10 Great Pianists attempt the UNPLAYABLE opening chaos of Albéniz’s Lavapiés (LIVE only)

[@LukeFaulkner]

Albeniz was one of the first composers to be inspired by having music playing simultaneously in two tabs.

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

Then Ives arrived

[@erwinschulhoff4464]

@@dariocaporuscio8701 sorabji is a better contender

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

@@erwinschulhoff4464 true but he was later

[@pghagen]

Very difficult to make a choice which pianist brought the right interpretation of this very difficult piece. But my credits go to Alicia de Larrocha, as she was the one who recorded complete Iberia four times. Here she was already a bit older and was immediately followed by Yuya Wang, who has big hands, whereas Alicia had very small hands. Listening to AdL on the EMI recordings 2006 but originally recorded in 1962 on hispavox, she was the one who mastered this piece the best of all. She was also the pianist who made the complete Spanish piano music well known over the world during her long career over 76 years. So Bravo for AdL.👏🎹🙏

[@reallynotpc]

ADL was my introduction to Iberia, but very much like Miguel Baselga's version.

[@franksmith541]

Yuja Wang at 5'2" has "big hands"?! She must the "creature out of Greek mythology" Seinfeld was referring to - "part woman, part horrible beast" lol!

[@nikb6176]

​@@franksmith541 she does indeed have large hands, similarly Lang Lang and Kissin both have large hands. The three of them have a very large breadth across the 1st and 2nd fingers.

[@franksmith541]

@@nikb6176 Seinfeld must have seen a woman with hands like hers that inspired his "man hands" bit lol! Regarding hand size, Garrick Ohlsson has true large hands, not "large breadth" between anything, just big bear paw hands, perfect for the piano. They simply go with his great height.

[@nyc2cal902]

Larrocha is supreme in this music. I heard Yuja Wang play it live and could not hear all the layers clearly. Larrocha achieves this, along with much more panache than any of the others on this video. By the way, Larrocha had an absolutely blistering technique, although unlike Wang she wouldn't play ridiculously virtuosic encore show pieces. This piece shows ADL had the better technique versus Wang. Of course, Wang still has lots of time. But for those of us lucky enough to have heard ADL give live performances, she generated much more frenzy than any pianist does today. Eight or more encores and she had to stop, the audience wanted more. (Yes, I like Wang and think her playing has improved lately, but ADL is one of the very top in history).

[@RoboticsBay]

True words. Stellar pianism.

[@albertomartin4812]

I like Esteban Sánchez even more in some parts of Iberia, Lavapiés among those.

[@labalalaika1]

"Lavapies" is a lively and popular working class neighbourhood in Madrid. In that "chaotic" opening, before the "Habanera" central section, Albeniz masterfully depicts the sound of the street barrel organ, so popular in Madrid at the beginning of the XXth Century to accompany the traditional Madrilean dance, the "Chotis".Those instruments were usually terribly noisy and out of tune. "Lavapies" must be played with great cockiness, the fundamental Madrilean character. Not fast, taking the time to emphasize the accents, the silences and the phrases ("sans presser" marked Albeniz), with delectation and nonchalance. Almost all the pianist in this selection play this piece ridiculously fast, as a "tour de force", which is not. The only ones close to the ideal tempo, character and "cockiness" are Gustavo Diaz-Jerez and Alicia de Larrocha. Here are some examples of the Madrilean Street Barrel Organ: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIeqqa2EpMx3j9Usi=lOVyujNjozFImTPP kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZ3cm4J4rq2jr8ksi=jsIH40AbkUjMle25 The Madrilean "Chotis" dance: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3aXq5ueq96ZrdEsi=dZlT6ldyN0siiSbL

[@da96103]

When an ice cream truck crashes into a bus full of clowns.

[@2011persol]

lmao @ your comment, total pandemonium!

