Won Kim 00:00 - Danse Russe (Russian Dance) 02:44 - Chez Pétrouchka (Petrushka's Room) 07:34 - La semaine grasse (The Shrovetide Fair) Ullman 16:18 - Danse Russe (Russian Dance) 18:58 - Chez Pétrouchka (Petrushka's Room) 23:54 - La semaine grasse (The Shrovetide Fair) Won Kim has a brilliant, hard-edged approach to the work, with some beautifully crisp articulation and surefooted handing of some of the most diabolical contrapuntal passages (2:10, 10:34). Ullman has a more generous & impressionist approach, dwelling more on the narrative nature of certain passages (21:11), & magicking up some gorgeous soundscapes (see e.g., the luminous halo of sound at 23:54).

@DariusMo

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks as always!

@m.l.pianist2370

4 жыл бұрын

How many hours a day do you listen to piano music, looking for these great performances?

@nezkeys79

4 жыл бұрын

Ullman seems to play louder. Both good ofc but i think i prefer Kim

@user-vg5sr9jj9n

4 жыл бұрын

ㅁ마 ㅁ

@bmois9578

3 жыл бұрын

OMG Won Kim's articulation....

0:08 this gliss will never get old

Oh well, at least I can play the part from 1:41 to 2:01...

0:21 chords create such strange and impossibly good harmony

To be able to play this music with this degree of precision and accuracy is mind-blowing.

0:07 I realized at the glissando how unique it is to hear the sound of the hands in the background moving around the piano in recordings

@legendoflegends9744

3 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/f6WgtctqfMuxqtY.html STRAVINSKY 🤘🤘🤘

2:10 Unbelievable brilliance and clarity of counterpoint. You look up a limitless open night sky, the cosmos is on display shooting stars flash and dash across your vision.

3 staves flex

@alejandrom.4680

4 жыл бұрын

He can't just use some extra lines, no, he needs 3 freacking staves

@rag2458

4 жыл бұрын

4 stave flex at 14:16 lmao

@scriabinismydog2439

4 жыл бұрын

Lol check Sorabji's Organ Symphony

@alejandrom.4680

4 жыл бұрын

@@scriabinismydog2439 We are talking about playable thing sbskahsjsh

@scriabinismydog2439

4 жыл бұрын

@@paeffill9428 yup I knew about Sorabji... That piece by Xenakis is for only one instrument?

imagine being able to sight-read this

@mojeo522

3 жыл бұрын

Not even Liszt could

@escopiliatese3623

3 жыл бұрын

Möjë Öøœ yes he could. In fact many well-trained pianists could sight read this quite easily. Sight-reading does not mean getting every not correctly, but keeping some form of tempo while not losing the essence of the score’s sound.

@preblalar8798

3 жыл бұрын

@Charlemagne I think you mix up two different stories here. Liszt sight read both the concerto and Griegs violin sonata where he played both the piano and the violin part. On Griegs first visit in Rome(1870) he Liszt sight read the sonata. Here is Griegs account of what happened: "Now you must bear in mind, in the first place, that he had never seen nor heard the sonata, and in the second place that it was a sonata with a violin part, now above, now below, independent of the piano part. And what does Liszt do? He plays the whole thing, root and branch, violin and piano, nay, more, for he played fuller, more broadly. The violin got its due right in the middle of the piano part. He was literally over the whole piano at once, without missing a note, and how he did play! With grandeur, beauty, genius, unique comprehension. I think I laughed - laughed like an idiot." On the second visit Liszt sight read the concerto. Here is from wikipedia which cites Harald Herresthal: "On his second visit, in April, Grieg brought with him the manuscript of his Piano Concerto, which Liszt proceeded to sightread (including the orchestral arrangement). Liszt's rendition greatly impressed his audience, although Grieg gently pointed out to him that he played the first movement too quickly." There are many anecdotes of Liszt remarkable sight-reading ability, one of them is that he sight-read Adolf Henselth concerto op.16 at a rehersal in Leipzig from the manuscript. An absolutely ridiculous feat! And he could read full orchestral scores as well, which he is said to have done with the manuscript of Tristan and Isolde. Here is an account from Otis Bardwell Boise who visited Liszt in Weimar in 1876 (from Schoenberg 1963): "He (Liszt) glanced at the instrumental scheme, turned the successive pages to the end, tracing my themes and procedures, and then with this flash negative in his mind, began the most astoundingly coherent rendering of an orchestral score that I had heard and such as I never since heard from another musician. Those who have attempted such tasks know that the ten fingers being inadequate to the performance of all the details, it is necessary to cull such essentials from the mass of voices as well as clear the line of development. Liszt did this simultaneously. No features of the workmanship, contrapuntal or instrumental , escaped his notice and he made running comments without interrupting his progress."

