Fastest fingers in the West?

Fastest fingers in the West?

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norman lebrecht

April 10, 2015

This is Grigory Sokolov at work. Check the fingerwork from 0:18.
Grigory-Sokolov-Concert-in-Barcelona_1357772365_1

Comments

  • T-arafanboy says:
    April 10, 2015 at 12:14 pm

    …and the East?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1fgo7hp-Ko

    Reply
  • Theodore McGuiver says:
    April 10, 2015 at 12:41 pm

    Absolutely stunning, I love Sokolov’s playing. Shame the audience couldn’t wait to applaud until he’d actually finished, though.

    Reply
  • Arto says:
    April 10, 2015 at 12:05 pm

    And what about the joy and technic of Fazil Say in his own Paganinni variations?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZSefvtdYiY

    Reply
  • PAM says:
    April 10, 2015 at 4:29 pm

    This video is WILD — a friend shared it with me last week. Sokolov is just amazing….

    Reply
  • geoff radnor says:
    April 11, 2015 at 3:01 am

    listen…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9PvX7Fj7Rg

    Reply
  • Geoff Radnor: says:
    April 11, 2015 at 3:02 am

    Listen…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9PvX7Fj7Rg

    Reply
  • Alberto Martinez says:
    April 11, 2015 at 9:24 am

    Fast fingers are not impressive, the musicianship is

    Reply
    • M2N2K says:
      April 12, 2015 at 8:22 am

      Fast fingers *are* impressive too, but the combination of technique with musicianship impresses most highly. In any case, it is strange to talk about speed in Sokolov’s case because he practically never takes extremely fast tempi and actually prefers to play fast movements at a relatively moderate pace. His fingers impress mostly by their immaculate rhythmical and tonal precision as well as remarkable evenness of touch, with all of this augmented by subtle differentiation of timbral colors.

      Reply
  • Jeffrey Biegel says:
    April 11, 2015 at 11:58 pm

    I think Abram Chasins Rush Hour in Hong Kong and the Presto of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons ‘Summer’ last movement for solo piano is faster yet. 🙂

    Reply
  • Hilary says:
    April 12, 2015 at 9:57 am

    Remarkable playing, and as others have pointed out, it’s the colour (plucked sonority at times) he invests with the dexterity which is so impressive.
    Weissenberg also had pretty fast fingers as well but occasionally reduced the music to an equivalent of a pile up on the subway escalators. Great pianist, all the same.
    I’m fairly deft but my fingers got in a muddle very quickly in the Couperin.

    Reply

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