Gabriela Montero Reacts to Her Rare 1995 Chopin Competition Improvisations

[@nickwilson7697]

I have listened to Gabriela for years. And I would love to have just an ounce of her talent and musical intuition. Thanks for sharing this with the world - especially the “lost” tapes! What a treasure.

[@gracekim3412]

❤ yes, I agree ! This video is my greatest treasure of the year!

[@annanh1307]

Thanks for doing this little mini-series on improvisation in this context. I've discovered that most of my favourite classical musicians also secretly (or not so secretly) had an improvisatory side to their musical expression, and I hope we hear more of it in the future.

[@yahyamhirsi]

Meeting and hearing Gabriela improvise in person is one of the highlights of 2024 for me this year!

[@omyogagal]

This interview is totally unexpected but greatly welcomed. Attending one of her concerts has been on top of my bucket list for a while.

[@marthafan1]

I've been enjoying this entire Chopin series but this is a treat. I've been aware of Gabriela Montero since CBS featured her on "60 Minutes" two deacades ago or so (by pure coincidence, I have to stress!). I immediately became a fan and have listened to a lot of concerts here on youtube or TV broadcasts since then. I also have some of her records (both solo records and the Lugano collaborations). I've never had the chance to experience her live though. This interview or video talk was absolutely amazing to listen to. And her '95 improvisations were stunningly beautiful with that underlying agony. Wow.

[@gracekim3412]

❤

[@Jay_Bacal]

Fabulous! Crazy talent!

[@marenphilipse7955]

I saw her live playing the 1st Tchaikovsky concerto last year. She improvised on a theme as an encore, it was amazing and I was flabbergasted, lol. What an amazing pianist

[@theoryman1]

Fantastic. Beautiful and yet very punk rock to just go out there and do that unannounced.

[@prototropo]

I can't believe her flawless melodic sense and even more--her astonishing harmonic progressions! They create incompressible works of beauty.

[@benlawdy]

Yeah. If the melodies and phrasing and form weren’t startling enough, there is a harmonic dimension with delicious chromatic voice leading and inner motives cropping up throughout. Unbelievable.

[@prototropo]

@@benlawdy Yes! I'm breathless (and jealous!).

[@Anaesdoc]

Gabriela Montero is an outstanding pianist and improviser! My wife had the opportunity to listen to her once when she was improvising upon acclamation - a magnificent talent and a very charming personality!

[@FlaneurSolitaire]

Wonderful artist, such a special voice within this sometimes rather narrow classical music world.

[@MrLedZepper]

Gabriela Montero is the real-deal..her improvisations are spontaneous, yet so polished, and in the spirit of Chopin😊.

[@ClassicalFilmMusic-vh2wg]

What an incredible talent! What strikes me most is her ability to give a form, a structure, to what she is inventing on the spot, without having to think about it.

[@pjbpiano]

Thought about in advance.

[@markus7894]

OMG what a discovery! Your videos are such a gem!!!

[@tom6693]

Are you ever right!! I'd buy this cd in a New York minute! Amazing creativity, amazing musicianship, amazing playing. And it's just great music. As you said, not only a true homage to Chopin but to Chopin's genius as an improvisor. I've enjoyed Gabriel Montero in those Argerich & Friends discs, but this is something else. Marvelous. Thanks so much.

[@luisfernandomurillo3631]

So articulate, and dazzlingly intelligent!

[@8beef4u]

I learned a few of her improvisations from some Scribd transcripts (the Toccata and Invention in D minor) from her Bach and Beyond album and they're still some of my favorite things to play. Had the pleasure of seeing her preform her concerto from the front row. Absolutely amazing.

[@Ekcmd]

So beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing these treasures ❤ Some of the improvisations remind me of the Scriabin mazurkas 😊

[@asclepius3117]

I love this. How revelatory!!!!

[@wojtekdobrowolski8084]

That is simply jaw-dropping, wow!

[@Pseudify]

What an amazing documentary to have archived for all of time.

[@motoroladefy2740]

¡Qué grande sos Gabriela!

