February 09, 2008
Friday Night Piano Fatality
It's that time: Vinnie's favorite time of the week!
Have you ever heard a piano played? I mean really played? Like, sparks shoot-out-of-the-strings and the soundboard-emits-its-own-center-of-gravity piano playing?
Check out Vladimir Horowitz - one of the most acclaimed pianists of any period - playing the famous cadenza of the awe-inspiring, terror-inducing 3rd Piano Concerto by Rachmaninoff.
When God created the concert grand piano, this piece is precisely what he had intended for them.
Vid runs from the cadenza to the end of the 1st movement (about five and a half minutes).
HEAR THE OSSIA CADENZA BELOW THE FOLD --->
Here's the darker, more brooding, more chord-tastic ossia ('other') cadenza that I actually like better, but the Horowitz video was the best quality. Both are written to be played at this part in the concerto, and the pianist chooses which version he wants to play:
