Ligeti is one of the few avant-garde composers that I actually enjoy hearing.
Every thing seems easy after studying Ligeti, highly recommend.
I realised that the best Way to understand the music is to look at the name of the piece or movement
It's then that you realise that the essence of the music is not in the sound but in the image portrayed
I can't believe that there isn't a single comment on the performance. This pianist (Fredrik Ullén) is a genius.
I feel the same. Overshadowed by how incredible the music itself is. But WOW I have heard every performance available and this guy is by far the best. Full of color. Clarity, and control. Some of the finest piano playing I’ve ever heard. (And I’ve heard a LOT).
I don't fancy myself a critic; total amateur. I can play a few Rolling Stones songs on the geetar. this piece - Ligeti that is - does reek of modrnism even though it is rather traditional in the formulation. As far as the playing it does frolic, and wallow, and emote and all that good stuff. Extermely enjoyable.
No, Ligeti is a genius, he actually wrote it. The pianist is just extremely talented.
36:47 Accent the accents. Got it
36:52 Accent the accented accents. And that while playing ffffffff.
Ligeti was undoubtedly a fan of banging the keys, literally calling for it in some cases.
"Vertige" is the intellectual equivalent of kicking the shit out of someone for accusing you of being unable to pat your head while rubbing your stomach simultaneously
Aside from the tonality The man's sense of how register work's is mind blowing.
00:02 1: Désordre
02:15 2: Cordes à vide
05:21 3: Touches bloquées
07:11 4: Fanfares
10:29 5: Arc-en-ciel
13:54 6: Automne à Varsovie
17:57 7: Galamb Borong
20:19 8: Fém
22:55 9: Vertige
25:12 10: Der Zauberlehrling
27:27 11: En Suspens
29:55 12: Entrelacs
32:37 13: L'escalier du diable
37:41 14: Coloana infinită
39:04 15: White on White
42:08 16: Pour Irina
45:02 17: À bout de souffle
47:07 18: Canon
Sparticus Booker I know, i just copy-pasted this from there in case someone didn’t realise it’s in the description
Maybe the most inventive and original piano music since Debussy's preludes. Just incredible music
13:07 now that's some good jazz
fantastic etude, love these dissonances, they're somehow not that aggressive and even feel 'calming' a bit
"The Devil's Staircase" (no 13) has already rightly become a virtuoso showoff piece (not done with enough attack here) but I love the calm, Debussy-style beauty of no 2 (Cordes a Vide)
Yutong Sun played them with his eyes closed nearly the entire time at last year's Cliburn competition. It was amazing.
Several of the virtuoso etudes here are not played clearly/precisely enough, but the slow etudes are beautifully done.
It reminds me of the endless staircase music from Super Mario 64, and that's no coincidence.
@@calebhu6383 "not played clearly"? Sorry but I strongly disagree. I think that this one is the best recording of these etudes BY FAR and that this pianist is an absolute genius.
The undeniable virtuosity of Fredrik Ullén particularly touches me and deliciously juggles with the sensitivity of the emotions of the soul. Thank you very much for this pure happiness 🤠
The Ligeti piano etudes prove interesting because they use a relatively restrained chromatic melodic & harmonic language reminiscent of the ultramodenrists of the 1920s, so unlike many other contemporary composers, these pieces sound harmonically and melodically as though they were composed 80 years earlier. (Think Carl Ruggles or Ruth Crawford Seeger or very early Aaron Copland.) The main difference is that most of the Ligeti piano etudes make extensive use of polyMETER, which is very different from polyRHYTHM.
In polymeter, the notes occur in sync with one another but the *phrase boundaries* don't line up. So you have a musical phrase that starts and ends in a different place in one voice than in another voice. That produces a type of desynchronization that has been less used in modern music than outright polyrhythms.
Rhythmically of course Ligeti piano etudes are still a lot simpler than Conlon Nancarrow's or Ferneyhough's music (everything is rhythmically simpler than their music), but Ligeti's piano etudes have a different type of phrase-level complexity that's intriguing and refreshingly novel.
