Interesting discussions here...I'll give my two-cents: I think that every generation so far has delivered great pianists. There is no decline in the quantity of talent, and in recent decades we see an increasing amount of pianists from Asia (or with an Asian background) who are brilliantly equipped. But as human beings, pianists are also inevitably the product of their time, influenced by "Zeitgeist" - as every generation and every period has different beliefs, priorities, preferences, aesthetics and ideas. So we see that great pianists living in the 21st century play very very differently from great pianists that lived 100 years ago. It's a bit pointless to say which pianist was "greater": above a certain level of excellence, comparisons lose their meaning. A lot also depends on personal taste. Personally, almost all my favourite pianists were born roughly between 1870 and 1915. It's not easy to explain why: to me it seems that at that period of time, many of them could profit from a felicitous set of tools and circumstances that enabled them to develop their talents in a certain way. It has to do with tradition, education, ideas, culture in general (and the more prominent place of classical music in western society), the quality of the instruments, a broad outlook, the patience to grow, individuality, creativity, craftsmanship and a constant search for emotional and spiritual depth. As different as they all are in their approach to music making, many of the pianists born in that period made recordings that for me are the most satisfying to listen to. And I was fortunate enough to have heard a handful of them in concert: Arrau, Perlemuter, Cherkassky, Bolet and Richter.
Agree on the level of talent today. For me the biggest difference, for which pianists of the last hundred years can’t be blamed, is that those born closer to the time of the major 19th century composers played their music as music, as woodnotes wild and effusions from the heart rather than as museum pieces and masterpieces to be studied to death. Is this a know-nothing attitude? Listen on RUclips thanks to generous souls like you to such natural players as Zofia Rabcewicz, Severin Eisenberger, Etelka Freund and many, many others. They sing, feel and share. Not easy for contemporary musicians to be so unselfconscious, in Chopin, Shakespeare or anyone from an earlier time. But it will always be worthwhile to hear how brilliant artists make geniuses their own. Just don’t claim they have a monopoly on authenticity (as you certainly don’t). Thanks, as always.
@@jackatherton0111 I think a lot of that is the brutally competetive atmosphere of classical music - in training, the emphasis is on technique. A musician may reach a fairly advanced stage in their career without really knowing how to feel and interpret the piece in their own way., because if they do'n't have the technical chops, they will be beat out by someone who does, and their career will be in danger. Some manage to find their way through this, but the institution of classical music now demands this technical focus, it seems. I admire technique, but it's to serve the music, not the other way around. I have heard prominent musicians who were technically wonderful, but emotionally empty for me, at least.
This pianist wouldn’t gotten past the first round of any major competition. That is a telling statement! No wonder classical music is dead . This is how Chopin would have played We need more performers like him
how wonderful classical elitists like you are only still breathing to post inane comments on RUclips. To millions of people around the world, classical music is central to their world, and their life, but you would not know it, too busy are you belittling them with "higher than you" judgments
Just came across 4 of these Op 25 Etude recordings in a pile of old 78rpm records and played it without looking at the label...suddenly I realised how utterly revolutionary Chopin was. And what an interpretive master Koczalski was!
Un témoignage musical historique : l'interprétation de ces Etudes me semble en parfaite adéquation avec les témoignages sur l'enseignement de Chopin lui-même : finesse, fluidité, sens du phrasé en "coups d'archet" et, surtout, refus de ce brio tapageur dont Chopin avait une sainte horreur !
Difficile de ne pas parler d’amour dans cette magnifique démonstration de plaisir qui transparaît tout au long de son interprétation. Comment ne pas le partager, comment ne pas être emporté par cet élan si léger, si chaleureux, si spontané ?
Armand Georg Raoul von Koczalski 1884 -- 1948 born in Warsaw to a Polish noble family, pianist and composer. He started lessons with his mother, made his first public appearance in 1888 (aged 4), and was taken to play for Anton Rubinstein who foresaw his talent and potential. He then went on to have lessons from, amongst others, Karl Mikuli 1821 -- 1897 with whom Koczalski underwent intensive instruction for four summers from 1892 in Lwów. At the age of 7 he gave concerts and by the age of 9, Koczalski was playing in major European cities as a virtuoso, and aged 12, he gave his 1000th concert in Leipzig. Koczalski lived in France, Germany and Sweden, before returning to Poland after World War II, where he settled in Poznań, remaining active as a recitalist. Based in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, he toured Italy, France and Poland as a highly esteemed interpreter of Chopin. During the war, his recordings were banned and he was forced to stay in Berlin without permission to perform, due to his Polish heritage. After the war, Koczalski was rehabilitated in both Germany and Poland, he took up professorship at the State Higher School of Music in Poznan in 1945 The complete works of Chopin and the complete Beethoven Sonatas formed the core of Koczalski’s very extensive repertoire ... ******* Mikuli (aka Bsdikian) born in Czerniowce (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) to a Moldavian-Armenian family He studied under Frédéric Chopin for piano (later becoming his teaching assistant) and Anton Reicha for composition. He toured widely as a concert pianist, becoming Director of the Lviv Conservatory in 1858. He founded his own school there in 1888. He died in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine)
I love your uploads but the number of commenters here who say that piano playing is dead is just ridiculous. It's like they don't listen to anything other than competitions or commercial releases. The art of piano playing is just fine thanks.
