Josef Hofmann plays Beethoven's "Waldstein" Sonata (complete)
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) plays Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.21, Op. 53, "Waldstein".
I. Allegro con brio 0:00
II. Introduzione: Adagio molto (attacca) 10:05
III. Rondo. Allegretto moderato - Prestissimo 13:03
Live recording, 1938
Warning: not for purists! There are several "distortions" in the recording -- and I mean not only in the sound (fluctuations in volume) but also in the interpretation...but I prefer to call them the idiosyncrasies of a Master... 
Видеоклипы
"Whether one likes or dislikes Hofmann's style, it can never be denied that he was one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians to have ever graced this earth."
(Jonathan Summers)
Hofmann could do anything he felt like doing at the keyboard. He had no limitations when it came to technical facility. If, as many have said, "The only sin is to be boring," then Hofmann must be regarded as sinless. He might offend your sense of dignity, he might shock, wound or appall you, but -- unless you were an absolute clod -- it would have been impossible for him to bore you. Since we have no real idea of what Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms' own playing was really like, and can only guess, it might be entirely possible for Hofmann's reckless, irreverent approach to Beethoven to be much closer to the composer's performing style than some highly-respected Perfectly Proper Prig of the Piano like the late Alfred Brendel. Alas! We'll never know for sure, but from what-we-know of the tempestuous nature of Beethoven, himself, and the look of his manuscripts I imagine Hofmann's wild, reckless, unrestrained, often erratic approach to performance may be closer to ideal than most of us would dare to imagine,
WOW! I couldn't have said it any better myself. Thanks.
That's because you are most probably the same person as "Trevor", aren't you?
"the late Alfred Brendel"??? Alfred Brendel is very much alive! :P
Yeah. No one could deny that. He could almost make you believe in the old-fashioned idea of 'genius' as something divinely inspired ... like he was pushed into the world to BE a pianist.
In 1960 while I was an 18-year-old university student in Wellington, New Zealand, my husband-and-wife hosts billeted a past student of Hofmann for two weeks in their home. They were personal friends of his from their years in New York. The ex-student was Shura Cherkassky and I was his personal valet for his entire visit. He was on a concert tour of Australasia and the "Waldstein" was on his recital programme. I well remember him practising it every morning very carefully on a superb Bosendorfer in my hosts' house. With me he was very free with his relating of relevant and well-remembered details of Hofmann teaching him this sonata, especially the use of the weight of the shoulder, arm and hand for the ever-changing dynamics in the work. Like everything else Cherkassky practised, he took at considerably less than half the tempo that he played it in his performances. I wished to Heaven I was a pianist, but I was a violinist. Such is life. But Mr Cherkassky's generous and patient advice to me then concerning practising has rung in my ears and heart ever since.
More details about his advice, please
"21:53" - what a perfect timing for a performance of the Waldstein! :-D
emilgilels lmao, I'm now convinced this is the sole reason why Hofmann played so fast.
V funny!
Yeaaaa
@@ChopinPianos-pf1my i know him, he's a decent player especially at the harpsichord, but he's a total nutjob and his historical tempo hypothesis is just verifiably nonsens
@@ChopinPianos-pf1my I call them "half tempo sect", ridiculous, and most weird is that a lot of people amazed of that, and like that, or he just ban "negative" comments. Of course people in the 19th century wrote that much crap etudes to reach that half tempo goal... sounds legit.
I have the LP set of this recital at the Curtis Institute and am as bowled over by it now as I was then when I first heard it! Bravo pianopera for putting it up here on RUclips! He was one of the all time greatest!
Thank you for sharing this. I smiled all the way through the first movement. We are so used to hearing pretty much the same interpretation repeated endlessly that it is refreshing to hear something so completely different. There is a lot to be said for only listening to live (or recorded live) performances. What you lose in absolute perfection you gain in excitement.
One of Hofmann's most reviled performances. The fact that it is also loved by so many underlines the fact that a true, creative musician will inevitably reach those for whom his message is intended.
Well said. I totally disagree with many details in this interpretation (for example the tempo of the Rondo in the beginning) but I listen to it again and again, because Hofmann's message is so strikingly original and fresh.