[@michaeledwards1172]

This reminds me of a vivid description I once read of what it looks like to see someone performing Albéniz's music: "two spiders engaged in mortal combat". This piece is one of the strongest examples of that in the whole of Iberia. In this piece, and some others in Iberia, the technique Albéniz uses is to use one hand to provide a background of elaborate, chromatic chords or figuration, or sometimes even miniature semitone clusters, while the other hand literally picks out the melody notes which may lie anywhere within the accompaniment chords. If good voicing isn't used, the melody would be inaudible - as, for example, to my great surprise, with Marc-André Hamelin, who failed to bring out the melody in one passage near the beginning, whereas Alicia de Larrocha makes that same melody sing out like a bell.

[@flooo5071]

the polyphony has a Sorabji taste. Hear his pastiche over carmen's habanera, it's surprisingly close

[@arconoc]

Perhaps the reason for the chaos is in the title "Lavapies" a working-class quarter in Madrid: politics, nightlife, parties in unlicensed premises, art etc...just a thought. 😊

[@ArgerichStan]

Absolutely. It is genius musical painting of Albéniz’s part

[@arconoc]

Also, in my opinion, the struggle playing it needs to be somewhat evident - it misses the point if it's made to sound too easy or indeed made a show case for virtuosity. Alicia de Larrocha captures this to perfection, she dedicated a lifetime to this work.

[@arrimeme6447]

Tiene usted toda la razón. Es música programática: un caos musical que intenta describir un caos callejero, pero algo diferente del Lavapiés de hoy, el de principios del siglo XX, con calles ruidosísimas llenas de gente en las que se oían organillos (más de uno a la vez) tocando "chotis" y "habaneras", y olía a "buñuelos", "churros", anís, aguardiente... You are absolutely right. Sort of program music: A musical chaos that tries to describe a street chaos, but a little different from the Lavapiés of today, that of the beginning of the 20th century, with very noisy streets full of people in which barrel pianos (more than one at a time) could be heard playing "chotis" and "habaneras", and it smelled of "buñuelos", "churros", anisette, schnapps...

[@arconoc]

@@arrimeme6447 Me agrada muchísimo que pensamos igual....en mi humilde opinión no ay otra forma de interpretar Lavapiés...

[@carlhopkinson]

Well, the good thing is that wrong notes are not easy to detect since the piece just consists of wrong notes.

[@nilsfrederking62]

😎

[@sundancer7381]

[@sundancer7381]

Wait till you get to Charles Ives.

[@minsekfau3218]

No...?

[@gregvoss5390]

Nothing pleasing about listening to noise.

[@albertomartin4812]

I highly recommend the recording by Esteban Sánchez. He's so charming recreating the atmosphere.

[@Barpoint212]

Great compilation! I love de Larrocha, of course, but the big surprise is Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, who's a new name to me. Technically formidable, well shaped, and a variety of texture and color.

[@timward276]

He has live performances of most (if not all) of Iberia; his Corpus Christi (nearly as treacherous as Lavapies) is fantastic, as his Almeria (one of the easier pieces in Iberia, but very far from easy). He's terrific.

[@normalcynormalcy2338]

Something about the way Larrocha plays that makes all the layers shine through. First time I ever heard of her was as a high school junior with a massive crush on a piano-playing girl he'd watched play Granados' Allegro de Concierto in the auditorium (they called it FAT for Fatmawati I think) early 2001 for the IASAS Cultural Convention at the school I'd just transferred to. I came to know her playing chamber music together, and asked her for the sheet music and whose recording she was listening to. Larrocha was whom. We ended up dating in senior year. Fondest high school memories. Alas she's passed away - rest her soul - but the music has stayed. Rest in peace, Eriko Ikeda. I still play it every now and then.

[@MrAquilina420]

I love how this video series is essentially about roasting world renowned pianists. 😂 To see even Yuja make a pig ear of it reveals she is human after all!

[@johnsrabe]

Serious q if u have the time: Can you develop this a bit? Which parts does she botch, compared with one of these who got it right? (Timestamp better than measures/bars!) if too much trouble no worries.