[@Seleuce]

You dig up so many marvels! Now, she really got me! Wonderful musician! ❤

[@HappyGoLuckyPanda]

She's like a real Chopin embodiment, extraordinary talented

[@brittopiano]

Wonderful work! I was surprised she attended the Chopin competition. She is the kind of artist who doesn't need to win a competition. Always love her improvisations and compositions. Most of all, her piano concerto. I wish to hear her live in Salvador, Bahia someday. My best wishes for her and you Ben.

[@antoniokabbabe1175]

She Is the person i admire the most in my Life 🎹

[@mdleavitt]

It’s so beautiful!!

[@jasond4466]

Amazing how she just improvised four pieces on the spot. Some composers would take days or weeks just to come up with 1 song. I would love to be able to improvise like this.

[@dwdei8815]

Exquisite. Perhaps we need to tweak the way we talk about musicians to discern between those who work the piano and those who play the piano. This was play, pure, wonderful play.

[@benlawdy]

Yes. I’m definitely a “piano worker.” I wish I could play like this

[@dwdei8815]

@@benlawdy Improvisation - any improvisation had too long been an unopened black box for me. I worked the piano (but nothing like on your level and without tuition), tried to reheat, memorise and repeat exactly what Chopin/Mussorgsky/Brahms/Franck thought and wrote down at 4:15 some distant Wednesday afternoon. 2020 brought an alignment of the stars that had us all shut in our homes for weeks during Covid - and my most precious possessions became The Real Book and KZbinrs showing by example how to jazz any of those sparse musical instructions into journeys of insight, happiness and invention. Music which by definition could never be the same twice (something of a solecism in repertoire playing). I set myself the life challenge to watch and learn, break open the black box. I'm a noisy advocate of impro. My piano playing before and after is like dark and light, drill versus dancing. Before I never dared take on the 4th Scherzo - these days it's a favourite piece. My (impossible) dream is to open a bar with a piano, open to the passing world - the next Ray Charles could be living just round the corner for all we know, but simply have no access to an instrument.

[@prototropo]

@@dwdei8815 A confession, a dare and a dream~I encourage you every inch of the way.

[@ghuinink]

so many people would give their right arm to hear Chopin play and improvise but are not really interested in people like Gabriela. To me that is unbelievable, because it is clear that she is tapping into the same source Chopin was.

[@pjbpiano]

Chopin has so many myths tied to his name. Hence.

[@republiccooper]

Her waltzes sounds very much like Venezuelan salon music or folk music. I never raised that until today keyring with fresh ears.

[@JoeLinux2000]

Her new is much better than the old.

[@Jantsenpr777]

I would agree. I am Puerto Rican and our waltzes sound very similar to her idiom, too. It has that Latin American pain-in-the-soul sound. Also, to my ears at least, it has very particular Latin American go-to harmonic clichés and melodic twists (good ones, mind you) that immediately made me feel warm inside. If Chopin were Venezuelan, he would've probably sound like this. Brava!

[@prototropo]

@@Jantsenpr777 Beautifully expressed! I also hear some cross-rhythmic magic--as though a culture of syncopation chases the esthetic sensibilities of Latin-American music. It's an impulse I admire and try to emulate.

[@stefanabels8971]

Wonderful, thank you both

[@yoonchun6945]

Incredible’! I’m speechless!,👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️

[@christopherellis2663]

I am 75 and only recently have come with intent to the piano 🎹 previous experience was merely curiosity. Music 🎶 will not be bound.

[@DeanHorak]

Her improvisation #2 was reminiscent (to me) of a piece I’m currently working on (Waltz in Bm, Op 69 no 2). Almost as if the notes were inverted - in some sections at least.

