Absolutely extraordinary. I hope this recording gets a wider release, the sound quality is of no consequence when the playing reaches these heights. A stunning interpretation, thank you to the young Seymour for recording it, and thank you for sharing it.
Mr. Bernstein, I was so moved by your crescendo story. I just watched your lesson about the hairpin - I can’t explain why but it quite moved me then when I heard about the crescendo I felt so overwhelmed, I cried...my heart is full. Thank you so much ❤
You know, I'm sad that you missed out on all those years of listening to yourself resonating with that piano and having a Gyorgy Sebok/Bach Adagio kind of experience with the second movement. We romantics suffer through these things and become ecstatic simultaneously, then lose our bodies, and Beethoven lives for a little while. Well, he did through you, I think. It's good to know someone can pay him back for all that he gave us. Thanks, Seymour. Really wonderful. :) :)
This was magnificent from beginning to end! I love your commentary about your encounter with this piece, especially your experience at measure 118. I paid close attention to how you played it in this exquisitely beautiful interpretation that you captured that day on Horowitz’s piano. You are so right about that moment. It never spoke to me as much as it did listening to your recording here. Thank you for sharing this with us! You have truly brought out a treasure from your storehouse for us to behold.
The distortion on the recording sounds beautiful. I'd go as far to say the gain was set perfectly to capture the power and beauty of this performance. Such a gem, imagining you playing in the basement alone adds to the magic. Thank god it was a tape not a digital recorder!
Dearest Seymour, I’m listening to this as I’m reading the section in your book with Andrew. And it’s absolutely sublime. I love that this is a recording of you, alone in the basement, at night, on the piano of one of the greats. Making the best music of your life. It’s a testament to the tranquility of solitude. And how just because musicians don’t give public concerts doesn’t make them any less of a genius! Be still my heart.
I’m so glad to have heard this performance everything about your discussion and playing has truly made me appreciate this work and this is a performance that I think will never be topped and I will never forget it. Thanks so much for this.
Thank you so much. Somehow sonata opus 111 of Beethoven has held a special place in my heart, but today listening to Seymour Bernstein I began to see, Why? Great Music reaches out to us not only to communicate mood, but also to engage and make cerebral connections that become the substrate of our own creative universe. Thank you so much for making this available.
This is very good for me. I love the music. My ear hears but my hands are ignorant. Like a painting collector loves but doesn't always create. You explain the mysteries of 🎹!
Dear Mr. Seymour Bernstein, after watching your videos and movies I am incredibly identified with your life story as there are so many parallels in our lives. If you would hear my story you would be surprised. Your life experience has helped me to assimilate the relationship between the events in my life. And for that I am so grateful. I hope that my life also helps to enrich the life of others as your life story has enriched mine. Hope to meet you one day in this world or in the hereafter. Thank you so much and God bless you! Mario Laskin~
With this piece, Beethoven predicted how today's modern music would sound. It's like he went to the 90s and 2000s, or maybe earlier times too, then listened to the music, then went back and wrote down what he could remember. Fabulous, and I have never heard it being played so well. Thank you kindly mr. Bernstein.
Dear Seymour, I have known you ever since that wonderful documentary on you. It's such a rejoice to see you talk in person again and listen to you play in peak form! The performance is perfect. The first movement sounds as ferocious as a tiger to me, and the second movement is just unworldly. I wish you all the best!
There are not enough words to describe how sublime this performance is. Seymour is one of those rare diamonds with a superior soul like Horowitz or Arthur Rubinstein. I am so honored to have learned so much from you. Your legacy is eternal. Josue Gonzalez
My dear Josue, your response to my Op. 111 is overwhelming. I have never received such superior comments about my playing. I am deeply grateful and humbled by what you wrote. Heartfelt thanks. Seymour
Seymour, I've always adored your recording of this piece on the "Retrospective" CDs, and it is magnificent. But this one is to die for; one can hear your joy over playing Horowitz' piano. So glad you found this recording and decided to share it.
What a magical tale and beautiful recording. I just grabbed my Schenker edition and made the correction in a footnote, attributed to you of course. Thank you for your wisdom and generosity.