Sometimes even polytonality. In the first one, the left and right hands are playing in different keys, yet it somehow works.
White on white is just out of this world, absolutely sublime
Perhaps the closest to impossibility that possibility may get.
You need to check out Sorabji's etudes. They're even more difficult than these.
@@depauleable
We're obviously talking about within the realm of remote possibility.
depauleable
Man arrow is crazy, so crazy he had to get himself a player piano.
@@toothlesstoe Yes but don't have as much music. I can't decide if Sorabji is a fake or a genius.
Many thanks for posting these exemplary performances together with pristine screenshots. Rare quality !
This is the first time I’ve actually heard the imagery of the devil’s staircase. He really painted the image. Bravo!
39:04 I never thought I would ever find myself thinking of the word "beautiful" to describe a Ligeti work.
41:11 Well, there's the proof that this is, indeed, a Ligeti work.
White on White is truly beautiful. Though, I'm not a fan of this interpretation. It's a little fast in my opinion.
same with No. 13. Way too fast in my opinion. (at least we know the pianist doesn't lack technical aspects)
When someone says that Tonal = Consonant i like to Show this piece from 41:11 indeed
Everyone: Try for technical excellence
Ligeti: Hold my metronome
The sixth one really appeals to me, a good composer for getting into more out-there music without overly breaking your ears. The string quartet no1 (assuming he did more which I don’t know) is quite something as well
There is a second one, which I like a bit less than the third. I highly recommend the violin concerto and the sonata for solo viola if you don't want to "break your ears"
Cannot thank you enough for posting the score on here!!
Ligeti: "Where we're going, we need no metrum signs"
Also Ligeti: “You only need the understand the tempo of ‘Continuum’”
Aimard: “But I don’t play clavecin.”
Ligeti: “Look, we are here.”
Ligeti was a genius!
What did I just hear. It's amazingly... amazing
I am at 10 now. So far 2 and 9 are my absolute favourites. Beautiful. And there I was thinking I just don't like atonal music. I just don't like BAD atonal music !! This is amazing. Number 9 vertigo is groundbreaking
When you open yourself enough, you will find anything good, it's just you try to neglect that.
@@segmentsAndCurves Hey I recognise you from somewhere! Can't remember the video lmao but I agree
A UA-cam account, a Tsumugi Pfp with quality Music uploaded, a good find for sure :)
Thank you for the work you have put in to create this audio+score video. Fascinating to follow the music as it plays out on the page.
thanks for this upload. i only knew aimard performances, these are really beautiful as well
현대연주는 의도된 불협화음으로 청중의 심리를 불안하고 불편하게 만드는 연주가 많은데... 두 번은 듣기 힘드니... 음악에 있어서는 편안함과 아름다운 멜로디를
좋아하는 평범한 저는 악보에 그려진
저 기괴한 음표만 보는것만으로 힘드네요.
연주자가 얼마나 힘들게 연습했는지 노고에 큰 박수를보냅니다.
Ty for the Angels in this Beautiful Music 🎶
Maravillosa composición; magistral al extremo. Y muchas felicitaciones al intérprete: es infernal lo que toca, por dios... Muchas gracias por compartir. Un abrazo desde Buenos Aires, Argentina.
cordes à vide is really beautiful
The glory of Christ shines through these etudes.
The titels of 7 and 8 are hungarian: 7= Dove Broods, 8= Metal . The title of 14 is romanian:
Infinite Column .
@@tobiolopainto So probably the title is an allusion to this sculpture.
@@peterkocsis7010 Sure. The Brancusi is a monument to Romanian fighters of World War I. Look it up on wiki. Beautiful!
