He's not implying anything about how to play something with power vs. right notes. He was recounting a story about how he was forced to perform when he was very young before he was a complete pianist. He needed money. He was lauded as a "genius" but he was anything but. Yet the people didn't know any better. Rubinstein stopped touring for a period of time to refine his technique. The Rubinstein that reemerged is the genius we know today.

From his performances alone, I would have never imagined such a light and funny personality coming from him.

One still needs immense talent to be able to butcher it like this and make it sound THAT good ;)

Was there ever a more charming and patrician concert pianist. Humble, funny and warm. I always enjoy someone telling a story against themselves. If one could know what work he did between those two parts of his career one would have the golden key ! And his son was a star on Broadway in the 1970s.

never ego driven, and always had a laugh at his own expense! AR loved music so much he "got out of the way" and let us enjoy music as much as he did!

I’ve always loved best when he says, ‘This is how it should go - more or less.’ At the end of a monumental career his ‘patrician’ manner (I borrow another poster’s adjective) did not allow him to appear vain or self-important.

One can fool around when he's got the fame. A master's mistake is better than anything else. However one has to keep in mind how he became what he was. You just don't get there by messing up.

My piano teacher years ago told me about this! I'm so glad finally to have seen it!!

One of my favorite anecdotes!

The most difficult thing is to play wrong when you know how to play right. The easiest thing is to play wrong when you don't know how to play right. Bravo Rubi...

Even as someone who got recently into classical pianos and fell in love with it. I didn’t understand what he said until I read the comments but even I realized the difference in the correct version and his accidental butchered version

Proof that despite all that bombastic virtuosity in the right hand, the resolute and firm melody of the left hand is what actually carries this piece. The most important thing was there

So precious ✨

Спасибо большое автору за выложенную редкую запись!

Love it! Thanks for posting!

Amazing Master Rubinstein!! :)))

Such an amazing talent though and a wonderful human being

I love the way Rubenstein plays

RIP legend

Funny! thank you. sure gets lots of tension off my shoulder when playing this from now on:-)

beautiful

진짜 쉬워보이게 편안하게 잘 치신다 역시 루빈스타인 ㅠㅠ 어떻게 저렇게 쉽고 편안하게 겨울바람을 치냐 ㅠ

CHOPIN NAJPIEKNIEJSZA SPUŚCIZNA DLA LUDZKOŚCI.

he predicted the modern perception of classical music

...that is how it should sound...more or less!!!

The dark side of Chopin 😮

Un artista che crescendo come tale cresce anche come persona. Umiltà dei Grandi.

Rubinsteins point was critics seldom know what they are talking about.

That lightness

Troppo forte! :)

He listens to music just how I do. Goes to show, you don't have to actually know how to play in order to listen to the passion behind the music.

I will end it for everyone about the controversy. Technique is required indeed but what Chopin meant is the melody singing in the left hand which makes this piece musical.

What a genius!

Quelle émotion je ressens, j'en ai la chair de poule !

0:28 Haha he's so modest

I read somewhere that until his wife knocked some sense into him ("practice, Arthur"), Rubinstein acknowledged that he would hit enough wrong notes in a recital to make up the next recital!

I ever play this song

Morale: Knowing how to "fake it" is an art unto itself.

o. m. g.

He seems like a human version of ALF from a tv show.

I think he got away with it because the keys didn't fully depress in the right hand so little sound escaped. There was enough there because the melody is in the left hand, where as the embellishment is in the right.

He had a sense of humor too :D Unlike every Mr. Obvious in the comment section.

The second variant is like Alfred Cortot play this 😃😃😃

whyyy didnt he record the whole piece whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

This comment section take me back to my LA class. Question 7: Summarize the passage in your own words, and explain the author’s intentions in writing it.

