Sergei Zagny. Sonata. - Daniil Pilchen, piano. (Audio & Score)

00:00 Sonata
00:05 1.
03:15 2.
04:41 3.
06:44 4.
08:12 5.
10:10 6.
12:55 7.
14:21 8.
17:29 9.
20:29 10.
21:02 11.
21:31 12.
23:13 13.
26:50 14.
28:04 15.
32:00 16.
33:55 17.
36:19 18.
38:09 19.
40:10 20.
41:08 21.
43:14 22.
46:08 23.
47:23 24.
Sonata, piano, 1990. - Daniil Pilchen, piano. Yamaha Artist Services, Moscow, 20.02.2017. Recording: Alexey Sysoev. Editing: Alexey Sysoev, Sergei Zagny. Special thanks: Elsana Gabaraeva.
===
The music scores of Sergei Zagny:
imslp.org/wiki/Category:Zagny...

[@topologyrob]

Brilliant - what an original musician

[@sophieevans4342]

I used to be in his class a few years ago, mr. Zagniy is one of the most educated and profound musicians that I have ever met. A brutally honest teacher, too. A rumor circulated that back in his days of study, Zagniy caused a scandal by brining a single major triad to his conservatory exam and claiming that it was actually a piece. (Don’t know if it’s a true story tho)

[@Whatismusic123]

So pretentious and delusional 😅 imagine having such a wide and long stick up your *****

[@oscargill423]

The composer your composition teacher doesn't want you to know about

[@Whatismusic123]

Why? Aren't composition teachers typically so incompetent as to love this kind of garbage and want to praise it for its pseudo-intellectual genius?

[@oscargill423]

@@Whatismusic123 _sighhhh_ Hello again, what would you like to argue about today?

[@Whatismusic123]

@@oscargill423 illiterate

[@cubycube9924]

@@oscargill423LOL

[@oscargill423]

@@cubycube9924 If you can't beat 'em... treat 'em like a child.

[@amojc3573]

If you think about it, Sergey has made it such that the piece can be explored by the performer like an open world in a video game can be explored by the player.

[@r4_in_space]

These are some pretty cute sequences to use in a piece.

[@NickCarlozzi]

I don’t know… I think it’s genius. The neo-baroque x minimalism thing going on is pretty cool. Love the never-ending sequences. Love the rhythmic processes. Love the Ligeti-esque use of triads in in the slow movements. You’ve probably gotta be a fan of minimalism to enjoy this lol, but I am such a fan. Thank you for sharing this.

[@filipgoldanowskicomposer]

I would also say that the form of this piece is very good!

[@AlbertoSegovia.]

I even think it one of the most important contributions from this era, not by sheer grandiosity, but because of “interestingness.”

[@AlbertoSegovia.]

I should definitely add there, “sincere”, sincere or frank interestingness, not much irony or pedantism as in some other works,

[@AlbertoSegovia.]

Thinking that the frankness has to do with the variety. It’s not the insulting repetition vitrified elsewhere.

[@NickCarlozzi]

@@AlbertoSegovia. agreed! Very interesting, sincere music. It’s more common for music from the last 50 years to be “difficult” to understand and/or appreciate, but this is very accessible.

[@filipgoldanowskicomposer]

For sure one of my favorite piano sonatas. Everything is so well done, especially the aleatoric concept of form which fits this piece perfectly! Brilliant performance too. I generaly adore Zagny's works so much that I cannot wait for the next uploads 😄

[@michelprezman51]

Je ne sais si il faut rire ou pleurer.

[@user-us4wv3uh1l]

Здорово, мне нравится

[@lubiezniczek666]

Reminds me of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki - "holy/eastern minimalism" but not so "holy" in this case. The strength of this piece lies in the repetitions and the length. I would prefere that it was ironic about the tonal gestures, however without the irony the focus is brought to marginal nuances like little changes of melodic figures and rythm, and the harmonic resonance (like in Górecki's string quartets). It's an example of a craftsmanship exploiting a verry thin border between boredom and conventional gestures - that's what seems still fresh and hard to master. Also it must be very impactful when performed live in a good concerthall.

[@nilwendil]

What is the time signature??

[@christophedevos3760]

It seems vexatiously vacillating between Glass, Feldman, Cage and Satie. Interesting that triads are used but that they don't sound very pleasing or traditional. Thanks for sharing.

[@VLuchansky]

Beautiful

[@andreassorg7294]

This is music out of time

[@embrown23]

I like it.

[@martinlavagnino]

What?

[@galimusic7164]

Dedicated to C Hanon

[@cosainsegnarealmentelatorr4532]

First one is a good fingers exercice....Is It a Czerny or kind of?

