Cortot is definitely one of my piano heroes and warts and all some of his recordings are just sublime. This concerto by Beethoven has these moments and his way of nuancing and phrasing in the slow movement is great!! Thanks again Mark for another wonderful recording!
"Cortot was unquestionably one of the great pianists of our time, he had astonishing power. He interpeted Beethoven magnificently..." (From "Joys and Sorrows", Pablo Casals's autobiography). He says this for the first time they met, I wish there were Beethoven records from his youth. But of course, this recording is also great. Thank you!
A bewitching performance by any yardstick and one that really illustrates the wide range of possible interpretations and I loved the orchestra! Thanks once again, Mark!!
You continue to amaze us with your discoveries! Despite the odd wrong note and finger-slip, his tone is still luminous, and his understanding of the structure of the piece is remarkable.
Cortot, though never a note-perfect pianist and whose work after World War II really declined, is on top of his game here! I don't think there is another performance that shows so clear an understanding of both the structural hinges of the music as well as its expressive force. The Orchestra is clearly not of the first rank but Cortot is worth the whole price of admission. Many thanks are owed the uploader.
You are right ; Cortot is more an artist than a technician and it is in this that his interpretations are magnificent, so human. He speaks as much to the work as to the heart of the spectator. Bravo, bravo Cortot!
Michelangeli.Note perfect, incredible sense of structure and not in need of doubling notes into octaves. Beethoven does not fancy this approach which is typical french. Michelangeli's rendering is "truth".
@@thepianocornertpc No interpretation can convey a single truth--"THE truth"--of a composer as variegated as Beethoven. I certainly did not, and would not, make such a claim.for Cortot's performance.
@@MrKlemps Sir...Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's secret consists in creating a certain frame or structure of mentality which is made always ready to respond instantly, that is, immediately to what comes from the outside. While technical training is of great importance, it is after all artificially..calculatingly added and acquired. Unless the mind that avails itself of the technical skill somehow attunes itself to a state of utmost fluidity or mobility, anything acquired or superimposed lacks spontaneity, natural growth. This state prevails when the mind is awakened to satori. What Michelangeli aimed at was this realization. It cannot be taught by any system designed for this purpose, it must simply grow from within. His system was really no system in the proper sense.As soon as an intellectual interpretation takes place, the whole thing goes awry..He once said:: When you want to see it, see it at once. When you begin to think, you miss the point. Happy New Year Sir.
@thepianocornertpc I should say only that instant readiness of the whole is hardly a common capacity. It sounds like more like an ideal. Yet it seems highly unlikely that if Michelangeli did possess it, he should be the only performer to do so. So first of all I should be interested in what other performers had it? Also do you think it possible to have it for some composers but not for others? Clearly someone favoring an "intellectual" approach (like Schnabel, his students, his very many "grandstudents"; Szigeti; Szell; Kolisch and a great many others) does not have it, nor is it possible for them to have it: Am I reading you correctly? Many thanks for your thought-provoking elucidation. Is
What a musician, what a master!!!Every note has a different colorful meaning, every phrase has character. The importance of the Music minimize the maniac manner of an "perfection" pianistic mechanism which hase nothing to do with the melodic view of the music, the singing. Every passage is singing and that's why the missing notes have really no importance. Is not technical issue of Cortot but matter of choice. He take a lot of risk to let the music flow in a natural way. The Competitions destroyed the meaning of the music, a pure deformation of the essence itself. Today we have a lot of wonderful pianists but without music speaking. They think in a pianistic way only to be "perfect" for competitions not in music thinking, making such effects during performance only to electrify the public who in general thinks that this kind of music is fun. So, the model is really wrong and bad. Thank you for the publication!