[@gustavomoretto6449]

I always dreamed of being able to listen to Bach's, Mozart's and Beethoven's improvisations. I felt cheated by the fact that they were not my contemporaries and those musical moments were gone forever. Then I discovered Gabriela. I was in total disbelief of what she could do. The polyphony, harmonic sophistication, complexity of textures and an incredible left hand that seemed to have a brain of its own. All of this without the slightest hesitation and without the space needed to think any of it. I was grateful to see that a human being was able to accomplish this extraordinary feat. She could have given the three masters a run for their money. The frustration came when I tried to awe my students with this incomprehensible talent, only for them to not be very impressed. They just heard another pianist playing another classical composition, so what's the big deal? They couldn't see that what they were hearing was coming from a mysterious part of the brain that not even she can totally understand. Thank you Gabriela for making the myths of the great masters come to reality.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

Someone shoud film Gabriela and Marta sharing some wine and playing improv.

[@benlawdy]

Can I apply for that job?

[@yoonchun6945]

I would definitely buy her improvisation recordings😊

[@Daniel_Zalman]

Amazing stuff.

[@architektura204]

Escaping the gilded cage has never sounded so powerfully sweet

[@GilaGoldsteinPianist]

Beyond incredible 😮

[@biffii5568]

Lets champion another (optional) category in the competition, where the contestants are allowed to improvise/write a piece that has a bit of chopin in it. I mean ppl cant do this, cause they aren't being taught to, lets make it mainstream!

[@charlesbernard3042]

Owing to a notion this is not first-time improvisation attempt, similar types must have been made in like fashion of complexity. Hearing no wrong notes played or partial misses is awe-inspiring, and in a particular musical style not necessarily of her own essence. Liberace did similar improv's medly's but no where near as deeply expressive in style. Live jazz musicians do this every day but their crutch here is that there is no such thing as a wrongly played note. They can't really do a miss. They follow patterned lines of ostinato rhythm and jazz scale modes as service riffs. What this young lady does appears above all else as improvisation appears. Really much more the sense of "composing as you go." But, the next note or movement pattern is not more important than the last. No precidence here. Totally in the present moment where illusory time itself stands still! I can only conclude with having such a gift, why would one ever want to read a scored note again?

[@JoeLinux2000]

The first one is nice, but very repetitive with the short constantly repeated motif. She's clearly a talent. I like the second one more. It still seems to be based on a repeated fragment. It is very much in the style of Chopin. To be able to sit down and improvise so skillfully is truly amazing. Her statement of being a caged animal is quite appropriate. It sums up almost the entire school system. The mood of the 3rd one is quite compelling once again it seems to stuck on the same fragment used in Improvisation I. Again the playing is quite extraordinary. These are the only improvisations I'm aware of where Gabriella attempts to mimic Chopin. Each one gets better and more complex. It would be interesting to have heard Chopin improvise. His published compositions are extremely well structured. Gabriela's certainly have the feeling of genius. I do feel she has improved greatly over the years as an improviser, which one would expect. Ben Laude is correct about the flow. It is very polished. The Ballade that follows the competitions is absolutely knockout. There is nothing to criticize. It can only be praised., or perhaps worshiped. The creator of the Universe is playing through her hands. She's right about the hard work. I notice many people have no idea how much work it takes to become a skilled musician. You can only be yourself within your own limitations. You cannot be someone else.

[@Jantsenpr777]

Another commenter said something I immediate felt: "Her waltzes sound like Venezuelan salon music," and I agree. I am Puerto Rican and our waltzes sound very similar to her idiom, too. It has that Latin American pain-in-the-soul sound. Also, to my ears at least, it has very particular Latin American go-to harmonic clichés and melodic twists (good ones, mind you) that immediately made me feel warm inside. If Chopin were Venezuelan, he would've probably sound like this. Brava!

[@militaryandemergencyservic3286]

Another great video, Ben! Did you know that in most musical art forms 'improvisation' is never spontaneous 'making up' of hitherto never played-by-the-performer bits of music/ I speak of flamenco guitar (which I play) where various toques are used - but each of them has been assiduously preactised beforehand. When it comes to the 'improvised performance' all that is is a simple re-ordering of bits well-practised. Is it not like that in jazz as well? but I think this goes for other things... it seems that this is not the case for'clasical piano' and geniuses like this woman or that guy you had in a recent previous video? Or maybe it is? In that case it would be like people who say that they are 'sightreading' but actually it is NEVR a completely new piece that they have never seen before (unless it is easy). I remember putting Rach 3 (alt. cadenza mvmnt 1) in front of my Gnessin teacher (Beethoven and Tchaikovsky lineage) and she said she couldn't do it. But this was after she had just trotted off perfectly about 5 Scriabin short pieces that I ad also given her to sight-read, And also she had just done that with a Mozart fantasia.

