustrate this with two pieces: Casta diva by Bellini and Nocturne op. 9 n.2 by Chopin, and just add this:
- Nocturnes were invented by the Irish John Field (then I show one of his awesome works, wich everybody should know) and the main idea is sounding like a troubadour (right hand) accompained by his lute (left had) under the balcony of his beloved by night (hence the name, as 'nocturne' means 'by night' in French). That's why in nocturnes we barely find counterpoint, shocking modulations or complex developments, as in other of Chopin's works;
- despite this, a piano is not a singer, so Chopin takes advantage of its technical resources and "spices" the cantabile style with pianistic procedures such as out of range notes or 'cascades of notes' that the performer must make sound as natural and clear as a human voice.
I would like to comment that when the soprano sings the piano concerto it strongly reminds me the beautiful Concerto for soprano and orchestra by Reinhold Glière, a work everybody should know, and obviously Vocalise by Rachmaninov.
Sorry for my long comment. I've tried to summarize as much as possible.
useful asf
legato whats that all i need is a pedal
8:00 You weren't kidding, it must have been a LOT of work to edit in all of those annotations, zoom ins, highlights of Chelsea's quirkiness, punctiliousness and funny interactions with you, finding the right clips and transitions to give a rythm to the video, and who knows what else... Voice music isn't particularly my thing, but this was masterfully done and very entertaining, bravo! Highlighting the breaths in the Prelude at the end was a fantastic idea, it really puts into perspective one of the challenges of forming musical phrases with the voice as an instrument.
Thank you for noticing!
I knew her from the Chopin Competition. Didn't know she was such an unbelievably skilled singer as well. Shes amazing!
She was so funny when the host told her in relation to the "Queen of the Night" - "I think that creature can sing Chopin", and her response was "I think that creature can sing Chopin. This creature (referring to herself) can't sing Chopin". Comedy gold. Great pianist, singer and person, I hope she gets a lot of concert engagements. I would love to see her perform Chopin 1 Piano Concerto and attempt to sign parts of it in a concert.
Chelsea's addition to the episode is enlightening, but it would be very nice to hear all the pieces played uninterrupted as well in a companion video!
The recording takes I'm drawing from are exactly the highest recording quality (as you can tell). They're not so sharable! But I do love the idea (as others have also requested) of engaging Chelsea to prepare vocalises of Chopin melodies (and Mozart, Schubert, Debussy) and produce high quality performance recordings of them (audio and video).
@@tonebasePiano We fully support that idea.
Love the idea of someone who’s both an instrumentalist and a vocalist. Sometimes people make them see like they’re totally different worlds, but it’s so cool to be proficient in more than one instrument. Kinda inspiring as someone who studies voice but has a band background
A lot people I know both sing and play an instrument, including me. But most of them concentrate on one aspect or the other as their primary thing, unless they're a guitarist/singer.
I so want to hear Chelsea's studio recording of the 4th prelude. Hope it is made one day, and without faking in the edits, the breaths make it real.
This was so refreshing, original, and full of insights into both singing and piano playing -- and from the perfect exemplar -- someone so skilled in BOTH! Plus, you guys have the sweetest (and often funniest) banter -- mixed with the anxiety of having to give up the room -- all made for a perfectly delightful and thought-provoking 22 minutes. I agree with other commenters -- I'd love to hear a couple of these pieces (or least significant sections thereof) without interruption or commentary. Very glad that Mazurka (one of my favorite Chopin works) made the shortlist. A question for Chelsea: so, what pieces of Chopin do you find most would match your tessitura? And which would you most want to sing, even if they fell well outside your range? PS Props to the "Fifth Element" reference: saw that in the theater back in the day, and loved the alien diva: yes, get HER to do a vid!
Chopin wrote such otherworldly beautiful music.
Oh, I loved that scene from 5th Element! The first part is actually the Mad Scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and then the more wild finale was composed by the soundtrack composer w/ voice synth. But yeah. It's great. I'm sure she could :D
I love that the Éric Serra tried to write impossible things so it would sound alien, and Inva Mula successfully sang much more than he was expecting to be possible
Imagine accompanying yourself, what a chad
Chopin melodies are just something else you know. I've seen all kinds of instruments play them, nothing as good as a voice course. Loved the interaction between you two as well
That was a fascinating experiment, with rather surprising results. The prelude in particular came out really beautifully.
