"Steady pace" is never a virtue in music unless maybe in a march for military exercises or in social dancing, but otherwise a symptom either of lack of heart and soul on the part of the performer, or lack of poetic substance in the music itself. Luckily, the beat is not quite as robotical as you would seem to wish, and Mr. Fleisher is recognizably a human and not a MIDI file or punched paper roll, even though apparently a rather depressed and apathic one. But less monotony always does Bach good, to escape the ever-present risk of his artfully polyphonic writing degrading into a mere meaningless combinatorical exercise. Unless I am very mistaken this is originally a song, so the phrasing needs to breathe even when there is no singer: Important words have to be stressed and lengthened like a good singer would do it, while phrase ends and interludes have to be hurried and understated like a good accompanist would do it. The poem dictates the phrasing even if it is only read or thought and not actually sung. Giving the supplementary voices not carrying the melody but just providing harmonic support undue weight just adds clutter and confusion.
this is not about music...this is about a Life Divine....pure universal breath. Leon what a beautyfull soul. May he enjoy the eternal bliss. Thank you for sharing. PAolo from Italy
Some people hate those videos showing you how a magic trick is performed and would prefer to be amazed. On the contrary, I believe that knowing the magicians' craft would enhance your appreciation of their art. The most touching moment of this magical performance was the return to the melody after the middle section in the minor key. Maestro Fleisher was building up to a climax with a pulsating bass and then suddenly at around 3:20, the strength and the resolve melted away and the music almost ground to a halt. This was literally a heart-stopping moment, found in no other performances of this work. The return of the opening melody, played softer than before, was then like a rebirth, and a reaffirmation of all things pure and good.
There are several miracles transpiring here, and Bach’s contrapuntal elegance is only the beginning. Leon Fleisher so deserved a better life, but at least got to leave it, and even transcend it, by recording for us some of the most sublime moments of Western art. His steady pulse here is reassuring not by invariability but intentionality, and that's a bittersweet irony given the randomness that fate visited uncomprehendingly on Leon's life. It could not have been an easy task to serve us such equanimity in these last performances. And it becomes almost allegorical here in Bach’s dreamy, propulsive triplets, skipping slowly through a sweet lullaby, major then minor. For me it conjures a scene of Bach's own children tumbling through the world like kids are playfully impelled to do, in some melodic tandem with life's unscrolling. For Leon life was anything but lyrical. But fortunately for posterity he persevered anyway, steadied by the ostinato of his own resilience, motivated by the grace of generosity.
@@yngvemoe9646 You're right, I meant the three-note figuration that opens the melody from the v--i-ii-iii--iii-ii--iv-iii-v-iv . . . they're not techically triplets.
What an effortless, smooth, and supple technique he has, particularly as he dealt with focal dystonia. He was blessed also with large hands, and long fingers, which he uses to his advantage. His phrasing and articulation lends such sublime beauty, and his tasteful use of mordants and trills adds brilliance
I remember one lesson group with Leon (he taught us in groups of three) during which he saw fit to demonstrate a passage from the Brahms Handel variation. It was the big allegro variation going into the fugue. As he played the sound got larger and larger … and larger … not louder but BIGGER. It was literally hair raising. I heard him demonstrate in many lessons over the years but I will never forget that day and that majestic, almost supernatural sound. He would demonstrate passages until the dystonia curled the hand up. His teaching style was laden with metaphors and philosophies, but he elicited from us clean, honest, unmannered phrases.
I’m From Far Far Away was Born like 50m from Indian Ocean and I’m living in Baltimore and I did get privilege to meet Leon and His wife actually I did know his wife before knowing Him what a Beautiful Human Beings wife she always Talking and smiling and finally I met Leon I didn’t know anything about him and Wife give me a cd and I didn’t have a chance to listen it because my apartment got fire in 2010😢 and being looking for the same cd Since Rest in peace Leon Fleisher my God grant his Grace Amina🙏
Maestro Fleischer played this less slowly than the recital he gave a year before his death. While that performance was uniquely moving, this one is a perfect example of how this piece should be played, without an ounce of sentimentality. Students of the piano should take note of how Professor Fleisher kept to four beats in a bar, which is a slow tempo giving this piece its serene and peaceful character. Famous pianists like Lang Lang and even Perahia gallop along at, in effect, eight beats to the bar, thereby ruining the spiritual dimension of this iconic music. There is no better tribute to a great pianist and teacher than this clip. Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine.
