Pianos, Sharks and Nazis: James Rhodes at TEDxOxford

Pianist James Rhodes talks about classical music, the problems with the industry behind it, and why such immortal music must stop apologising for itself.
TEDxOxford is organised by University of Oxford students, aiming to bring together the young minds of tomorrow's world with the movers and shakers of today. TEDxOxford is kindly sponsored by Neptune Investment Management - www.neptunefunds.com
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[@lilyjubilee]

James Rhodes - you are amazing because you are so real :--). Thank you for your transparency and your love for music! You have overcome much in life and live beautifully with all your heart and mind. Life is full of suffering, music gives us and you the eternal voice. Thank you for who you are!

[@mimilion6072]

Everything you say ... i AGREE with !!!

[@everythingelseistakenso]

Dude is a genius and so down to earth. Brilliant.

[@lazzyjai]

Very true , seems like people take him the wrong way... Great music loving bloke.

[@emilycrane01]

He is my favourite pianist. He is so right about classical music not having to be so serious.

[@Royboy119]

absolute bollocks.- why should an artist dress/desire to look visibly neat fashionably? how does that affect or determine their expression when performing a piece of music.

[@rabefaritrakarine5135]

This man made me love classical music ten times more than I already do. Which is..basicaly a clinical case you know..

[@RTGrimmer]

My perspective as a recording engineer and as a keyboardist - the mics are too loud for the piano, and you can tell they didn't sound check before the recording... the audio clipping in the Rach during the fortissimo section just ruined whatever was underneath; you could barely hear the piano under the static. I do wish the engineers had their wits about them - with such an acoustically dead room, just a touch of reverb would go a long way, especially to the pianist, since it would have changed his interpretation/phrasing. While I don't really agree with some of the tempi and phrasing, I do like the imperfections in the performance, it gives the piece some added charm... it is as if you can hear both the composer and pianist both breaking down in a fit of passion.

[@2Stumps]

They also need to turn the gain on the vocal mic's Down! The PUHH and mouth Clack and S's ect, makes some of these very hard to listen to!

[@josemikal08]

It's not the mics, but the pianist!

[@inoritoo]

Means will sound better quality sound 💜 Thanks

[@primomezzo]

This dude is freakin' AWESOME!!! It's about damn time that someone speaks up for classical musicians!!!!

[@palcada]

he is so charismatic and talented. I love listening to him playing and hearing his interviews on spotify over and over again.

[@fjcotton]

Everyone could benefit from listening to James Rhodes - what an amazing musician and a truly inspiring man!

[@LondonarabS]

Reminds me of what I heard in the 1980s Dudley Moore .... oh dear

[@sherylxavier5030]

Love you for everything you stand for. God bless

[@adovescry364]

God bless ? Your going to bless a man with the filth that comes out of his mouth? Sick

[@IsabeauMann]

Not the most compelling Ted Talk I've ever seen, but what a wonderful person James Rhodes is, and his playing is so passionate.

[@gloriali7946]

Don't apologise for loving classical music!

[@RobDigweed]

I love everything he is saying. Listeners of classical music need to stop being so precious!

[@mimilion6072]

You make me want to DISCOVER!! Thank You !!!!

[@inoritoo]

Love it and love your passion for and you playing music! Bravo 👏🏽 👏🏽👏🏽🎶🙏🏽💜

[@mozartsbumbumsrus7750]

I love the Dudley Moore pastiche at the end.

[@IreneSVL]

I have read two of James´ books and absolutely loved them. His playing is so full of emotion and his narration is great too. He has inspired me to play the Bach prelude in C major, which I didn´t know existed before reading his book. Anyways I posted a video where I play this beautiful piece and encourage everyone out there to try playing the piano. It is one of the ways I try to understand this world we live in.

[@FirstGentleman1]

That was beautiful. I really enjoyed it.

[@kathykatz5275]

Thank you. 🌻

[@chopin4321]

authentic, lovable

[@101mosioatunya]

This is the most wonderful and inspiring video. James Rhodes for President is what I say!! :-))

[@moyamacgregor6739]

i hear you 🙏🏻

[@prestons67]

Awesome!

[@SainaPenrake]

Wow, he's amazing!

[@PotatoHeadsMashed]

Anaesthesia - Pulling teeth. That's a Burton Classic. "Bass Solo Take One!!"

[@ayubyun]

So much intensity..

[@luisdiogo913]

Wow !!! well played

[@MrTreehugger78]

Shameful to not mention Dudley Moore before playing that. Fair play for promoting classical music though and I love his version of the Bach Busoni Fugue in C major.