Maybe you should consider doing it with some of Schubert's solo piano music as well, I think it would be just as interesting.
shohei ohtani of music
I'm reminded of a remark by Garrick Ohlsson, on transcriptions of Chopin's melodies to other instruments:
"If you take [Chopin] and put it in an orchestral transcription or a violin solo... it sounds absolutely disgusting.
When you can actually realize the sustaining quality of the sound, it loses all of its suggestiveness, it loses all of its chastity.
It becomes pornography: the thing itself, rather than the poetic thought of the thing itself...
It's just too Technicolor. It doesn't leave anything to the imagination, no matter how beautiful it may be."
(nothing against Ms. Guo, she sounds sublime!)
It would be epic if you could invite Dimash to do this EPIC. He IS that creature. He did that alien song btw.
This was so much fun. Reminds me of the way Villa-lobos - “bachianas brasileiras “ uses the orchestra / soprano voice to similar effect . Hauntingly beautiful melodic lines…
Accompanying yourself while singing jazz is one thing but stinging chopin?! "Pretty hard" is a total understatement!! 😅🤪
What a fascinating idea and performance from you both! Chelsea, I will be keeping an eye out for your concerts, both vocal and pianistic. I just retired after thirty some years in the Phil, and I spent my life singing the violin and viola repertoire to figure out what I wanted to do musically, unencumbered by bow and fingerboard. I think most good musicians do that; just not as well as you, and not on camera! I have some thoughts about specific moments in the video, which I’ll post separately (if I get around to it). 😊
Lovely and unexpected. It reminds me of the joy of just poking around in music, thinking how it works, experimenting.
Chelsea us extraordinary in every respect but for the next video we need to see her sing and play in a concert format - her range even to Broadway repertoire is uplifting - merci
you guys are hilarious! and this is such an interesting video, you won’t find it anywhere else
Oh man. This is such a slice of heaven on earth. You guys have such good chemistry that you have to collaborate more often. Would love to see Mozart's Piano Concerto #20 in D minor, 2nd movement? Pretty please?
I'm amazed she is doing this seated!
On a related note here's Chelsea singing Chopin Op. 10 No. 3! ruclips.net/video/YU3gvuNpl0o/видео.html
Chelsea Guo your a goddess... Beauty brain and talent.. Is so rare to have a Pianist then a great singer in one person
Oh my! She is really talented! I too sometimes sing the melodies of piano pieces to understand them better. Nocturne in Eb and Prelude in E sound very good with her voice! tonebase piano always surprises me with very unique content. Thanks so much! I really enjoyed it!
Chopin the Poet of the Piano was a singer by all means. His basic conception was formed by the influence of Opera and Meyerbeer whom he heard and Bellini etc.contributed to this no doubt. What is portatato and martellato is really a form of diction and also applies to the touch in piano playing. Diction in this case in articulation of the tones. Good to hear this kind of presentation to bridge the first art with playing the piano. Love to hear her solfege all these tunes. Lol 😮
I hope you also do this for Clara Schumann's piano works, especially the Nocturne, Mazurka in G minor and Ballade from her 'Soirees musicales' and also Rachmaninoff's Romance in A major. I find them really nice to sing along to, although i do sometimes find that my voice range lacks lmao.
Awesome video at 3.48 there is this guy named Dimash who is the type of creature that lives in space with those kinda runs and notes...i learn a lot watching this even tho i can't sing or play an instrument lol but i do appreciate passionate work by passionate people😍
This is such a cool project. Please more! You both are such a precious duo btw!
Wow, what a charming mesmerizing lady! You two were really cute together.
The E-minor prelude was cream-of-the-top music at its best! The voice with this prelude was a natural prefect fit.
AAA+ video!
Now I really need the full lyrical versions of Chopin's pieces. This has been very insightful, amazing video.
Thanks for the wink at 17:05 hahahaha Maryla Jonas is a REVELATION - so glad you (finally *cough*) found her and included her here!! Love how you're tying in the singing that Chopin loved in the presentation of his works.
Dear Mark, thank you for all the work you do unearthing all the great treasures of pianists past!
Everyone should check out Mark's article on Maryla Jonas, and start exploring The Piano Files! www.thepianofiles.com/the-maryla-jonas-story/
It is interesting that some piano melodies work better than others. Listening to this makes me appreciate how well Monty Python sang Chopin's Heroic Polonaise.
