I read some time ago that for concerts given by Franz Liszt always one, usually 2 spare pianos were kept ready, because he broke them so often with his play.
Toughest Rach prelude at the end of his concert, I presume. No other pianist for sound like Gilels,My favorite pianist all time. Cortot and Horowitz get silver and bronze. Thx Vadim!
In this music of Rach, Gilels is peerless!!! The golden tone is absolutely stupendous! We miss this titan of the keyboard, so many thanks for the post, KlassikFan. sd goh (malaysia)
I think Gilels would say - 'that was pretty good but not my best.' For the rest of us, Gilels' pretty good is just fine. The melody in the 'b' section has a lot of poetry - so many fellows do not let it speak but get too involved in the 16ths.
I LOVE these famous Rachmaninoff ' s pieces played by GILELS..:-) Always so PASSIONATE..:-) You don't simply listen,BUT are TAKEN..SWEPT AWAY ! Thanks for posting !
I listened to that Lang Lang guy. I'm still nauseus. Gilels or nothing! This guy is amazing. Listening to him feels almost like a religious experience, and though that phrase is overused, I don't know how else to describe it.
Gilels is in the house... this is an orchestral sound for the piano and Giles commands that piano like no-one else... at 2:58 it gets spine chillingly sublime and then ends in an almighty firework display of virtuosity... thank you for bringing Gilels to the Tube :) p.s. I think the piano was booked in for a 2 week break in the Seychelles afterwards (!)
+Angel Chiriboga After Rachmaninoff heard Gilels play, he sent him a bronze plaque with Anton Rubinsteins profile engraved on it.He also mailed to Gilels a diploma that he (Rachmaninoff) had received as a successor to Anton Rubinstein.Rachmaninoff added Gilels name to the diploma and then sent it to him.
A wonderful performance of this piece. So much better than both Berezovky's and Kissin's version on youtube. Gilels plays this espansively, with majesty and expressiveness, whereas both of the other two play it as a crass, mechanical, prestissimo technical exercise.
Мощное, гениальное исполнение гениальной Музыки!! Здесь истинное явление подлинного духа Рахманинова!! Выпукло, образно!! Выражение эмоционального подъёма через образ природного явления! Я вижу ,как ранней весной ,на реке ломается лёд и мощное течение вод сталкивает с шумом льдины! В пассажах слышно журчание водяных струй, освобождённых от ледяного плена. Грандиозное звучание полностью передаёт атмосферу описанного звуками явления!!!
Эмиль открыл мне Рахманинова!. Сколько переслушала исполнителей так и не понимала Рахманинова. Вот как так, нужна связка двоих, а иначе время на ветер.
@mattcabideinchrist totally. I was shocked to see that someone can actually dislike Gilels. There are lots of talented musicians, lots of those who won this, that and the other and still play with no taste, but Gilels, well, he was a genius in true sense.
There is a video on RUclips of a a female pianist (I forget which one) playing a broken piano as they roll it to the elevator, continues playing it down and comes back up playing the replacement. It's awesome.
@Mazzel Tov Thanks for confirming. I read recently that Michelangeli placed 7th in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 1937, coming behind the likes of Gilels and Moura Lympany. Perhaps a friendship of sorts developed then and was deepened later whenever the two met on concert tours. In his fascinating book, "Notes of a Moscow Pianist", Dmitry Paperno reports that the Russian players in attendance were spellbound by Michelangeli's 1955 concert in Warsaw, where he was also serving as juror of the Chopin Competition. AMB picked the young Vladimir Ashkenazy for the prize.
@Mazzel Tov Wow, that's an impressive connection! I have virtually all of his recordings, and only wish he had recorded more extensively, and given us more Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert ... I've read that his playing repertoire was actually far more diverse and encompassing than his concertizing. Would love to hear from you on that! All best wishes!
So many performances of this piece are ruined because they play it far too fast to the point where it's a muddy blur of pitches. I like the fact that this performance and that of Richter’s for example give the sonorities time to develop and resonate.
