Wow, I thought only Cortot played this way - with split hands. Quite old fashioned and surprising given his classical performance of the Kreutzer sonata with Huberman
The amazing verve of the grand old masters, complete with their fine shaping of phrases and attention to tonal detail. Those final chords will resound through the ages.
How I would love to have a recording of Friedman actually playing this work of sheer genius to compare side-by-side with this Duo-Art roll. I've heard some piano rolls that seem to come close to the artist's intentions, but I believe this one falls short of the mark, and misrepresents Friedman's artistry, a fact to which other commenters have alluded.
Whatever people say about Duo-arte piano rolls being faithful reproductions, I can recognise a DA roll at once. There is a small but noticeable fluctuation of speed. In parts they sound 'real' and others 'robotic', In deed they sound nothing like the way human beings actually play.
Exactly . This is horrible . A complete caricature . For me quite worthless . Only representative of the speed or the possible intention of the pianist , further than this , an artistic error . Clownesque .
And the whole thing very painful because Friedman was a particularly fine and delicate player of the keyboard . Here only a reminder of his divine articulation of music . Much more a nasty tornado of vegetables soup . With unwashed mushrooms . Bravo to the choosen ones able to listen to this creepy-crappy to the end .
@@Fritz_Maisenbacher I think it's the best interpretation of this piece that I have ever heard and the most satisfying to me. The most searching, sensitive, introspective and poetic, with all of the fire, power and passion that is in the music. Full of grandeur and magnificent climaxes.
Technically impeccable and artistically very sensitive. I wonder if this is a true representation of Friedman's playing. Does anyone know when the original was set to the piano roll? I feel that there is too much rubato here, and I wonder if Chopin would approve. I still regard Hofmann's (flawed) 1938 recording as supreme.
Based on other Friedman recordings I have heard, like the A flat Ballad, this is representative. It's particularly poetic and, as you say, sensitive, a great interpretation. The way that he lets the piece breathe and the tonal beauty are wonderful. His rubato seems right (effective) to me and he was closer to the Chopin tradition. But it really doesn't matter what Chopin would have thought. He probably played with even more rubato than Friedman.
With respect, Berlioz - who was no pedant - famously said that Chopin “simply could not play in time” though he expected students to do so. Others report that Chopin never played a piece the same way twice. Friedman’s rubato, like Pachmann’s and many others’, may have been much closer to Chopin’s than most modern pianists’. As for the player piano, for all its limitations to me this sounds inimitably like Friedman, and it’s his only known recording of this Ballade. Thanks as always for sharing!
It's interesting that Murray Peraiha asked a student in a masterclass you can watch on YT, to listen to Friedman play the beginning of this piece. The student was playing without any feeling. I was shocked that Perhaia said that.
Masterful playing of course. He could do anything he felt like diong with consummate ease, but his interpretation is so unlike any performance of this piece I've ever heard, it gives me pause to wonder. It will take a good deal of "getting used to" before i could say I like it. To my ears he plays Chopin's most profound ballade as though it were COCKTAIL music -- loose, spasmodic, facile but hard to take seriously. And Friedman, because he taught Brude Hungerford as a bpoy in Australia before Hungerford came to Julliard was one of my pianistic grandfathers! Wouldn't it be winderful if we could simeow recapture CHOPIN plains own music when it was new! But that wouldn't settle all the arguments, because as Mrs. Genhart often said, "If two do the same, it is NOTthe same."
It's not cocktail music, it's a magnificent interpretation, passionate and poetic, the grand style. There is an artistic purpose in every note. Listen to his Chopin mazurkas and etudes and you will understand why many knowledgeable people believe that he was the greatest pianist who ever recorded.
My first reaction was like outch but then I read it's a pianoroll. So Friedman remains a hero to me, having listened to the mazurka's.
Forgive me, but this was a true masterpiece long before the Great Ignaz was born.
The octave playing at 8:34, sensational, wow!!!
Wow, I thought only Cortot played this way - with split hands. Quite old fashioned and surprising given his classical performance of the Kreutzer sonata with Huberman
Thanks for uploading this historic reproducing piano roll recording
The amazing verve of the grand old masters, complete with their fine shaping of phrases and attention to tonal detail. Those final chords will resound through the ages.
How I would love to have a recording of Friedman actually playing this work of sheer genius to compare side-by-side with
this Duo-Art roll. I've heard some piano rolls that seem to come close to the artist's intentions, but I believe this one falls short of the mark, and misrepresents Friedman's artistry, a fact to which other commenters have alluded.