Cortot has a personality comparable to Debussy in French music. As a musician, he did a great deal of work. He founded the Conservatory and taught pianists. His disciples include Kempf, Haskil, Francois, Lipatti, Toyama, Michelangeli and Mizz Haas. He turned their weaknesses into strengths in the eyes of critics. There is no time to teach his learners. But he composed etude for the learners. As a conductor, he performed Wagner in Paris. He cured the German pronunciation of the French singer and choir, took the sound, conducted the practice, and gave the final performance. He didn't have time to practice his own piano. He was asked to travel after Wagner's performance. He went to the United States after six months of practice. He will perform a concert of five Beethoven concertos in the United States. His achievements as a pianist with regard to Chopin and Schumann are so great that it is not necessary to talk about them. He has no time to practice as a pianist and is talked about alongside Rubinstein, Horowitz and Backhous.Thank you very much hearing this recording.
Certainly a poetic pianist, even in this early Beethoven. As far as being 'better' in the older generation than now, that debate certainly exists, and not always to the detriment of today IMHO. One can find a certain heaviness to this, more appropriate for the later concertos and symphonies. That was common in those far off days before the 'original instruments/Ur Text" revelations. I like the lighter approach that captures the spirit of the young composer out to dazzle and impress, not overly concerned with profundity at that date in his life. But the music can bear it, and this is still wonderful to have, with moments on the piano that are sublime...
I listened to this out of curiosity, as one of my late piano professors at the Royal Academy of Music, either him or his teacher studied with Cortot. Also long ago I read a story about in a Cortot recital after World War II, some audiences brought metronomes to produce clicks to disturb him. As this is a very old recording I didn't expect much. But after listening, I must say I like Cortot's performance of this concerto very much.
What do you mean by "as this is a very old recording, I didn't expect much....".?? I would suggest you listen to Beethoven played by Fischer (Edwin and Annie!:-) Schnabel, Backhaus and others of this generation (not to mention Furtwängler, Klemperer and their colleagues.) Many very pleasant surprises await you:-)))
@@walterprossnitz3471 What I meant was, usually the older the recording, the more unwanted noise and deterioration of the recording (such as no longer in ptich). Also, recording technology of long ago played back on modern equipment can produce sound different to the original. This is particularly obvious with singing recording made a very long time ago. Over the years, I have heard some recordings of the Fischers, Schnabel, Backhaus, Furtwängler, Klemperer... The only one that had playback problems was Schnabel. I particularly liked Backhaus. It was a very long time ago I listened to these, and hope that the recordings remain in good condition.
A rare document indeed, thank you! I am not bothered at all by many wrong notes and own original [octaving, Tutti playing] ideas. Cortot remains Cortot. His imagination is most remarkable. But where is the cadenza of the first movement?
@@ThePianoFiles Some pianists in that generation didn’t like Cadenzas . Rachmaninov and Moischewitz played also the Beethoven concerto 1 without cadenza.
Bravoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Maestro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DE LOS GRANDES.
Une pure merveille. L'incandescence du jeu de Cortot frise l'hallucination; la puissance de ses basses permet de mesurer l'ampleur de la vision de Schumann et fait de ce concerto le père de ceux de Brahms. Personne n'a depuis lors atteint ce sommet...
He plays like a true chamber musician and all the better for it ... in comparison many modern recordings feel like they are thumped out with little regard for the orchestra. Thanks
Cortot is what I call a real pianist, as in the opposite of forteist. He understands the craft of musical communication. He clearly is singing through the piano just as Beethoven Liszt, and Chopin were said to have done, unlike the majority of pianoforte players today, who bang away on the keyboard with metronomic emphasis for the main purpose of showing they can do that . Who play this way to cover up the fact that they are unmusical.
The sudden closure of the first movement without concluding cadenza and Cortot playing with the orchestra the coda is nevertheless very unusual and, to me, rather clumsy. IMHO.
Cortot was a wonderful pianist in spite of his mistakes.When he was very old,a gap of memory was replaced by his improvisation on materials of the score.His friends said : now he is playing Cortot.But 1950 Kinderszenen interpretation is still sublime.