This is unbelievably sublime, thank you Mr Bernstein. The second movement moved me in such intricate and nuanced ways. I can't describe what I just experienced, but to say that I was entirely unprepared for such deep and intense beauty; despite my expectation being rather high.
Hi from France Mr.Bernstein ! I just disovered your youtube account. I'm listening to your hands on the piano... Beautiful. Even your comments are written like letters from another time... So refined ! Thank you, Mr.Bernstein.
I am glad about the fact that there are endlessly many things to know about music although I have been playing the piano most of my life. The thing I feel more glad is that your videos realize me many more things than I have been taught during my school life. I deeply appreciate all of your works. Thank you.
Who would have thought a day of confluence would arrive for a compleat and masterful recording of Beethoven's Opus 111 by a master pianist on another master's Steinway to die for? Bravo! Plus, your inspired idea of the crucifixion in the sonata, also in my mind, points to the great violin solo in the soon to arrive Opus 123.
I just discovered this video and listen to the Sonata I believe for the first time. I am very moved. I never knew Beethoven wrote anything like that. That you so much. I thought I heard Scott Joplin and I know I heard Bach in there along with things I never knew could be done. What a wonderful performance.
I am humbled before the sophistication of this peace and the artful knowledge of Mr. Bernstein. Also it soothes and calms my innermost as much as it gives me a feeling of my shortcomings in the matter of pianos.
When I heard that Tovey's edition was the only one to omit the crescendo at bar 118, I went to my own copy, published by Associated Board, edited by Harold Craxton, and with commentaries and notes by Donald Francis Tovey (this appears to be the edition displayed with the recording). The crescendo is there; Tovey's notes to bars 118-121 say ' Do not force the tone, but play so as to show that you are simply giving the first cadence of the theme as in bars 5-8. Perfectly strict time is essential'. No mention of the crescendo, but a warning not to force the tone. Had Tovey's ideas changed by this edition, or did Craxton's view as editor take precedence? ( I must confess this is a sonata I have rarely tackled). I've only just discovered Mr Bernstein's fascinating series of videos, and have learnt a lot from them.
Dear Andrew, thank you for your gracious comments. Do you think pianists who play Op. 111 would even take the time to hear what I had to say about it? You are the only person who commented about the cresc. So thank you for being serious. I took the video off of RUclips because a company by the name of Entrada bought it for their program which will soon be released. Warm regard to you, Seymour
@@SeymourBernstein I must say, I was fascinated with this information, Mr. Seymour. It seems very awkward to try to do a crescendo there. There's a video on RUclips of Stephen Kovacevich giving a masterclass on Op. 111 and he says nothing about that crescendo. He's a leading Beethoven specialist, too! It seems to me that your sincere love for music is how you were able to find this truth. Can they not correct this in the urtext editions?
All good wishes to you. Dear Andrew, I consulted with the editors of Schott Sohne in Mainz, Germany where they have the manuscript. It seems that the editor's fair copy that Beethoven approved of has the cresc. Evidently Beethoven erased it after it was published. No one would even suspect this unless 1) you initially felt that something is wrong, and 2) you had access to a facsimile of the original manuscript as I have. I don't know a single person who even questions that cresc. All good wishes to you. Seymour
@@SeymourBernstein I felt a deep sense of respect for the composer's intention, and I thought I could play a certain phrase in a new way. thank you very much!
Very intresting the stories about the difficult octaves in the beginning.Never thought. Would be interesting how Beethoven played them😀 I quickly looked up about the first 5 famous pianist inthe search list and they played them all with one hand?
I'm so grateful for this recording! I have a question. It is about the second theme on the first movement. In both, the exposotion, and the reprise the meno allegro is written after the theme appears. Not with the theme. Everybody seem to ignore what or where the second theme is, and it is often played in rallentando. What do you think about it?
Lincoln Center opened in 1962, not 1969. I played the Horowitz piano the year after Horowitz died when Franz Mohr toured with it. Its action was incredibly light and the voicing extremely bright. The muscular sound Horowitz made in the bass was due to the piano; I made the same sound. What I could not do was control the dynamics and produce anything like the subtle colors Horowitz did. Its setup may not have been this extreme when Mr. Bernstein made his Op. 111 recording, though there are moments when you hear that unique bass sound in his playing. I played the Horowitz piano again in 2003. Steinway had completely changed the piano's setup. It was now a conventional Model D. They destroyed a historic instrument by so doing. I have no idea what they were thinking.