[@Pablo-gl9dj]

​@@johnsrabeshe may play the notes but what does it evoke? A musical picture of chaos should not sound clean and organized

[@mubaraksenju7521]

Thank God Martha didn't play this piece. It would've sucked out 10 years of her life

[@fulcherpj]

It has something… not quite sure what but there is a consistency of discordant intervals which in some way makes sort of bizarre sense within its chaos. Yuja Wang plays it best to my ear but I am just amazed that anyone can play this!!

[@lisilisin]

Here you have another live recording of AdL (Carnegie Hall 1973). She performed "Iberia" complete 80 times! and countless times, some of the books... Each performance is different! kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6K8oIurl9Gkm6s

[@barcarolleenjoyer]

besides comparing pianists playing the same piece, it would be rly interesting to compare different versions of the same piece (e.g. the 1913 vs 1931 version of the 2nd Rach sonata) as well

[@benharmonics]

To me, the only ones who come close to making it sound like music are Orozco and Díaz-Jerez. (Edit: I think Lugansky also would’ve sounded pretty good if his performance hadn’t been recorded underwater.) But for anyone to perform Lavapiés is extremely impressive. And like all of Iberia, it’s a fantastic piece-my favorite part is not the opening, but the passage that follows, where the new theme is introduced and then developed brilliantly.

[@ArgerichStan]

I sometimes wonder from Albeniz perspective what the ideal performance of this piece is - it’s interesting that some pianists strive for a sort of clarity within the chaos, but some choose to highlight the chaos (whether intentionally or because they can’t achieve clarity) - I’m curious which he would have preferred!

[@williamfarr8807]

@@ArgerichStan Yes, I was thinking something similar. Some of the pianist achieve a clarity, but in doing so the music seems less remarkable. In my opinion, it is the off kilter, chaotic twist that gives the piece it's charm.

[@pocoapoco2]

I think Diaz-Jerez is the only one to maintain musical sensibility throughout while still effectively overlaying the chaos.

[@michaeledwards1172]

Could we all agree, at the least, that the principal melody ought to be heard by the listener?

[@evifnoskcaj]

The only thing I would ask Lavapiés after hearing this "WHO HURT YOU?!" My god this is torture.

[@lisilisin]

Not only is each pianist different, but the interpretation of the same work by the same pianist is different every day he plays it. It is very difficult to give a general opinion. In this video we can comment on these specific interpretations (from that specific day they played it). I can't give my opinion because it wouldn't be objective, since one of the pianists is my mother... Anyway, let's enjoy the performances with the differences of each one!

[@peter5.056]

every time I hear this I just say..."go home piano....you're drunk."

[@johnynbe]

You forgot to add Yvonne Loriod's performance at her interview with Bernard Gavoty in 1969. It's simply magnificent.

[@BenSadounJeremie]

Fernando Perez is totally explosive and chaotic ❤

[@pianoredux7516]

Gustavo Diaz-Jerez and Vanessa Perez. A surprising number of these performers, even the world-class names, are palpably overwhelmed by the competing claims of keeping the textures together, playing note-accurately, suggesting the chaos without being subsumed by it, and keeping the line, the melody if you will, a songful, unimpeded hauptstimme. The polydynamic challenges in themselves are a mountain to climb. I don't think there's any piano music more intrinsically musically complex and technically difficult than Iberia and Szymanowski's Masques and Metopes.

[@pianoredux7516]

I should add that while De Larrocha is a subtle and incomparable player, I do find in this performance of this piece that she does not sufficiently produce the requisite fortissimos and their absence feels like a coloristic error.

[@AsrielKujo]

Hamelin played it the best, sadly the quality is really low though....

[@j.dstumpy3566]

Hamelin is always fantastic

[@jfpary7336]

An absolute masterpice....amazingly interesting!

[@gojewla]

Larrocha and Diaz Jerez are the only ones who are not struggling so much with the notes that they are able to make music.

[@insomniagd9968]

Listen to Olivier Chauzu's interpretation. He's on point too !

[@danielgloverpiano7693]

It’s a bit like Ives when he had two marching bands playing simultaneously in different rhythms! This is why the third book attracts me less, even though the El Albaicin is my favorite to play.

[@barney6888]

Only Alicia is inside this music. The rest are playing on top of it.