Well that's a funny accusation! I think you're the one who should check the facts before writing embarrassing comments like this. Cortot started studying at the Paris Conservatoire in 1886 under Louis Diémer and Émile Descombes. At that time, Rubinstein had still not given his ultimate concert in Paris and during one of his last visits, he asked to hear one of Diémer's students. Diémer picked a very young Alfed Cortot who chose to play the Appassionata. If you search for "Albert Cortot (6/10) emission sans nom", you can even find an old radio episode in which Cortot himself recounts this meeting. Check facts yourself in the future so I don't have to waste my time.
@@johnericsson749 From a pianist who adviced Rachmaninov to "Just press upon the keys until the blood oozes from your fingertips" I take nothing serious not even that ridiculous quote on Cortot. I was told Antoine was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company famous for Migraine and Violent Headaches syrupes and pills. 🤪🤪Happy new Year... Johnny.
Choosing to ignore everything he said and did because of one quote seems very silly and reductionistic to me. Regardless of what you think of him, he was one of the greatest pianists and musicians of the 19th century. Don’t forget that Rachmaninoff also said about him: "[His playing] gripped my whole imagination and had a marked influence on my ambition as a pianist." And frankly, I don’t understand what’s so ridiculous about what he said to Cortot.
What quote? Ah! You mean what he said about Cortot. That's bullshit.. The advice he gave to Rachmaninov...that'sindeed silly bordering on moronic. And there is nothing you can do about it Shonnie.Happy New Year.
I was wondering what he was going to do with the first movement cadenza, but it somehow disappears. Sad, because the salvage edit is much worse than any mess he might have made when actually playing it - it sounds "post hoc". Perhaps an acetate side was lost?
It actually sounds to me like it wasn't played, not like an edit... but it's strange indeed. I haven't had an answer from any Cortot experts I've written to about why ...
It's debatable whether music-making has improved to the same degree... I would say not - hence my willingness to listen in less-than-ideal sound to superlative pianism.
@@ThePianoFiles I couldn't agree more, and this recording is a great example. The ending of the final movement is just magical here. I wouldn't trade it for anything!
Martha Argerich failed 2 notes playing this concerto in 2020. But it has been her best performance ever. If you want to play well this concerto, you cannot avoid to miss some notes.
He could not face France after the Second World War because of his liaison with the Vichy crowd. My teacher was his student during the later years in exile in Switzerland and I have first had account of what happened
These recordings of Cortot are, at the least, problematic. There are passages of sublime beauty - followed by stumbled runs and fistfuls of wrong notes - and it is not one of the 'difficult' concertos. To enjoy so many of Cortot's recordings you have to work hard to ignore the bum notes and just delight in the good bits. Piano lovers and admirers of Cortot (as I am) are prepared to overlook the sometimes grotesque moments.
I don't find this one problematic at all - unlike the late late Beethoven Sonata recordings he made for EMI, only very few of which were released and which can be uncomfortable. There's so much to glean from this particular performance I think, a phenomenally expansive approach. I am a huge fan too and wanted to appreciate those late late recordings but it's hard work at times... this one, fortunately, still has benefits that far outweigh the cons.
@@ThePianoFiles Yes, for a piano fanatic like myself and someone brought up on 78s of Cortot playing Chopin, the benefits in this performance do outweigh the cons. He was, of course, a superb chamber music player. I was told by a late great pianist who had studied in Paris, that when Cortot went on tour with Thibaud and Casals, he got on their nerves with his fussy and affected ways. So in one hotel in a small town in Europe (don't know which), after Cortot had gone to bed, the other two hung a TOILET sign on the door of his room. Next morning, he complained that he'd had the worst night of his life with people banging and kicking on this door the whole night through.
I'm always amazed with comments like this. Is this an exam in a third grade of a music school? Are we interested in Cortot's musical interpretation of this concerto or in his mechanical technique? Sure, it would be great to have both, but what is the point of talking about his errors 70+ years after the recording? Especially since the publisher has already mentioned that Cortot was not at the top of his shape at the moment of recording. But would we rather NOT listen to this wonderful, sensitive and poetic recording because of wrong notes here and there? It is easy to find tons of recordings on the net made by hordes of pianists that would have all the notes right. But who the heck cares since these recordings are indistinguishable from each other?
