Classic Archive: Artur Rubinstein - The Legendary Moscow Recital

Rubinstein's prime years lasted, in my opinion, roughly from the the mid 1940s to the mid 1960s, so this concert falls near the end of that time. (Of course, even into the 1970s he remained formidable technically, and he never lost any of his natural charisma.)The first piece on the program may be the most powerful performance of Chopin's F-sharp minor Polonaise on record. His octaves (which Rubinstein was not particularly known for) are clean and strong; his fingerwork (particularly the left hand runs) snaps like a cobra, never forcing him to 'stretch' the rhythm; and most importantly his natural yet steely rhythmic spine never wavers. The performance is absolutely compelling.After that, the Impromptu evolves in the natural, easy, logically breathing way which only Rubinstein could evoke.The Sonata, too, is absolutely compelling. No one attacks the 1st movement's coda the way he does. Some no dount dismiss his approach here as bombast, all temprament and no reason or control. I believe that criticism is ridiculous. He leads up to it logically and continues after it logically, directly into the scherzo movement, so that this coda becomes one of a series of climactic moments which are one thread tieing the piece together. Unfortunately, at the end of the exposition of the scherzo movement, he starts playing the recapitulation instead and ends up completely lost in a memory slip from which he must improvise his way to the begining of the trio. But then he cuts back to the chomatic double 4ths and tries it again, and forgets it even worse than the first time! This is a huge lapse, and I cannot say that it doesn't detract from the overall impact of the performance. For me, though, it does not ruin it. His Funeral March movement has all the rhetorical power and grand sweep of the Rubinstein manner, full of sentiment but without sentimentality, as he himself once wrote. And in the finale, the 77 year old man is a technical marvel, fingers as assured as Richter's, pedaling but never smudging, leading, logically as always, to the final shocking B-flat minor chord.The second half begins with the Barcarolle, and I believe it stands with the F-sharp minor Polonaise as among the most powerful performances on record. The Rubinstein rhythmic spine is still there, though slightly more limpid, as the piece demands, and he stretches it beautifully in the coda to make the most of the harmonic disonances. His trills in double 3rds are as liquid silver, and the overall, natural breathing quality is always there.The Nocturne and A minor waltz have exactly those same qualities. They are uncomplicated and beautifully played, without the least rhetorical mannerism.The same goes for the three Etudes. Unfortunately, the last one, Op. 10 no. 4, is the only piece in the whole program in which we never see a shot of his hands. It is overpowering in its sheer masculine sweep and rhythmic drive.As he begins with a Polonaise, so he ends with one: the famous A-flat. It is much as his other performances of it: big and noble. He does not strive for any subltlety here as he does elsewhere, and he does not need to.The encores are fantastic as well. In particular the Chopin waltz, with the ascending right hand scales extended an extra octave (though kept strictly in time), is marvelous and fun.Anyone who appreciates what Rubinstein had to offer as a musician and pianist will love this concert.

This incredible recital which took place in The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1962, has been digitally remastered for this DVD and although the picture is black and white, the sound is quite good evoking comparisons with RCA's "Living Stereo" series.Rubinsteins recordings usually took place in the studio, but if you believe aside from being a superb musician, that his playing is modest and conservative, guess again.This live recital catches Rubinstein in a totally inspired mood, giving virtuoso performances that sound straight from the 19th cenury comparable to such greats as Josef Lhevinne, Josef Hofmann, Moritz Rosenthal, Leopold Godowsky,young Horowitz and Rachmaninoff. The Polonaise in F# minor is dazzling, but its the 2nd Piano Sonata where Rubinstein gives every note meaning combined with superb virtuosity that is always at the service of the composer, a case in point being the 2nd movement (Scherzo) where you can hear all the double thirds and octaves clearly and distinctly, at least equal to such greats as Horowitz, Argerich and Gilels.These are risk taking performances much more free than the Rubinstein we know in the studio.The Chopin Etudes (4), Barcarolle, and Waltz in A minor show Rubinstein at the peak of his virtuoso and musical capabilities, and the Polonaise in A flat major "Heroic" will never be surpassed.The power, feeling, expression and complete identification with every note prove that Artur Rubinstein is a 19th century virtuoso at heart with every note of Chopin's music in his bones.A historic document and a desert island must have.