@@bodikins Ok but much has been gained too. There hasn't been artistry like Sokolov, Pletnev, Gekic, Volodos, Brand or many others before. Sorry but this 'lost' sentiment is too ostrich-like.
@@ADGO The deeper you delve into these matters (it helps to actually have a connection to the 19th century and do 25 years of research), the less it turns out to be about mere taste or "opinion"
I love the texturing of the last etude. It's like there's an actual landscape with demarcations. A jagged, wild ocean, and a soaring stentorian melody.
I’m on atoll here. Everybody played differently with their own unique sense of rubato and tempi ! Today everyone sounds the same. No soul. No suffering in the music. It becomes all about ME. look at me at what I can do. This era was surely the bestb
I wonder how someone could say Koczalski doesn’t play fast, when needed. It’s the first time I have the chance to listen to him although I knew him from my father and in my opinion Chopin couldn’t be played better, together with Cortot and some few others among whom I include the young Alexander Gadjiev who is the direct heir of this extraordinary school… Thank you for sharing this wonderful performance!!
I shall listen to these right away, Erwin. 🤗 Is de piano misschien een Pleyel? Why on earth was Koczalski expected to record the Études in just one day? Hofmann himself said there was no pianist who could do equal justice to these pieces! Horowitz and Rubinstein never recorded the complete set, and Horowitz said ALL the Études were difficult - especially the ones in double notes. 😳 Koczalski must have been exhausted at the end of that day in 1938.
Many pianists play them in one concert. I saw Novaes in the mid 60s and they formed the first half of the program. She came out after and played Beethoven's Waldstein and other music. She obviously wasn't tired. Backhaus recorded them in 1 day and no doubt played them as half of a program. Youri Egerov played them all at once, so did Cortot and others. If a pianist is in good shape and can play anything without too much pain, then there's no reason why he/she would be tired afterwards.
Oh I like this! People usually like to pound the first etude to death. What a happy discovery! I have never heard of this man. This makes my day beautiful.
Arthur Rubinstein had a tart observation: "A former child prodigy who was covered with medals when he was six, some of them hanging on his little bottom; he lived in Germany and had developed into a very bad pianist." It would be interesting if he was responding to artistic differences, the dropped notes, or RK's residence in Germany. (He obviously made it through the Holocaust and returned to Poland. Do we know how he spent the War?)
I much enjoyed the musical, and elegant playing here and the touch is most refined, but sometimes (e.g. the octave study, left hand passagework in 'Winter Wind') I would have liked more power and brilliance, as well as more pedal resonance. However, to get all this recorded in a day is a major achievement. I wonder why it was necessary to do this ... ?
The golden age of piano is long gone. Nobody makes music like this anymore. Women play in cocktail dresses and high heels. No respect for the music. Instead of approaching these etudes as pieces of music they performing them as technical stunts. Who can play the fastest becomes the rule. After Arthur Rubinstein died it all came to a crashing end. I studied at Juilliard for 7 years I know what I’m talking about . No more true rubato today only strict observance to the musical score . Listen only to the pianists of the distant past to understand music. Stay away from the speed freaks
Agreed. I never listened to Koczalski live, but still one can hear beautiful and tasteful rubato, phrasing, tones, sense of rhythm etc through the recording. And which I hardly hear in recordings by living pianists. Maybe the whole circumstances around humans in our time should change to get the golden age of piano back, the culture of piano playing is still alive in our time but the civilization which gave birth and grew up the golden age of piano has died.
For me, the best Chopin player ever. He plays with virtuosity but with seriousness too. Like Arrau. He is not the fickle virtuoso who represents himself and not Chopin.
