Chopin Etude

Just wondering, this unique performance comes with a truly dangerous spur-of-the-moment feel. I particularly admire the way he takes the advice that Neuhaus passed on to Richter, about beginning the Liszt sonata. You can really feel the build of tension, before he finally launches in with a devil-may-care attitude- that even Nyiregyhazi would have struggled to match. Still I'm not quite sure- would Alan regard this as being efficient skeletal playing?

This leads to a performance of Chopin study #1 by a jazz?-guy. I like it he truly expresses what everybody feels about this etude from time to time. But I still prefer Nyiregyhazi his contempt is more profound and the sound superior.Another difference in his earlier day's this etude was duck-soap to him...

I laughed my head off watching this! He doesn't play more than half the notes! If he could play at that speed and with that panache and HAVE EVERYTHING SOUND, I would bow down to him! But this is a joke! All the inner notes are missing, and the ones that are there are often dirty - hmm reminds me of myself in olden times... It looks "skeletal" in one sense because he is loose and for instance the left hand has a big, healthy sound. But actually no - his left wrist is TOO floppy to be called really skeletal, and the right hand - well, it's dysfunctional! But thanks for giving me a laugh! AFF

Yeah, I suspected that you'd see the funny side. I really can't figure out whether he's serious, or playing some kind of deeply twisted Andy Kaufman style prank. It just wouldn't be the same if he didn't wait so long before finally launching into it. I can't help but wondering if there's a kind of willful comic timing going into that. I think the applause is genuine, although he could theoretically have dubbed it over the top. Here are a few more bits of fun:

Da PAVEMENT is mah perzonal fav: And of course my own horrible attempt at music: BTW dey hav a website: "SDC" stands for, quite appropriately, 'Speed demon community' where they talk about, among other things, playing piano as fast as possible.

Can't get more sceletal than this?

@Javacis Sounds very cool!!!

The sound created by these wood-devices, is pretty amazing.