@@tobiolopainto Have done it- thank you ! Really a great work- I didn´t know there was a Brancusi open air work in Romania, I though Ceausescu had destroyed everything- - but now I read that it is part of a triple work: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptural_Ensemble_of_Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncu%C8%99i_at_T%C3%A2rgu_Jiu
@@peterkocsis7010 Yes. And the Endless Column is a template for an Endless Column. It was kept to 90 feet for structural reasons, but in theory, that column could go on forever. If Brancusi was an Eastern Orthodox Christian, the trapezoidal units have something to do with the Eastern Orthodox conception of the perfect, or divine form. Another artist, Mike Lekakis worked using a similar form, but in wood. He explained the trapezoid form idea to me once. You can look him up on wiki, too. You'll see that his work is closely related to Brancusi's.
If you're a jazz fan, like me, you can only love and admire this.
Bach is sometimes jazzy too. For example the 2nd piece in the Art of Fugue, especially in Glenn Gould's version.
@@MarcusHK1
No, Bach is nowhere remotely close to being jazzy. To even make a remark like that is ignorant and anachronistic.
@@toothlesstoe It depends what one means exactly by "jazzy". Bach is indeed a far cry from actual jazz, but there is sometimes a slight ressemblance. Try to listen for example to the 2nd fugue of the Art of fugue played by Glenn Gould.
Sometimes it sounds like Joachim Kühn improvising. He probably played some of these pieces at some point
I would love to hear N. 5 performed with actual swing by an actual jazz pianist.
this is actually mind blowing
Fab; I'm v grateful for this posting
Fanfares was certainly inspired by Bartók's bulgarian dance No. 6, or so it seems
phenomenal performance
The ending of Automne à Varsovie is properly insane17:40
This is what Captain Beefheart would've made if he was classically trained.
Maravilloso, es encontrar entre el cielo y la tierra otro sentido de la vida ¡ Gracias ¡¡¡¡¡
wow, this is incredible....chapeau bas mr ligeti and mr ullen !
I am comparing this version etude by etude with that of Thomas Hell and can't decide which I prefer. Maybe they are just very different, but both convincing.
FANTASTICO!!!
@@mmmistero7071 Opinione personale che, naturalmente, rispetto. Ma da compositore mi permetto di dire che a certa musica estremamente complessa, intricata, ma straordinariamente espressiva e inventiva come questa, occorre far l'abitudine - per poterla comprendere e apprezzare pienamente - studiandola, ascoltandola, praticandola per lungo tempo. Un saluto e buona continuazione con lo studio del pianoforte.
White on White is so gorgeous but I think this pianist plays the half note section a little faster than it's supposed to be.
It is interesting to see all the études played, nevertheless the étude 13 (L'escalier du diable), the only one I can speak of with some assurance, is played far too quickly. The pianist in this étude omits almost all the accents written by Ligeti because of the excessive speed.
Please, keep up uploading videos!
I would definitely agree that this isn't random noise, as it's obviously not random. I would also say that the best part is right after the final notes, and after that. These compositions have given me a new appreciation for silence.
That is ironic and could be understood as the most acerb criticism of them since it's an unconscious one.
Ligeti was a great Vampire composer!
BRAVO
If I had to name a compositional model, it would probably be Ligeti.
This is f#$%^ amazing that a piece like this can even be written down.
Pure genius!
If someone had spliced the genes of Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Bartok and doused the whole lot with fire and brimstone.........
@@zackl7467 But he uses 20th-century craziness.
Sorry, I just have to.
Absolutely fire
Simplemente maravilloso!!!!
バルトークのピアノ曲集ミクロコスモスが更に現代化
20世紀後半のピアノ曲の傑作
La quatrième étude aurait pu constituer un numéro de Mikrokosmos volume... 7.
I jazzisti per poter proiettare il linguaggio jazzistico in un possibile futuro di questa MUSICA DOVREBBERO ascoltare gli STUDI per la pianoforte di Ligeti..... Illuminanti... Vivi... Composizioni semplici nella scrittura ma complicati da eseguire... Tutto nel rispetto del suono EVVIVA
Grazie Maestro Enrico Intra seguirò il tuo prezioso consiglio anche se mi aspetta un lavoro molto molto impegnativo, Wi il Jazz un abbraccio da Alessandro Fattori in memoria di Studio7 e Franco Cerri
thanks for the download!