Hello Mr. Bernstein: I got the book "The Technique of Piano Playing" by József Gát from the Philadelphia library. I was wondering if you could make a video demonstrating Direct swing-stroke and Indirect swing-stoke. I teach piano and find this extremely interesting; by the way this book sells for as high as 400 dollars on Amazon. Thank you for your terrific videos and book, that I read all the time.
There are probably many unsaid (yet obvious) reasons why Beethoven himself ceased with this Sonata. Op. 109 is incredibly profound but this Sonata is the greatest of them all.
Seymour Bernstein Thank you for the solid inspiration you are giving to all of us. I recently wrote a transcription for Piano of one of my favorite Organ Fugues of J.S. Bach. The BWV 577 "Alla Giga" With its vitality, I think it would be a great joy to every pianist to incorporate it to their repertoire and I wonder if you know any publisher in the US who might be interested in it. Here you can listen to it: ruclips.net/video/E3aqGN-MddY/видео.html With the warmest greetings, David Merlin.
@@merlindavids Dear Merlindavids, I was deeply impressed not only by your transcription, but also by your brilliant playing. You must place this on RUclips for the world to enjoy. Alas, I don't know of any publisher who would publish this single piece, brilliant though it is. But I am sending it to some extraordinary pianists I know in the hope that they will want to learn it. Would you be willing to send them a copy of the ms. if they decided to program it? Bravo to you. You are formidable. Please write to me at this email address: see.less@verizon.net Seymour
Beethoven did not write this sonata. An Angel from heaven sat next to Beethoven and dictated it to him. So only an angel can correctly interpret it, and any earthly attempt is futile. But Seymour comes close.
Well, this is kind of poetic, but it also degrades Beethoven. Such genius music does not fall from heaven. Beethoven was a hard working human. Sure, with the greatest talent (which may come from haven), but this alone is not enough.
Any video you appear in discussing music have become my guilty pleasure. Thank you, thank you. You are a true national treasure.
There's no guilt in it!
I love you Seymour - what a beautiful musical life you are living - I’m encouraged and inspired by your work and presence!
Absolutely extraordinary. I hope this recording gets a wider release, the sound quality is of no consequence when the playing reaches these heights. A stunning interpretation, thank you to the young Seymour for recording it, and thank you for sharing it.
You offer a rare and legendary insight into music… Please post more discussing pieces like this - it’s a treasure.
Mr. Bernstein, I was so moved by your crescendo story. I just watched your lesson about the hairpin - I can’t explain why but it quite moved me then when I heard about the crescendo I felt so overwhelmed, I cried...my heart is full. Thank you so much ❤
Always valuable, sensitive, and insightful! (Love the interspersed memoirs) And what an amazing Op. 111 performance! Riveting!
SHirlet, endless thanks for your support and encouragment.
Seymour
You know, I'm sad that you missed out on all those years of listening to yourself resonating with that piano and having a Gyorgy Sebok/Bach Adagio kind of experience with the second movement. We romantics suffer through these things and become ecstatic simultaneously, then lose our bodies, and Beethoven lives for a little while. Well, he did through you, I think. It's good to know someone can pay him back for all that he gave us. Thanks, Seymour. Really wonderful. :) :)
Linda, your response is overwhelming. Hearfelt thanks to you.
Seymour
This was magnificent from beginning to end! I love your commentary about your encounter with this piece, especially your experience at measure 118. I paid close attention to how you played it in this exquisitely beautiful interpretation that you captured that day on Horowitz’s piano. You are so right about that moment. It never spoke to me as much as it did listening to your recording here. Thank you for sharing this with us! You have truly brought out a treasure from your storehouse for us to behold.
Robert, I can't tell you how touched I was by your note. Thank you so much for such a supreme compliment. All good wishes to you. Seymour
Thank you so much for sharing this with the world.