@@pianopera It is important, I think, to appreciate that Hofmann was anal in his pursuit of the precise intentions of the composer. Hofmann was also extremely knowledgeable about the characteristics of the pianos Beethoven used. They were quite different from those of today. It is possible to adapt Beethoven compositions slightly to sound better on the modern piano, but that was not Hofmann's way. He knew what Beethoven intended the piece to sound like, and allowed himself no liberties.
The most remarkable "Waldstein" performance by anyone, a performance in which Beethoven would have been delighted, I'm sure. Thank you for posting it in its entirety.
I would give anything to hear Hofmann play Chopsticks. Needless to say his Beethoven is his very own, but it's still Beethoven and I find his dynamics wonderful - the dull-as-dishwater pianists one hears today could learn a few things from listening to Hofmann.
The greatness of Hoffman's performance is that it demands you sit up, open your ears and be in awe of Beethoven's creative genius. I will take this performance over a thousand run of the mill note players. .
Exactly right. Thank you.
Hoffman? Who's that?
Dustin Hoffman, a Hollywood actor. Didn't know he was also a pianist and Beethovenian. The things you learn on RUclips!
Thanks for clarifying! :-)
:-)
A miracle of creative power!
Thanks pianopera - this is a wonderful upload!
Beautiful! Thanks for posting!
Certainly not a polite, decorous, reverent, slavishly literalistic reading of the score with all the traditional, academically-approved nuances neatly in place, but a great marvel of unique insight and pianistic genius run amok to fascinating compelling effect all the same. It would be foolish and frankly SUICIDAL for any other pianist to emulate the idiosyncratic approach and frankly bizarre tempo changes and, often BRUTAL mannerisms in Hofmann's performance. As Cécile Genhart often said to her students, "If two do the same, it is NOT the same," BUT what we should try to learn from Hofmann would be to listen to the MUSIC, and let IT speak directly to us, and thus free ourselves from the prison of a "correct," "academically-approved," purely literal realization of the score. If our imagination, heartfelt longings, and emotional response to the music are not present, our performances are bound to be STERILE, TEDIOUS EXERCISES in being GOOD, OBEDIENT STUDENTS. We could never claim to be ARTISTS till we are sure enough of our technique and individual vision to free ourselves from the constraints of mere obedience to the score and to our instructors. ENJOY this, but please don't try to IMITATE it.
Remarkably astute analysis, and excellent advice for us lesser mortals. This kind of playing cannot possibly be TAUGHT, nor should it be. Even so, imagination and inventiveness should always be GUIDED but NEVER STIFLED in gifted pupils. The finest teachers know this, and never strive to make their students carbon copies of either the teacher, himself, or each other. Without individuality performance is merely academic and essentially dead.
Trevor Armbuster well said. You should read Busoni on Academia which was a nascent threat to artistic creativity at the time!
Excellent comment! Thank you!
Re: those who disparage Hofmann's recordings, when we as youngsters complained about something such as a performance my father would simply say, "Top it!"
Thanks to modern technology we have the gift of listening to the highly musical interpretation by Alfred Brendel, the highly spirited interpretation by Hoffman, and everything in between. Both performances have their merits and one can only guess which one is closest to the composer's intent. We are the winners by having the choice.
I agree with you 100%. We are not always conscious of the enormous gift we have today being able to listen at will a dozen interpretations of this composition. Before recorded music people may hear this music a few times in their lives. I love Hofmann's interpretation and I love Brendel's as well. And half a dozen more.
I am almost sure that Hofmann is extremely close to the composer's intentions. However, Beethoven was not composing for a 20th or 21st century piano. Departing somewhat from Beethoven's original probably results in a result better adapted to the modern piano. Both approaches have merit.
H. was an amazing ,titanic pianist like Rachmaninoff with a great outsized personality and the kind of control few ever recorded had or have .Hofmann 's op.57 makes a lot more sense than his moonlight Sonata . There is film of him as a young man in 1910 playing on youtube .Please see it and Lhevinne complete radio broadcast in Tchaikovsky concerto are also on youtube ! Why don't we have at least one radio broadcast or recital take from Rach's many college recitals and elsewhere ?
Unbelievable....bravo!!!
Stunning
best stretta I've heard so far.