[@lifeonmarssucks]

Amazing :)

[@PianoFish]

I can read Cyrillic and the tattoo does say Sergei Rachmaninov so you're lucky there :) Great talk and I loved the piece at the end, put me in mind of Bill Bailey's Classical Cockney routine.

[@sharpenedhands]

Just wow.

[@oligohome]

New name suggestion for Classical: Acoustic Prog. It still won't be played on the radio, but it will sound cooler.

[@paulskillman6634]

Humans are the crossroead between heaven & hell. They can express such beauty.

[@sharpenedhands]

I just typed that further up, i had no idea you typed this down below lol

[@bunheadification]

He's nuts. And he's amazing.

[@NAL1996]

Could anybody tell me the name of the CD he recommends in minute 16:30? English isn't my mother tongue and I don't understand what he says there.

[@MirkoPlitt]

Glenn Gould playing Bach's Goldberg variations

[@NAL1996]

Thank you!

[@terremotoeditions3587]

Hi ! Could we add a french translation of the subtitles in this video ? We can send you one if you need.

[@richardsagala3186]

Great talk, and for those who do not know Glenn Gould, Bruno Monsaingeon made quite a few films on him.Type Glenn Gould in You Tube and see for yourself. A Canadian genius ( well I am Canadian) ;-)

[@jrwyke]

Do you mean the whole thing, or the end of the piece? If you mean the very end, it was Moonlight Sonata he started to play just before finishing.

[@jaimehowes5730]

💎

[@neslihansubasi5876]

mukemmell yorum

[@SkyofWonder]

Apart from the blues, Classical music is THE largest influence on Rock n Roll and Heavy Metal. It began with the Beatles, who in their English sensibilities, intuitively infused classical instruments and textures into their classic rock stylings. It was taken to the next level with Deep Purple, founded by classically trained guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and organist Jon Lord. They were the first rock group to play live with a symphony orchestra.

[@joeloss1]

Nice finale......just as Dudley Moore played a la Beethoven parody.

[@videosissy]

Does anyone know what he played at the end?

[@SkyofWonder]

Cliff Burton, the original bass player for Metallica, was a classically trained pianist, and was largely responsible for turning the thrash style of the band into something much more symphony; incorporating complex dual guitar melodies and extended interludes. On every early album, they feature an 8+minute instrumental. In summary, the composers of old would VERY MUCH enjoy and perform rock and metal. One look at Mr. Rhodes' performance proves this point.

[@jomc20]

Prelude in C. Missed a few and was a bit erratic. Rachmaninovs own version the best though Hough's good and Kissim's smooth.

[@princely273]

What are the names of both songs, beginning and end?

[@albertoknox7673]

The song at the beginning is: Rachmaninoff Prelude Op 3 No 2 in C Sharp minor

[@moiseschicgarrido4776]

Lo que se siente al oír beethoven I-V-I-V-I-V-V...

[@yellowdog1078]

Good talk, nice playing. Just don't know why he passes off Dudley Moore's work off at the end as his own?

[@Greg-kz8ts]

I'm glad somebody else noticed that!!!!

[@davidhemsworth4098]

He did?

[@klaicmozena9810]

Wow

[@cameronbrown2530]

sense

[@BenSadounJeremie]

I am fan of your playing usually but I don't know what you are doing with the tempo :-s

[@akelofgren9468]

I wanted to be like Rubinstein but seems to be TODAY closer to his great criticman Kriebl

[@mahalerbach]

"Glenn Gould...died a few years ago"? Gould died in 1982, my friend!

[@DS42296]

Good talk, for some reason i did not like the sound of the piano.... And i love the piece at the end even if it isn't by Beethoven hahaha

[@kimarvin2379]

yep 233 sure did bight the bullet so to speek you could feel it three measures before that he was uncertain of himself. not a bad recovery though

[@TorchwoodPandP]

Goethe: "Architecture is frozen music!"

[@fcmilsweeper9]

What is the Beethoven piece he plays at the end?

[@AnnapurnaMoffatt]

+fcmilsweeper9 The beginning of the first movement from the Moonlight sonata (Sonata #14 In C Sharp Minor, Op. 27/2).

[@kentvandervelden]

Interesting, I doubt think I would have recognized this except for a couple of measures or so at the very end. Is the entire piece based on the Moonlight?

[@espectro3914]

amazing piece, i hope to play it next life ... around 2.36 maybe some chord wrong, isn´t it?

[@obstreperoushornist]

JR's little tidbit where says snobbery is 'abhorrent' is hideously ironic...