LOL if you play 8 beats per bar instead of 4 here, your flow is gonna be stuck, not galloping along!! Granted, this is an exceptional performance. Sentimentality is no bad thing. It's only bad if the performance is overfilled with such indulgence. It also depends on what music it is - for example, sentimentality will destroy Ravel's music while Schumann's benefits from much sentimentality.
Every time you are wondering what we humans are about, play this. This is who we really are - inspired, in awe of beauty, soaring beyond what each of us is to something we all are.
Donkgated, yes who we should be, and who shall be, all they who do change their mind and seek God while he may still be found. Do you not know what this song is about? It is about the day when sheep may safely graze, when there shall be no more evildoing, no more pain, no more crying, when the lion shall eat grass as the ox and the bear shall graze with the cattle and the child shall run with them, the child will play next to the vipers nest, because all know God. All know him and thus love him with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind and they all love each other as themselves, yes that is who we should be, and that is the kingdom of Heaven that shall be established when Jesus Christ comes back to wipe away all evil. :) That is why he said: repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand! That you may take have part in it. For no evildoer of any kind shall in any way enter in there :) Jesus is the way. Jesus is the gate, through whom the sheep shall enter in and find pasture. Peace and joy, and neither hunger nor thirst no more. It is a true message of joy, it is the Evangelium. Because we have all done evil. There is no man that has not. Except Jesus. And he took our punishment for us. That we may enter in, if only we turn from our evil ways. How blessed are they who believe. I didnt believe until I stood on the gates of death and realized I am dead in sins and my body dying will only lock me out forever. So I cried to the Lord and begged him to forgive me what a wicked man I have been, that I didnt know any better, and I confessed to Jesus all my sins and begged for forgiveness and I confessed all the riddiculous and not riddiculous things I bare a grudge at others for and begged Jesus to help me forgive them all, and begged Jesus to fill me with his Holy Spirit, and then the Kingdom of Heaven entered into my heart. A foretaste in heaven. I gave half my money, dropped out of the university I was attending for such terrible reasons as girls, fame, prestige, and my mother got back her son and my brothers got back their brother, and I have not smoked a cigarette since, not drank a drop of alcohol, not attended a single nightclub, not flirted with any girls, if only a little bit, falling into temptetion, but the Lord saved me. And the peace... Come ye, all that labour and are heavily burdened, come to me and I shall give rest/peace to your souls said Jesus. If you ever look at the lyrics of Bachs songs you will find he is talking about the same things :) this song is about the kingdom of heaven that is yet to come :) If you think the sounds made by the man bach is heavenly, well it is a pathetic nothing, compared to the real thing. A bit like even the best photohraphy of the most beautiful place in the world utterly fails to give forth the proper true being of all that is really there. How much less is it possible to capture in sound the peace of God, that passeth understanding? But as I have seen the real place, I know that the song describes it beautifully. Within the limits of music of course :)
I saw this wonderful man perform this years ago at a competition we judged as a faculty in upstate NY. It was glorious when I first witnessed it and it is just as special today as it was back then. It is one of the few performances and musical experiences that has stuck over these many years. What a gem...
It's painful to see that right finger curled up, as a long reminder of what could not be played. Yet, here is the most beautiful of music, Bach, played, at last.
"I cut my thumb on a piece of cheap garden furniture and required a couple of stitches. When I started practising again, things didn't feel quite right on my right side. My fourth and fifth fingers seemed to want to curl under. I practised even harder, not listening to my body when, through pain, it warned me to stop. Things got progressively worse and in less than a year those two fingers were completely curved under, sticking into the palm of my hand." www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/leon-fleisher-my-life-fell-apart-1984408.html
It's that time of year. Take me hastily to 2:38, and lavish yourself upon my impoverished senses. Cherish me with the blandishments of your hands and eyes. Then express me through your inexorable lament. Such that I may feel the fleeting touch, of your machine's miraculous ghost.