You said it . I took lessons from astudent of Cortot . I'm no great musician but one can get an understanding of this man's musical personality from the many great recordings he left us . Like Schnabel he is musician first after the 40's but listen to his early 1919 Saint-Saens etude and one knows he had the panache of a Hofmann or Lhevinne when he needed it .
After the end of WW2, Cortot's playing gained such an unbelievable sensitivity, which cannot be heard in his previous recordings, especially in his late recordings of Chopin.
Cortot is definitely one of my piano heroes and warts and all some of his recordings are just sublime. This concerto by Beethoven has these moments and his way of nuancing and phrasing in the slow movement is great!! Thanks again Mark for another wonderful recording!
"Cortot was unquestionably one of the great pianists of our time, he had astonishing power. He interpeted Beethoven magnificently..." (From "Joys and Sorrows", Pablo Casals's autobiography). He says this for the first time they met, I wish there were Beethoven records from his youth. But of course, this recording is also great. Thank you!
I've been looking for this for ages. Thank you so so much, Mark!
THANKS!! FINALLY A COMPLETE RECORDINH CORTOT! This piano concerto! Thanks❤❤❤
MERCI pour cette magnifique, sublime interprétation comme de coutume avec Maître Alfred Cortot
A bewitching performance by any yardstick and one that really illustrates the wide range of possible interpretations and I loved the orchestra! Thanks once again, Mark!!
You continue to amaze us with your discoveries! Despite the odd wrong note and finger-slip, his tone is still luminous, and his understanding of the structure of the piece is remarkable.
Cortot, though never a note-perfect pianist and whose work after World War II really declined, is on top of his game here! I don't think there is another performance that shows so clear an understanding of both the structural hinges of the music as well as its expressive force. The Orchestra is clearly not of the first rank but Cortot is worth the whole price of admission. Many thanks are owed the uploader.
You are right ; Cortot is more an artist than a technician and it is in this that his interpretations are magnificent, so human. He speaks as much to the work as to the heart of the spectator. Bravo, bravo Cortot!
Michelangeli.Note perfect, incredible sense of structure and not in need of doubling notes into octaves. Beethoven does not fancy this approach which is typical french. Michelangeli's rendering is "truth".
@@thepianocornertpc No interpretation can convey a single truth--"THE truth"--of a composer as variegated as Beethoven. I certainly did not, and would not, make such a claim.for Cortot's performance.
@@MrKlemps Sir...Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's secret consists in creating a certain frame or structure of mentality which is made always ready to respond instantly, that is, immediately to what comes from the outside. While technical training is of great importance, it is after all artificially..calculatingly added and acquired. Unless the mind that avails itself of the technical skill somehow attunes itself to a state of utmost fluidity or mobility, anything acquired or superimposed lacks spontaneity, natural growth. This state prevails when the mind is awakened to satori. What Michelangeli aimed at was this realization. It cannot be taught by any system designed for this purpose, it must simply grow from within. His system was really no system in the proper sense.As soon as an intellectual interpretation takes place, the whole thing goes awry..He once said:: When you want to see it, see it at once. When you begin to think, you miss the point. Happy New Year Sir.
@thepianocornertpc I should say only that instant readiness of the whole is hardly a common capacity. It sounds like more like an ideal. Yet it seems highly unlikely that if Michelangeli did possess it, he should be the only performer to do so. So first of all I should be interested in what other performers had it? Also do you think it possible to have it for some composers but not for others? Clearly someone favoring an "intellectual" approach (like Schnabel, his students, his very many "grandstudents"; Szigeti; Szell; Kolisch and a great many others) does not have it, nor is it possible for them to have it: Am I reading you correctly? Many thanks for your thought-provoking elucidation. Is
What a musician, what a master!!!Every note has a different colorful meaning, every phrase has character. The importance of the Music minimize the maniac manner of an "perfection" pianistic mechanism which hase nothing to do with the melodic view of the music, the singing. Every passage is singing and that's why the missing notes have really no importance. Is not technical issue of Cortot but matter of choice. He take a lot of risk to let the music flow in a natural way. The Competitions destroyed the meaning of the music, a pure deformation of the essence itself. Today we have a lot of wonderful pianists but without music speaking. They think in a pianistic way only to be "perfect" for competitions not in music thinking, making such effects during performance only to electrify the public who in general thinks that this kind of music is fun. So, the model is really wrong and bad. Thank you for the publication!