Life long companions...for pianists, the Etudes of Chopin....in attended recitals I heard Novaes play the Opus 10 at Town Hall, Ashkenazy at Carnegie Hall, at the yearly Josef Lhévinne birthday remembrance at Josef Raieff, Lhévinne's recordings of various specialities of his😊.....the Opus 10 nr.11, and in Opus 25, the g sharp minor, the octave, in B minor and " Winter Wind"....At my own recitals I played the Opus 10 no.10, nr.3 and nr.4.
Do you know any other great recordings of op 10 no 10? I enjoyed this one a good bit, but I haven’t found the ‘opium’ quite yet. Also that op 25 6 LH!! Big line big musician
@@OzanFabienGuvener Both are great and valid, I find my top ones to be. Cziffra, Cortot, and Richter as of now. I think it has much more potential then these performances though this piece, it's so joyful.
@@OzanFabienGuvener Also, what do you think of the pianist Vitaly Margulis Chopin and playing in general? I think his op 10 2 is one of best I've heard, his Bach is also great. I do though somewhat find an issue he kind of play everything the same with sparing pedal, but, it's a great style that I respect.
Interesting discussions here...I'll give my two-cents:
I think that every generation so far has delivered great pianists. There is no decline in the quantity of talent, and in recent decades we see an increasing amount of pianists from Asia (or with an Asian background) who are brilliantly equipped. But as human beings, pianists are also inevitably the product of their time, influenced by "Zeitgeist" - as every generation and every period has different beliefs, priorities, preferences, aesthetics and ideas. So we see that great pianists living in the 21st century play very very differently from great pianists that lived 100 years ago. It's a bit pointless to say which pianist was "greater": above a certain level of excellence, comparisons lose their meaning. A lot also depends on personal taste.
Personally, almost all my favourite pianists were born roughly between 1870 and 1915. It's not easy to explain why: to me it seems that at that period of time, many of them could profit from a felicitous set of tools and circumstances that enabled them to develop their talents in a certain way. It has to do with tradition, education, ideas, culture in general (and the more prominent place of classical music in western society), the quality of the instruments, a broad outlook, the patience to grow, individuality, creativity, craftsmanship and a constant search for emotional and spiritual depth. As different as they all are in their approach to music making, many of the pianists born in that period made recordings that for me are the most satisfying to listen to. And I was fortunate enough to have heard a handful of them in concert: Arrau, Perlemuter, Cherkassky, Bolet and Richter.
Bravo, Erwin! Well stated. 👏🏻
Yes, exactly!
Agree on the level of talent today. For me the biggest difference, for which pianists of the last hundred years can’t be blamed, is that those born closer to the time of the major 19th century composers played their music as music, as woodnotes wild and effusions from the heart rather than as museum pieces and masterpieces to be studied to death. Is this a know-nothing attitude? Listen
on RUclips thanks to generous souls like you to such natural players as Zofia Rabcewicz, Severin Eisenberger, Etelka Freund and many, many others. They sing, feel and share. Not easy for contemporary musicians to be so unselfconscious, in Chopin, Shakespeare or anyone from an earlier time. But it will always be worthwhile to hear how brilliant artists make geniuses their own. Just don’t claim they have a monopoly on authenticity (as you certainly don’t). Thanks, as always.
I think you are very polite here towards nowadays pianists. "my favourite.....between 1870 and 1915" says it all........ :)
@@jackatherton0111 I think a lot of that is the brutally competetive atmosphere of classical music - in training, the emphasis is on technique. A musician may reach a fairly advanced stage in their career without really knowing how to feel and interpret the piece in their own way., because if they do'n't have the technical chops, they will be beat out by someone who does, and their career will be in danger. Some manage to find their way through this, but the institution of classical music now demands this technical focus, it seems. I admire technique, but it's to serve the music, not the other way around. I have heard prominent musicians who were technically wonderful, but emotionally empty for me, at least.
This pianist wouldn’t gotten past the first round of any major competition. That is a telling statement! No wonder classical music is dead . This is how Chopin would have played We need more performers like him
Probably even Chopin himself wouldn’t have gotten far in a competition of our time. And that’s not his fault, but ours.
@@findelka1810 you are so right. We have no concept of chest music should be like. It’s now the Olympics of the keyboards
Our time is shit.
And the people of our time are shit.
In one word, an horrible semantic contraction which resumes the whole situation.
how wonderful classical elitists like you are only still breathing to post inane comments on RUclips. To millions of people around the world, classical music is central to their world, and their life, but you would not know it, too busy are you belittling them with "higher than you" judgments
Based on what ? He plays them all perfectly lol, anyone who plays like this would win by today standards too no doubt
Just came across 4 of these Op 25 Etude recordings in a pile of old 78rpm records and played it without looking at the label...suddenly I realised how utterly revolutionary Chopin was. And what an interpretive master Koczalski was!