Gilels was a phenomenal pianist who had the fortune (good? bad?) of debuting in the US before Richter, who was equally phenomenal. It could have easily been the other way around, but the Soviet Union had no compunction about throwing two talents of this magnitude at the West in relatively short intervals. Richter remains a legend, but Gilels left a profound legacy, whose Rachmaninov is arguably superior to Richter’s in its breadth and phrasing.
this is so much better than lang lang and berezovsky in my opinion. his phrasing and expression just make it that much more interesting to listen to. the slight amount of rubato in the right places is such a refreshment from the other two robotic interpretations
this souds VERY difficult for him. WAY TO GO GILELS!! YOU ROCK!!! well, off to learn chopin ballade no 1, my fave, this is my second fave Chopin ballade, he plays it with finese! he has it made, he should try the ballade.
i think i have heard better interpretations of the piece (or at least one's that i prefer...gavrilov, richter, etc.), but i've never heard anybody with gilel's tone - so powerful and clear. i bet even the ushers outside of the recital hall could feel it.
Does anyone know where I could find an mp3 of this performance? I'm using this piece for my college audition and I need something I can compare myself too... This is the best interpretation I've heard.
lol at bang bang haha. Actually the question is whether excessive 'banging', or as you so put it, really contributes to the piece. I felt he might have been a bit heavy handed here; along with the excessive pedal it was really magnified to a large extent. But overall, it was a bang-good job. No pun intended XD
In this video he looks like michelangeli, but if you watch the video of the prelude op 3 n.2 of the same concert you can see him well and he's not michelangeli.
@busylifemeto yeah, you are right, age has nothing to do with and you are right about the clown thing. I think he tries too hard to be something he is not. But if you did read my comment carefully you'd see i was saying the same thing pretty much just in a different way. My mother used to be a concert pianist, did 2 years of master classes with P. Serebryakov, was very professional and Gilels once commented on how well she played Patetique, but it stops there. She never had the divine touch.
+Paul Turner I wonder what he was thinking... Probably something like "What a mess! I could never live with myself if I played like this in public. What's even more distressing is that the people seem to love it... "
+Paul Mayer No, really? You're kidding, right? I'd say that Arturo was more likely thinking: Well, I must be satisfied with having practised a lot to make my big hands produce a clean sound and a control of tone that people seem to like. I won't think too much about being like this Gilels: a pianist of a wholly different order, gifted with a palette of oils to my generous watercolours - who played as a youth with a power and freedom that my controlled Lipatti-like cleanliness cannot match. Bravo!
Paul Turner I'm totally kidding! I'm not sure who Michelangeli admired or what he thought his contemporaries. I was just thinking of what a puzzlement this performance might present to someone who took such pains to make sure his work was perfect. I love Gilels (that tone!!) but this performance is not perfect, especially by Michelangeli's crazy humanoid standards. Seriously, if the man ever played a wrong note or over-pedaled, I have yet to hear it. He's a freak.
What always infuriated me - the coldness and indifference of Moscow music buffs. Every time I was lucky to be on Gilels’ life performance in Moscow concert hall, I obviously could feel that “brush off” given to him by Moscovites. They couldn’t swallow, that a Jew from Odessa became equal to Richter, or even better in some cases, and who presided over the Jury at Tchaikovsky competitions. The endless, nauseating arguments in concert halls and the Conservatory over Gilels’ inferiority to Richter! Unfortunately this bias can be clearly seen on all RUclips Gilels’ records.
@Bret6464 Ah ha someone who knows music. Personally I prefer Richter, not sure if the auditorium dynamics but seems like his foot is glued to the sustain pedal lol. Angree with you though
Rachmaninoff wrote some breathtaking music. The shear overwhelmingly graceful power of this prelude is mind-boggling. I can play the Bb arpeggio btw... lol I am thinking I am a good 2 years away from taking this piece seriously and actually being able to learn it. Who knows, maybe less, I practice 2-4 hours a day. Only been playing for a year though. That said... Is fun to play the Bb arpeggio lol. Yay Bb arpeggio!
Kissin's youtube video version is better in than this youtube video; particularly since he performs it after performing the "full" third concerto; Gilels is fantastic, though.
This prelude, even though played on piano, has all the shade, colour and texture of an orchestral work. Incredible.
A Great Monumental Building Work.!!
I like how they have a spare piano at the side of the stage in case Gilels breaks the first one ;)
you make me laugh ,friend.
hugs from Barcelona!
Great comment, great.
Oh...that's NO Joke,but Reality!!!!!!! This said by a former anonymous maintenance man.
And augience on the scene - in case the hall will become empty?
I read some time ago that for concerts given by Franz Liszt always one, usually 2 spare pianos were kept ready, because he broke them so often with his play.