He must have studied with Victor Borge 😂 It takes serious skills to play badly so well

When you are famed and powerful, you can bully and abuse anyone.... Did I get his message right? 😅

So glad the copy I have is recorded after his realisation moment, no wonder it sounds better than the others :)

And ironically enough, no contemporary pianist even approaches the level of pianists of the "golden age of piano playing" (Rubinstein, Hofmann, Moiseiwitsch, Gilels and all the others) in terms of sound control, phrasing, technical freedom and musical intelligence.

Could not stop laughing 😂

Khatia Buniatishvili draws a lot of encouragement from this video. Presumably.

It is up to the virtuoso to decide on whether the piece needs strong dynamics or just let the notes do the talking. Sounds like whatever Rubenstein does is just fine with a connoisseur audience.

You can tell he got a kick out of playing the right hand with the wrong notes.

Joie de Vivre

could someone please explain me what exactly he says in this video? I couldn't really understand but it sounds very interesting...

Needs some high-end mics over the upper part of the keyboard...

Ive never seen Rubinstein try so hard as he tried here to hit the wrong notes haha. Come to think of it, I’ve also never seen him so physically expressive as I’ve seen here play these wrote notes either. Maybe he was always playing the wrong music 🎶

one cute grandpa

0:49 this sounds like 10x better xd

He said that the crowd did not recognize the mistake, period. I think he wanted to imply that the public was rather ignorant and they had bad "ears".

To the musical intellectuals commenting: As one with a more untrained ear for technical pieces, I have only heard this piece a small handful of times, and have never heard a demonstration of it played wrong, like this example. To be honest, I didn't notice the difference the first time around. Listening a few more times, I could start to make out the difference. An expert in any field can make an expert in another field feel like a complete idiot. People that have not been exposed to music, like this, can't hear the difference in such aurally complex patterns--which, for you, may not be complex because you've given your initially inexperienced brain the time to develop the ability to recognize the patterns. Don't judge, teach.

0:08 0:49

Hilarious!

I don't think it's a matter of fudge, but faintness

So... I can miss out most of the notes?

Rubinstein=Chopin.(Mazurkas!Nocturnes!Impromptus!Trois nouvelles Études!).

Wonderful after the 18th Warsaw Marathon....

if I hear Rubenstein, my cat purring beside me. If I hear the same concert played by Lang Lang, my cat runs away, as outraged. Cats have a musical ear.

Lool

Please someone translate in French! I do speak English quite well but I don't get what he s saying

Rubinstein is natural no a sciebtific meticulous piano with him no sophisticated as many pianists * Zimer and competitions often

Okay this is going to sound weird: I know he's a man, but he somehow has that "strict lady teacher" face, of that one teacher we were all afraid of in school.

this is really the hardest one...

hilarious. :)

IMHO he was trying to say "people could still cheer for you even if you messed up". It's happening even today, for better or worse.

I laughed

I tried explaining in other videos how real pianists sink into the keys and play every note. They don't skim and cheat. It was taken as, slam the keys and heavy muddy playing. Nothing but disagreement. As Mr. Rubinstein said in the right hand "not one single thing that was really there".

THIS IS MARVELLOUS haha wow that second version sounds way better...gotta love rubinstein :P

😂

To revert back to demonstrate how he played it poorly is more impressive than him playing it at his best. That's why he's a pianist and I play the piano.

lmmfao

The best indication of success is that people pay to see you more to experience you, not to see some special performance only you can do, and as long as you don't fuck up spectacularly, the (bourgeoise) peanut gallery will eat that shit up.

Lol

The point he's trying to get across is, fortissimo left hand, mezzo piano or piano right hand. Only a true master of the instrument (top >.001%) can achieve this to such an extent that he has reached.

Nintendo must be banned him xD

Woody Allen

Good pianist but very overrated

A Jew performing music by a gentile. Is this even allowed? Isn’t there any Jewish tunes he could play?

Well... Another proof of the fact that he had no creativity and fantasy at the piano. He can join the group: ashkenazy richter bolet and sokolov and so many others. Good pianists but bad musicians in the sence that they never surprise with their interpretation... slaves of the score!!!