The distortion on the recording sounds beautiful. I'd go as far to say the gain was set perfectly to capture the power and beauty of this performance. Such a gem, imagining you playing in the basement alone adds to the magic. Thank god it was a tape not a digital recorder!
Dearest Seymour, I’m listening to this as I’m reading the section in your book with Andrew. And it’s absolutely sublime. I love that this is a recording of you, alone in the basement, at night, on the piano of one of the greats. Making the best music of your life. It’s a testament to the tranquility of solitude. And how just because musicians don’t give public concerts doesn’t make them any less of a genius! Be still my heart.
it’s stories like this about pieces that bring them to light in more people’s eyes, it sure did to mine
I’m so glad to have heard this performance everything about your discussion and playing has truly made me appreciate this work and this is a performance that I think will never be topped and I will never forget it. Thanks so much for this.
Wonderful video and stories on the genesis of your most heavenly interpretation of this masterpiece. Thank you!
Sandro, so dear and generous of you. Thank you. Seymour
Thank you so much. Somehow sonata opus 111 of Beethoven has held a special place in my heart, but today listening to Seymour Bernstein I began to see, Why? Great Music reaches out to us not only to communicate mood, but also to engage and make cerebral connections that become the substrate of our own creative universe. Thank you so much for making this available.
This is very good for me. I love the music. My ear hears but my hands are ignorant. Like a painting collector loves but doesn't always create.
You explain the mysteries of 🎹!
Thank you Mary for your generous response to my playing. Seymour
What a fantastic story about the piano of Horowitz! Wonderful playing, I enjoyed it so much this evening, thank you dear Seymour, you are amazing!!
Daisy, you are a treasure to me. Ever faithful and so encouraging. Heartfelt thanks.
Seymour
Daisy, you are so dear. I deeply appreciate your response. Warm wishes to you.
Seymour
@@SeymourBernstein Thank you!🌺
Dear Mr. Seymour Bernstein, after watching your videos and movies I am incredibly identified with your life story as there are so many parallels in our lives. If you would hear my story you would be surprised. Your life experience has helped me to assimilate the relationship between the events in my life. And for that I am so grateful. I hope that my life also helps to enrich the life of others as your life story has enriched mine. Hope to meet you one day in this world or in the hereafter. Thank you so much and God bless you! Mario Laskin~
With this piece, Beethoven predicted how today's modern music would sound. It's like he went to the 90s and 2000s, or maybe earlier times too, then listened to the music, then went back and wrote down what he could remember. Fabulous, and I have never heard it being played so well. Thank you kindly mr. Bernstein.
Bach? Beethoven does seem to have anticipated 'boogie-woogie' rhythm in the last movement! He was so fond of syncopation, it was almost inevitable.
Bach ???
Derp, Beethoven
Dear Seymour, I have known you ever since that wonderful documentary on you. It's such a rejoice to see you talk in person again and listen to you play in peak form! The performance is perfect. The first movement sounds as ferocious as a tiger to me, and the second movement is just unworldly. I wish you all the best!
Dear Xujia, what an overwhelming compliment for which I thank you deep;ly. Warm wishes to you.
Seymour
There are not enough words to describe how sublime this performance is. Seymour is one of those rare diamonds with a superior soul like Horowitz or Arthur Rubinstein. I am so honored to have learned so much from you. Your legacy is eternal.
Josue Gonzalez
My dear Josue, your response to my Op. 111 is overwhelming. I have never received such superior comments about my playing. I am deeply grateful and humbled by what you wrote. Heartfelt thanks.
Seymour
Wonderful performance and a joy to listen to your stories and musical thoughts. Thanks for sharing!
What an inspiration that man is, so vivid and thrilled by great music...
Seymour, I've always adored your recording of this piece on the "Retrospective" CDs, and it is magnificent. But this one is to die for; one can hear your joy over playing Horowitz' piano. So glad you found this recording and decided to share it.
Thank you dear Birgit. Seymour
What a magical tale and beautiful recording. I just grabbed my Schenker edition and made the correction in a footnote, attributed to you of course. Thank you for your wisdom and generosity.