Whatever people say about Duo-arte piano rolls being faithful reproductions, I can recognise a DA roll at once. There is a small but noticeable fluctuation of speed. In parts they sound 'real' and others 'robotic', In deed they sound nothing like the way human beings actually play.
Exactly . This is horrible . A complete caricature . For me quite worthless . Only representative of the speed or the possible intention of the pianist , further than this , an artistic error . Clownesque .
And the whole thing very painful because Friedman was a particularly fine and delicate player of the keyboard .
Here only a reminder of his divine articulation of music .
Much more a nasty tornado of vegetables soup . With unwashed mushrooms .
Bravo to the choosen ones able to listen to this creepy-crappy to the end .
@@Fritz_Maisenbacher I think it's the best interpretation of this piece that I have ever heard and the most satisfying to me. The most searching, sensitive, introspective and poetic, with all of the fire, power and passion that is in the music. Full of grandeur and magnificent climaxes.
@@Fritz_Maisenbacher well said its all over the place
Unbelievable. He made this piece into a true masterpiece. I can't believe my ears, never thought I would hear it played this way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOW.
OK, I just forgot about every other recording of this I've heard. Thanks Mr. Friedman for the artistry and insight
Technically impeccable and artistically very sensitive. I wonder if this
is a true representation of Friedman's playing. Does anyone know when
the original was set to the piano roll? I feel that there is too much
rubato here, and I wonder if Chopin would approve. I still regard
Hofmann's (flawed) 1938 recording as supreme.
Based on other Friedman recordings I have heard, like the A flat Ballad, this is representative. It's particularly poetic and, as you say, sensitive, a great interpretation. The way that he lets the piece breathe and the tonal beauty are wonderful. His rubato seems right (effective) to me and he was closer to the Chopin tradition. But it really doesn't matter what Chopin would have thought. He probably played with even more rubato than Friedman.
It is said that Chopin kept a very strict sense of tempo. A great performance nonetheless.
With respect, Berlioz - who was no pedant - famously said that Chopin “simply could not play in time” though he expected students to do so. Others report that Chopin never played a piece the same way twice. Friedman’s rubato, like Pachmann’s and many others’, may have been much closer to Chopin’s than most modern pianists’.
As for the player piano, for all its limitations to me this sounds inimitably like Friedman, and it’s his only known recording of this Ballade. Thanks as always for sharing!
The first 2 lines would have eliminated him from the sick competitions of today !! We have nothing but robots playing today and mostly Asian at that
It's interesting that Murray Peraiha asked a student in a masterclass you can watch on YT, to listen to Friedman play the beginning of this piece. The student was playing without any feeling. I was shocked that Perhaia said that.
Superb.
Awesome. ty GULLIVIOR FOR POSTING.
❤️❤️❤️
Spectaculaire
AH I love the keyboard immortals of old. Bu thtere's an abundance of young talent today as well.
a genius only for notes not for tone and colour and the line of the phrase and the piece as a whole. That culture has gone I am afraid.
@@adriancook7078well said.
What an end!!!
Yes!
Masterful playing of course. He could do anything he felt like diong with consummate ease, but his interpretation is so unlike any performance of this piece I've ever heard, it gives me pause to wonder. It will take a good deal of "getting used to" before i could say I like it. To my ears he plays Chopin's most profound ballade as though it were COCKTAIL music -- loose, spasmodic, facile but hard to take seriously. And Friedman, because he taught Brude Hungerford as a bpoy in Australia before Hungerford came to Julliard was one of my pianistic grandfathers! Wouldn't it be winderful if we could simeow recapture CHOPIN plains own music when it was new! But that wouldn't settle all the arguments, because as Mrs. Genhart often said, "If two do the same, it is NOTthe same."
It's not cocktail music, it's a magnificent interpretation, passionate and poetic, the grand style. There is an artistic purpose in every note. Listen to his Chopin mazurkas and etudes and you will understand why many knowledgeable people believe that he was the greatest pianist who ever recorded.
what lp is this from?
C'est du très haut niveau mais je préfère Hoffmann beaucoup plus fulgurant.
Since it's a piano roll, why not make a modern recording using a modern player piano?
Countless things wrong with this performance -- unfortunately Friedman is a genius so it doesn't matter.
Oy.
laughable
That is real playing. Not the cookie punched performances we have today by Asian machines.