Hi Samba ! I've always been prefering fast stretta to slow ones, and I found Horowitz one particularly delightful, but I changed my mind when I heard Cyril Huvé version on a fortepiano. His stretta is slow and leads to a wonderful conclusion and achievement. Moreover it leads to what i call the most wonderful pedal ever, on the bass line. Listen to it and tell me.
Alex from France
Everything seems bluntly devoted to the musical direction... :)
Polemic and fascinating ! Thanks...
15:40 section. Whoa! Like an angry tyrade in counterpoint -- unexpected! Wonderful conception of the structure in this movement.
Ein wunderbares Stelldichein der Stimmen auf beide Hände verteilt und was für eine Stimmführung im ersten Satz. SO hab ich das noch nie gehört, auch nicht von Kempff. Und der 'beethovensche' Zugriff, trotzdem. Er gleitet nicht in die Schubertiade des LvB ab, Gott sei Dank. Von der Klaviertechnik ganz zu schweigen, das manchmal Pointillistische stört mich überhaupt nicht, weil er es nicht dabei belässt. Meisterhafter Józef Hofmann!
On the highest level. Certainly not for the conservatory crowd.
Based
I like this very much. Whether or not I agree with every little thing he may have done (and I don't), I still, in general, love his playing. I've always considered him to be the greatest pianist I've ever heard. That doesn't that he's my favorite pianist. But, then, we do know who is, don't we? :-))
That would be Dame Myra, wouldn't it? :-)
Have you heard Hofmann live?? You were so fortunate...
No, Erwin, unfortunately I never heard Hofmann live. I think I was about 10 years old when he retired, and I hadn't even heard of him at the time. I did hear Dame Myra live, but only once. She played the Emperor, and I've never forgotten it. I even remember that she had the score in front of her. At least my long-term memory still works pretty good. ☺
Amazing! That must have been about 60 years ago now? I heard a very satisfying 1957 recording of Hess playing the Emperor together with Sargent and the BBC SO. I think she is my favourite female pianist, too! I never get bored of her Brahms...
"Oh no, he's playing too fast! Slow down! You must be reverent with Beethoven, how can you communicate anything deeply about the piece through this whirlwind!"
Many pianists forget the fact that Beethoven himself was a whirlwind of a personality, and that he often wanted his works to be played very fast, something which is ignored by almost everyone. This is likely how Beethoven himself would have played it, or what he had in mind when he composed it.
Don't forget the fastest Beethoven player-Artur Schnabel. He can't keep up with his own tempos especially on the Hammerklavier sonata. Listen to his Waldstein. I think Hoffman's can be heard more often.
I think so too. Well, differently, but the point is that it would not have been a lugubriously correct modern performance, but one infused with his own personality -- contemporary descriptions of Beethoven's playing imply as much.
grazie
This is a magnificent rendering. The only other pianist I am aware of who takes this tempo (the correct one, I believe) and achieves this level of articulation and clarity is Dubrovka Tomsic.
More colorful beautiful piano sound than Hofmann=Wihelm Kempff Emil Gilels Radu Lupu Artur Rubinstein Vladimir Ashkenazy! More genius than Hofmann=Sviatoslav Richter Solomon Cutner Grigory Sokolov Maurizio Pollini! More powerful louder than Hofmann=Mikhail Pletnev( Prokofiev piano concerto no 1 by Pletnev!) The second loudest was Lazar Berman! The 3rd loudest was Erwin Nyiregyhazi! Horowitz had better technique than Hofmann! Hofmann not the best genius!
Hofmann had not the best piano sound! Hofmann not the most powerful! Hofmann had not the best technique!!
@@RaineriHakkarainen No one is talking about sound or technique…I’m talking about tempo and interpretation. Learn to appreciate what can be appreciated.
El único que podría comentar con autoridad esta maravilla de interpretacion es Beethoven........
He is prodigious, he is, in his own willful way, in HIS sense kinda perfect - and he's just a little too much for my nervous system these days. I mean, not that I don't get the mastery of imagination and mechanism, but the unending combustion just becomes too much. The landscape is actually reduced by his unwillingness to ever inject a sense of (true) repose, of relaxed impulse, of the still point between breaths. He never conveys a certain existential satisfaction that many musicians seek to reach, and do.
Well, he's not built that way, I guess.