❤❤👏👏👏
Love this performance! So beautifully interactive. Imagine playing this well at an advanced age!
Une interprétation unique, inventive, musicale, vivante, en nuances qui chante et surclasse les autres haut la main.
Merci Maitre
A very good interpretation. Thank you for sharing!
A revelation!!! Thanks so much for this delight!
Cortot has a personality comparable to Debussy in French music. As a musician, he did a great deal of work. He founded the Conservatory and taught pianists. His disciples include Kempf, Haskil, Francois, Lipatti, Toyama, Michelangeli and Mizz Haas. He turned their weaknesses into strengths in the eyes of critics. There is no time to teach his learners. But he composed etude for the learners. As a conductor, he performed Wagner in Paris. He cured the German pronunciation of the French singer and choir, took the sound, conducted the practice, and gave the final performance. He didn't have time to practice his own piano. He was asked to travel after Wagner's performance. He went to the United States after six months of practice. He will perform a concert of five Beethoven concertos in the United States. His achievements as a pianist with regard to Chopin and Schumann are so great that it is not necessary to talk about them. He has no time to practice as a pianist and is talked about alongside Rubinstein, Horowitz and Backhous.Thank you very much hearing this recording.
Thank You very much for this gem. Cortot paints the notes in the air. What a master! You can pardon to him minor technical errors here and there.
Certainly a poetic pianist, even in this early Beethoven. As far as being 'better' in the older generation than now, that debate certainly exists, and not always to the detriment of today IMHO. One can find a certain heaviness to this, more appropriate for the later concertos and symphonies. That was common in those far off days before the 'original instruments/Ur Text" revelations. I like the lighter approach that captures the spirit of the young composer out to dazzle and impress, not overly concerned with profundity at that date in his life. But the music can bear it, and this is still wonderful to have, with moments on the piano that are sublime...
Wow, based on this performance I can just imagine how unique and vital his take on Beethoven Concerto 4 might have been!
Beautiful! Thank you.
Un génie musical, un poète. Un phrasé magnifique, une sonorité exquise
Incredible imagination and sound. Orchestra plays along very well
Pure imaginative genius
I listened to this out of curiosity, as one of my late piano professors at the Royal Academy of Music, either him or his teacher studied with Cortot. Also long ago I read a story about in a Cortot recital after World War II, some audiences brought metronomes to produce clicks to disturb him. As this is a very old recording I didn't expect much. But after listening, I must say I like Cortot's performance of this concerto very much.
What do you mean by "as this is a very old recording, I didn't expect much....".?? I would suggest you listen to Beethoven played by Fischer (Edwin and Annie!:-) Schnabel, Backhaus and others of this generation (not to mention Furtwängler, Klemperer and their colleagues.) Many very pleasant surprises await you:-)))
@@walterprossnitz3471 What I meant was, usually the older the recording, the more unwanted noise and deterioration of the recording (such as no longer in ptich). Also, recording technology of long ago played back on modern equipment can produce sound different to the original. This is particularly obvious with singing recording made a very long time ago. Over the years, I have heard some recordings of the Fischers, Schnabel, Backhaus, Furtwängler, Klemperer... The only one that had playback problems was Schnabel. I particularly liked Backhaus. It was a very long time ago I listened to these, and hope that the recordings remain in good condition.
I love Beethoven 🎹 Thanks for sharing 🎹
Now I Know what BEAUTY & POETRY mean (2d mvt). Thank you for sharing !