Un témoignage musical historique : l'interprétation de ces Etudes me semble en parfaite adéquation avec les témoignages sur l'enseignement de Chopin lui-même : finesse, fluidité, sens du phrasé en "coups d'archet" et, surtout, refus de ce brio tapageur dont Chopin avait une sainte horreur !
Difficile de ne pas parler d’amour dans cette magnifique démonstration de plaisir qui transparaît tout au long de son interprétation. Comment ne pas le partager, comment ne pas être emporté par cet élan si léger, si chaleureux, si spontané ?
Armand Georg Raoul von Koczalski 1884 -- 1948 born in Warsaw to a Polish noble family, pianist and composer. He started lessons with his mother, made his first public appearance in 1888 (aged 4), and was taken to play for Anton Rubinstein who foresaw his talent and potential. He then went on to have lessons from, amongst others, Karl Mikuli 1821 -- 1897 with whom Koczalski underwent intensive instruction for four summers from 1892 in Lwów. At the age of 7 he gave concerts and by the age of 9, Koczalski was playing in major European cities as a virtuoso, and aged 12, he gave his 1000th concert in Leipzig.
Koczalski lived in France, Germany and Sweden, before returning to Poland after World War II, where he settled in Poznań, remaining active as a recitalist. Based in Germany during the 1920s and 1930s, he toured Italy, France and Poland as a highly esteemed interpreter of Chopin.
During the war, his recordings were banned and he was forced to stay in Berlin without permission to perform, due to his Polish heritage. After the war, Koczalski was rehabilitated in both Germany and Poland, he took up professorship at the State Higher School of Music in Poznan in 1945
The complete works of Chopin and the complete Beethoven Sonatas formed the core of Koczalski’s very extensive repertoire ...
*******
Mikuli (aka Bsdikian) born in Czerniowce (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) to a Moldavian-Armenian family He studied under Frédéric Chopin for piano (later becoming his teaching assistant) and Anton Reicha for composition. He toured widely as a concert pianist, becoming Director of the Lviv Conservatory in 1858. He founded his own school there in 1888. He died in Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine)
Wonderful!
I love your uploads but the number of commenters here who say that piano playing is dead is just ridiculous. It's like they don't listen to anything other than competitions or commercial releases. The art of piano playing is just fine thanks.
Much has been lost. Most of this 19th-century art anyway
@@bodikins Ok but much has been gained too. There hasn't been artistry like Sokolov, Pletnev, Gekic, Volodos, Brand or many others before. Sorry but this 'lost' sentiment is too ostrich-like.
@@ADGO They're just inferior versions of Rachmaninoff, Hofmann, von Sauer, Rosenthal, Lipatti, even Bolet
@@bodikins You're arguing opinion. That's not a problem. It's the obnoxious statement that piano-playing-has-been-lost that is the problem.
@@ADGO The deeper you delve into these matters (it helps to actually have a connection to the 19th century and do 25 years of research), the less it turns out to be about mere taste or "opinion"
💝💝💝 Thanks a lot, Erwin for the wonderful and rare upload ... One of the greatest pianists of all time .... TY
It doesn't feel rushed which is a positive. So much classical playing today feels rushed.
True artist..
This is such a refreshing interpretation!
Magnificent recordings. Thanks so much for posting this!
I love the texturing of the last etude. It's like there's an actual landscape with demarcations. A jagged, wild ocean, and a soaring stentorian melody.
I’m on atoll here. Everybody played differently with their own unique sense of rubato and tempi ! Today everyone sounds the same. No soul. No suffering in the music. It becomes all about ME. look at me at what I can do. This era was surely the bestb
I wonder how someone could say Koczalski doesn’t play fast, when needed. It’s the first time I have the chance to listen to him although I knew him from my father and in my opinion Chopin couldn’t be played better, together with Cortot and some few others among whom I include the young Alexander Gadjiev who is the direct heir of this extraordinary school…
Thank you for sharing this wonderful performance!!
26:30 flying beauty ...........
I've never heard anyone play the Etude in F major in that way!
Wonderful técnic!
Thanks for this very rare recording from the golden era!A pity the tone is slightly overpitched.
I shall listen to these right away, Erwin. 🤗 Is de piano misschien een Pleyel? Why on earth was Koczalski expected to record the Études in just one day? Hofmann himself said there was no pianist who could do equal justice to these pieces! Horowitz and Rubinstein never recorded the complete set, and Horowitz said ALL the Études were difficult - especially the ones in double notes. 😳 Koczalski must have been exhausted at the end of that day in 1938.