[@jowr2000]

Incredible! So beautiful. The music just pours out of her. She is the instrument being played. And why did she stop playing, and for how long?

[@PimpinBassie2]

Didn't Chopin make use of cadenza parts in his works?

[@almendratlilkouatl]

OG musical waifu

[@adrianopiano5551]

I don’t think it breaks the rules if it’s not within the official competition rounds themselves

[@benlawdy]

Sure, but many carry the same norms into the gala concerts. It would be WILD if someone straight up improvised something unrelated to Chopin in one of the competition rounds.

[@adrianopiano5551]

@ The first one to do it might go viral 😅

[@GTB311]

Love the shirt, Ben! Is it available for purchase?

[@benlawdy]

www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/4205453-chopin-and-liszt

[@SimonParker-hv6uu]

... although that's true of most composers, is it not ? Beethoven was a renowned improviser.as was Mozart. Chopin was no different. Gabriela Montero is remarkable though in this era

[@mikeward1701]

When did this channel turn into the 24hr Chopin Network?

[@benlawdy]

In the middle of a collaboration with the chopin foundation, to whom I pitched this podcast series that has now turned into exhaustive coverage of Chopin’s works. For a classical piano channel, not the worst topic - but I acknowledge it’s a bit much! I’m excited to move on in 2025, and have among list of video ideas on a range of other composers, performers, and topics. Which would you like to see?

[@republiccooper]

There's a hint of joropo in every 3/4 rhythm of Gabriela Montero.

[@Zympans]

Pretty unbelievable, isn't it? Spirited, full of catchy lines, Chopin-esque, logically constructed, and most importantly: simple. How come the recordings are so obscure.

[@JoeLinux2000]

There are many recordings of Gabriela. The Chopin Competition recordings are obscure, and at the same time, not her best work.

[@Zympans]

@@JoeLinux2000 I know her recordings. What is especially captivating in the 1995 ones to me is the simplicity and adjusting to the form: they are concise. Not surprisingly considering the circumstances. But anyway.

[@andyz3666]

This is indeed very little known episode from Warsaw competition. This competition is a guardian of classical interpretations of Chopin works. Someone has to do that, don't you agree? In 1980 there was an electrifying story as Marta Argerich resigned from the jury because Ivo Pogorelic was eliminated due to eccentric, non orthodox interpretations. No, he was not improvising at all, he was just playing his way, all correct notes but differently enough. This video has a sort of Chopinesque development. It starts with a light and out-of-this-world, almost surrealistic and provocative accusation of the Chopin piano competition(s) that the pianists are "forced" to play, with immaculate precision and great understanding, the music as written in the revered scores of the great composer. How boring is that, suggests the commentator in a sort of superficial, KZbin-esque narration, whereas the film shows crowds celebrating Zimerman after he won his gold medal in Warsaw. Zimerman, being one of the most advanced pianists of them all and an unparalleled performer of Chopin's music due to his fidelity, is juxtaposed with the idea that playing the scores as they are is not cool anymore. It is a bit like Chopin might have teased his salon audiences by throwing at them a catchy and frivolous impromptu before the truth of life entered the room. But this frivolous opening of the video lasts a very short time, fortunately. Enter the music. Improvisations presented to us sound angry, with a bit of banging in the left hand, which is immediately confirmed by the performing pianist as she explains with great honesty and profound understanding of her own talent, and without any hint of sensationalism, that yes, this was her state of mind and emotions at that moment. She was exhausted, to the point that she stopped playing after the competition. Apparently moved by her lack of pretentiousness and her rare, honest modesty, the narrator modulates away from his initial flamboyance and embraces the real beauty of her inner tones. Honesty and beauty of actual pain are hardly improvisable. Chopin, as far as we know, never tried to play for the gallery. Even when improvising, he would rather challenge Liszt than make Countess X giggle. Improvising is an art of letting go. Great improvisers of classical music are close to none. Embellishing masterpieces of composition is like painting white diamonds pink-why not, just for fun? It is fun, it sounds interesting at times, but it does not add anything important. Improvisation in Chopin's style, or any other personal style, is also vain; it sounds good but uses the same tools and expressive means as the original, often becoming blunt, like a reused razor. So yeah, classical music competitions are not for embellishers and improvisers. Citing Chopin’s improvisation skills is not a good excuse, even though it may be attractive for pianists without the ability to recreate the endless complexity of the original scores for technical reasons. Improvisation as a 'research tool' fundamentally differs from improvisation as performance; the former serves as a method of refining ideas and exploring possibilities, while the latter is often a vehicle for immediate, spontaneous expression that may lack the same depth or structural rigor. For Chopin, improvisation was, in the first place, his research tool, not an end in itself. Through improvisation, he explored and refined his ideas, using it as a means to enrich the complexity and perfection of his written works. Only after countless takes on his ideas did he decide to write down and release his best.