A rare document indeed, thank you!
I am not bothered at all by many wrong notes and own original [octaving, Tutti playing] ideas.
Cortot remains Cortot. His imagination is most remarkable.
But where is the cadenza of the first movement?
As I wrote in the notes below the player window... no idea why he didn't play the 1st movement cadenza...
@@ThePianoFiles Some pianists in that generation didn’t like Cadenzas . Rachmaninov and Moischewitz played also the Beethoven concerto 1 without cadenza.
He’s a poet
Thanks for sharing this .
Admirable.
Perfect. Thank you.
Allegro con brio 0:01
Largo 13:23
Rondo- Allegro 23:40
Bravoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Maestro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DE LOS GRANDES.
wonderful
Une pure merveille. L'incandescence du jeu de Cortot frise l'hallucination; la puissance de ses basses permet de mesurer l'ampleur de la vision de Schumann et fait de ce concerto le père de ceux de Brahms.
Personne n'a depuis lors atteint ce sommet...
He plays like a true chamber musician and all the better for it ... in comparison many modern recordings feel like they are thumped out with little regard for the orchestra.
Thanks
Magnífica interpretación, gracias!! Saludos desde Puebla, México Efraín Dávila R
I agree Sue... Equally Amazing is his protégée Ruth Slenczynska playing it Magnificently at 9!!
What a touch! 9:44
Numéro One
Cortot is what I call a real pianist, as in the opposite of forteist. He understands the craft of musical communication. He clearly is singing through the piano just as Beethoven Liszt, and Chopin were said to have done, unlike the majority of pianoforte players today, who bang away on the keyboard with metronomic emphasis for the main purpose of showing they can do that . Who play this way to cover up the fact that they are unmusical.
He even plays wrong notes beautifully! Great find.
Well stated! Lol
The sudden closure of the first movement without concluding cadenza and Cortot playing with the orchestra the coda is nevertheless very unusual and, to me, rather clumsy. IMHO.
Cortot was a wonderful pianist in spite of his mistakes.When he was very old,a gap of memory was replaced by his improvisation on materials of the score.His friends said : now he is playing Cortot.But 1950 Kinderszenen interpretation is still sublime.
It was just after the ww2, very difficult times for Cortot.
La poésie de Cortot fait oublier ses fausses notes. Son phrasé est inimitable.
Tout a fait!
"La musique de Beethoven ne se joue pas, ça se réinvente" - Anton Rubinstein après avoir ecouté l'Appasionata de Cortot
Anton Rubinstein died in 1894. Cortot was born in 1877.Check your facts before inventing comments.
Well that's a funny accusation! I think you're the one who should check the facts before writing embarrassing comments like this. Cortot started studying at the Paris Conservatoire in 1886 under Louis Diémer and Émile Descombes. At that time, Rubinstein had still not given his ultimate concert in Paris and during one of his last visits, he asked to hear one of Diémer's students. Diémer picked a very young Alfed Cortot who chose to play the Appassionata. If you search for "Albert Cortot (6/10) emission sans nom", you can even find an old radio episode in which Cortot himself recounts this meeting.
Check facts yourself in the future so I don't have to waste my time.
@@johnericsson749 From a pianist who adviced Rachmaninov to "Just press upon the keys until the blood oozes from your fingertips" I take nothing serious not even that ridiculous quote on Cortot. I was told Antoine was sponsored by a pharmaceutical company famous for Migraine and Violent Headaches syrupes and pills. 🤪🤪Happy new Year... Johnny.
Choosing to ignore everything he said and did because of one quote seems very silly and reductionistic to me. Regardless of what you think of him, he was one of the greatest pianists and musicians of the 19th century. Don’t forget that Rachmaninoff also said about him: "[His playing] gripped my whole imagination and had a marked influence on my ambition as a pianist."
And frankly, I don’t understand what’s so ridiculous about what he said to Cortot.