Many pianists play them in one concert. I saw Novaes in the mid 60s and they formed the first half of the program. She came out after and played Beethoven's Waldstein and other music. She obviously wasn't tired. Backhaus recorded them in 1 day and no doubt played them as half of a program. Youri Egerov played them all at once, so did Cortot and others. If a pianist is in good shape and can play anything without too much pain, then there's no reason why he/she would be tired afterwards.
@@tobiolopainto Good points! I recall hearing Ruth Slenczynska play the Op. 10 in concert, followed by the 4 Ballades. Amazing lady.
Oh I like this! People usually like to pound the first etude to death.
What a happy discovery! I have never heard of this man. This makes my day beautiful.
Arthur Rubinstein had a tart observation: "A former child prodigy who was covered with medals when he was six, some of them hanging on his little bottom; he lived in Germany and had developed into a very bad pianist." It would be interesting if he was responding to artistic differences, the dropped notes, or RK's residence in Germany. (He obviously made it through the Holocaust and returned to Poland. Do we know how he spent the War?)
I much enjoyed the musical, and elegant playing here and the touch is most refined, but sometimes (e.g. the octave study, left hand passagework in 'Winter Wind') I would have liked more power and brilliance, as well as more pedal resonance. However, to get all this recorded in a day is a major achievement. I wonder why it was necessary to do this ... ?
The golden age of piano is long gone. Nobody makes music like this anymore. Women play in cocktail dresses and high heels. No respect for the music. Instead of approaching these etudes as pieces of music they performing them as technical stunts. Who can play the fastest becomes the rule. After Arthur Rubinstein died it all came to a crashing end. I studied at Juilliard for 7 years I know what I’m talking about . No more true rubato today only strict observance to the musical score . Listen only to the pianists of the distant past to understand music. Stay away from the speed freaks
Hi, could you give me some names? Because I'm curious to hear them!. Thanks in advance!
I agree with you. Maybe there are still some good musicians but not many. Most pianists are copies of each other and copying the bad thing.
@@mikonatt Well for a start you can view the vids that PIANOOPERA(the uploader) has put online-terrific.
Agreed. I never listened to Koczalski live, but still one can hear beautiful and tasteful rubato, phrasing, tones, sense of rhythm etc through the recording. And which I hardly hear in recordings by living pianists. Maybe the whole circumstances around humans in our time should change to get the golden age of piano back, the culture of piano playing is still alive in our time but the civilization which gave birth and grew up the golden age of piano has died.
@@morinoroba you stated that so well. I give you a bravo ! Great insight
For me, the best Chopin player ever. He plays with virtuosity but with seriousness too. Like Arrau. He is not the fickle virtuoso who represents himself and not Chopin.
Филигранно божественно легко, искрятся шестнадцатые как блики солнца в холодной воде моря!
Life long companions...for pianists, the Etudes of Chopin....in attended recitals I heard Novaes play the Opus 10 at Town Hall, Ashkenazy at Carnegie Hall, at the yearly Josef Lhévinne birthday remembrance at Josef Raieff, Lhévinne's recordings of various specialities of his😊.....the Opus 10 nr.11, and in Opus 25, the g sharp minor, the octave, in B minor and " Winter Wind"....At my own recitals I played the Opus 10 no.10, nr.3 and nr.4.
Welcome everybody to the true world of Chopin‘s music. ‚Facilement, facilement‘ (Chopin).
Do you know any other great recordings of op 10 no 10? I enjoyed this one a good bit, but I haven’t found the ‘opium’ quite yet.
Also that op 25 6 LH!! Big line big musician
Did you try Ignace Tiegerman or Ruth Slenczynska?
@@OzanFabienGuvener Both are great and valid, I find my top ones to be.
Cziffra, Cortot, and Richter as of now.
I think it has much more potential then these performances though this piece, it's so joyful.
@@OzanFabienGuvener Also, what do you think of the pianist Vitaly Margulis Chopin and playing in general?
I think his op 10 2 is one of best I've heard, his Bach is also great.
I do though somewhat find an issue he kind of play everything the same with sparing pedal, but, it's a great style that I respect.
Adam Haraciewicsz, Phillips " World Series" LP, late 1960s.
@@pablobear4241 Cziffra's is perverse in places, but riveting.
I believe you've got the Trois Nouvelles Études in the wrong order.
Welcome everybody to the true world of Chopin‘s music. ‚Facilement, facilement‘ (Chopin).