Vladimir Ashkenazy - Liszt Feux Follets (live Carnegie Hall, 1969)

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Unreleased Audience Recording, Carnegie Hall. November 14, 1969.
In honor of his 81st birthday today.
Liszt Études d'exécution transcendante: No 5 - Feux Follets.
Владимир Ашкенази.
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[@lobbdaniel]

This performance was from November 14, 1969. I heard Ashkenazy perform this work in a program he played at our university on December 13, 1969, just a few weeks later. He played in Flint, MI just before our concert at Western U in London, Ontario. He performed a Haydn sonata, the Schumann Davidsbundler Dances, and after intermission the Liszt Mephisto Waltz, and ended with the Transcendental Etudes (concluding with this Feux Follets). It sounded just like this recorded performance here at Carnegie Hall. Most students had left for Christmas break by that date, the hall was half empty, and I managed to ask Ashkenazy a question after getting his autograph on his Beethoven Hammerklavier LP. I asked, "Have you ever considered recording some Bartok?" His answer, "I only record the works which I play live, and I don't play Bartok. If I ever do perform some Bartok, I will record it." Fortunately, a few years later Solti persuaded him to record the three Bartok piano concertos, the finest recordings I know of them. I heard Ashkenazy and his son perform the Rachmaninoff two-piano suites in Seoul in 2011, some 42 years later.

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

did he program all the Scriabin Sonatas live?

[@lobbdaniel]

@@ClassicalPianoRarities The only Scriabin I have heard from him was the recording of the piano concerto. I am assuming that he must have played the Scriabin sonatas live somewhere before he recorded them, judging from what he told me at that time. I guess he likes the participation of a live audience to get the feel of the music.

[@andrewkennaugh1065]

@@ClassicalPianoRarities He played Sonatas 3,4,5&9 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall,London,in an all-Scriabin programme as part of the composer's centenary celebrations. I heard him play Sonatas 2,7&10 in the Royal Festival Hall in 1977 in a Scriabin/Rachmaninov programme.I think he gave the same programmes in New York and elsewhere.😊

[@punkpoetry]

Incredible, even better than his studio recording from roughly the same time. In terms of sheer velocity, the young Ashkenazi is one of the all time great virtuosi. And such spark and freshness!

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

It is a fabulous recording! The studio recording you mentioned was made in 1957.

[@infocuslearning]

@@ClassicalPianoRarities It is also on "Ashkenazy Plays Liszt", a Decca LP from 1971 SXL 6508

[@konstantinoupianist]

Agreed! With all due respect to this wonderful person and musician I can't understand why was all this spark and freshness diluted into a meaninglessly vast repertoire..

[@geoffreydorfman2554]

Never heard it at this level. Unbelievable: and LIVE.

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

Indeed! Stunning!

[@biegel88]

I am sure Josef Lhevinne would have enjoyed this for the wizardry and fearlessness, and devilish lightness.

[@emilgilels]

Wow - just about the best performance that I've ever heard from Ashkenazy, and just about the best performance of Feux Follets I've ever heard. Rivals Richter's great live performances of the piece...

[@EmptyVee00000]

Richter's was heavier.

[@gojewla]

EmptyVee00000 not the live recording I just listened to.

[@EmptyVee00000]

gojewla Moscow 1958? Terrific performance, but slightly slower and heavier than this 1969 Carnegie Hall performance.

[@thepianocornertpc]

@@EmptyVee00000 Not so.

[@EmptyVee00000]

@@thepianocornertpc Richter's Moscow 1958 Feux Follets lasts 3:22 (last chord), whereas Ashkenazy's Carnegie Hall 1969 lasts 3:14 (last chord), a full 8 seconds faster! Ashkenazy's studio recording from 1957 lasts 3:12 (last chord just before 3:13)!

[@Ethan-ib5hk]

Absolutely astonishing. Ashkenazy at the apex of his playing here, I think.

[@jondarsk8496]

Best version

[@biegel88]

Wonderful and light! Love the 'live' quality.

[@marioramongarcia9998]

Wonderful. And astonishing: the clarity and the devilish character of the piece.

[@meredith218461]

The young Ashkenazy in top form. His account of Feux follets is very similar to Richters from Sophia in 1958.

[@g.kech.10]

And in Moscow 1957.

[@user-pz4ot2ye5l]

Up there with the phenomenal recording by Liszt pupil, Friedheim !

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

Yes, perhaps Friedheim in his prime sounded similar to this?