[@borisaxelrod7411]

Переставьте все эти кусочки в любом порядке, ничего от этого не изменится. Вы даже разницы не заметите😂

[@allegro8384]

Интереснее станет))

[@meruscales]

pretty strongly disagree with this; it's the ordering of the movements that makes this interesting music to me; on its own each section is hardly an exercise, but in reference to each other something interesting happens

[@dap4699]

I liked the first 14 seconds, set me up waiting for something interesting but gets repetitive instead.

[@ario2264]

Why have I never heard of Sergei Zagny before?

[@odeholon4590]

Потому, что это бред сумасшедшего

[@wernherwilhelmson7688]

@@odeholon4590 А какая музыка не "бред сумасшедшего"?

[@baldrbraa]

Leave it to the Russians to casually plumb the extremes of musical philosophy.

[@Whatismusic123]

@@wernherwilhelmson7688 actual music, not modern art slop, maybe listen to mozart or chopin for once

[@philipconnelly1505]

​​@@Whatismusic123Urgh, Chopin. Some of us have moved on from that.

[@halfasleeptypist8823]

14:21 The numbers and boxes makes this look like Linear Algebra homework for practicing Gaussian Elimination 💀 When I get to making my own music, I'm gonna put Calculus symbols into the sheet music to make the player have to think on how to do a piano interpretation of a Riemann sum 😇

[@hb3393]

Brilliant piece, fantastically played

[@user-ih4cw3dw3l]

ピタゴラスイッチのBGMとかに使ったら合うかもしれないと思いました

[@JavierRuizGonzalez]

I am surprised at the tone of certain comments. My motto is "Don't write anything that you wouldn't dare to say in person." Having known Sergei Zagny's work for more than 30 years, I am pretty sure he knows how to write counterpoint exercises following Fux, a chorale with nice leading voices (and no parallel fifths or octaves), or a short charming piano piece in the style of Schumann. But this is the music an exquisitely trained composer would write in their maturity.

[@Whatismusic123]

Knowing the bare minimum doesn't justify writing garbage. You need to know more than the bare minimum to actually understand music and how to compose it, a rare skill in themusic department of the cult we know as modern art.

[@ignazmagnesius3088]

Javier, Your MOTTO correlates to my principles, but I never formulated it as good as you did. Thank you. This will help me in the future.

[@Whatismusic123]

@@ignazmagnesius3088 translation: you're an egomaniac that has enough self awareness to not voice your narcissistic thoughts

[@doritoapollo123]

@@Whatismusic123you really think youre a master dont you lmao😂

[@RozarSmacco]

Javier Ruiz : translation “Blah blah….BLAHHHHHHHH (desperate justification for an increasingly dementia-addled friend) blah blahhhh blahhhh….(more sad excuses for dear old Prof. …) composer would write in their *SENILITY*.” There fixed it for you.

[@Ari-je3zu]

Amazing work, simple but creative. Without ostentation and very elegante.

[@none5020]

This is super interesting, gives me a good and well needed whiplash

[@Brassman388]

Call it what you will. Think what you will. Believe what you will. This is still music in its absolute purest form. If you can't at least agree on that then you truly are lost.

[@dwdei8815]

Well in that case I'm "truly lost". (What an unpleasant and sneering thing to decide and assert of me and others who find this lacking in spice and idea.)

[@Brassman388]

@@dwdei8815 See, that's the thing you don't get. This is MUSIC. And your assertion of personal tastes on something is freely created is rather unpleasant and quite demeaning. In other words, no one really cares what makes you cry at night so long as you do and I get to drink the tears.

[@dwdei8815]

@@Brassman388 I guess what I was pointing at was your assertion that those who do not share your taste in music are "truly lost". Gratuitous, pompous, dismissive of different opinions and perhaps not as well thought through as you imagined. It's doubly dismal to see you what have chosen to double down on is the nastiness. Is it supposed to hurt me that you comfort or justify yourself by imagining that I am crying? That says more about you than about me. Compared to Chopin Scherzos, Rachmaninov Preludes, Gershwin songs, Shostakovich Preludes, Gulda, Grieg, Prokofiev... I find this music is really quite empty. Lacking in surprise, without contrast. It's still "music" - just not a lot of it (except in duration).

[@Brassman388]

@@dwdei8815 And yet you're still misquoting me. This circling is boring. Go listen to what you want and feel better about your feelings, man. Leave this music and the people who understand its importance to those of us who actually care.

[@sameash3153]

No it isn't. It's just an art piece designed to make people argue. Actual music is for the service of God.