The effects of focal dystonia in the right hand are quite distinct. The psychic distress that it causes is only known to the persons that do we suffer it.
Viewing this one video alone, today's newer concert performers could learn a lot about the importance of virtuosity (and modesty) when playing their instruments, most especially when performed solo. The only other musician that comes readily to mind when I think of possessing this foundational element is Ana Vidovic. There are perhaps a few others; but among the present generation of pianists, so many have no concept of virtuosity that you might think they came from the Liberace Finishing School of Music Kitschification.
Such a beautiful piece of music, that looks of love, but was of a political thing. Interesting how it got adapted into where ever it took sails of. Amazing.
It's that time of year. Take me hastily to 2:38 and lavish yourself upon my impoverished senses. Cherish me with the blandishments of your hands and eyes, then express me through your inexorable lament: such that I may feel the fleeting touch, of your machine's miraculous ghost.
I met him and his wife good people she gave me his cd and I lost it in fire 2013 and Brochure of Liverpool and Tottenham match in Baltimore M&T stadium in 2012 that was the first time watching Liverpool and Tottenham in real life,In my apartment.
6 лет назад
*IVO`s MAGIC WORLD presents MUSIC HISTORY GUIDE* - *FAMOUS BIRTHS - LEON FLEISHER* - *90th Birthday, Today!!!* - (JuLy 23, 2018)
I saw maestro Fleisher perform this piece a few years before he passed. One of the musical highlights of my life. I cried.
one of the most beautiful melodies ever created. when it starts I am frozen. I only stop and listen.
This music gave me strength for the tomorrow. Life is not easy but heart could feel silent power.Thank you.
I as well
Very beautiful, for you both.
Bach was 27 years old when he wrote this sweet melody.
thank you let me know : ) wow ! he is amazing~ this piece is so beautiful. I love this piece so much.
Best version on youtube. Steady pace. No pretentions. Just as it should be played. Wonderful.
"Steady pace" is never a virtue in music unless maybe in a march for military exercises or in social dancing, but otherwise a symptom either of lack of heart and soul on the part of the performer, or lack of poetic substance in the music itself. Luckily, the beat is not quite as robotical as you would seem to wish, and Mr. Fleisher is recognizably a human and not a MIDI file or punched paper roll, even though apparently a rather depressed and apathic one. But less monotony always does Bach good, to escape the ever-present risk of his artfully polyphonic writing degrading into a mere meaningless combinatorical exercise. Unless I am very mistaken this is originally a song, so the phrasing needs to breathe even when there is no singer: Important words have to be stressed and lengthened like a good singer would do it, while phrase ends and interludes have to be hurried and understated like a good accompanist would do it. The poem dictates the phrasing even if it is only read or thought and not actually sung. Giving the supplementary voices not carrying the melody but just providing harmonic support undue weight just adds clutter and confusion.
First time hearing this without any singing. Very simple. Pleasing and peaceful. Thank you.
this is not about music...this is about a Life Divine....pure universal breath. Leon what a beautyfull soul. May he enjoy the eternal bliss. Thank you for sharing. PAolo from Italy
Some people hate those videos showing you how a magic trick is performed and would prefer to be amazed. On the contrary, I believe that knowing the magicians' craft would enhance your appreciation of their art. The most touching moment of this magical performance was the return to the melody after the middle section in the minor key. Maestro Fleisher was building up to a climax with a pulsating bass and then suddenly at around 3:20, the strength and the resolve melted away and the music almost ground to a halt. This was literally a heart-stopping moment, found in no other performances of this work. The return of the opening melody, played softer than before, was then like a rebirth, and a reaffirmation of all things pure and good.
What I always love about his playing is that he never made a show. The music was always first. Simple
Exact
Yes!
this is the most beautiful playing of this piece. it gives me a feeling of peace and hope. thank you for your music.