[@johnhumphreys9357]

Indeed astonishing at every level. Richter and Berezovsky same league - all indomitable in this ferocious test of pianistic mettle

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

Check out the CDs available in our store, all first releases tinyurl.com/ugj5pye

[@anne-mariedubois5316]

Fantastic !

[@germancardoso3587]

A great pianist at his best, he is a worthy representative of the piano Russian school !!!!

[@Highinsight7]

the old boy could PLAY.. that's FOR darn sure!

[@ThePianoFiles]

Fabulous!

[@Felix_Li_En]

Better and more flexible than the studio recording !

[@willemboone7912]

It's stunning too!

[@hansdekorver7365]

Wonderful playing , it is a pity of the sound , and especially the coughing in the Hall

[@dorfmanjones]

Phenomenal. That's all you can say.

[@filipadam7087]

Fantastic

[@Palermo.340]

Beatiful!

[@ljiljanastanic9076]

F a s c i n a t i n g!!!

[@BWV846]

I keep shouting only "BRAVO"

[@alaneckert9864]

Wow! Only recording of this piece I know that stands up to the gold standard recording by Kissin.

[@gerontius34]

You meant Richter? ;)

[@EmptyVee00000]

Both Richter’s and Kissin’s, although both fantastic, could never achieve the lightness of Ashkenazy's; theirs are heavier. All Ashkenazy’s recordings of Feux Follets are the gold standard, and Kissin’s is pretty close.

[@williamshakespeare1775]

Please listen to Friedheim.

[@Piratebreadstick]

Or this guy, whom hardly anyone has even heard of. kzbin.info/www/bejne/apTTpX15aNJ7htE

[@EmptyVee00000]

@@williamshakespeare1775 Friedheim is not too bad, but nowhere near this one.

[@ousejamais1vezousejamais1vez]

🌏 👑

[@gyeongbaemin3128]

참 맛깔나게 치는구만

[@jimvids]

faster than kissin

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

Not only faster but much more exquisite

[@paulstrickler5684]

Exquisite maybe, but Kissim is crystalline. Absolutely minimal pedal.

[@j.vonhogen9650]

Great playing by Ashkenazy, although not as impressive as Ivo Pogorelich's performance of 'Feux follets' in Carnegie Hall 5-7-1990. By the way, the level of difficulty of this piece is often overestimated, just like the difficulty of Chopin's Etude in thirds op.25 is usually underestimated (I play both pieces myself). Thanks for uploading this!

[@EmptyVee00000]

Any record of the supposedly more impressive Pogorelich performance; what there is on KZbin of his Feux Follets is cumbersome, and not impressive at all.

[@j.vonhogen9650]

@@EmptyVee00000 - The recording I had from that Carnegie Hall recital of 5-7-1990 was a bootleg. I don't know if any official recording of that performance exists. Pogorelich has lost so much of his form and appeal since that time, it's actually sad to hear him play the same old repertoire nowadays. He is not the same pianist anymore. Curiously, Pogorelich started to lose control the same year Ashkenazy decided to drastically reduce the amount of recitals he would play as a pianist. I remember he played Gaspard de la nuit one more time in Rotterdam, the exact same moment Pogorelich played Rachmaninov's Moments Musicaux at half speed in Utrecht. I already had tickets for Utrecht, so I missed the opportunity to hear Ashkenazy play this wonderful work by Ravel live. Although Pogorelich didn't play bad (it was just weird and excentric), I should definitely have gone to Ashkenzy that night.

[@richardadkins2399]

@@EmptyVee00000 kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2nFZqKHaNitY80

[@EmptyVee00000]

Richard Adkins Ivo was very heavy-handed in the video you shared, but the beginning is quite good. Needs a much lighter touch when the double-notes in the right hand start, and it remains heavy and mechanical throughout. Strong fingers, though.

[@richardadkins2399]

@@EmptyVee00000 Yes, I"m just posting the link to the discussion as mentioned by J. Vonhogen, so people can compare and decide for themselves....but I agree with what you say.

[@MarcelMombeek]

notes notes notes, almost no inspiration ... is there a more boring pianist then ashkenazy? Yes! bolet and richter!!!

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

I think it’s a phenomenal recording.... light, even, delightful....

[@jh200176]

🤣🤣🤣

[@MarcelMombeek]

@@ClassicalPianoRarities yes that's True but no inspiration at all

[@ClassicalPianoRarities]

@@MarcelMombeek to each his own. Enjoy our Cziffra uploads!

[@MarcelMombeek]

@@ClassicalPianoRarities yes... wich the most of them are not yours but my digitalisations...