This is unbelievably sublime, thank you Mr Bernstein. The second movement moved me in such intricate and nuanced ways. I can't describe what I just experienced, but to say that I was entirely unprepared for such deep and intense beauty; despite my expectation being rather high.
The first performance in which I actually, full heartedly loved the first movement.
Amazing performance.
RUclips played me several ads during the piece, you might consider removing ads from that part of the video if you are able!!
Hi from France Mr.Bernstein ! I just disovered your youtube account. I'm listening to your hands on the piano... Beautiful. Even your comments are written like letters from another time... So refined ! Thank you, Mr.Bernstein.
Dear Bibou, I was deeply moved by your response to my performance of Op. 111. Heartfelt thanks to you.
Seymour
I am glad about the fact that there are endlessly many things to know about music although I have been playing the piano most of my life. The thing I feel more glad is that your videos realize me many more things than I have been taught during my school life. I deeply appreciate all of your works. Thank you.
My dear Yoon Sung, this warms my heart. Deepest thanks.
Seymour
Dear Yoon Sung, it is a privilege to add to your knowledge. Thank you, and all good wishes to you.
Seymour
It comes with great happiness to be able to hear your deep and delicate performance. from Korea
Dear ㅇㅁㄹ, thank you for your beautiful response to my playing. Warm wishes to you.
Seymour
Thank you so much. You are a brilliant artist. Very inspirational.
Who would have thought a day of confluence would arrive for a compleat and masterful recording of Beethoven's Opus 111 by a master pianist on another master's Steinway to die for? Bravo! Plus, your inspired idea of the crucifixion in the sonata, also in my mind, points to the great violin solo in the soon to arrive Opus 123.
I just discovered this video and listen to the Sonata I believe for the first time. I am very moved. I never knew Beethoven wrote anything like that. That you so much. I thought I heard Scott Joplin and I know I heard Bach in there along with things I never knew could be done. What a wonderful performance.
I am humbled before the sophistication of this peace and the artful knowledge of Mr. Bernstein. Also it soothes and calms my innermost as much as it gives me a feeling of my shortcomings in the matter of pianos.
Thank you George, Seymour
When I heard that Tovey's edition was the only one to omit the crescendo at bar 118, I went to my own copy, published by Associated Board, edited by Harold Craxton, and with commentaries and notes by Donald Francis Tovey (this appears to be the edition displayed with the recording). The crescendo is there; Tovey's notes to bars 118-121 say ' Do not force the tone, but play so as to show that you are simply giving the first cadence of the theme as in bars 5-8. Perfectly strict time is essential'. No mention of the crescendo, but a warning not to force the tone. Had Tovey's ideas changed by this edition, or did Craxton's view as editor take precedence? ( I must confess this is a sonata I have rarely tackled). I've only just discovered Mr Bernstein's fascinating series of videos, and have learnt a lot from them.
People need to know about that crescendo! Absolutely breathtaking performance, Mr. Seymour.
Dear Andrew, thank you for your gracious comments. Do you think pianists who play Op. 111 would even take the time to hear what I had to say about it? You are the only person who commented about the cresc. So thank you for being serious. I took the video off of RUclips because a company by the name of Entrada bought it for their program which will soon be released. Warm regard to you, Seymour
@@SeymourBernstein I must say, I was fascinated with this information, Mr. Seymour. It seems very awkward to try to do a crescendo there. There's a video on RUclips of Stephen Kovacevich giving a masterclass on Op. 111 and he says nothing about that crescendo. He's a leading Beethoven specialist, too! It seems to me that your sincere love for music is how you were able to find this truth. Can they not correct this in the urtext editions?
All good wishes to you.
Dear Andrew, I consulted with the editors of Schott Sohne in Mainz, Germany where they have the manuscript. It seems that the editor's fair copy that Beethoven approved of has the cresc. Evidently Beethoven erased it after it was published. No one would even suspect this unless 1) you initially felt that something is wrong, and 2) you had access to a facsimile of the original manuscript as I have. I don't know a single person who even questions that cresc. All good wishes to you. Seymour
I'm learning this piece and I'm really grateful to hear your opinion about it. Thank you very much!
Dear Hyunkyu, what did you think of my performance?