[@benlawdy]

@@andyz3666 you write comments very impersonally, as if for a imaginary music journal, rather than under a KZbin video created and hosted by someone you’ve been interacting with in many recent videos. So, hello! Hi! Ben here, reading and responding to your comment 🤣 You noticed my provocative opening gambit, and I sense some offense taken the way I portrayed the irony of contemporary classical music performance, which is almost exclusively dedicated to training pianists to be 1-dimensional (not a pejorative, an accurate descriptor) of music composed by 3-dimensional musicians (composer-improviser-instrumentalists). “Someone has to do it.” Absolutely! And currently, *everyone* is already doing it in the classical world. As someone trained in the 1-dimension reproduction of masterpieces, who dedicated almost all of his videos to that topic, perhaps we can take a few minutes to make light of the absurdity and the irony that we’re honoring Chopin by narrowing many successive generations of pianists into a form of music making that would have been alien and bothersome to him. And for what it’s worth, it seems like the Chopin Institute is aware of this funny contradiction in the historical development of classical music culture, and is more flexible and open-minded than you are at embracing change and allowing for things like period performance and improvisation to have their place under the umbrella of the primary organization dedicated to protecting the legacy of this famous composer, improviser, and pianist. By the way, I’ve spent much of my life more on your side of this issue, defending the high merits of classical interpretation and questioning the value of improvisation beyond its didactic usefulness. But I’ve learned that improvisations are ends in themselves (certainly jazz, but I’m referring to improvisations in more historical styles that are being made contemporary again), and they can be appreciated and enjoyed for their depth of form and content like great performances of past masterworks can be (albeit in a different way, with different considerations and standards coming to bear on both). Julian Fontana attested to Chopin’s improvisations being even bolder than his finished works, and who are we to say those initial impulses of rhapsodized musical expression are merely secondary and provisional. The standards of finished, organic, architecturally perfected published music are not the only or always the preferred musical standards we bring to the experiencing of patenting to and enjoying music. This doesn’t mean I believe the nuances of Chopin’s Barcarolle could ever be dreamed of on the spot, but it does mean I think improvisations have qualities that can never be reproduced through conscious craftsmanship. I can imagine you in a room with Chopin releasing one of his emboldened, impassioned improvisations, articulating any number of ideas he may never be able to recapture or refine in finished composition, to which you reply with a polite clap and the remark “lovely stuff, Fred, but I look forward to your finished version.” Sometimes improvisation is absolutely an end in itself, especially for Chopin. To think otherwise is to have put too much stock in certain 20th century institutional values of extolling the interpretation of timeless, autonomous masterpieces as the highest form of musical experience. Having said all that, please know that I do enjoy reading your eloquent essay-critiques of my videos, so please don’t stop! I’m very flattered to have you or anyone taking my work this seriously.