Was that in a movie?
@@rogerg4916 Don't know. Search under Oliver Cromwell, Monty Python. It's a great history lesson.
Oh you young, whipper snappers - it wasn't Mozart's der hölle rache from KdN, but a remix of Donizetti's Il dolce suono from Lucia di Lammermoor, but I guess I see what you're saying about it being KdN-esque. This is my favorite online rendition I could find...I thought there was a better one, but I can't seem to find it now. ruclips.net/video/3XKQaw-37XA/видео.html
Thanks for the insight! The crazy part that the alien sings isn't based on Donizetti though, is it?
Chelsea , you are amazing. I was at your recital in Singapore tonight. I can’t believe someone can manage both piano and voice in a such high standard. Bravo again
This is so sick. omg she is gifted.
If the melodies were coupled with lyrics with natural rhythm and tonality that went with these melodies, it would’ve been 100 times more natural to sing. Singing complex melodies with just Aaaaa is much more difficult than singing with well written lyrics.
"I'm not a relativist." Been spending too much time with the great Seymour Bernstein it seems, lol!
Wow so cool hearing instrumental music performed by a singer. This was beautiful, thanks!
I like the calm way in which you do the interviews and how you give the guest room to express themselves ✨✨, excellent journalism and excellent dynamics with the guest, don't change!!, that's what I really like, it's somewhat annoying to hear people on youtube who don't let speak to the interviewee and do not transmit peace and clarity in the interview ✨✨So never change ur dinamic🙏✨✨
Look the reason the classically trained voice sounds so well ridiculous and comical to the majority of the 1st world is that once upon a time before electricity and high fidelity amplification the only way to get the human voice to the back of the Opera House was Classical vocal technique. But God almighty get that fat vibrato away from me. You know I'm a Jazz Pianist who's spent time teaching music to kids and when trying to get kids to take Western European Art Music seriously there's always someone in the back of the room who produces their fake Opera voice(come on we all got one) to cascades of laughter.
Very interesting and quite engaging. Well done, Chelsea! A whole 20 minutes! Watching this video I couldn't help but wonder how Edita Gruberova might have sung those parts.
That slip where she says she did not learn anything at Juliard is quite cute. Very nice experiment and often sounds very "belcanto".
That was in response to a "slurred staccato" marking, which Seymour B suggested is Portato. I'm a violinist. String players think of portato as a bow stroke used to give the effect of slightly separated but connected, slurred notes, created by "carrying" the bow from note to note, often marked with lines rather than dots. For the referenced repeated- note passage, I'd suggest it be played or sung "Cantando," or expressively spaced as in a sung style, or "Parlando," as if in a spoken style. Not sure about Portato in this case... 🤔
Oh, Thanks a lot, I really appreciate that vídeo too much!
All musics are amaziling singing, but Prelude 4th touched me more
No doubt that your suport and conduction were fundamental in this job
👏👏👏❤❤❤
Chopin has composed many songs... He preferred these melodies to be played on piano. he had a reason. of course some pieces are ok to be song, but most of them don't sound good.
what is the guy doing taking credit for anything whatsoever? His presentation skills are null, and nobody gives a damn. It's all about her, surely. She should front it.
That was really interesting and fun to listen to. Thanks for showing all of the difficulties and challenges in singing the parts. Chopin created such beautiful melodies that sound like they were meant to be sung, but are quite alien to a human voice. Good shout out to the movie "The 5th Element" and the incredible performance. The movie is actually quite entertaining.
How can you concentrate doing both at the same time? I alway get amazed with people who can sing at the same time play an instrument like guitar etc ( in pop music) but with classical piano you really have to listen your own piano sound with enormous concentrations more than pop music, I don’t understand how you can do both!!
That was an awesome idea :D I enjoyed so much listening vocally the melodies of Chopin... It would be great if you could make a 2nd episode of this.
'I'm not a relativist.' Fin. 🎤💧
Thanks, you guys. This was delightful.
Next project for you two should be Schubert, Schumann, Debussy….. Keep this project!! Love it!!!! SO interesting!
And Mozart!!
@@tonebasePiano Yes! My pianist friend requested Rachmaninov too!