[@Ricardo7250]

There are some cool notations, but I feel like there are so many cracks in the unity of the piece. Plenty of moments where a long rest is followed by something entirely different from before, which makes it feel like this is not 1 piece but a bunch of random miniatures grouped together. Feels unfinished

[@meruscales]

I feel like that's the point, all the sections are derived from the same material even though they often sound very different; the juxtapositions make the changes in perspective of how that material develops the main element of narrative in the piece. The jumps are almost more important than the sections themselves

[@Ricardo7250]

​@@meruscalesNot even sure the composer would agree with your analysis. There are at least 6 distinct materials. 1: beginning tremolo 2: long chords 3: broken chords (which sound ornamentated) 4: chords in quarter notes (more jazzy articulation) 5: 6ths turning into 10ths 6: lone scales. Too much mental gymnastics to say those things are alike. Their notations, techniques, moods... are different.

[@meruscales]

@@Ricardo7250 yeah the material is sufficiently transformed to be distinct, but underlying all of it is an event built on the interplay of voice leading and functional harmonic consequences, along with levels of sequencing, tempo, and rhythmic emphasis. Each of these parameters exists on a spectrum, and it’s easy to see how tweaking these spectra lead to the sections you described. On top of that, the way sections are developed mirror each other, adding or subtracting vertical density or rates of change. The composer has academic writings on how to change a theme with process in very radical ways, from combinatorial design to complex variable functions, so I am not sure he’d disagree

[@user-dn2fc9gh2k]

What next? Plaing Shevchik exercises in concert halls for money? 😏

[@meruscales]

After thinking about this one for a bit I think it's a very good piece of music. A second listen made me think a lot about the relationship between impulsive decisions and planning, getting caught up in circles that slowly change perspective, and other deeply personal experiences. I think a lot of people are getting caught up on the simplicity of the surface and missing out on the rich form and structure. Yeah each section is pretty boring and bland (like a piano exercise) on their own, but the point is they're not on their own; they juxtapose each other.

[@onionlipadua]

I just dont get why he get this much hate

[@Whatismusic123]

Because he can't write music? Isn't it obvious? This is just a bunch of noise.

[@onionlipadua]

​@@Whatismusic123We have already got over that noise-music boundry in 60s and the society paved the way for modernism fortunately. You cannot just say that this is just some bunch of noise by only referancing to academic techniques and how they were handled. The pieces he composed still will be recieved by other people, it will be liked and disliked anyway. Rather than an analysis or an aesthetic approach, one should be set in stone to understand what the piece actually means. This happens in Dave Brubeck's pieces as well as they are quite basic in technique yet play significant roles to get one learned some theoric content, or at least facilitate the process on going. This is probably what happens here as well, we are living in a time where music is not only made for listening.

[@Whatismusic123]

@@onionlipadua he is no different. This is just noise. Not music.

[@onionlipadua]

@@Whatismusic123 You do not seem to have enough acknowledgement on music apparently as you're insisting on its musicality rather than speaking with facts whatsoever.

[@Whatismusic123]

@@onionlipadua you pride yourself into the fact that you enjoy noise that anyone of the right mind wouldn't. I gain nothing from arguing with you. Just knownthat you're wrong and that this is just random noise puzzled together using pseudo-scientific principles.

[@anfalagu]

Interesante ☺️

[@cubycube9924]

Is this good, is this bad? I think it is music, at least

[@Whatismusic123]

It's random noise

[@josephalvarez5315]

And that’s all that matters

[@Whatismusic123]

@@josephalvarez5315 it doesn't, though bad music is still music, sadly this is not music.

[@josephalvarez5315]

@@Whatismusic123 god why do classical fans piss their pants when ppl like music that they don’t like. Go take a walk and listen to something you like man, be better than this

[@Whatismusic123]

@@josephalvarez5315 why do classical fans piss their pants when ppl criticize random noise and don't join/support their cult. god forbid one has critical thought. You shouldn't like this, may aswell just use a random noise generator instead. what a waste of time.

[@wolfilius2514]

What is this aberration

[@joshuagonzalez3916]

Why you call it aberration?

[@c-3por2d2]

Слегка начало похоже на Вивальди

[@1964ALCOZER]

Ma sarebbe musica o è una presa in giro? Boh incommentabile

[@uigliam]

It's simple.. 🙄NARCISSISM

[@ivsonmartins7211]

Why?

[@philipconnelly1505]

Why not?

[@ivsonmartins7211]

@@philipconnelly1505 😂🙋🏾

[@philipconnelly1505]

@@ivsonmartins7211 Such a mature response.

[@ivsonmartins7211]

@@philipconnelly1505 I just found your answer was funny. Even though I respect your opinion I believe if you are looking for maturity you should be looking for it in a different place and music.

[@uigliam]

(n°1) It is the charm of harmonic intervals that affects creativity... (this composer must be a teenager or young man). It happens to students, listening to the chord progressions typical of certain tonal music (Corelli, Vivaldi...) and playing them on the piano several times to try to understand where this... invincible Beauty comes from. This work is endearing. But it's not art.