Probably the best rendition on piano
A masterclass in voicing just like my piano teacher taught me many years ago.
There are several miracles transpiring here, and Bach’s contrapuntal elegance is only the beginning.
Leon Fleisher so deserved a better life, but at least got to leave it, and even transcend it, by recording for us some of the most sublime moments of Western art. His steady pulse here is reassuring not by invariability but intentionality, and that's a bittersweet irony given the randomness that fate visited uncomprehendingly on Leon's life.
It could not have been an easy task to serve us such equanimity in these last performances. And it becomes almost allegorical here in Bach’s dreamy, propulsive triplets, skipping slowly through a sweet lullaby, major then minor. For me it conjures a scene of Bach's own children tumbling through the world like kids are playfully impelled to do, in some melodic tandem with life's unscrolling.
For Leon life was anything but lyrical. But fortunately for posterity he persevered anyway, steadied by the ostinato of his own resilience, motivated by the grace of generosity.
What triplets?
@@yngvemoe9646 You're right, I meant the three-note figuration that opens the melody from the v--i-ii-iii--iii-ii--iv-iii-v-iv . . . they're not techically triplets.
I had a lesson with Leon last summer. I will never forget it. Such an human being, such a musician.
Thank you so much for the video. One more like ;)
Wow, a lesson from the master, how lucky you are!
I love this..so beautiful. .brings tears to my eyes. Thank you.
me too
@Andrew Ernyes I feel the same way. Thank you for expressing it so beautifully.
What an effortless, smooth, and supple technique he has, particularly as he dealt with focal dystonia. He was blessed also with large hands, and long fingers, which he uses to his advantage. His phrasing and articulation lends such sublime beauty, and his tasteful use of mordants and trills adds brilliance
I’m attending piano class because of this piece. Too good
I remember one lesson group with Leon (he taught us in groups of three) during which he saw fit to demonstrate a passage from the Brahms Handel variation. It was the big allegro variation going into the fugue. As he played the sound got larger and larger … and larger … not louder but BIGGER. It was literally hair raising. I heard him demonstrate in many lessons over the years but I will never forget that day and that majestic, almost supernatural sound. He would demonstrate passages until the dystonia curled the hand up. His teaching style was laden with metaphors and philosophies, but he elicited from us clean, honest, unmannered phrases.
Beautiful, like a calming lullaby.thank you!
Настоящая медитация! Здорово, волшебно, сказочно!
What an impeccable tone! RIP Mr Fleisher
R.I.P. Maestro! One of the last giant of the Piano...
I’m From Far Far Away was Born like 50m from Indian Ocean and I’m living in Baltimore and I did get privilege to meet Leon and His wife actually I did know his wife before knowing Him what a Beautiful Human Beings wife she always Talking and smiling and finally I met Leon I didn’t know anything about him and Wife give me a cd and I didn’t have a chance to listen it because my apartment got fire in 2010😢 and being looking for the same cd Since Rest in peace Leon Fleisher my God grant his Grace Amina🙏
Kathy is a sweetheart
Maestro Fleischer played this less slowly than the recital he gave a year before his death. While that performance was uniquely moving, this one is a perfect example of how this piece should be played, without an ounce of sentimentality. Students of the piano should take note of how Professor Fleisher kept to four beats in a bar, which is a slow tempo giving this piece its serene and peaceful character. Famous pianists like Lang Lang and even Perahia gallop along at, in effect, eight beats to the bar, thereby ruining the spiritual dimension of this iconic music. There is no better tribute to a great pianist and teacher than this clip. Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine.
LOL if you play 8 beats per bar instead of 4 here, your flow is gonna be stuck, not galloping along!!
Granted, this is an exceptional performance. Sentimentality is no bad thing. It's only bad if the performance is overfilled with such indulgence. It also depends on what music it is - for example, sentimentality will destroy Ravel's music while Schumann's benefits from much sentimentality.
Every time you are wondering what we humans are about, play this. This is who we really are - inspired, in awe of beauty, soaring beyond what each of us is to something we all are.