[@thibomeurkens2296]

Alicia de larrocha is in my opinion THE best performer of Spanish music and this is no exception. I’d never heard of Venessa perez but her performance is also amazing

[@adrianwright8685]

The distinction between performing to an audience - 'live' - and making a recording where notes/phrases/whole works can be repeated is important. We can't really be confident many of these are actually live: Wangs probably was but many of the others could well have been filmed in a recording studio not necessarily at a concert.

[@Xanadu2025]

Superimposition of various musical elements

[@ronwalker4849]

EACH OF THE PIANISTS HAS A DIFFERENT FOCUS, AND EACH OF THE PIANISTS PLAYS ABSOLUTELY IN A DELIGHTFUL MANNER. OLE

[@chowkammoonckm82]

Alicia De Larrocha

[@seanfogarty5559]

Have played it (attempted it, more like). Played a few from set, including Triana, and there's no passage in anything I've ever played that comes close to how hard this is. Extremely disorienting, musically difficult, hard to to memorize.

[@gojewla]

I know. I remember struggling to read a passage, and then trying to figure out why every single note was a double flat. Then I came to the conclusion that that particular passage was written in e double flat Major.

[@WinrichNaujoks]

It's very dissonant anyway, so to anyone who doesn't know the piece any split notes sound intentional.

[@JohnSmith-qy1wm]

Might be the first time I just didn't like a Yuja Wang performance. She does make it *look* extra difficult though. I'm a De Laroccha fanboy but I have to say I was really impressed with Vanessa Perez and I also liked Rafael Orozco. It's amazing how different all these performances can sound.

[@NOSEhow2LIV]

Most entertaining! I didn't kno five of the Spanish pianists but found Vanessa Perez impressive (but was it really live - seems to be in a Steinway showroom...?) Alicia here is not at her legendary best; i heard her live in the 70's, magnificent, but she captures much of the spirit. It partly depends on whether you wish for the literal depiction of "chaos" or an impressively clean pianistic performance. I have been seduced by Yuja (heard live twice), not note-perfect here but full of fun and teasing in the main body of the piece; she also has very good recorded sound, which unfortunately, sinks some others including M-A Hamelin (whose live performance in France i didn't enjoy so much but i think he was off-color, he'd been ill). Lugansky's live performance (not this one!), i enjoyed very much for the splendid rythm & clarity but would it satisfy the "chaos" fans? Orozco was always a powerful player (heard him several times), but a little on the "hard" side, somewhat relentless, but i'm surprose here he seems to struggle with the rythm. Certainly an ear-opener, thank you for posting!

[@franksmith541]

As usual with complex, technical music, Hamelin reigns supreme.

[@michaeledwards1172]

And yet he fails to bring out the chief melody in one passage near the beginning, whereas Alicia de Larrocha makes it sing out amongst the chaotic notes swirling all around it. A bit suprising, because I usually regard him as a master of voicing in piano music. The recording quality is not great, and it's possible that that is why Hamelin's voicing seems less than it usually is.

[@gapjsampa]

My favorite is not live: Aldo Ciccolini... the most colourful and rythmically interesting.

[@inraid]

Perhaps. It does not make sense however to compare live performances with studio recordings. FWIW I heard Aldo Ciccolini live performing the complete Iberia cycle in the 1960s.

[@gapjsampa]

@inraid yes, a lot is "possible" in a studio recording. But AC's taste, tempo and rythmical approach won't change much whether it's live or not...

[@WasFakestCenturyAesthetics]

Oh so that's what my baby niece was playing

[@pianoman551000]

One hot MESS!

[@rosiefay7283]

Trouble is, Albeniz didn't know how to write piano music which is both virtuosic and playable.

[@safla2010]

That comment just shows how little you know about Albéniz 😂😂😂😂😂

[@evifnoskcaj]

Yup. I'm definitely never playing this, even if I was physically able to play it. If it's taking Hamelin's full focus, that's a big nope.

[@tfpp1]

Is Yuja really wearing a smartwatch? 😂 or is it a Fitbit?

[@benschroth7717]

lava pies?

