Love him or hate him, one thing you can never deny about Michelangeli: the man did have a unique style. And that's saying a great deal.

Michelangeli in his time was considered to be a "pianist's pianist", always impecable musical taste, technique qnd execution; incapable of hitting a wrong note. Always sartorially regal looking. Really in a class by himself.

@meesbroersen But when Royal Festival Hall threatened to sue him, he agreed to play on their piano under one condition. That all the proceeds would be given to a local children's hospital. He also taught legions of students for free(Argerich and Pollini included) let them live on his estate, prepared their meals, and gave them lessons in cooking and wine-tasting. he was also a trained surgeon, fighter pilot in WW2, champion race car driver and expert skier. I have 38 characters remaining so....

physician, concert pianist, pilot in the Italian Air Force ~ Really amazing man!

This might be in my top three favorite Chopin pieces of all time. I think it’s quite underrated.

I can never get enough of these recordings. For me his versions of this and the Ballade #1 have never been surpassed.

beautifully structural, which this piece really does need. I particularly like the way he treats the middle subject like a kind of second movement after the three octave notes which so puzzles many pianists, not knowing how to integrate them into the piece (me included). Here he gives them enormous significance and it works. I also like the way he maintains the pace through the "triumphal march" passage as though he really were travelling to a destination . . . . great performance. The best one on youtube imo.

I love it how he makes it look so easy...

This is the most sophisticated interpretation, most down to earth, and with direction

I read a lot of people don't like his version. I have to say I prefer this version. It might be skewed because I heard this first but all the other versions I hear sound sloppy and not as defined. I like how this version treats each part very differently and each section stands out very unique.

There is so much beauty in this piece

Love the beginning- excellent tempo, subtle rubatos and distinction of tone between each idea.

THE absolute perfect interpretation !!!!! Warm and strong emotions, and with the most beautiful feeling and the final conclusion around 12:27 , has never been played better! LOVE Michelangeli!!!!!!!

He's just amazing!

The most genius piece of Chopin more subtle masterpiece than ballads, scherzos, sonatas, valses and mazurkas. more than the C minor nocturne . It is the best piece of Chopin.

@deadheadchemist Usually young people play extremely virtuoso, and as pianists get older, they start to play more music instead being cool technicians. Michelangeli just became adult quicker than other pianists

Indeed. He switches to quarter-note triplets for the last 2 measures of the final passage. He seems to have been concerned about the build-up of sound during the diminuendo, so he lightened the bass load. A pretty good idea!

I love this piece!!!❤️

Génialissime comme toujours avec Michelangeli. La partie central est à vous tirer des larmes de avant tant de nostalgie et de beauté.

내 동생이 음대다니던시절 졸업연주회곡으로쳤던곡.... 다시 즐감하니까 감회가 새롭다... 벌써 삼십년이라는 세월이 지났네 ...ㅠㅠ

As good as any ever recorded. Bravo maestro!

WOW. That was amazing. Poor guy must be exhausted after playing so long, he's incredible.

Everybody good this wonderful music really pleasant to hear performance's attagirl

superb! Bravo! TY.

version with animated score: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rJNiqth5z7zJp2g.html

Bravo bravo bravo bravo brilliance fantastic super music fantasy

His alteration to the left over the last few arpeggios is very interesting.

I am reading how a soldier plays this in a bar at the battlefront in WW1 in a place called Popeinghe near Ypres.'The noble and grievous music seemed like an elegy on the company'. (Donald Boyd-'A Salute to Guns')

The absolute perfection!!!

the greatest of all.

One of a few pianists who can actually play well without pulling ridicolous faces.

I agree, relaxed. Difficult to hear on my mac pro laptop at full volume.

touched

3:53 6:11 10:13

Mi è capitato di osservare una pianista ondeggiare come un tergicristallo impazzito. Dopo 6 minuti sono uscito dal Teatro.

3:25 I am officially getting the music just to play that little part of the piece

How I can upload a video larger than 10 minutes???

