Monday, November 26, 2007

Are You Ready to Rachmoninov?

While it is now the time for dance at the Flea's sanctum, it is instead the time at Moron Pundit where we sit in slack-jawed wonder at the amazing talent of the world's virtuosos. Over Thanksgiving, I gave thanks for my brother's visit home from graduate school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

We were discussing Tori Amos (a mutual obsession of ours) and our conversation meandered to the most difficult piano pieces of all time. He mentioned Bach concertos that were written without the foreknowledge that anyone would ever play them and even now there are probably less than a dozen who can. In an attempt to see what that must look like, I hunted tried to hunt down the most difficult concerto in history. Many pointed to Rachmoninov's Concerto 3. Watch this (there are 4 previous parts):

Pay particular attention to the left hand (my brother said he was notorious for ridiculous left parts) as it starts to look like he's having a seizure in the last minute of the piece.

Amazing!

So, is this actually the most difficult piano piece in history? Can you brilliant readers recommend a more difficult piece? I'd love to see it.

Also, I found a website called Classic Cat that archives thousands of free classical downloads. Delightful!

3 comments:

Drewsome said...

Holy balls... I wish that I was that good at something. The only thing I can do flawlessly is sleep.

Anonymous said...

It is am amazing piece that always gives me goosebumps when I listen. You do know that the "Rach 3" is the piece that David Helfgott (or, as Homer Simpson calls him "that guy from the movie 'Shine" - you know, Shiney McShine?") had a nervous breakdown attempting to play as an adolescent.

Tori Amos used to be an obsession of mine - but I like her older, angry work, not so much her new stuff. "Boys for Pele" and "Choirgirl" are masterpieces.

Schrodinger said...

Oh, that Shiney McShine!

I have to agree to a large extent on Tori Amos. My favorite music by her is in her past but her performances have lost none of their magic.