RSS Feed

Horowitz Plays Chopin

November 25, 2011 by Damon Petersen

Find Similar Products Like Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 at Amazon

What are the magic ingredients up in pianists’ sleeves – which makes their performances amazing? What is so dissimilar with their piano practice? If you have listened & watched Vladimir Horowitz astounding performances on Scarlatti sonatas from youtube – I guess everyone will be thinking:

Hey, this piece is so hard because it is so hard to play such a simple piece! But Horowitz did that!!

and…

I do play this sonata. But my playing sucks, Horowitz is piano GOD! How may he perhaps play so well?

So this boils down to the basic question:

_______ (insert pianist name here) & I know how to carry out this piece – without defective notes. But I know if I carry on to play this same piece for 50 years, I will still be getting no where near this guy! What are our differences??

Here is the answer! I am not a professional pianist, but I would say I am rather a modest yet decent one. I mean, I myself may detect what the divergence are, amidst my and most other people’s performances. So, read on…!

1) Understanding the music

- Interpretation is more essential than getting the notes right after you have learned the piano music. – To carry out well, you ought to grasp the music – how’s did this piece came into the composer’s mind? For example, for playing the Raindrop Prelude, what did George Sand has to say with regards to it when she heard Chopin performing it? What is Chopin attempting to express in his short prelude “Suffocation” (Op. 28 No. 4)? Schumann’s Traumerie – what is this piece of music all about?

2) Thinking with regards to the music – This is where interpretation comes in, once you have an understanding of a piece of piano music. – This is the part where you THINK & IMAGINE how this piece SHOULD sound. Yes, bar by bar, note by note – a lot of times my thoughts of a piece of music may go down to that detail.

3) Executing your interpretation – This is the hard part, in fact, this is the most difficult part. Some times I have difficulties with this. – After you have an idea on HOW the piano piece must sound, now it is time to carry out it so that it sounds like what you have imagined.

- How is that done? You cannot just imagine with regards to raindrops out of the window and suppose to play the Raindrop prelude well. You can not just imagine regarding war when playing the ‘Heroique’ Polonaise and suppose to play it well. What is in your mind does NOT reflect in your performance!

- We must think, think and think when it comes to HOW to carry out that piece according to your idealisti version in your mind – make adjustment to your playing, pedaling, articulation, phrasing etc.

4) DIFFERENT interpretations – Horowitz once said that he plays his pieces DIFFERENTLY each time – that is unfeigned artistry. – Yes, I do carry out a piece of music differently from time to time. For example, Schumann’s Traumerei expresses pretty or heart breaking memories. Sometimes, I play to express numerous very fond memories, on occasion I play to express – yes, some sad memories. So, both performances sound very differently.

- Besides, over the years, your understanding of the music will alter – so does your interpretation.

5) UNCONVENTIONAL interpretations

UN-conventional??? Are you sure???

– Yes, of course I am sure. Unconventional or unorthodox does not mean that you will have to play Fur Elise in the spirit of the Revolutionary Etude. It is not that.

- By being unconventional (sometimes only), I will use rather dissimilar interpretations & dissimilar thoughts for the duration of playing sure pieces. An example, if you play Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 – what do you think regarding the last section starting from bars 30? What was Chopin attempting to commune in his chromatic octaves? What in regards to the “senza tempo” section?

- Most humans will interpret the chromatic section as a happy passage, and when it reaches the “senza tempo” section, it will of a sudden alter to a sudden serene, as if entering trance before finishing.

- My thoughts on these sections? Totally dissimilar (I will not talk about it here). But when I learned this years ago, I thought incisively as what most humans thought!

- The idea is, the more you carry out a piece of piano music, the more you need to think regarding it – every one is playing piano, these dissimilar thinkings will aid you make a difference.


Horowitz Plays Chopin 2

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 Picture

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 Photo

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 Photo

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 Pic

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 Photo

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2

Horowitz Plays Chopin 2 Picture


Most helpful customer reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
4Most Intensely Felt Ballade & Scherzo
By Scriabinmahler
Sonata No.2 was recorded in was recorded in 1950. It sounds metalic and clattery. 1st movement is played at strangely measured tempo, quivering with nervous energy. Prest is electrifying, but overall his later stereo recording of the sonata on Sony is more compelling and refined.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
5Chopin and the Divinely-tempered Clavier.
By Anna Shlimovich
My personal major discovery listening to this extraordinary recording is that Chopin truly took many ideas from Bach; it is only thanks to Horowitz playing the Étude Op. 10, No. 4 in C-sharp minor that I suddenly realized that it is based on another work from another time – on Prelude (and Fugue) No. 3 in C sharp major, BWV 848, from Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier.

6 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
5The moment of the genuine pleasure
By M. OKAZAKI
When I heard this version of “Funeral” at the classic branch of a music store, a stuff of its jazz section rushed here to ask what title this album has. I had already decided to buy it, surprising at its sound effects. It was the real story twenty years ago. This amazement would be re-presented even now.

It is the young Horowitz that played this Funeral. He did never try to evoke the kind emotion, but simply to show the effect that the music has. It is the moment of the genuine pleasure to bring us the concentration of the consciousness on this sound and lead to the catharsis at last.

This splendid masterpiece is lack of the repetition of the trio, according to his intention. It seems to him too quiet and kind to play twice.

Once you hear this sound, you will never forget it all your life.

See all 3 customer reviews…


No Comments »

No comments yet.

You must be logged in to post a comment.