Toughest Rach prelude at the end of his concert, I presume. No other pianist for sound like Gilels,My favorite pianist all time. Cortot and Horowitz get silver and bronze. Thx Vadim!
Рахманинов и Гилельс! Блестяще! Грандиозно! Спасибо!
"Rachmaninov and Gilels! Brilliantly! Grandiose! Thank you!"
Wow. Brilliantly played Gilels! This is why he is one of my favorite pianists of all-time
Гениальное исполнение. Очень мощно, глубоко! Просто великолепно!
grandissima tecnica di un grande interprete. al limite della perfezione
In this music of Rach, Gilels is peerless!!! The golden tone is absolutely stupendous! We miss this titan of the keyboard, so many thanks for the post, KlassikFan. sd goh (malaysia)
He demonstrated clearly at the end of the video how to produce the greatest volume in a very relaxed way. Bravo
Damn, I can immediately feel the power and energy just right at the beginning of this performance! Awesome! Gilels!
I think Gilels would say - 'that was pretty good but not my best.' For the rest of us, Gilels' pretty good is just fine. The melody in the 'b' section has a lot of poetry - so many fellows do not let it speak but get too involved in the 16ths.
I LOVE these famous Rachmaninoff ' s pieces played by GILELS..:-)
Always so PASSIONATE..:-)
You don't simply listen,BUT are TAKEN..SWEPT AWAY !
Thanks for posting !
I listened to that Lang Lang guy. I'm still nauseus.
Gilels or nothing! This guy is amazing. Listening to him feels almost like a religious experience, and though that phrase is overused, I don't know how else to describe it.
Gilels is in the house... this is an orchestral sound for the piano and Giles commands that piano like no-one else... at 2:58 it gets spine chillingly sublime and then ends in an almighty firework display of virtuosity... thank you for bringing Gilels to the Tube :) p.s. I think the piano was booked in for a 2 week break in the Seychelles afterwards (!)
Unbelievable! In the top 3 known performances of this piece.
Whenever I listen to Lang Lang first, I still always find the great performers better.
Because Lang Lang is just disgusting
To me Richter made better!
@@SeigneurReefShark I am totally agree!!! Rs.
So colourful and shaded even in ff. Incredible phenomenal power by Gilels!
A great artist, totally identified with every note.Gilels Rachmaninoff is 2nd to no one.
+Angel Chiriboga After Rachmaninoff heard Gilels play, he sent him a bronze plaque with Anton Rubinsteins profile engraved on it.He also mailed to Gilels a diploma that he (Rachmaninoff) had received as a successor to Anton Rubinstein.Rachmaninoff added Gilels name to the diploma and then sent it to him.
Could'nt expect any better from Gilels, Best version I have heard on RUclips!
A wonderful performance of this piece. So much better than both Berezovky's and Kissin's version on youtube. Gilels plays this espansively, with majesty and expressiveness, whereas both of the other two play it as a crass, mechanical, prestissimo technical exercise.
Мощное, гениальное исполнение гениальной Музыки!! Здесь истинное явление подлинного духа Рахманинова!! Выпукло, образно!! Выражение эмоционального подъёма через образ природного явления! Я вижу ,как ранней весной ,на реке ломается лёд и мощное течение вод сталкивает с шумом льдины! В пассажах слышно журчание водяных струй, освобождённых от ледяного плена. Грандиозное звучание полностью передаёт атмосферу описанного звуками явления!!!
what a f*cking rock star
Emil is the best....Simply THE BEST.
Eh, Sokolov!
Simplemente Supremo. Yo diría, absolutamente insuperable!!!!!!!!
Wonderful version,powerful,regal,real Maestoso time.
Gilels在此曲表達上是極為"宏觀"的！
氣勢猶如開天闢地，
且不馬虎地抓出弦律線！
是為粗中有細的高超演出。
效果驚人~
The bass is just out of this world. So loud and large
I really like this piece.
Among some of the best of Rachmaninoff.
Эмиль открыл мне Рахманинова!. Сколько переслушала исполнителей так и не понимала Рахманинова. Вот как так, нужна связка двоих, а иначе время на ветер.
Qué maravillosa manera de tocar. Muy enérgico. Es excelente. Tengo que reconocer que no lo conocía.
Magnificent!!!