In spite of the deficient sound, the DVD does capture the tone, spirit and ambiance of Rubinstein in live performance. I find him heavy-handed (for example, in the scherzo from the sonata) but the playing is much freer than in his studio recordings which I find a little pedestrian. It is this freedom that makes his playing here (as on his very few live audio recordings) so much more alive to the emotion in the music. In fact, this performance of the sonata led me to listen again to several of today's star pianists, and I found them even more wanting than before. If one listens to the last movement of the sonata which is fiendishly difficult to bring off effectively, Rubinstein is close to Michelangeli and Horowitz. Most of today's pianists, in spite of the hype surrounding their names, are lacking this sense of freedom and daring, conveying the impression that note-accuracy is more important than the fearless expression of emotion. The memory lapses in this recital do not detract much from the performance in my opinion. I'd rather hear occasional clangers too if this means that the music is speaking. Rubinstein has never been my favourite pianist but I would recommend this DVD as an interesting historic document of a period of music making so much more revealing than we are hearing today from the current big names. For those interested in hearing freer pianists I'd also recommend the recent CD release of Horowitz's Carnegie Hall recitals from the same vintage.

Despite its black-and white/ mono-aural format, this disc is a prime example of how a great performing artist can triumph over inferior technology to hand down to posterity a compelling legacy of his art and personality. Communist Russia in 1964 was a joyless hell-on-earth from which most of its great musicians were attempting to flee, and here comes silver-haired Artur to show them ---- and us --- how much talent they had lost in pursuing, supporting, or tolerating their Revolutionary program. The auditorium is dismal, the audience likewise, and initially the pianist looks, and plays, as if he made the biggest mistake in his life by coming here at all. A feeling of disappointment pervades the first few items, especially the opening Polonaise Op 44 that is mercilessly mutilated by the pianist. However, by the time the Nocturne Op 27 No 2 is reached three compositions later, Rubinstein is playing like a poet rather than a blacksmith. He does with the 2nd Piano Sonata as well as anyone else, which is not saying very much, in that I consider it a pretty awful effort that merits a Funeral March and deserves a complete burial. But after the interval that follows, we are on a different plane entirely. Rubinstein rolls off, one after the other, a glorious sequence of a Barcarolle, 4 Etudes, a couple of delightful Waltzes and a stunningly magisterial account of the "Heroic" Polonaise Op 53, interrupted by a trifle from Schumann, and followed by two of the most virtuoso encores I have ever heard or seen (Debussy's Ondine, and Pulchinella by Villa-Lobos) since the gymnastic finger-work, here as elsewhere, is brilliantly apparent, thanks to a very competent film crew. By then, the morose audience was stirred to applaud with some semblance of enthusiasm, and the platform was the scene of a floral bombardment that made me wonder whether in 1964, Russians were expected to eat flowers instead of meat, just as in the 1790's,the French were advised to eat cake instead of bread.Cynicism aside, the latter two-thirds of this DVD include some of the most ethereal playing you are ever likely to hear, and the first third should be regarded as mere acclimatization to a milieu of which we are thankfully unaware in the West, The ridiculous fragments of two short piano episodes played by Rubinstein are not at all a Bonus, but more like an insult to the purchaser, but don't let that deter you.

Vale sempre la pena di acquistare un Dvd del grande Rubinstein.Purtroppo il video è inbianco-nero e l'audio in certi brani è mediocre,poichè si tratta del famoso concertotenuto a Mosca nel 1964.Rubinstein è insuperabile nei brani di Chopin.

音質が鑑賞に耐え難いレベルである。ピアノの美しい響きは聴こえてこない。影像はモノクロで、中心部はピントがしっかりしているが、周辺はボヤケている。当時のソ連の技術の素悪さがわかる。ただ、ファンにとっては、非常に参考になる内容だ。77才にして非常にパワフルな指さばき、芸術に飢えたソ連の聴衆に彼の名人芸がビンビン伝わってゆく様子等、これらの光景は、後、いろいろな意味で音楽鑑賞のこやしとなると思う。

muss toll sein. Ich habe die DVD einem Kollegen weiterverkauft, der davon auch begeistert war. Mein DVD-Player konnte das Format leider nicht abspielen.

Voilà un DVD qui est un beau document à avoir dans sa vidéothèque, même s'il est en noir et blanc...L'artiste n'est plus à critiquer si ce n'est que chaque artiste atteint, ou non, un niveau de conscience qui est celui du compositeur... C'est ainsi que je pense qu'un instrumentiste ne peut pas, non pas jouer, mais vivre toutes les oeuvres qu'il interpréte. C'est le sentiment que j'ai eu ici en entendant CHOPIN interprété avec brio, mais sans l'âme d'un pianiste comme Cziffra...