[@herbertsherbert7378]

Can I ask you to expand on that last statement? (also, just for background/context he was 30 when this was written and was completing postgraduate studies at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, so not exactly a novice) Edit: I've just reread that comment, I didn't mean for it to come across so brusque 😂

[@uigliam]

@@herbertsherbert7378 🙂Don't worry. You weren't abrupt./... It's complicated for me to communicate here, with precision. (I'm Italian, I'm translating every post I read from English and it takes a long time to respond...🙄 It's a lot of work! Sorry)

[@gabriel77196]

Define art

[@uigliam]

@@gabriel77196 It's my opinion. Art can be defined as a particular intellectual development that resists over time. It is not only effectism, linked to the contingencies of a discipline: for example to what is unusual or surprising or to excessive self-referentialism. Mistaking the planning, the elegant graphics, the form for the essence of an art is not correct: these are just incidental aspects. You can be a good composer but not an artist. /But that's just my thought.

[@linguistaomar8516]

naïve art is still art

[@bruggbruh]

cmapt

[@toddlevin]

The initial conceptual ideas behind the composition are modestly interesting (not particularly well developed, but interesting nonetheless). The manifestation of the concepts as a musical composition is a bit obvious and ham-fisted, and becomes increasingly moreso the longer the composition goes on. It's not a terribly lively listening experience, more of a chore once the basic ideas are stated...

[@Vortragskunst]

Действует на нервы как Бах.

[@Iocun]

Wow, this is awesome!

[@uigliam]

Music Writer. He knows what he likes, he discovers and steals sound combinations and passages from others, extracting them from various composers. He is very interested in graphics. He wants to enchant without going into the organization, even minimal, of a tangible musical phrase or form. In reality he never dares. He dares not do anything... Only effect. A Catalog Of Effects that can only intrigue those who are not musicians.

[@meruscales]

maybe taken on their own each section is just an exercise, but I think there's a very pleasant formal logic to how the sections are juxtaposed and developed relative to each other. There's multiple narratives in this piece at multiple timescales that only manifest if you consider how they are ordered to fit together. Definitely not a masterpiece, but I think there's a lot more to it than just a catalogue.

[@timesfire]

The emperor has no clothes.

[@ubershmuck]

the emperor is wearing undyed raw silk

[@ubershmuck]

idk maybe it would take you performing something written in The Past 100 Years to understand and appreciate this

[@luna_zhang]

nah this is actually pretty good

[@ario2264]

the emperor is dancing around naked

[@philipconnelly1505]

He DOES have clothes; you just don't like the way they look. Go cry about it.

[@batlin]

This sounds like OCD.

[@Filosof1442]

А ведь из этого вполне можно было сделать нормальную музыку

[@nikolaykostirev7777]

полуфабрикат,больше похоже на какието упражнения

[@tastenschlager1673]

Фамилия композитора очень соответствует произведённому им "продукту".Это загнивание мозгов,а не музыка.И это говорит не какой- нибудь невежда,а человек,любящий музыку Веберна,Штокгаузена,Лигети,Крамба итд.

[@gabriel77196]

So this wasn't said by some ignorant person, but it was definitely said by someone with their head up their ass

[@Whatismusic123]

You're still an "ignoramus" you just like random noise.

[@Whatismusic123]

"My garbage is actually more sophisticated than this garbage"

[@tastenschlager1673]

@@olegmakarov7877 это дело вкуса.Но музыку вышеперечисленных композиторов нельзя поставить на один уровень с "музыкой"Загния.Или наоборот...

[@Whatismusic123]

@@tastenschlager1673 to my ears they seem to be pretty equally incompetent.

[@Ivan_1791]

Is this a joke?

[@RozarSmacco]

Beginners exercises masquerading as a pretentious Sonata…pretty clever, not. This fails the Harrison test:”would you ever text the link to a music-loving friend and excitedly say “you have to check this out!” NO. Sorry prof. Take a clue from Kapustin, Medtner, Yorke Bowen, Rachmaninoff, Lyapunov, Liszt, Alkan ..etc and have your music GO SOMEWHERE.

[@SpeedySkunk-te6yk]

Your life seems to not be going anywhere if you are so close minded ;)

[@meruscales]

I have sent this to music loving friends. It's a clever piece.

[@topologyrob]

I sure would

[@D7sus4]

Посредственно.

[@Whatismusic123]

Random noise. This is not music.

[@filipgoldanowskicomposer]

You are not an expert.

[@Whatismusic123]

@@filipgoldanowskicomposer and you are just a cultist

[@B-eSCH]

@@Whatismusic123 define cultist, you have 1,12k subscribers 🤣

[@EchoHeo]

your mom

[@artjomhansase6977]

Maybe your pea brain just can't comprehend the beauty in this. Every kind of music has its place and right to exist