Steve Moyer
No, not who we really are, but who we really should be - what you described would make earth so beautiful that heaven is redundant.
Donkgated, yes who we should be, and who shall be, all they who do change their mind and seek God while he may still be found. Do you not know what this song is about? It is about the day when sheep may safely graze, when there shall be no more evildoing, no more pain, no more crying, when the lion shall eat grass as the ox and the bear shall graze with the cattle and the child shall run with them, the child will play next to the vipers nest, because all know God. All know him and thus love him with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind and they all love each other as themselves, yes that is who we should be, and that is the kingdom of Heaven that shall be established when Jesus Christ comes back to wipe away all evil. :)
That is why he said: repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand! That you may take have part in it. For no evildoer of any kind shall in any way enter in there :)
Jesus is the way. Jesus is the gate, through whom the sheep shall enter in and find pasture. Peace and joy, and neither hunger nor thirst no more. It is a true message of joy, it is the Evangelium.
Because we have all done evil. There is no man that has not. Except Jesus. And he took our punishment for us. That we may enter in, if only we turn from our evil ways. How blessed are they who believe. I didnt believe until I stood on the gates of death and realized I am dead in sins and my body dying will only lock me out forever. So I cried to the Lord and begged him to forgive me what a wicked man I have been, that I didnt know any better, and I confessed to Jesus all my sins and begged for forgiveness and I confessed all the riddiculous and not riddiculous things I bare a grudge at others for and begged Jesus to help me forgive them all, and begged Jesus to fill me with his Holy Spirit, and then the Kingdom of Heaven entered into my heart. A foretaste in heaven. I gave half my money, dropped out of the university I was attending for such terrible reasons as girls, fame, prestige, and my mother got back her son and my brothers got back their brother, and I have not smoked a cigarette since, not drank a drop of alcohol, not attended a single nightclub, not flirted with any girls, if only a little bit, falling into temptetion, but the Lord saved me. And the peace...
Come ye, all that labour and are heavily burdened, come to me and I shall give rest/peace to your souls said Jesus. If you ever look at the lyrics of Bachs songs you will find he is talking about the same things :) this song is about the kingdom of heaven that is yet to come :) If you think the sounds made by the man bach is heavenly, well it is a pathetic nothing, compared to the real thing. A bit like even the best photohraphy of the most beautiful place in the world utterly fails to give forth the proper true being of all that is really there. How much less is it possible to capture in sound the peace of God, that passeth understanding? But as I have seen the real place, I know that the song describes it beautifully. Within the limits of music of course :)
I saw this wonderful man perform this years ago at a competition we judged as a faculty in upstate NY. It was glorious when I first witnessed it and it is just as special today as it was back then. It is one of the few performances and musical experiences that has stuck over these many years. What a gem...
Was für ein schönes Lied!
I love this melody...Perfectly emotional
Music
Repected Bach..from miss Roma, South Korea
Thank you for sharing and thank you for the play. One of the most beautiful inspiring music and play I have ever listened.
To start the day with sweetness and desire of Heaven !!!
Per iniziare la giornata con dolcezza e desiderio di Cielo !!!
so schön, danke
I listened to this piece while watching a german film , 'Werke ohne autor' then tried to find the title of the song. It's just beautiful.
Note, that the text said all: only with a good government there is piece. And this fits beautifully to the film
Wirklich super schön muß ich sagen ❤
苦難を乗り越えた演奏。すばらしいです。
the best rendition I have heard..
It's painful to see that right finger curled up, as a long reminder of what could not be played. Yet, here is the most beautiful of music, Bach, played, at last.
Many pianists curl their little finger when it's not being used.
Could be. But how many of them have focal dystonia in their right hand, the one with the curled finger?
"I cut my thumb on a piece of cheap garden furniture and required a couple of stitches. When I started practising again, things didn't feel quite right on my right side. My fourth and fifth fingers seemed to want to curl under. I practised even harder, not listening to my body when, through pain, it warned me to stop. Things got progressively worse and in less than a year those two fingers were completely curved under, sticking into the palm of my hand." www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/leon-fleisher-my-life-fell-apart-1984408.html
Thank you for sharing
Kissin does that too. It is not a sign of illness.