[@gustafmarcus3898]

Gangster move.

[@ronl7131]

Wonder what her opinion is of Hiromi ??

[@spacevspitch4028]

Or Keith Jarrett.

[@spacevspitch4028]

And vice versa! I was thinking, I wonder if either of them know about her and what they think. She's amazing IMO. Right up there with them.

[@MrLedZepper]

Both great artists, but it’s like comparing apples to oranges.

[@INCR3DIBL3JMAN]

First

[@disinformationworld9378]

Night and day difference compared to other guy. I found his improvs tedious. I can improvise way better than him, I have the evidence on lurking somewhere on KZbin but my identity is not well known… yet. A few of my videos got thousands of views. When it comes to “classical” improv the way I view it is that a great improviser is more than a scale and chord machine. Some people have compared my style to Keith Jarret. I don’t really agree, as I am more classical but can do very advanced and diverse harmonic styles. My hero at 19 was late Scriabin for example. I’ve recorded hundreds of improvs with a small percent online. You need to have many elements to create an artistic improvisation. When I improvise it’s to create real time music. Many of the “best” improvisers cannot really put together musical logic like for example a coherent music phrase. Or heaven forbid a complete theme in sentence or period structure. It’s just note spinning. It’s also my critique of jazz improvisers. If you read about Chopin his improvisation was deemed more incredible than his finished pieces. Montero has a great musical mind and she is one of the few improvisation specialists that truly impress me with going beyond note spinning. Maybe the only one I have heard.

[@disinformationworld9378]

When it comes to improvising in classical style there are a lot of avenues. But my philosophy is to look at composition and improvisation techniques as one and the same. Most improvisers believe improv is just chord changes... I view composing as the language of music and this can be applied to improvisation. Very very few can actually do this. From a few bars of music I can improvise an entire 5 minute composition. If I want to do note spinning I can do that but I don’t view that as interesting. It’s boring to me to listen to this kind of improv.

[@disinformationworld9378]

To be a great improviser means a level of mastery of the elements of composition. And since almost no one composes they don’t have the facility to improvise in this manner.

[@disinformationworld9378]

Understanding chords is only a small part of it. I can imagine that when Chopin improvised he was doing more than note spinning. This is clear to me in his music which is so based on improvisation at its core. A composer improviser can generate music material through improv. This is precisely what Chopin did. And with great frustration he could not always capture his extemporizations. Which his great painter friend said his music on paper were mere distillations of his improv. A great composer who can can simply improvise much longer concepts and develop their material on the spot. In Chopin much of his radical harmonic concepts seem to me to be improvisation inspired. A lot of the standard improv artists have cliches and chord progressions they re use. A limited musical language. But if you study Chopin you how diverse and creative his harmonic writing is. That’s why most cannot achieve greatness with improv. They don’t have the facility to create fresh ideas to the extent a composer like Chopin could do.

[@disinformationworld9378]

Some excellent examples of improv closely matched in his compositions are no doubt the Berceuse which is clearly an improv on only two chords. Which almost no one can pull off convincingly well if they attempted this type of improvisation. The F minor prelude is a lot of scales and chords. Very improvisational like.

[@disinformationworld9378]

The entire prelude genre of course is an improvisation genre. These were things that people improvised. Some wrote them down. If you look at the Bach preludes many of these are harmonic vehicles. Patterns instead of themes. This is one type of improvisation that could be attempted but few try to do so… it’s puzzling since this is an easy type of improv to accomplish. Mostly, the education system just stopped caring about the creative side of music making. When I first touched a keyboard I was making songs. I didn’t learn improvisation from anyone. It developed through my composition processes. I used experimentation to generate ideas. Eventually I became so good at it, I could generate entire compositions from a short musical fragment. People who heard me were bewildered that I was even making these things up on the spot.

[@NoGymNeeded]

Hearing that filled me with an urge to skip work and go practice piano diligently😂️🩵