Vladimir Ashkenazy: Beethoven - Piano Sonata in C minor Opus 111

[@highpeaksphil]

The sonata to end all sonatas. The sublime end of a life long journey by Beethoven. The Master played by a Master of the piano

[@rolexrichard8154]

Sounds like Wendell Kretzschmar

[@eligarf]

I think, although this is one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, Liszt’s sonata takes dibs on the sonata genre 🙄 ✌️

[@highpeaksphil]

@@eligarf I agree the Liszt B min is a daddy amidst sonatas yet there wouldn’t have been a B min if it were not got the Hammerklavier 😀👍

[@patriciabretas2872]

Ashkenazy makes us cry. The message, the “sermon” Beethoven wanted to leave for the human being was totally conveyed by this marvelous pianist. I am moved.

[@dakotajad4817]

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[@kamdenreyansh1632]

@Dakota Jad instablaster ;)

[@dakotajad4817]

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[@dakotajad4817]

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[@kamdenreyansh1632]

@Dakota Jad Happy to help xD

[@davidthornton2210]

A meeting of giants. A lonely prince of a realm of spirits, isolated by deafness and a pianistic genius. A privilege to hear

[@scottcrowley3509]

The best interpretation and execution ever of this piece. His dynamic range is remarkable. I wish I could have been in this audience. Beethoven's epic sonata points to the early rhythms of jazz. One of my top 10 of all piano works.

[@eh8332]

2nd best! I still prefer Ivo Pogorelichs' slower tempo but this interpretation is lovely, too

[@jovidec6274]

3rd best. Pollini's is still better than both this one and Pogorelich's.

[@RasiRon]

Fantastic performance of one of Beethoven’s greatest piano sonatas

[@louise_rose]

Agree, I have an early recording on CD by Ashkenazy of this one, taped in East Berlin in late 1957 - in fact I have recordings of it bty several greatv pianists, from Kempff and Brendel to Uchida, my favourite is the beautiful early-1970s take by Alfred Brendel - and it's so cool to be able to watch him playing it around thirty years later. When I was around 12-13 years old, I had the opportunity of watching him live at a concert, with a good seat offering a nice view of his hands playing (the director of the city orchestra was a friend of his and managed to get him to our town) - he played a couple of Beethoven sonatas, including the Appassionata, and it was so exciting!

[@autumnleaves2766]

I love the late Beethoven piano sonatas, they take us on a spiritual journey and you listen and seem to reach a higher state of consciousness. Was just listening to Benedetti Michelangeli's 1964 version of the same sonata, and this performance from Vladimir Ashkenazy is great too. He's a pianist that I did hear live on several occasions in the late 1980s to 1990 period. One of those pianists that never disappoints. Beethoven's achievements are remarkable when you think what struggles he had in life: a neglected abused child, mood swings, functionally deaf around the age of just 30, giving up on love in order to pursue his music, piano prodigy himself, and he left his brain to science. Here we are in 2023 and scientists in Vienna are going to examine the skull fragments left behind. They've already been looking at his DNA too.

[@elianejoly5352]

Beautiful musique au piano .Thank you Vladimir Ashkénazy .🧑‍🎤

[@yarisricky]

Spettacolare !! Grandissimo veramente !!

[@juanjosenamnuntavarez7553]

Thank you so much

[@RogerMoenBreckCO]

I believe this is my favorite version of this sublime sonata

[@NotLegato]

weird audio doubling at 3:30.

[@juanvialcaide1637]

una interpretacion muyyyyyy buena

[@FenBioDinamico]

Esta sonata es un viaje hacia el Alma de Beethoven. Es volver a vivir desde su interior ese transcurso de su difícil existencia. Es sentir esa entrega hacia el mundo desde lo más recóndito de su ser. Qué inconmensurable legado nos ha dejado, no sólo por esta tremenda Sonata, sino por toda su obra.

[@raffitorossian6994]

A GIANT ARTIST BY ALL MEANS.....!

[@porcinet1968]

judging by the performances it receives the Arietta must simply be one of the most difficult pieces in the entire repertoire to play: very few pianists get the galloping quality of the central fast section even remotely correct (it's two and a half pages of that 3=2+1 rhythm in every part of the texture and Ashkenazy, despite his skill, still flattens it out into almost regularity which to my ear spoils what Beethoven is doing here: it's the same proportions as the rhythmic grid that operates previously in the movement, just subdivided further and further until it's effectively triplets of triplets of triplets). only Pollini and Levit fully clarify this.

[@eligarf]

Links? I gander Serkin and Schnabel should be included. 🙄

[@vittoriomarano8230]

Who - in the 1st movement - is able to hear a reminiscence of the Hammerklavier's last movement..? There are still flats in the key...🎼

[@tramp2310]

Stratosferica Sonata!! Dopo dj essa tutti si son divertiti. Bravo come Pollini. Brava anche Katia MHan

[@elianejoly5352]

Vous venez de me faire aimer le compositeur Beethoven à le jouer au piano .🎹 Very Nice

[@thewizardii1638]

like it. nice trills..