@bakubaku4333

3 жыл бұрын

Organists read stuff like this all the time

@tchaffman

3 жыл бұрын

@@mojeo522 LOL Liszt was a few decades gone by this time... But he'd probably be able to fake his way through Petrushka just fine.

1:15 Rite of Spring! 5:30 Milhaud's Scaramouche! 8:16 Enescu's Suite No. 2! 8:42 Stravinsky's Symphony No. 1! 13:07 Poulenc Sonata for Four Hands! 15:12 Rite of Spring!

@alexandercanright2318

4 жыл бұрын

6:53 Firebird!

@dukeofcurls3183

3 жыл бұрын

Petrushka contains lots of foreshadowing to the Rite of Spring, I can point to at least five passages in the entire ballet that strike me as strongly resembling and being borderline identical to passages in the Rite

@benharmonics

Жыл бұрын

“Good composers borrow, great composers steal.” -Igor Stravinsky

@cinemagraphymahivara2000

9 ай бұрын

His 1 symphony was mad on Wagner and Tchaikovsky (and Cui operas), and this is rus folk song Vdol po piterskoi

What a way to return! We've all missed you immensely Ashish!

@dmitriykashitsyn3383

4 жыл бұрын

Could not agree more. Honestly, I'd be happy to support this channel on Patreon. Such a detailed and yet concise analysis (at the same time!) is truly unique. Not to mention author's exceptional taste and erudition.

@pantoleonantonio9653

4 жыл бұрын

@@dmitriykashitsyn3383 i completely agree

@amirron1337

24 күн бұрын

inthane

Even in this piano version, Stravinsky's massive dynamic bombs can still be observed. This man was a wild genius.

@sirchoppy1810

3 жыл бұрын

fuck yea

I have a book with this in it. I first saw it when I was about 13 and I was struck by feelings of amazement and abject horror when seeing something like this. Thanks for the upload!

So glad to see another video from Ashish! I really think this channel helps expose new people to classical music. Without this channel I might never have discovered so many pieces I now love dearly.

This channel should be the entire website

@fredericchopin6445

3 жыл бұрын

Cameron Guarino lol it took me a while to understand lmao

I have heard this before but never looked at the sheet music. Looks intimidating as hell!! Edit: A letter

@AnnaKhomichkoPianist

4 жыл бұрын

It is 😂

@adanmartinezpiano

4 жыл бұрын

@Hose2wAcKiEr I know! Really easy to make it sound really bad.

@javascriptkiddie2718

4 жыл бұрын

It looks like something from Alkan

@CatkhosruShapurrjiFurabji

3 жыл бұрын

@@javascriptkiddie2718 Only something like the Solo Piano Concerto, Comme le Vent, or Le Preux can beat this suite.

@lucaslorentz

2 жыл бұрын

@@CatkhosruShapurrjiFurabji comme le vent does not match petrushka

There is a minute or so in here, 11:14 - 12:15 which is staggering. The clarity. The glory.

My my, such clarity! Won Kim really does a splendid job here. I feel every slight, wooden nuance of Petrushka's movements here. Oh what a tragic story though. The sorrow unrequited love can bring

1:01 and 3:59 are pure bliss

Mesmerising performance by Won Kim. Suits Stravinsky‘s writing for piano imo. I enjoyed it very much.

Heard the piece once life. I'll keep it in my memory for my lifetime because it was a great experience.

4:00 and 4:24 very lovely and unique!

Amazing work and interpretation, thanks !

they performed russian dance with a level of precision i didnt even think was possible, amazing

Won Kim’s performance at 12:31 is just amazing

@stacia6678

2 жыл бұрын

Reminds me of Bartok

Glad you're back!! Really miss the regular uploads

I've been looking for more interpretations of this piece for a while! Thanks for uploading!

As always the challenge is to being out the central themes against a daunting and dense background of technical filigree. Syncopated minimalism. Each pianist accomplishes all this with sensitivity and requisite bravado. Technical capacity to spare. Musical clarity and precision. Each is masterful and memorable performance setting the bar high for any mere mortals who would take on this stupendous challenge!

Here I find why Agosti wrote his Firebird 3 movements so hard.... Stravinsky himself is making it much harder!

A new Ashish video, and it's petroushka! Couldn't be happier

I’ve loved this music since always, every single note, every single melody, rhythm and different sounds. But the final remains for me something mysterious. Perhaps I wanted that that the last dance could not have an end

So many beautiful colors that Stravinsky can make you see

Outstanding transcription and performance of this masterpiece.

4:43 This sounds so modern!!!

@vmdp8790

3 жыл бұрын

Us jazz people love him

@JafuetTheSame

2 жыл бұрын

lady gaga modern?

@bilkishchowdhury8318

Жыл бұрын

It's Russian aesthetic You see this kind of melody in Shosty too

Siempre fascinante el gran Stravinsky.

Two great interpretations of one of the most difficult solo pieces in the rep. Having practiced (but never performed) most of this, Won Kim's clarity and voicing is kind of unreal. This is especially true if you understand the mental and physical implications of what you're seeing. And no... most of the difficulty doesn't come from all the black on the page or the three (sometimes four) staves, although it definitely adds to it. I'd put this up here with Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and Barber's Sonata as some of the most difficult solo music to pull off well. None of those are even in the top ten most difficult piano pieces, but probably at least top twenty/thirty.

@XavierMacX

4 жыл бұрын

@@andrecastro2609 Agreed. Except I'd actually put Liszt's works below these (in terms of difficulty.. he's one of my favorite composers) except for the fireworks etude and solo Totentanz. The B minor sonata would be included for musical difficulty if not technical, perhaps. Liszt usually fits very well under the hands, and I find him to be much easier than most Brahms even (when it's not a major 12th or something he's asking for lol). Hammerklavier, Goldberg, Art of the Fugue, Rzewski's The People United..., Opus Clavecembalisticum, some of Alkan's works... those are the real top tier monsters [talking standard rep; of course there's a bunch of difficult modern music, but unfortunately a lot of it doesn't have the great payoffs of the masterworks]. And that's just for solo piano. Getting into chamber/orchestral works we have Prokofiev's 2nd concerto, the Ravel trio, Bartok's 2nd concerto, Rach 3, etc...

@XavierMacX

4 жыл бұрын

@@andrecastro2609 For sure! It's also a stretch to call Sorabji standard rep, haha. So you're right about that one. I love the Reminiscences... very underplayed and underrated.

@jonathanm.9801

4 жыл бұрын

XavierMacX alkan le preux

@lucasamory7056

4 жыл бұрын

As someone who has played Reminiscences di Norma, I don't believe it's even close in difficulty to many of the things listed here. Don Juan is much more difficult alone, but the counterpoint, voicing, and clarity that is needed in Petrushka is insane.

@lisztomani4c

3 жыл бұрын

XavierMacX I agree. Liszt has certain comparable works, but most of them are either not so incentive early virtuosity works (S. 140/La Clochette Fantasy/Spanish Fantasy) or their difficulty comes from the more musical perspective adorned with wider technical capabilities [The Legends/Sonatas (specifically, Dante and B minor sonatas)/ Années de Pèlerinage] and some remarkable fusions of both (as named, Totentanz for solo piano, El Contrabandista, most of his mephistophelic works) and of course, his symphony transcriptions (Berlioz & Beethoven). Still, a lot of his fans skip the fact that it is truly painful to perform 20th century music as certain boundaries of piano playing was eventually surpassed with the modern pianism. I can name numerous more difficult works from Godowsky, Prokofieff, Busoni, Ligeti, Ravel; modern works with generous instances of polytonality or atonality..