He is an absolute reference point. He shows us how much current notions of correct performance impose curtains on the imagination. And you wouldn't want to be without him.
But all in good measure. Like certain spices, he's just too strong.
Horowitz may have found the perfect balance for your taste I guess.
@@qzrnuiqntp The greatest concert of my life was a Horowitz concert, in 1977, if memory serves. And I would say yes, Horowitz, if only for the sake of extension, expands even self-indulgently to the horizon, something Hofmann would never do.
I have a memory, with no reference, of hearing that Horowitz had immense respect for Hofmann, but only for his pianistic side; for the essential musician that was Hofmann, he had, I understand, less respect.
I never hear a human heart singing in Hofmann. I hear a wondrous mechanism, which brings delight. And I would not be without that delight. But it is sensual and cognitive. There's another element, something that must be supple, that can only be savaged by excessive control, whose absence can only leave a performance wanting in some truly essential way. I am avoiding speaking of the heart, because, until I do, you would never guess I am a lizard person. Haha! Joke.
No. A codger with reeeeal smooth skin.
As for Hofmann, he was a fine musician, but some small part of him must have thought that circus acrobatics, pace Tagore, was the greatest art.
Brimming with personality and character not to mention effortless technical mastery, BUT is it Beethoven?!
Not wild enough for Beethoven.
Fiz um comentario para a pessoa errada.
A mesma era direcionada ao Vinheteiro.Desculpem-me.
Utterly fascinating. A treasure chest of diamonds and dross, all heaped together. What a weird mixture of wild banging and wonderful delicacy! Obviously, no regard is paid to Beethoven's dynamics, and there are almost as many tempi as there are phrases. In many places, he completely dissolves familiar technical issues - glissando octaves, no problem - but in others bludgeons his way through corners where no more than elementary care was needed. There are pages where he cuts to the heart of the music, but others where there isn't much music to be heard. There are few actual wrong notes, but lots of extra ones, where he has added interesting harmonies (and occasionally counterpoints) that Beethoven didn't write. The one technical disaster comes with two notorious bars in the prestissimo coda where Beethoven writes a double trill between two outer voices, and there don't really seem to be any trills going on at all.
Pan Hofmann był geniuszem. Rachmaninow powiedział, że nie było lepszego przy fortepianie. Amen 🙂
Very absorbing - but listen to, say, Horowitz to hear a performance that is exciting without resorting to the arbitrary distortions on display here. How Hofmann loves to bang with the left hand, regardless of the composer! A great virtuoso, regardless.
Mark Cogley he likes the bass lol
This sounds like Beethoven himself playing.
Hofmann could do anything he felt like doing at the keyboard. He had no limitations when it came to technical facility. If, as many have said, "The only sin is to be boring," then Hofmann must be regarded as sinless. He might offend your sense of dignity, he might shock, wound or appall you, but -- unless you were an absolute clod -- it would have been impossible for him to bore you. Since we have no real idea of what Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms' own playing was really like, and can only guess, it might be entirely possible for Hofmann's reckless, irreverent approach to Beethoven to be much closer to the composer's performing style than some highly-respected Perfectly Proper Prig of the Piano like the late Alfred Brendel. Alas! We'll never know for sure, but from what-we-know of the tempestuous nature of Beethoven, himself, and the look of his manuscripts I imagine Hofmann's wild, reckless, unrestrained, often erratic approach to performance may be closer to ideal than most of us would dare to imagine,
There's a contemporary account of how Beethoven played a phrase -- forget the specifics, unfortunately -- and no modern performer would have played with that degree of license!
What makes you think Alfred Brendel has passed?
@@WBensburg I think he meant later Brendel, as opposed to earlier Brendel.
Brilliant! In a nutshell!
You are so right, wonderfully written.
Gostaria que voce tocasse meu Estudos de Tercas.
Compus a peca 3 meses atras.Esta no youtube.
Essa e DIFICIL.
Parabens pelos seus videos, principalmente
a Rapsodia Hungara no.2 de Liszt.
It’s so amusing, an unnamed “giant” of classical pianists (1903-1991) who despised Hofmann said, “I don’t know what to do with him...”. What arrogance. Hofmann was vastly superior to this pompous man. Amazing playing. Hofmann and Rachmaninoff are the two greatest pianists of the 20th century
You mean Claudio Arrau.