@mattcabideinchrist totally. I was shocked to see that someone can actually dislike Gilels. There are lots of talented musicians, lots of those who won this, that and the other and still play with no taste, but Gilels, well, he was a genius in true sense.
Ejecutada la obra con un sentido comprensivo, debo decir que atrapó mis sentidos y desató mis sentimientos. Magnífica ejecución. Bravo!
Truly Maestoso and full of power and not Allegro like many pianists play it.
ГЕНІАЛЬНО!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if I had to choose a good piano player I would choose him. he's the best one i've ever seen in my live ;)
the piano's tone was solid and nice
This is superb
I couldn't agree more!!
i will have to check that out. ty phemt.
Come si fa a farlo...grandissimo Gilels, ottima tecnica.
Rachmaninoff was *obsessed* with bells; you'll hear them in many of his compositions.
perfection
JUST AWESOME
3:10 The man in the front row to the right of the audience seats looks similar to the arturo benedetti micelangelli.
I think you are right ... well spotted! Were you able to confirm this possibility?
There is a video on RUclips of a a female pianist (I forget which one) playing a broken piano as they roll it to the elevator, continues playing it down and comes back up playing the replacement. It's awesome.
@Mazzel Tov Thanks for confirming. I read recently that Michelangeli placed 7th in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 1937, coming behind the likes of Gilels and Moura Lympany. Perhaps a friendship of sorts developed then and was deepened later whenever the two met on concert tours. In his fascinating book, "Notes of a Moscow Pianist", Dmitry Paperno reports that the Russian players in attendance were spellbound by Michelangeli's 1955 concert in Warsaw, where he was also serving as juror of the Chopin Competition. AMB picked the young Vladimir Ashkenazy for the prize.
@Mazzel Tov Wow, that's an impressive connection! I have virtually all of his recordings, and only wish he had recorded more extensively, and given us more Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert ... I've read that his playing repertoire was actually far more diverse and encompassing than his concertizing. Would love to hear from you on that! All best wishes!
@Mazzel Tov mind sharing with us Michelangeli’s “practicing procedures”, please?
Amazing. I hope i will be able to perform this one day.
Here's a fun fact for everyone. The background noise at the beginning is a B!
신이다 신
Compositor, peça e intérprete...de um outro mundo.
Bravissimo!
Bravo!
wow!
Omg best classic piano player ever!
200% spot on :)
Stupendous!!!!!
@ElAurian its all very difficult and perfectly played!
So many performances of this piece are ruined because they play it far too fast to the point where it's a muddy blur of pitches. I like the fact that this performance and that of Richter’s for example give the sonorities time to develop and resonate.
Gilels was a phenomenal pianist who had the fortune (good? bad?) of debuting in the US before Richter, who was equally phenomenal. It could have easily been the other way around, but the Soviet Union had no compunction about throwing two talents of this magnitude at the West in relatively short intervals. Richter remains a legend, but Gilels left a profound legacy, whose Rachmaninov is arguably superior to Richter’s in its breadth and phrasing.
BRAVO!!!!!!!! one of my favorite ;))))) Rachmaninoff was genius.
Апогей свободной души.
Выдающееся работа руками.
@ElAurian Listen to Richters playing from 2:40 of this, AMAZING
wunderschön!!!!!
Well, each one has each one's own beliefs.
Sure persistance and work is needed, and much, but he's like a 'chosen one'm he's iluminated.
3:28, Gilel was like saying: ''Thank~~YOU!".
this is so much better than lang lang and berezovsky in my opinion. his phrasing and expression just make it that much more interesting to listen to. the slight amount of rubato in the right places is such a refreshment from the other two robotic interpretations
Gilels is the Bomb.
He is just too damn good lol.
True- the prelude is in B flat.. and the noise is a semitone higher so..
this souds VERY difficult for him. WAY TO GO GILELS!! YOU ROCK!!! well, off to learn chopin ballade no 1, my fave, this is my second fave Chopin ballade, he plays it with finese! he has it made, he should try the ballade.
i think i have heard better interpretations of the piece (or at least one's that i prefer...gavrilov, richter, etc.), but i've never heard anybody with gilel's tone - so powerful and clear. i bet even the ushers outside of the recital hall could feel it.
Hij had hiermee zijn recital moeten beëindigen, i.p.v. met opus 23 nr. 5.
Seven people were in such ecstasy they missed the like button - understandable but unforgivable.
