Zoltán Kocsis plays Liszt: Grosses Konzertsolo, S.176
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- čas přidán 26. 08. 2024
- I've uploaded this bad boy before with a horrid Audacity noise reduction which jarringly cut off like 95% of sustained notes. In hindsight, it kind of ruined the whole piece, so: I hereby bring to you the "untampered version" of the same thing: Live in 1986. 05. 20 at MTA Congress Hall, with scrolling score. Sorry for the background noise, but at least you can enjoy the performance of this grossly underplayed masterwork better. The only three notable pianists who played the GK (edit: besides Kocsis, naturally) so far are Ogdon and Dacic: both of whom are prone to garbling passages beyond recognition and Clidat (the ill-appropriately called "Madame Liszt"), who I always find technically lacklustre and musically insipid.
⚠Before you listen: Here is alkanliszt's restoration of the audio: czcams.com/video/oa52pn_3hZ8/video.html
Kocsis never ceases to amaze
I have no idea how Kocsis' thirds-trills starting around 9:20 are even possible. So soft, so even, so fast - Kocsis has always been highly respected, nonetheless I think he is still underappreciated as a pianist, no matter what. This is easily the greatest Grosses Konzertsolo I have ever heard. Thank you for uploading.
haven't checked if it's possible on those notes but just do 32, 51
Your father was a most formidable pianist and will always remain as dear to my heart as Richter does.
Magnífica esta versão do pianista Zoltán Kocsis. Faz jus a beleza desta peça difícilima. Uma lição de virtuososmo e interpretação. Execução limpa, perfeita, um timbre lindo,vuma jóia musical.
This deserves to be a lot more well-known. This version also absolutely clears the two-piano version in my opinion. RIP KOCSIS
Megrendítő!!!Csodálatos zene,csodálatos előadás..köszönöm,hogy hallhattam!!
Köszönöm szépen a feltöltést.
Bravo bravo bravo brilliance grandiose music super
Underrated masterpiece
Thank you! Particularly for supplying the score. 🙏
This is one of the better performances I've heard of this piece. It's *very* faithful to the composer's intent.
When i learned this, I incorporated von Bülow's D-flat major interpolation from the "Concerto Pathetique" and inserted that into the next to last thematic transformation. Maybe not completely authentic, but that interpolation is one of the most beautiful parts of the piece.
As far as authenticity goes, Bülow’s additions *were* published in Liszt’s lifetime and with the composer’s apparent blessing. Some sources say that Liszt essentially “ghostwrote” the Reuss’ orchestration too. Anyhow, I think Liszt wasn’t one of those composers who cared very much what people did with his music as long as it retained the spirit of the original source material and was done with reasonable competence. After all, he made a killing out of reworking other people’s music in his own career.
@@Kris9kris True confessions: I completely re-wrote the last page of Liszt's Third Mephisto Waltz. The original has octaves which end up in the highest register, which seemed like a weak ending to such a *good* piece. I took the opening motive, consolidated the notes in the lowest octave and a half of the piano, and kept the original octaves in the right hand. The effect is not unlike Bartok and fits with Liszt's very late period.
It turned out that one of the people on my entrance audition had played the Third Mephisto Waltz, and commented on the ending. I told him what I had done, and he said, "Honestly, your ending is better."
The von Bülow interpolation is a *magnificiently* beautiful section -- it's really stunning. I liked it so much that I arranged it for piano two-hands and put it back into Liszt's original. My professor had no problem with it.
We can do things with Liszt's music which we wouldn't dare do with Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms or Ravel. I tried to "fix" the last four measures of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier." My professor's response: "Oh, no you don't. Only when you write as well as Beethoven can you "fix" Beethoven!" (He was right. I trust my musical instincts, but I am *not* Beethoven.)
@@CH3CH2OCH2CH3net I’ll let you in on a trade secret you may or may not already know: improvisation, extemporising and even reinventing certain passages in “classical” music was as commonplace and even customary at one point in time as in today’s jazz scene and it’s high time we bring it back. (a CZcamsr by the name of Nahre Sol did a series of videos on this subject and I’m relieved that this kind of introspection is gaining some traction albeit very slowly). People expected to see performers read “between the lines”, so to speak. Czerny wrote that even Beethoven himself played his music vastly differently in concerts from the way it appears in printed editions of his music. (For instance, In the first movement of the moonlight sonata, he did a big accelerando and a crescendo, plus he used the sustain pedal way more than indicated). My advice would be generally, play the *music*, not the *notes*. To use an analogy: what’s the difference between “I went down to the grocery store tonight” and “I popped into the convenience store this evening”. The meaning is the same, just the wording is different. Of course, this practice died down in the mid-19th century (with a few exceptions) and I - like yourself - wouldn’t touch Ravel/Brahms/Schumann etc. unless I’m making an outright transcription.
@@Kris9kris Kris: I like this. A LOT. I completely agree with it: all too often we performers end up being slaves to the score and missing the point of the music.
I'm also a composer. I have *NEVER* played any of my pieces the same way twice. An idea will occur to me, even when I'm performing, and I may just add it into the piece in performance!