Seymour
@@SeymourBernstein I felt a deep sense of respect for the composer's intention, and I thought I could play a certain phrase in a new way. thank you very much!
You crushed it!
Living legend!
Awesome
Very intresting the stories about the difficult octaves in the beginning.Never thought. Would be interesting how Beethoven played them😀 I quickly looked up about the first 5 famous pianist inthe search list and they played them all with one hand?
I'm so grateful for this recording! I have a question. It is about the second theme on the first movement. In both, the exposotion, and the reprise the meno allegro is written after the theme appears. Not with the theme. Everybody seem to ignore what or where the second theme is, and it is often played in rallentando. What do you think about it?
Thank you for sharing Sir! I was also lucky enough to play and record on the Horowitz Steinway. Your performance here is amazing!
제가 당신을 참으로 좋아합니다.
Lincoln Center opened in 1962, not 1969.
I played the Horowitz piano the year after Horowitz died when Franz Mohr toured with it. Its action was incredibly light and the voicing extremely bright. The muscular sound Horowitz made in the bass was due to the piano; I made the same sound. What I could not do was control the dynamics and produce anything like the subtle colors Horowitz did. Its setup may not have been this extreme when Mr. Bernstein made his Op. 111 recording, though there are moments when you hear that unique bass sound in his playing.
I played the Horowitz piano again in 2003. Steinway had completely changed the piano's setup. It was now a conventional Model D. They destroyed a historic instrument by so doing. I have no idea what they were thinking.
What age were you when you recorded this?
Hello Mr. Bernstein: I got the book "The Technique of Piano Playing" by József Gát from the Philadelphia library. I was wondering if you could make a video demonstrating Direct swing-stroke and Indirect swing-stoke. I teach piano and find this extremely interesting; by the way this book sells for as high as 400 dollars on Amazon. Thank you for your terrific videos and book, that I read all the time.
Horowitz never recorded the op111 not even sure if he played it . He said of it "too many notes"
Reference please.
Horowitz never said that!
Beethoven was not his style.
@@josephhapp9 I am not criticizing Horowitz as a great musician. I love his music. I can't remember the source but it is true as I remember it.
There are probably many unsaid (yet obvious) reasons why Beethoven himself ceased with this Sonata. Op. 109 is incredibly profound but this Sonata is the greatest of them all.
Volodya would have been really proud!
Dear Merlindavids, how charming and dear of you. Thank you.
Seymour
Seymour Bernstein Thank you for the solid inspiration you are giving to all of us.
I recently wrote a transcription for Piano of one of my favorite Organ Fugues of J.S. Bach. The BWV 577 "Alla Giga"
With its vitality, I think it would be a great joy to every pianist to incorporate it to their repertoire and I wonder if you know any publisher in the US who might be interested in it.
Here you can listen to it: ruclips.net/video/E3aqGN-MddY/видео.html
With the warmest greetings, David Merlin.
@@merlindavids Dear Merlindavids, I was deeply impressed not only by your transcription, but also by your brilliant playing. You must place this on RUclips for the world to enjoy. Alas, I don't know of any publisher who would publish this single piece, brilliant though it is. But I am sending it to some extraordinary pianists I know in the hope that they will want to learn it. Would you be willing to send them a copy of the ms. if they decided to program it? Bravo to you. You are formidable. Please write to me at this email address: see.less@verizon.net
Seymour
Pretty good, but, there is only one performance of this sonata above all, and that was given to us by Sviatoslav Richter
ამას რა სიფათიც აქვს ისევე უკრავს,
არაფერი აქვს საერთო ბეთჰოვენთან
და საერთოდ მუსიკასთან, ოყნაა 😁🤗
A trillion trills. haha
Beethoven did not write this sonata. An Angel from heaven sat next to Beethoven and dictated it to him. So only an angel can correctly interpret it, and any earthly attempt is futile. But Seymour comes close.
Close is good enough for me. Tank you.
Seymour
Well, this is kind of poetic, but it also degrades Beethoven. Such genius music does not fall from heaven. Beethoven was a hard working human. Sure, with the greatest talent (which may come from haven), but this alone is not enough.