45:03 lol he just HAD to stagger both hands right
slateflash you've blown my mind by making me think of a way to play that without crossing over or staggering. you had me in the 4 dimension for a few minutes there.
Hats off to Maestro Fredrik Ullén for achieving the Impossible here..........
A passage like that definitely requires a lot of hands-separate practice. It helps to practice the figurations in unison, then gradually break out of phase with each other. It's not as hard as it seems.
A while ago i wrote a piece with a similar concept, but tonally, and i Personally don't find it that difficult... but my piece doesn't have so many dense and irregular accents, so it is probably easier in General too
Goated Ligeti
Think I'll stay here for a while.
Thank you for sharing
2-4,6,8-10,12
That’s my jam!
Hermods y maravillosa musica!
I love ligeti
0:00 Music to play when you are running for a bus.
2:16 Music for a hot tub
5:27 Music for boiling water
Wonderful! Which editor do you use?
amazing
32:37 Etude 13 ('L'Escalier...'): Too fast. The dance-like rhythm has been lost. There has to be a balance of showing off the virtuosity of the piece and also capturing the music. This performer is undoubtedly an excellent, virtuosic player but there is little musicality in this performance.
Etude 13 should sound like both showing off *and* dancing (including conveying the strong folk music influence)... Unfortunately this performance only does the former.
In fact I'm going to modify my comment by adding: it's so fast that at times the player loses synchronicity between the hands. Not good
@Dhruva Punde the typical "do it by yourself" shit isn't even a valid argument.
I thought ‘Pour Irina’ was for Irina Shostakovich.
Are there any recordings of Ligetti playing the piano, himself?
Althought he definitely understood the instrument and what he was doing with it in his etudes, Ligeti was not much of a pianist. I don't think he was anywhere close to be able to play his etudes the way he envisioned them. He did make a few piano roll versions of some Etudes thought, if I'm not mistaken (or he might have just "written" them for piano roll and someone else actually made the rolls, I don't quite remember).
@@vavlietf2410 I think Nancarrow is the main dude with the rolls; friended with Ligeti btw. The french pianist Aimard worked through the etudes with Ligeti, not sure if for all of them tho.
@@mts2 Wouldn't be surprising if he got some of his piano roll stuff from Nancarrow. Ligeti just liked to touch to a little bit of everything. Aimard definitely worked with Ligeti while learning most of the 2nd and 3rd book, he gave the premier for almost all of the etudes in those. It wouldn't surprise me if he got feedback for the other pieces as well. I doubt he was involved in the writing of the pieces, but it is said that Ligeti was influenced a bit by Aimard to push the later studies into even more absurd virtuosistic territory.
you should experience the thrill of listening to the entire work with x2 speed
05:21 3: Touches bloquées
10/10 level etude.
Great stuff, but devilishly difficult to play!
meilensteine der komposition u interpretation. extrem ....
The staircase for the Devil reminds me of some of Keith Jarret's music in the Vienna Concert.
No 13 is just too fast for comfort in this recording.. 🤪 but hella good playing anyway
Interesting in Disordre the end of the piece has variant keys and key signatures for left and right hand lines
20:19が私のお気に入り
★★★★★
How does one play ffffff? At what point does it become "as loud as possible"? The piano only has a certain dynamic range.
Especially when the piece already starts at ffff and has the "loud as possible" introductory note!
It's like Messiaen after way too many coffees.
At 9:51 the slurs cross over each other, switching hands. What was Ligeti thinking?
Just played this in my local pub, They weren't impressed 😔
this is the best comment on youtube
Lmfao
Because they don't know how to listen Ligeti etudes.
Bloody peasants.
😂😂😂