Now, that said: it turns out one of my early piano professors (a Russian) was absolutely right when she said, "If you are going to improve on Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and composers of that caliber, you can -- but you have to be able to prove that you can write as well as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann!" I revere Beethoven (especially late Beethoven) and Schubert, and I try to stay as faithful to their intention as possible!
Thanks for posting these performances. As well as providing much enjoyment, I think your channel will become an important part of his incredible legacy. I’m always so struck by the overwhelming power of his interpretations.
By the way, I work in sound for film and tv, and have to do a lot of noise reduction work as part of that. If there’s anything you think is un-postable, or would like me to have a look at, I’d be happy to have a go...
Thank you very much! I have a recording of Kocsis conducting the 1880 version of the Faust Symphony (with the chorus mysticus) that I intend to post here on my channel with a similarly abhorrent background hiss. For all intents and purposes, if you want to and you have free time, maybe you could take a look at it - I can send it to you.
Learning this piece at the moment and it’s my most ambitious project. Thanks for sharing this! I also think Giuseppe andaloro’s recording is exemplary and of course Leslie howard(who no one can upload because of copyright)
Good luck man, I wish you a lot of perseverance! I've yet to tackle this, although I did learn its big brother, the b-minor Sonata a long time ago. Maybe my ambitions are hindered by the fact that the Grosses Konzertsolo has an exemplary reference recording (by Kocsis), and the Sonata hasn't (maybe Horowitz, if I was held at a gunpoint), so I had to provide my own perspective on it. Maybe I'll record the two side by side someday...
@@Kris9kris Wouldn't you consider Zimmerman's take an "exemplary reference recording?" Surely, having perfect recordings shouldn't keep anyone from learning a piece of music! :)
@@gergelykiss Absolutely not, sorry. Despite him being my namesake, I’ve yet to hear a Zimerman recording that doesn’t put me to a deep sleep immediately. If you like it though, more power to you, I wish I could do the same. Different strokes for different folks and all that. On your second point, I didn’t say that one can’t learn a piece that has already been interpreted to near perfection, I just said it provides more impetus for me when the opposite is the case. To set a counterexample: I’ve learned Schumann’s Carnaval, and it was on my repertoire for what must have been years, yet Rachmaninov’s reading of it is - for all intents and purposes - the undisputed apex of pianism in my eyes.
@@Kris9kris Got it. :) for me Zimerman's Sonata was kind of a revelation - but that's just my experience of course. It is interesting to read such a different opinion on him! Rachmaninov is something else, though, I concur.
@@Kris9kris I'm shocked to hear that. I think Zimerman's recording of the B minor Grande Sonate absolutely sets the standard. It could certainly be the exemplary recording.
GREAT THANK YOU👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👇👇👇
Great to have this! If you like, I have professional noise reduction tools and would be happy to take the hiss out and send a copy back.. (Audacity is prone to affecting the sound, as you've clearly found. )
I appreciate it man, thank you very much! You can reach me via my personal e-mail address: lookforme56@gmail.com.
@@Kris9kris I've send the hopefully denoised recording back, plus the other one you suggested I look at. With any luck they are of use!
would you happen to have a video of kocsis playing brahms's piano quintet op 34? I saw an excerpt of him playing it with the takacs quartet in another video
CZcams took it down a long time ago, unfortunately.
Cool!
Krisztián, I possess another performance of this work (which I think is even better) and which I'd be happy to send to you. I tried to email you but it got sent back. So if you can give me a hint how I can find you, I'll tell you more!
By all means, I'm very curious! Try to use Google Drive, then create a sharable link, you can rest assured that I will receive it that way.
@@Kris9kris Happy to do that. But where do I send it? This was a concert at the Zeneakademia from 30th April 1986. A friend of mine was there and said he felt it was even better than the one you have uploaded. There is also a performance of the Norma fantasy (the best I've ever heard, one of my favourite possessions!), Csárdás Macarbre, the Fifth rhapsody and a fragment of the Ave Maria. Not the whole concert ...
@@nicholasjenkins8689 Send it to lookforme56@gmail.com. It's my personal e-mail address. Thank you in advance, I appreciate your help!
Any progress?
9:54
About your comment on notable pianists to perform this: what about Nikolai Petrov?
I’ve listened to the first 2 minutes of Petrov’s recording, and so far I’m not very convinced, to say the least. He plays the whole thing like it was a recitativo or one big uninterrupted cadenza. Not sure that’s the idea Liszt was going for, but to each of his own… Petrov was a beast when it comes to sheer technique though: as far as I know, he remains the only person who could put together a half-decent recording of Liszt’s monstrous first version of the Paganini Etudes, and that's no small feat by any means.
@@Kris9kris I mean, to be honest I didn't even listen to his performance (I'm not a huge fan, probably his Kapustin performances among others were great) but I just knew that he performed this work and thought that he's also a notable performer (even if not in such a positive way... but that's why you note Clidat as well). Anyhow, Dacić's performance appears to be the most satisfying, at least for me.
lol