You do know that that is not always voluntary. When I play I can't stop myself humming along and making a face when I hear something that makes me feel good. Maybe there is a way to force yourself to contain that, but I feel that it's wrong to do so. Everyone is different.

12:28 !!!! ;) So Beautiful!

This is a paragon of an interpretation for me!

I just listened to him play the Andante Spianato and grande polonaise and I was not moved. I like this much better. Well, I think the other piece is not up to the standard of other Chopin masterpieces

I disagree, Pollini is absolutely NOT cold. He respects perfectly the composer and sure that you are not susceptible to his art.

@BlazeKenny yeah, I get the impression that Michelangeli was born an adult, haha. I mean that in a good way. He's one of a kind. In a good way. :D

Pollini is absolutely cold, in the sense that he is unable to transmit any feeling. Michelangeli's interpretation is always rich of nuances... I also like Zimermann, Rubinstein, and Cortot, but I think Michelangeli is the perfection. Search youtube for ABM performing Chopin's Ballades.. I could not stop hearing it.

You really do know the lives of others

00:10

In particolare trovo eccellente il Bach di Richter.Possiedo 2 CD che non smetterei mai di ascoltare!

Quite underrated :(

AMB BEST OF HIS TIME!

Please post a video of your own and show us how Michelangeli should have played it. We really need your input, ekphoolomali. Show us the way.

Chopin thought it pretty interesting....interesting enough to finish it when he was in the prime of his poetic genius...

hello, I am looking for a F minor adagio of bach can you help me

An aristocrat of the piano if ever there was one.

meraviglioso. è l'unico ad essere riuscito a portare davvero bach sul pianoforte.

exhausted after 13 minutes? this dude used to practice 10 hours+ every day.. impeccable!

in the first half, both should be played as staccato where marked

ABM - la perfezione della percezione...

Michelangeli n'est pas pour tout le monde, désolé.

Seems reasonable to me. If you can criticize then you should be able to "do better." Lot of KZfaq wannabes who think they know it all including yourself apparently...

I'm the 87th comment. Who's going to be next and be the perfect number 88?

It looked like he was playing effortlessly lol

i clearly prefer the first most heroic michelangeli in chopin: i remember the ballade 1 - sonata 2 disc from prague...a pure delight...even this performance has a great authority and sound-searching quality even if I had worked with more imagination in the egorov style.

It seems (to you) but it's not true. Sometimes time relaxing acts as an excellent introduction to a more calm theme, like a sipario that closes telling you: ok now you are hearing something different.

@deadheadchemist Real musicianship comes through in the sound, I say. :) I rarely watch the musicians anyways, it's not ballet! ;)

Yeah, indeed. It's almost impossible to get it to sound convincing as written.

I’m finding this too fast.

Sure bet that Liszt loved his friend's Fantasia!

If you don't think Michelangeli is the best, you got a long way to go.

magnificent! Lol

👍🏻🎹

3:28

well, he plays the fantasia his own way... very interesting..

人間って、不摂生をしていたら、後でツケが回ってきます。一時は名声を得ても、病気になったりする人は非常に多いです。

I call this "Aristocrazìa vera"

Real bathos.

3 people only hear reggaeton

雪が降る町を、に似ています。本当にショパンですか？この曲だけは弾きたくありません。

It is much more difficult, at least a level up!

....What...

Watch Benjamin Zander's TED Talks episode. You'll think a bit differently. Michelangeli was a genius but he should have been playing Debussy instead of Chopin.

Michelangeli added rubato in places where it's not needed, and added those really long delays, so it broke up some of the melodies. He clearly mastered the technical parts, but seems to have misinterpreted some of the musical ideas.

随分と古い画像です。日本人がショパンの真似をして、雪が降る町を、を作曲したのかも分かりません。

@KufrAkbar Oh really? And you can decide who is a real musician and who is not? I'd say that he puts too little emotion in when playing, when saying this i'm comparing with whatever other musicians i have listened to and he didn't captivate me like some others have. ...and i don't like his mustache...

Meh. Too restrained and thought out.

Valentina Lisitsa's ending is better.