Wilhelm Backhaus plays Beethoven Piano Concerto no.4 on the Bösendorfer Concert Grand 290 Imperial

[@HKLee-dn1fh]

the entire harmony; orchestra and piano is incredible!

[@larscain3263]

It’s nice to see that not everyone who is playing so wonderfully isn’t hopping around like they are having seizures while they are playing.

[@reallynotpc]

This is the kind of performance I was brought up on.Still love it! For me it shows the beauty of the music without having to take into account the personality of the soloist. There's no ego in Backhaus's performance.

[@stephenloxton43]

So in the service of the music. Wonderous and inspiring

[@gene7025]

Another time...wonderful to visit. Thank you

[@leestamm3187]

This is the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, not The Vienna Philharmonic. The complete original television film is on KZbin, complete with credits identifying the performers. It's a wonderful video, a real work of art.

[@c3piano]

This is beautiful.

[@selftrue670]

Mozart was an undeniable genius of the highest order. Then, there's Beethoven. But for me, Beethoven is the elite of the elite, the rarified gift of the ages.

[@brucejackson4219]

It's all a matter of preference and nothing else. For me, J S Bach is primus inter pares...and this does not detract from the musical genius of so many others truly entitled to this description. It is not a question of "who is the best,"...so many composers touch our souls. I would add that I have a special affection for Bosendorfers!

[@selftrue670]

@@brucejackson4219 Your point is well-taken. If you said you were going to take either Bach or Beethoven away from me and I must choose--I would probably fight you rather than choose. I play a Roland that I wish was a Bosendorfer! But we play what we have.

[@brucejackson4219]

@@selftrue670 Thanks for this. I think we are ad idem on the real importance of the subject matter. I do not have a Bosendorfer either but, if I did, I would not [sadly] be able to bring its true quality to life. Moving away somewhat, I was a classmate of John Lennon in Liverpool and remember him well . He played the harmonica outside the classroom as we waited for our teacher to appear on the scene.

[@selftrue670]

@@brucejackson4219 Then you probably understand that John Lennon was one of those rare instances of a person mainlined into the music grid. I, and perhaps you, hear music, make music, and feel music to a great degree. Yet, try as we may, we cannot BE music in the ways that Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Lennon and many others were. It was as though their cells resonated with music through some osmotic process; almost autonomic.

[@brucejackson4219]

@@selftrue670 I certainly admit my love-I think that is the correct word-for music is passive in that I merely appreciate certain pieces and certain renditions. I find the term "classical music" too confining and elitist in many ways. I was fully supportive of Bob Dylan being awarded his Nobel Prize, but feel that it should perhaps have included Neil Diamond and Leonard Cohen. One Summer long ago I had a student job working on the buses which operated from the Penny Lane depot in Liverpool. Good to hear your above views. I've come across so much new musical experience on KZbin, such as the lovely [long departed] singer Dalida and the superb pianist Katalin Zsubrits.

[@MsrAlaindeFerrier]

Magnificent

[@MAKESQ]

Backhaus is unjustly often overlooked when the great pianists of the 20th century are discussed. Not sure why. Was it his unadorned straightforward playing style?

[@JoePalau]

Michael Koplen could be lack of properly remaster recordings. He is well known and appreciated by piano students and affectionados . Ditto for Wilhelm Kempf. We have more remastered recordings of him. Still both under appreciated by the general public.

[@Bruce.-Wayne]

Backhaus was one of top 5 greatest Beethoven interpreter in the 20th century....he was never overlooked

[@alakabetz]

@@AL-pu7ux I guess you are referring to his association with Hitler and the Nazis and his apparent snubbing of a Jewish musician. If we are going to ignore Backhaus for that, to be consistent we must also ignore Karajan, the raging anti-Semite Wagner, Carl Orff and perhaps Richard Strauss among others. It's a tough call.

[@alakabetz]

@@Bruce.-Wayne I agree with the original post. Backhaus may be known to piano students, but he is not well known to the general "classical music" listening public.

[@Hotspur77]

@@alakabetzI would argue it’s not such a tough call. Backhaus is one of the supreme artists of all time. The story of the snub is just that - a story. Even if it happened as reported, it was apparently an isolated thing. We have to remember the confusion and pressures everyone felt living in such times when ideology pervaded all aspects of life in Germany. It was I. The Reich was very much a cancel culture, and just as we see people In our own time take the path of least resistance on matters that deserve a stronger moral stand, so it was back then. Backhaus was an immortal artist but a mortal man. I can live with that.

[@nytom4info]

Got to play one at Euro pianos in Naples FL... Unbelievable!!!

[@johnschlesinger2009]

There is a magnificent complete performance of this concerto, with Backhaus, the VPO, and Knappertsbusch - also using the Bosendorfer piano, on KZbin, in a Sunday concert; the programme starts with the Leonora number threee overture, and concludes with the prelude and liebestod from Tristan, with Birgit Nillson.

[@mtamburini]

Bösendorfer rocks

[@packingten]

They have Bosendorfer name blacked out WHY?.

[@Mercy_Pants]

Probably for advertising restrictions. Same reason you’ll see Apple logos covered on TV shows and movies although you’ll know it’s an Apple laptop.

[@steinwaygrande9736]

Interesting to note that Wilhelm Bakhaus was born in the 1880s and died in 1964. I have a LP of Bakhouse playing Beethovens Emperor Concerto so it must have been bought in the late 1950s.

[@Claudio_AG]

Backhaus died in 1969. This recording is from 1967.

[@drakethepianoman9675]

Backhaus died in 1969

[@tarakb7606]

Kaiser Wilhelm.

[@fabriziopelli4577]

Beethoven 4th😍

[@shirleyhare6177]

Fabrizio Pelli r

[@rd3ster]

The twin pinnacles of human endeavor are Shakespeare and Beethoven. That won't change.

[@HaiTran-uk2oh]

The orchestras back then, all boys, and seems to be the same age.

[@MonaetSham]

Who puts an ad right when the piano solo starts?

[@packingten]

I Never see ads I got You Tube red 14.99 per month for Wife&I best 14.99 spent ever.In our opinion I got it first,(9.99), Wife complained about ads so ended up getting it for her😊

[@Johannes_Brahms65]

Böhm is cute.

[@borkal969]

Tempi passati.

[@shirleyhare6177]

Yes, he played well, but, he doesn’t have the depth and emotion that Lang Lang gives ,it’s the difference in playing and “feeling” the story in the music. My opinion for what it’s worth. 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨🐨Australia.

[@SarahJones-wy5us]

Lang Lang WHAT? overrated show off, Evgeny Kissin, Zimmerman.now your talking .

[@SebastianWill]

It seems Lang Lang really spoiled classical music... really long term damage he has done, just by catering to exaggerated cliches

[@lablous]

claptrap. Maestro Backhaus was one of the most great performers of this piano concerto, in my opinion one of the most representative of germanic musical romanticism (XX century)on the piano and the evidence is thanks to seeing and hearing the complete video

[@SarahJones-wy5us]

@@lablous why have you posted this to my sight I have not made any comment on this????????

[@Mercy_Pants]

Lang Lang 😂😂😂😂 he is such an actor. Great player but his interpretations are horrendous