He's back!

The legend is back! So happy about this, I watch your videos on a daily basis. Will you continue uploading?

20:26 So delicate!

Another Ashish Xiangyi Kumar video, another beautiful day!

@AnnaKhomichkoPianist

4 жыл бұрын

Sujit Hegde yes!

Amazing

Stravinsky... you were ahead of your time. A genius you are indeed with your incredible music.

Delicious!!!!! Thankyou Ashish :)

Merci beaucoup !

SO FUCKING HAPPY TO SEE A NEW VIDEO FROM THIS MARVELLOUS CHANNEL

Immortal performance

просто одно из самых ярких красивых ослепительных мажорных произведений!!!

Damn, this looks brutal. Polyrhythms, thirds, jumps, voicing, dynamics - yeesh

@legendoflegends9744

3 жыл бұрын

kzread.info/dash/bejne/f6WgtctqfMuxqtY.html STRAVINSKY 🤘🤘🤘

@roberacevedo8232

2 жыл бұрын

*Thirds Thirds are already made of 2 notes. I don’t think it’s necessary to say double thirds, just thirds.

@Prometeur

2 жыл бұрын

@@roberacevedo8232 Very true. Edited

@Prometeur

2 жыл бұрын

@@roberacevedo8232 Actually, I'm not entirely sure, as I believe double thirds refer to thirds played by one hand

@MathieuPrevot

2 жыл бұрын

@@roberacevedo8232 There are actually double thirds overlapping alternated thirds, bottom of page 3 of Semaine grasse, so it's in a way quad thirds !

0:08, 13:54 and 32:42 are pure gliss.

He lives! :)

¡Hermoso!

12:23 it sounds like a knock on wood and i don’t know why. That’s so cool. I don’t really want to listen to petrushka or firebird ballet now because these transcriptions are so good ( especially Agosti firebird). I’ll defo give them a listen though.

Welcome back, bruh! :D

I'm smiling like a crazy person + crying.

The fact that the auto-generated captions write "[laughter]" 👌

너무조아💕💕

7:50 Whoever has three hands, please tell me.

やはりストラヴィンスキーは天才だ

crazy stravinsky transcription

Thanks for the introduction to modern pianists Ashish! How did you discover them?

Question here, if you don't mind. Are you still thinking of doing the 'theme' based programmed video? - the one you posted for a vote on community.

@athanasiusleong3815

4 жыл бұрын

There's a community? I want in 😂

Wow ,so expressive! Looking to the sheet I can to lost my head))))

The staccato bits remind me of the Thunder Plains OST in Final Fantasy X.

That harmony is crunchy

9:12 is amazing

wow

Wow ty

nice!

4:43-5:07 is the best part ever

i like it

Bravo bravo bravo bravo brilliance genial fantastic music

Once I attended a funeral of the mother of my cousin's boyfriend - she eventually married him. Someone took me home, and on the car radio, they were performing Petrouchka, however the driver and owner of the car thought it was the Rite of Spring.

Nice

The Won Kim recording is absolutely amazing. How he can play this absurdly difficult piece with so much clarity is inhuman. Where did you find the recording? I can find hardly anything about the pianist, and can't find the recording/CD online anywhere...

@geoffstemen3652

4 жыл бұрын

classicalant the answer is in the question - recording

@natmichaels4698

2 жыл бұрын

i know its been two years, but his name is actually do-hyun kim.

@moosicisthegood

2 жыл бұрын

@@natmichaels4698 does he have any other recordings on KZread?