[@LiborSupcik]

snobbery was somehow in the 2nd piece

[@MatthewWilliamLittle]

Yes but James Rhodes is 40, I still sometimes think Rostropovich died a few years ago, because it seems like such a recent time in the scope of things.

[@kamiko8021]

i never imagined all the foul words after bbc

[@vr4ever645]

When you have one of the most talented pianists performing and screwup the audio by clipping it. 🙄

[@SkyofWonder]

Simultaneously, Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page is a master composer, infusing their metal-roots sound with an extremely classical heritage. And the title song of the group Black Sabbath, was derived from the classical work, "Mars" by Holst. It incorporates the Tri-Tone, or "Devil's Note," forever infusing the lineage of heavy metal with its signature evil, dark tones.

[@jameslawrence7043]

He looks very nervous whilst playing but a good effort anyway.

[@vinnie19921992]

Exactly the kind of pomp he was talking about...

[@itchy2345]

I went to his "show" yesterday, it was quite entertaining until the encore, which he also plays here at the end. I don't mind him inventing stories for daft audience like us to keep the "classical music" exciting but announcing that he would finish with Beethoven and playing Dudley Moore's parody with Piers Lane's added improvisation badly as if it were all done by him is a bit too much!

[@DJRoughdraftDetroit]

Great playing, but the child inside me still hears "COMET, IT MAKES YOUR MOUTH TURN GREEN. COMET, DOES DAMAGE TO YOUR SPLEEN. SO BUY SOME COMET, AND VOMIT, TODAYYYY!!!!!"

[@thedarkmoonman]

Dudley Moore's Beethoven Parody..

[@drakedbz]

Ah yes, in typical Beethoven fashion, a piece that has a longer ending than the main part of the song.

[@igaboa2486]

YOU SHOULD PLAY, AND STOP TALKING, BECAUSE words BELONG TO THE SAME ENERGY OF sounds AS MUSIC, AND sounds ARE energies OF life or death. LEARN THE MELODY OF WORDS, AND IMAGINE THAT IT IS MUSIC FOR YOU AND OTHERS.

[@El_Serenisimo]

Hey! I wear sneakers, get high, and think that all forms of snobbery are abhorrent. Isn't the x factor laughable? Haha, yeah, it's shit. Rim a tramp! Woah, right? Hey, we're just like you. Now, it's really important that classical musicians stop ingratiating themselves. Haha, check it out, if Beethoven got high, I reckon he'd make a mash up of his sonatas with some of Schubert's sonatas and put that River Kwai march on it. That's just the sort of gimmicky shit that'll make you like us, right?

[@cooks37]

Apparently in this day and age having manners is pompous... Learn how to pronounce someone's name is common decency.

[@angie.mci10]

architecture is frozen in music :)

[@malcolmdavis8108]

Sounds like he is just bashing the piano hard lol

[@spocksjohnson5594]

+Katrina Preston Malcolm is right. Not only was he bashing the piano, the prelude was weird and sloppy. Not even a good talk. Clearly he hasn't performed much.

[@BreakingBadMusic]

+Spock Johnson well can you perform better?

[@spocksjohnson5594]

SNYCE yes

[@BreakingBadMusic]

Spock Johnson proof?

[@mozartsbumbumsrus7750]

Do lisren to Dudley moore because it's so much better piano playing. Sorry, but that's a fact.

[@spocksjohnson5594]

The Rachmaninoff prelude was weird and sloppy.

[@davidhemsworth4098]

Guessing you didn't listen to the speech then..?

[@mariorossi9655]

OK, I'm sorry to Rhode's fanboys but the Rachmaninoff prelude was unlistenable. The talk was soso, funny but didn't go anywhere.

[@DS42296]

I agree, the middle section sounded extremely messy and unorganized.... This isn't his best interpretation of the piece though, he has a few other recordings on his KZbin Channel which aren't bad :)

[@mariorossi9655]

Daniel S. Gleason Strangely enough, the more i listen to this version the more I like it. The mistakes actually add to the darkness of the piece, as if everything (pianist included) just broke down.

[@DS42296]

Mario Rossi hmm that is true, and he does seem a bit off of it, broken down as you put it.

[@twistedsymposium3744]

He's not the most controlled pianist, but he can play quite well, as demonstrated in other performances. The bad piano didn't help matters.

[@RTGrimmer]

if the mics didn't clip in the fortissimo section I would say I could listen to this again, his mistakes included. I always actually like when there are some detectable mistakes - it somehow humanizes the music and you then remember that humans aren't perfect

[@timothyj1966]

Piano is a bit out of tune - and the room is acoustically dead - shame - I like his passion for Life, and music!