[@gojewla]

It’s similar to lava cake

[@LlamameMak-sd9td]

In the time of Emperor Felipe II, travelers arriving in Madrid had to meet four requirements to stay overnight in an inn: • That they did not come drunk. • That they not arrive later than eleven at night. • That, if they came as a couple, they had the marriage papers. • That they were clean and neat. For this last requirement, in this neighborhood with numerous fountains and close to many “posadas” (inns), travelers washed themselves. Lava:Wash pies:feet Lavapies.

[@gbrollo1]

Great lugansky

[@2011persol]

i do not remember if ISAAC ALBENIZ did rewrote the whole of IBERIA SUITE so tht it became possible to play, OR DID he do nothing and left it in its original state!!! perhaps there exists an original version, and a more "simplified" version, like f.ex FRANZ LISZT which have several versions of let's say the paganini etudes, those from 1838 the org ones, and the more accessible versions tht date around 1850...if i remember correctly, i once read tht ISAAC ALBENIZ was worried sick if his masterpiece was of such an insurmountable difficulty...tht it wouldnt become popular or played at all....perhaps some commenters know more about this matter than me...??

[@johnmar1622]

master of distortion, best for recording with out mistakes...it is sounded like a musical tune found in a mentally sick patient.

[@hendrikbarboritsch7003]

IMO only Vanessa Perez really nailed it

[@markfowlermusic]

Seen much harder pieces not sure about unplayable… looks pretty playable to me.

[@ArgerichStan]

Looks can be deceiving. It is one of the most disorienting and Un-idiomatic bits of music ever, both technically and mentally. None of it feels good, and it actively works against being memorized and internalized. Plus, on a musical level it is so unclear what Albeniz wants - does he want a pianist to plan into the chaos or does he want clarity within the chaos? I’m not saying it is the most difficult piece but it is undoubtably a chaotic mess of music that will give any pianist attempting it a major headache

[@markfowlermusic]

@@ArgerichStan indeed you’re most likely right, the memory part is interesting, I found kapustin hard to memorise, and legeti, I think from a technical stand point I’d rather tackle anything from Albeniz as opposed to Alkan for example, I know that’s cliche and what not but that’s my opinion, different kind of difficult I guess.

[@christianblaser3076]

@@ArgerichStan i

[@tackontitan]

I always thought Lavapies was written just to make life difficult for anyone attempting to play it. Which is why I've never attempted it. I mean, look at that shit! There are godowsky studies that didn't intimidate me as much as that!

[@carlhopkinson]

Shredding.....LOL.

[@manuelarbeaubarreau8277]

Manque Hervé BILLAUT, qui n'est pas le plus mauvais.... Dommage! Mais peut-être n'y a-t-il pas de "LIVE" de lui!

[@friedrich1012]

Falta la mejor .... Esteban Sánchez

[@renelicht]

😍😍😍😍😍

[@Bacchusmbt]

I laugh at this piece. Ridiculous! 😂😂😂

[@LlamameMak-sd9td]

Espero que algún día puedas llegar a entender lo ridículo que resulta tu comentario.

[@BenSadounJeremie]

😵‍💫

[@wolfgangk1]

My cat could play that.

[@AulicExclusiva]

Hamelin.

[@nss4472]

Impresionante😮😂❤🔝

[@nedbates]

It's unplayability is matched by its unlistenability; not a cohesive, emotionally-moving piece. I'm being kind here.

[@peter5.056]

am I the only one who doesn't like this piece?

[@pianoredux7516]

Yes. The thumbs uppers are professional contrarians.

[@yandrak6134]

Don't think so. Music is all subjetivism.

[@pianoredux7516]

@@yandrak6134 You're right. Actually I was being facetious.

[@minsekfau3218]

Yes you are.

[@DrDLL99]

Difficult to play, yes. But trash music. Who actually enjoys this?? Edit: never mind. Heard Yuja Wang play this and changed my mind. Idk if it's her playing or the recording quality but hers actually sounds enjoyable.

[@Piflaser]

But it becomes a little bit pretty and a little bit flat.