What quote? Ah! You mean what he said about Cortot. That's bullshit.. The advice he gave to Rachmaninov...that'sindeed silly bordering on moronic. And there is nothing you can do about it Shonnie.Happy New Year.
I was wondering what he was going to do with the first movement cadenza, but it somehow disappears. Sad, because the salvage edit is much worse than any mess he might have made when actually playing it - it sounds "post hoc". Perhaps an acetate side was lost?
It actually sounds to me like it wasn't played, not like an edit... but it's strange indeed. I haven't had an answer from any Cortot experts I've written to about why ...
There have been many improvements in sound reproduction since 1947.
It's debatable whether music-making has improved to the same degree... I would say not - hence my willingness to listen in less-than-ideal sound to superlative pianism.
@@ThePianoFiles I couldn't agree more, and this recording is a great example. The ending of the final movement is just magical here. I wouldn't trade it for anything!
@@ThePianoFiles I know what you mean!
Martha Argerich failed 2 notes playing this concerto in 2020. But it has been her best performance ever. If you want to play well this concerto, you cannot avoid to miss some notes.
He could not face France after the Second World War because of his liaison with the Vichy crowd. My teacher was his student during the later years in exile in Switzerland and I have first had account of what happened
These recordings of Cortot are, at the least, problematic. There are passages of sublime beauty - followed by stumbled runs and fistfuls of wrong notes - and it is not one of the 'difficult' concertos. To enjoy so many of Cortot's recordings you have to work hard to ignore the bum notes and just delight in the good bits. Piano lovers and admirers of Cortot (as I am) are prepared to overlook the sometimes grotesque moments.
I don't find this one problematic at all - unlike the late late Beethoven Sonata recordings he made for EMI, only very few of which were released and which can be uncomfortable. There's so much to glean from this particular performance I think, a phenomenally expansive approach. I am a huge fan too and wanted to appreciate those late late recordings but it's hard work at times... this one, fortunately, still has benefits that far outweigh the cons.
@@ThePianoFiles Yes, for a piano fanatic like myself and someone brought up on 78s of Cortot playing Chopin, the benefits in this performance do outweigh the cons. He was, of course, a superb chamber music player. I was told by a late great pianist who had studied in Paris, that when Cortot went on tour with Thibaud and Casals, he got on their nerves with his fussy and affected ways. So in one hotel in a small town in Europe (don't know which), after Cortot had gone to bed, the other two hung a TOILET sign on the door of his room. Next morning, he complained that he'd had the worst night of his life with people banging and kicking on this door the whole night through.
@@keybawd4023 that's HILARIOUS!!! What a fantastic story!!!
I'm always amazed with comments like this. Is this an exam in a third grade of a music school? Are we interested in Cortot's musical interpretation of this concerto or in his mechanical technique? Sure, it would be great to have both, but what is the point of talking about his errors 70+ years after the recording? Especially since the publisher has already mentioned that Cortot was not at the top of his shape at the moment of recording. But would we rather NOT listen to this wonderful, sensitive and poetic recording because of wrong notes here and there?
It is easy to find tons of recordings on the net made by hordes of pianists that would have all the notes right. But who the heck cares since these recordings are indistinguishable from each other?
You said it . I took lessons from astudent of Cortot . I'm no great musician but one can get an understanding of this man's musical personality from the many great recordings he left us . Like Schnabel he is musician first after the 40's but listen to his early 1919 Saint-Saens etude and one knows he had the panache of a Hofmann or Lhevinne when he needed it .
I was lucky to be a friend and a disciple of Robert Owens, who was one of the last Cortot's students.
Perfection in every note! I briefly studied with Robert Owens, Cortot's disciple, who discovered to me his principles of music making.
After the end of WW2, Cortot's playing gained such an unbelievable sensitivity, which cannot be heard in his previous recordings, especially in his late recordings of Chopin.
26:25 Russian composer, Boris Tchaikovsky, paraphrased this episode as his main theme for the movie "Balzaminov's Wedding" in 1966.