LIVE Rudolf Serkin - Beethoven Piano Concerto no.4 in G major, op.58 - I

[@stevenbosky8451]

when I was in high school, and a novice as far as classical music listening/attending was concerned, I had the unbelievable fortune to hear the great Rudolf Serkin perform a Beethoven recital at Brooklyn College.Admission was $2,50.As if that wasn't enough he allowed audience members to meet him onstage after the show and actually shook my hand.Even though he was no youngster at the time, he had a grip of steel.No surprise.I will obviously never forget this treasured memory.

[@daviddemers9093]

No one played Beethoven like Mr. Serkin. This concert took place in San Francisco two years before he died. What beauty! What drama! He should have lived forever.

[@kimweonill]

Mesmerizing. What a great, great pianist.

[@horacefleming4481]

He was on fire. Old, yes, but as with Beethoven permanently red hot at his core. And he was moving on the bench like he moved forty years earlier - coming in a millisecond before the ear's expectation - intensity married to tension. Pushing it, taking risks, not smoothing anything out, not making unnecessary points about heightened details but surging with the score, soaring, not making "corrections" or over-polishing the measure but playing the notes as the 36 year old composer wrote them down. Schnabel came to mind, but even Schnabel's poetry and insight did not displace the relentless forward drive and fury of the music's pain and resolve. Rudolf Serkin loved this concerto, and he played it in San Francisco as an old man in full possession of his gift. It was a great night for him and for Blomstedt's fine orchestra. On the other side of the country, some time later - my mind far from the glory of music - I caught the first movement allegro in progress on the radio and had to pull over in traffic to find out who was playing. It couldn't have been anybody but who it was. RS always made it possible for me to experience who Beethoven was, what he did and what he left us. Serkin's mono recording with Ormandy and Philadelphia made back in the 50s had opened up the rarefied world of art music for me, and this last live video-taping in San Francisco was in many ways its equal even if the last measure of his technique was no longer flawless. His left hand was always the equal of his right hand; the old master was inimitable and inexhaustible. Thank you, Archive Collector, for posting it. I hope one day it can be remastered and published in its entirety.

[@georgefelty6357]

The great Beethoven interpreter!

[@peterlever2534]

The date is actually 1986 - the occasion was the SF Symphony orchestra's 75th Anniversary. Rudulf serkin was then 83 - he died in May 1991 age 88. What a wonderful performance; always at his best in a live performance.

[@marcospeedo5412]

This concerto had made Serkin an interpretation problem for a long time, from Toscanini-Marlboro-Bernstein-Ozawa-this performance, this very last video recording maybe a statement of this cocnerto by him. A true artist, beautiful.

[@yolainesene8691]

Great ! Thank you !

[@simonecencetti3903]

Non granitico, non perlato, non strutturalista (che è l'errore interpretativo più frequente in questa meraviglia di concerto)....semplicemente Beethoven reinterpretato con intima gioia per la prima ed ennesima voglia da questo gigante (talora mugolante...che bello!) di Serkin. E complimenti a Mr. Blomstedt per condurre l'insieme egregiamente, pur a capo di una orchestra non certo di primissimo livello

[@noshirm6285]

♥️

[@brucegriffin6474]

Thank you so. He is the final word. How does one find the rest of it?

[@archive.collector3754]

Bruce Griffin thank you. Soon I will upload the rest of it.

[@PaulJones-oj4kr]

..what's the deal with the lines of code superimposing over the video stream....????

[@tim71pos]

I dunno. The *interpretation* is brilliant, Serkin is my fave since about 1968, but the lines of code are a drag and the quality of the recording/upload is poor.

[@giovannisansone980]

Turn off the subtitles