[@tobiaszeller4323]

19:15 9th Scherzo?

[@ymgarant4665]

Belle interprétation et beaucoup de climats différents de

[@kmcq692]

BBC radio’s Room with a View 2023 brought me here. I had to find out why it sounded like American Ragtime all of a sudden!

[@nunyabusiness8538]

21:32

[@fredhornaday3665]

Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus brought me here

[@nakulluthra2778]

Me too

[@aloisiomendes6145]

Me too...

[@luzdamarisrojasrodriguez1829]

Me too

[@ΧρύσαΠαπαδημητρίου-τ4τ]

Same here!

[@RogerMoenBreckCO]

Not me… I have been in love with Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas for 50+ years. I was searching different versions of this final piano sonata, and I think that this version might just be my favorite of all.

[@lenamcginnis5168]

THE BEST BEETHOVEN SONATA OP 111 IS PWRFORMED BY MARIA YUDINA SPECTACULAR!!!! TYPE IN GOOGLE HER NAME AND SONATA THERE IS ANOTHER PERFORMANCE IN 1954 COMBINATION OF DIFFERENT COMPOSERS!!! LENA

[@uploaderofmonkeybath.mp4761]

i wonder why he didnt write a third movement to this? why are there only two?

[@johnthorstensen6582]

What could possibly follow?

[@virginal543]

Two movement sonatas were common at that time. Haydn wrote many.

[@highpeaksphil]

Didn’t need another movement

[@Cayres18]

Nice of you to ask, Beethoven's editor asked the same thing, and Beethoven replied that he simply "didn't have time" and made up for it with a major 2nd movement!

[@erlinhld8745]

Also ich finde die Beethoven Sonate Opus 111 von Ashkenazy nicht wirklich toll gespielt, ich mag lieber die Version von Ivo Pogorelic von 1982. Aber wozu die Aufregung? Der wahre Künstler ist der Komponist.

[@eugeniagaruti6529]

Al confine tratta la vita

[@musicsdarkangel]

It’s so difficult to play this sonata and not make it sound like crap. Touché, Ashkenazy, touché.

[@JBorda]

A prodigy renders an homage to a genius. One listens to this music and the only explanation is, God.

[@chrish12345]

obviously on a very high level but lots of odd accents and dynamic changes that aren't in the score (which don't seem to work), and he often doesn't observe those that are in it (also don't seem to work)

[@EmptyVee00000]

In which way do they "not work?"

[@michaelstrauss2461]

chrish12345 I long to hear your interpretation with so many of your skilled perceptions that work!

[@chrish12345]

@@michaelstrauss2461 its doesn't need 'skilled perceptions' to state the obvious - he is taking liberties with the score and for me he is misguided here. I do actually play this but I don't see why one should have to play a work to be able to have a valid opinion of someone else's performance - why do you think this?

[@chrish12345]

@@EmptyVee00000 they do not fit the music

[@fa-la-mi-mi-re]

Like many other pianist:far too slow.The beginning note is a demisemiquaver(32nd note).Should be played quicker and the tempo is Maestoso - Allegro con brio ed appassionato...far from it.Arrau,Barenboim..Buchbinderplay the same.Boring!!!Only Richter plays is correctly.

[@jameso1553]

Every interpretation is subjective and that is the beauty of music.

[@andrewwatson6913]

I'm even faster than Richter, unless I play all the notes.

[@michaelstrauss2461]

Doremi Fasolla you seem like an expert, please upload your version, I’m sure it will be the best of all time! I can’t wait...

[@fa-la-mi-mi-re]

@@michaelstrauss2461 Why that comment?When saying that someone does not like a novel,does it mean that that someone has to write a novel himself to be allowed to say he does not like the novel???Same in music.Richter is the ONLY EXPERT in this music.

[@asabeaumont7213]

Having listened to both renditions I don't think that you can say one is correct all others are wrong. Richter lacks empathy somehow, whereas Ashkenazy makes it wracked with emotion. Richter may be metronomically accurate and precise, but the feeling you get when Ashkenazy plays it is more soulful. Both are excellent.

[@thaddeusdubois6209]

His playing is really awful. He rushes constantly, voice leading is terrible. Has many parts in which he speeds up or slows down which is very disruptive. His trills are disgusting......harsh and cold. Really bad playing......has no business playing such a masterpiece and making it sound like a old ship being hacked to death by rough seas.......

[@austinjoel1949]

Do you even have the audacity to try the piece for yourself?

[@johnhardin1382]

h

[@antonydean9935]

Sad you can't appreciate the beauty of this sonata play so magnificently. Perhaps you would prefer the version by Sid Vicious?

[@jovidec6274]

You are a total joke. 😂

[@0_0-d7e]

I find it very hard to take someone like you seriously. If anything, while music is subjective, your opinion on music seems to be , if I dare say so myself, quite bad.