@AldenHardaway

Жыл бұрын

@@natmichaels4698 omg that explains it, do-hyun is amazing

@AldenHardaway

Жыл бұрын

@@moosicisthegood here's a great one: kzread.info/dash/bejne/c4F9rbKdpqe6dJs.html

Wished they turned that trumpet solo and the trio afterwords into a arrangement for piano

@TomCheer9

3 жыл бұрын

Aram - I thought you were dead! Good to hear from you. I couldn't agree more.

I just went to the piano and I was surprised that I could learn to play the first screen until the glissando quite easily. I still gave up immediately after I tried the first notes of the 2nd screen.

‚Too technical.‘ was my first impression. But I returned here after listening to three other interpretations because every note has a meaning in this interpretation.

@MathieuPrevot

2 жыл бұрын

What does this even mean 'too technical' ? The pianist the means or almost (not: no recording). Too much ?

@bm4114

Жыл бұрын

@@MathieuPrevot too technical is something folks with average technique say about folks with exceptional technique.

I would love to see some more Stravinsky on the channel (ec the piano arrangements of the Song of the Nightingale or the Historie du Soldat Suite), even though the writing in pieces like the piano/wind concerto can be a bit stiff and dry.

26:43 is played exceptionally

Now I see where Bartok found his inspiration for its second concerto

stra vin sky

Good

time to paly this on the organ

👍👍👍👍👍

This sounds like a burst of colors

0:21 0:44 10:43 11:30 12:14 12:31

A question not really related to the music, but for you Ashish; why is it that you never feature Georgy Cziffra on this channel? Just wondering out of curiosity. Thanks!

@AshishXiangyiKumar

4 жыл бұрын

1. I try to feature modern pianists. 2. Except for some pieces that have a improvisatory nature, I find Cziffra's style kind of ugly -- too much distortion for not very much payoff. Given the right repertoire it can be pretty exciting, though.

@sameester

4 жыл бұрын

Interesting! And thanks for the reply. Cziffra can come across as brash at first, but really his playing is filled with emotion - usually happiness. After all, few pianists lived through so much, and I get the sense he didn't want to fill his music with the melancholy he'd lived through. I wonder if you're aware of his recordings of Chopin's Berecuse - his 'effortless' technique really gives a gentleness to the runs in a way almost no other pianist can, and which greatly suits the piece. As for his recording of the Grieg concerto... well, I think it is unmatched.

12:21 onwards is the most joyous, beautiful thing I've ever heard

Guys, you should also checkout yuja's interpretation on the russian dance mvt 1

These were written for Artur Rubenstein, did he ever play/record them? I just saw he did!

Love your channel, AXK! A request: can we please have the *given name* and surname on first references to the artists in the opening commentary? This is a voyage of discovery (for me, at least), and full references to those names would help avoid the distraction of multiple Google searches. Thank you.

@AshishXiangyiKumar

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a sensible idea.

The hardest part 0:00-32:48

Imagine playing it half a tone above.

@fredericchopin6445

3 жыл бұрын

oh i got wut u mean

Is the Won Kim recording from the 2009 album alongside Gaspard and Rach's op39 for sony classical (also is it the same Won Kim? There is another pinanist named Chae Won Kim)? If so how did you get it? I can't seem to find where to purchase it, as well as any information on this Won Kim guy. It would be much appreciated! It's so weird that any online trace of this pianist is the recording in this video. Thank you for all the amazing discoveries by the way!

のだめが弾いてたやつ！

@TATANKA-nf4ck

4 жыл бұрын

途中で「きょうの料理」になっちゃった奴。

🎹

Holy;

Where did you find this Won Kim recording? Is it on a CD? I want to buy it

16:58 3 staves..........M.D.R.

The melody Stravinsky (eventually) uses in the section starting at 12:30 was also used by Taneyev for the finale of his first symphony. I'm only mentioning this cos I find it interesting, though - Stravinsky did a great job with the melody here, whereas Taneyev, well, did not do a great job with it. As good as Taneyev's third and fourth symphonies are (especially the 4th), the first is clearly an early work where the composer didn't really know what he was doing entirely. Still, it's interesting to see the same folk song show up in multiple pieces.