So beautiful. This soprano singing opens a secret door to the greater beauty of Chopin's art. The voice brings out much more than a piano tone can (for certain passages). Now, I know what Chopin had meant by imitating the operatic singing style on the piano. A violin or a cello rendition of a Chopin nocturne also sounds good too. By the way, I've long concluded that Bach's Goldberg piano variation sounds best played by a quartet or a small orchestra. But I think the Prelude in E minor should remain just for piano to keep things simple, dry, and w/ no emotional burst.
I disagree, the prelude was already used for making a song, with amazing results: ruclips.net/video/PHIe9B5plDI/видео.html&ab_channel=ThiagoBerr%C3%AAdo
Except her talent, remember
to sing that well takes A LOT of work !!!
As a composer, getting my Master of Music in Film and Television Scoring, I like to use vocalists a LOT in the music I compose. I have learned, through the years, some ways to better use the voice, but it has all been worth it.
James Horner loved using vocals in his film scores, especially in Titanic, where some of the solos are a bit tricky, but the sound is incredible.
This lady did very well at the singing. Even when she goes from chest voice to head voice, she still keeps the notes forward, and her piano skills are incredible.
P.S., it is musicians like her that give me hope that musicians won't be drowned out by sound libraries. The trained musician puts incredible amounts of time into EXPRESSING the music, and each time sounds different.
Humans performing music is something I value. Yes, musicians are far more expensive than using sound libraries, but to me, the results are 100 times better.
Very interesting. It would be nice to do this with Mendelssohn's _Songs Without Words._
Chopin was influenced by Bellini and his operas. To play Chopin beautifully, one must sing the lines through one's playing.
Oh, this lady sings so beautiful! (Well, not as good as Glenn Gould did, but still pretty good :D ). E moll prelude sounds incredible! This vibrato on vocal sounds like a huge CHEAT! Without it this composition is so poor... i dont know how I'm gonna play it without singing like this lady... Presonally I heard a real reincarnation of Chopin pieces - this vocal interpretation... Amazing job, WE DEMAND MORE! MORE OR RIOT!
All romantic music is like singing. Some pianists can sing vocally (like Guo) and it helps with playing. Those who can't sing should have a vocal phrase in their heads and feelings
We need some recordings of these pieces with voiced melodies!
9:45 "I'm not a relativist" I'm lmao
Chopin's writing is aimed directly at the piano, which is hammers on strings.
But the human voice is such a extroardinary instrument that it handles the lines of Chopin well.
I play piano. I also hike. Often I would find myself trying to sing Chopin on the trail. I could never do it. I'm so happy to know that I'm not the lone ranger.
Juillard or not, I don't think Chopin's piano lines were meant to be sung, or played on an ocarina for that matter. However, there would be layers of voices (not like the 4 choir voices however) where the inner ones should absolutely be played cantabile, or with a song-like quality. It's no wonder that singing makes little sense when the melodic line is chromatic or high cardinality tuples. Bach lends himself better to singing, as demonstrated by Glenn Gould.
This is amazing, but I just wished I could listen to the sung nocturnes uninterrupted instead of have a break for comments every 10 seconds. I appreciate the comments very much, but then I'd also like to close my eyes and just listen to the music without them.
You should also try doing it with some Liszt! Maybe Liebestraum? Or Widmung? They are quite some good and hearty melodies like Chopin's.
Both of those pieces were songs first though
Wilde Jagd
I would love to hear more complete melodies, like in the segment with the E minor prelude. This was obviously quite a feat, and a lot of the passages must be terribly hard to sing, but stopping every bar or two to comment on that wasn't useful.
I think you should listen to Callas sing the cavatina "Col sorriso del innocenza" from the mad scene if Il Pirata. She does some of these Chopin-like runs in the second part of the cavatina (ruclips.net/video/6uzIfpWzEec/видео.html starting at 2:10) . Actually, her singing of these passages remind me very much of Guiomar Novaes's version of the Chopin piano concerto (ruclips.net/video/BGyjI6NwrMg/видео.html). There is something about the way both these ladies handle the complicated passages that seems very similar to each other. They both manage these passages nonchalantly and "under the breath" that makes them sound natural and inevitable and not a feature in themselves. In one of the masterclasses, Callas told a student to sing those passages as if they weren't even there.
Ms. Guo, you have a very beautiful voice and you apply it beautifully!! Thank you!
I am currently completely immersed in Chopin's 19 Nocturnes. Why not?
6:57 So funny, right after I commented the ^ above: "Let's do Nocturnes."
Yeah! Let's do Nocturnes!!!