The minor section hunted my breath. Inspiring, truly. Bravo Maestro
It's that time of year. Take me hastily to 2:38, and lavish yourself upon my impoverished senses. Cherish me with the blandishments of your hands and eyes. Then express me through your inexorable lament. Such that I may feel the fleeting touch, of your machine's miraculous ghost.
Existen sutilezas que son obras de arte como esta, bien interpretadas y mejor apreciadas
must be one of the very best thing ever written, even though in its semplicity
oh its not that simple XD
@@dovahkiin2 hehe indeed xD
This is musically one of THE MOST piece ever written.
che bellezza! Magnifico Fleisher.
Why d'you have to make me cry Sir Fleisher, Sir Bach?
Beautiful rendition
The effects of focal dystonia in the right hand are quite distinct. The psychic distress that it causes is only known to the persons that do we suffer it.
Incredible. Bravo...
2:10 My favourite, sad part. 😭
Céleste, spirituel et profondément joyeux.
I love this..so beautiful.
Thank you for the music♡♡
so beautiful！
소리가 좋아요:)
sublime..
Interpretazione meravigliosa e consapevole
Ooo..how I love this masterpiece 💕💕
RIP Maestro
Bonheur du jour. Pour dire la beauté et la grâce en musique...
Perfection!
Wonderful!!!
I'm here because of Oliver Sacks book Musicophilia, Fleisher has a great story.
Legend never dies
There is beauty in the world.
Such beauty!
Stunning!
Tellement beau... ❤
Sehr schön!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the sharing..!
que delicadeza, que leveza..........
Excellent...
Good bye. Rest in peace.
Lovely, god rest your soul.
Thank you. Unfortunately there is no information which transcription performer uses: Egon Petri or Dinu Lipatti.
This is the Petri transcription.
Lovely.
En su libro MUSICOFILIA cuenta Oliver Sack que este ilustre pianista toco en su casa esta cantata del gran Bach
Maravilloso
Heaven
Зворушливо...Дякую
Viewing this one video alone, today's newer concert performers could learn a lot about the importance of virtuosity (and modesty) when playing their instruments, most especially when performed solo. The only other musician that comes readily to mind when I think of possessing this foundational element is Ana Vidovic. There are perhaps a few others; but among the present generation of pianists, so many have no concept of virtuosity that you might think they came from the Liberace Finishing School of Music Kitschification.
MERCI !
Adorável.
Stupendous!
Semplice e pura eternità.
THANK YOU
R.I.P
Such a beautiful piece of music, that looks of love, but was of a political thing. Interesting how it got adapted into where ever it took sails of. Amazing.
Does anyone know which transcription of this Cantata is he playing?
Egon Petri
Voici une autre version, également par Léon Fleischer : ruclips.net/video/GVVd-gjR8Qk/видео.html
amazing! when i first heard of the melody, i was totally touched. Could u tell me how can i get the score?
It is a Ignaz Friedman ' s pisno transcription?
i think is Buzoni
I want to play on this piano
reposez en paix
RIP Mr Fleischer
Von wem ist diese wunderschöne Transkription ? Gibt es irgendwo die Noten?
Check out the same youtube video uploaded by klever 34. It's in better sound.
Great.
It's that time of year. Take me hastily to 2:38 and lavish yourself upon my impoverished senses. Cherish me with the blandishments of your hands and eyes, then express me through your inexorable lament: such that I may feel the fleeting touch, of your machine's miraculous ghost.
I met him and his wife good people she gave me his cd and I lost it in fire 2013 and Brochure of Liverpool and Tottenham match in Baltimore M&T stadium in 2012 that was the first time watching Liverpool and Tottenham in real life,In my apartment.
*IVO`s MAGIC WORLD presents MUSIC HISTORY GUIDE* - *FAMOUS BIRTHS - LEON FLEISHER* - *90th Birthday, Today!!!* - (JuLy 23, 2018)
Whose transcription is that?
❤
Really perfect... Eternel.