Matt M
Perhaps it is permissible to allow latitude for personal taste. Did the 'pompous' fellow actually claim to be the superior pianist, or did he disagree with many of Hofmann's interpretive choices? Personally I don't enjoy Hoffmann's playing very much, it seems arbitrary at times, but the fact of his astonishing craftsmanship remains. There are quite a few pianists like that today. God-given talents and circumstances of upbringing usher them into public prominence. Their remarkable achievements are not theirs alone. No one is an island unto himself or herself.
In the end, what does it matter? Every person, regardless how 'great' in this world, is rendered powerless by physical death. As the Bible says, it is appointed for men to die, then judgment. We are ALL sinners; therefore we cannot weather the judgment unless we have an Advocate, a Mediator. CHRIST is that Mediator. 'How blessed in the one who takes refuge in Him.'
A wise person will think of these things before it is too late.
(Psalm 49:18-19)
'Though while he lives he congratulates himself, and though men praise you when you do well for yourself, he shall go to the generation of his fathers; they will never see the light Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.'
Sang Joon Park Yes. And I like Arrau’s playing very much. I was just surprised by his complete dismissal of another great pianist
Jesus is Lord & Savior Very good points. Thanks for the comment
@@mattm9042 Arrau had a strange reputation for pre-eminence, for being a "great" pianist, which he didn't seem to me to merit. I heard him many times over the last 30 years of his life. The experience was almost always very dull, although as he became physically more frail he played with more freedom, and more interestingly. I can entirely understand how irked he would have been by a musician so apparently irresponsible as Hofmann. Possibly, too, he felt that his heritage as a grand-pupil of Liszt (and so only at four removes from Beethoven) gave him the right to look down at Hofmann, as merely the pupil of Anton Rubinstein. Culturally, Arrau was Prussian, rather than Russian, and obviously snobbish about it.
This is a curiosity, not a performance to be taken seriously. He seems to have no coherent view of of any of the three movements, but plays whatever he wants, at whatever tempo he wants on a moment by moment basis. Listen to the opening minutes of the last movement, for example. Sure, there are exciting moments,, but, overall, the seemingly random tempo and dynamic changes leave me musically seasick.
Duly noted sailor ! I will inform the Captain
some balance issues.
Such great artistry compared to lot of the flash in pan drizzle of today
Poor Beethoven is nowhere to found in this willful eccentric performance.
"Little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
You think Beethoven himself wasn't eccentric?
He knew beethoven far better than you ever will
Such is the power of reputation that, were it not known that Hofmann had done this, I doubt that we would see so many admiring comments below. There is only ONE superhero in history: JESUS CHRIST. It was said of Him that He did all things well.
And did JC play the piano well? I guess you learn something new every day.
@@dorfmanjones
Yes, DJ, some do learn as time goes on. Others, who consider themselves wise already, are resistant to learning. Try not to belong to the latter category. Here are a couple of precepts which may seem novel to you. Thematically they are quite similar:
(Proverbs 17:28) '
'Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is prudent.'
(Proverbs 26:12)
'Do you see am an wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.'
Virtuoso pianism, like all the other adornments of so-called 'high culture', is of limited and temporary value. It might even become a snare and a liability for the one who possesses it, leading to vainglory and arrogance.
(Psalm 49:16-17, 20)
'Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him.'
'Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.'
I have news for you. There is no god, and JC probably never existed. It's a fairy tale.
@@RusskyVoyennyKorablIdiNakhui
That is the ultimate in FAKE NEWS. You are REALLY behind the curve, man!
SECULAR historians acknowledge that Jesus was executed in Jerusalem at the direction of the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate.
Guess what source these SECULAR historians use! THE BIBLE.
Try having a discussion with some Israeli archaeologists on the historicity of Biblical accounts, and see how far you get.
'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." '
Anyone who knows the history of the Jewish people and does not acknowledge that God had a a role in it has to be an utter FOOL. Anyone who looks at the organization of the universe from a scientific perspective and does not worship God must also be a FOOL.
Where does that place you? Yours is the ULTIMATE FAIRYTALE, the ultimate in WISHFUL THINKING.
You want to escape accountability for your wicked deeds, don't you?
I didn’t like Jesus’s Waldstein. So crucify mr….