❤️🕊️
This is so f*cking epic
Does anyone know where I could find an mp3 of this performance? I'm using this piece for my college audition and I need something I can compare myself too... This is the best interpretation I've heard.
go gilels!
There is a young pianist that plays this piece on a great style.. Francisco Fierro.
You can see him on youtube.
that boy snapped
3:07 is that michelangeli in the front row?
You don't want to play this prelude too fast; we are supposed to hear bells, and they never ring very fast.
lol at bang bang haha.
Actually the question is whether excessive 'banging', or as you so put it, really contributes to the piece. I felt he might have been a bit heavy handed here; along with the excessive pedal it was really magnified to a large extent.
But overall, it was a bang-good job. No pun intended XD
What is year of the performance?
The russian piano schools are the best on the planet.
Elephants also originate from Russia
Is that vladislav the poker in the first row?
I think this interpretation is...ok. But I really like at 1:37-1:39 in the left hand what he brings out. those 2 notes.
7 people forgot to turn the sound on
Yep
In this video he looks like michelangeli, but if you watch the video of the prelude op 3 n.2 of the same concert you can see him well and he's not michelangeli.
@busylifemeto yeah, you are right, age has nothing to do with and you are right about the clown thing. I think he tries too hard to be something he is not. But if you did read my comment carefully you'd see i was saying the same thing pretty much just in a different way. My mother used to be a concert pianist, did 2 years of master classes with P. Serebryakov, was very professional and Gilels once commented on how well she played Patetique, but it stops there. She never had the divine touch.
indeed, this is a bit heavy..
but, u should check out: Op. 23 No. 5:-)
is very great, sounds complicated, but is not so heavy:)
Agree with earlier comment. Towards the end of the piece, an audience member comes into view who surely Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli!
+Paul Turner I wonder what he was thinking... Probably something like "What a mess! I could never live with myself if I played like this in public. What's even more distressing is that the people seem to love it... "
+Paul Mayer No, really? You're kidding, right? I'd say that Arturo was more likely thinking: Well, I must be satisfied with having practised a lot to make my big hands produce a clean sound and a control of tone that people seem to like. I won't think too much about being like this Gilels: a pianist of a wholly different order, gifted with a palette of oils to my generous watercolours - who played as a youth with a power and freedom that my controlled Lipatti-like cleanliness cannot match. Bravo!
Paul Turner
I'm totally kidding! I'm not sure who Michelangeli admired or what he thought his contemporaries. I was just thinking of what a puzzlement this performance might present to someone who took such pains to make sure his work was perfect. I love Gilels (that tone!!) but this performance is not perfect, especially by Michelangeli's crazy humanoid standards.
Seriously, if the man ever played a wrong note or over-pedaled, I have yet to hear it. He's a freak.
What always infuriated me - the coldness and indifference of Moscow music buffs. Every time I was lucky to be on Gilels’ life performance in Moscow concert hall, I obviously could feel that “brush off” given to him by Moscovites. They couldn’t swallow, that a Jew from Odessa became equal to Richter, or even better in some cases, and who presided over the Jury at Tchaikovsky competitions. The endless, nauseating arguments in concert halls and the Conservatory over Gilels’ inferiority to Richter! Unfortunately this bias can be clearly seen on all RUclips Gilels’ records.
@Bret6464 Ah ha someone who knows music. Personally I prefer Richter, not sure if the auditorium dynamics but seems like his foot is glued to the sustain pedal lol. Angree with you though
i think i can see arturo benedeti michelangeli in the crowd!!!....notice the head near the chair....
holy shit. i think it is. i don't think i could play "mary has a little lamb" with him sitting there, lol.
stretto part 2:50 is very difficult and perfectly played.
Why no standing ovation????
Gilels was a genius, revered by Richter...
Rachmaninoff wrote some breathtaking music. The shear overwhelmingly graceful power of this prelude is mind-boggling.
I can play the Bb arpeggio btw... lol I am thinking I am a good 2 years away from taking this piece seriously and actually being able to learn it. Who knows, maybe less, I practice 2-4 hours a day. Only been playing for a year though.
That said... Is fun to play the Bb arpeggio lol.
Yay Bb arpeggio!
Kissin's youtube video version is better in than this youtube video; particularly since he performs it after performing the "full" third concerto; Gilels is fantastic, though.
who tells me which year it is?