Is it normal to answer "no" to the question "Have you seen the movie Fifth Element" now? This makes me feel old...
no, no, no... chopin is NOT opera! chopin melodies is soft, internal. not foghorn..
that seems to be a general conclusion from the experiment! But what did you think of the E minor prelude? for me, it preserves the internal, intimate elements... with just one dramatic outburst
As a baritone that sings musical theatre and opera, I can say that being a proficient musician adds so much to a performance. You don’t need to be performance level in piano or anything, just being able to sight-read and analyze music takes your art to the next level. Not to mention what it can do for your acting.
Wow, what an awkward painful video to watch thanks to this guy. Jeez.
Lovely voice Chelsea, your lucky to be gifted with more than one instrument. If you thought Chopin has problems with intervals etc think again, you should hear the soloist singing 'Eight songs for a mad king' by Peter Maxwell Davies! I only ever played once with him thank goodness the piece was minimalist compared to this score. It's a brilliant piece, could call it one of the greatest compositions of the 20th Century.
This is great! I love that she sang the Chopin Nocturne op 9 no 1, which is not as well known as #2 but gorgeous. One of my favorites to play. Fabulous singing and piano playing!
If only the world understood how she amazing she is.
Kinda cheesy to say but its true.
The E Minor Prelude sung makes it sound like a tragic Aria and I love it.
it was like an arrow through my soul
Strong soprano Chelsea Guo.
At least this vid shows how ingenious Chopin would use the piano for its ideomatic power, its own power. Taken as a demo it is hervorragende, this video.
It would be interesting to have a discussion about what suits the piano best and how Chopin caught that even if he also wrote songs, and even if it is known that his friend Pauline Viardot sang Chopin's Mazurkas:
The soprano and composer Pauline Viardot was a close friend of Chopin and his lover George Sand, and she made a number of arrangements of his mazurkas as songs, with his full agreement. He gave Viardot expert advice on these arrangements, as well as on her piano playing and her other vocal compositions. Chopin in turn derived from her some firsthand knowledge about Spanish music. [Wikip.]
Except for salon or cabaret use, never accompany yourself singing - thereby bereaving the audience for the experience of concentrated song :)
gives us an idea of what Schubert would hve sounded like as he sat and sang his own works (as he did when he went through Wintereisse for his friends. I am from the same line as Schubert and Beethoven - both of whose singing teacher was Salieri.
Chopin wrote music for soprano, Polish songs, a group of songs for human voice with piano accompaniment.
She performed some and recorded one in her album Chopin in my Voice.
@@PianoMiffy Do you know where I can find it, I looked it up on RUclips and couldn't find it
Chelsea Guo: super talented, and so humble.❤
10:30 I know some Polish, but still let me offer a word that is in-between Polish and English: "caramel" (karmel in Polish, too short, I know). Any ideas for longer words that _want their syllables to be emphasized_ ?
Marion Robin could sing that high A beautifully!
it sounds Iranian classic singers can sing that easily. listen to "Shajarian"
This level of talent reminds me that humans are amazing.
Both of you: great musicality! BRAVISSIMO!!!!\
Now, back to my trumpet and piano.
I just simply enjoyed watching this. Lovely persons, lovely music, lovely feelings. Thank you so much. ❤️
Wasn't Chopin always crushing on a singer? That his music needs to sing to be played well.
Yeah because singing = phrasing (knowing where to reach in the melodies, slight rhythm changes because of it, thinking of the melody as a constant flow rather than "attacks")
Very beautiful. Personally, I don't sing Chopin while playing: I whistle it! That way it's much easier to breath because I can still whistle while inhaling.
Lord God YES, take your time with those 5-let embellishments from low to high...
Why wouldn't you????? LUXURIATE.
That is indeed a very rare creature - one who is a masterful vocalist *and* pianist. Thanks for making this video, such a treat!
Most definitely agree with the choice to sing, not skip, the ending of Op.28 No.4 (the "decaying prelude," as I like to call it).
That was throat-clenchingly beautiful!
Fred
This works so well with so much of Chopin's work; there are others, though, that come to mind.
Of course, one of the most beautiful is Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, mvt. 2 in A♭ major. That would be incredible. It makes me try to sing it when I play it.
wow, she's something else. also that bruce willis insertion at the very end was very sweet.
More of these please! You two are THE dynamic duo! ❤