Customer Reviews

Piano Sonata 3 / Ballades Op 10

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this CD because it got an impressive French award, just out of curiosity. I never heard of Sokolov before and did not like Brahms, but this CD has become one of my best.

I am interested in classical piano, have heard hundreds of pianists, and yet Sokolov managed to impress me with this unsurpassed live performance.

His style is very different from the others. He is very romantic, deep, mature, sophisticated, has a mixture of passion and repose that leads you to another world and forget everything else.
He does not merely play the notes, but also all the subtle human emotions that make this live recording the most impressive, the most poignant, and yet the most touching and tender Brahms ever heard. The sound is lively and gorgeous.

I never get tired of listening to this recording. Since then, I bought all Sokolov's CDs available. A pianist who can make me love a composition I used to dislike is surely la perle rare!

And his name is Grigory Sokolov. Interpretations of the utmost seriousness and dignity, power and nuance which few if any can equal, technique that is at the service of the music rather than using the music to display the technique (which is more common in today's track-meet called classical music performance). I have all of the pices on this CD played by the legendary Arthur Rubenstein. I prefer the Sokolov.

This is immensely powerful and intense account of this sonata, which surpasses even richter's Praga recording, not to mention deeply poetic rendition of slower sections and movements. Sokolov's grandiose style of playing somehow fit this heavy music well. Probably one of his best live recordings along side his Chopin recordings and Paris Live on DVD.

Never heard of Sokolov until November 2009, when Gramophone magazine called him, among a set, "the world's greatest pianist". And he isn't even British. So, probably worth seeking out. Started trolling the music shops in SF and, luckily, found one of the 5 CD box sets, used. (Thanks Amoeba.)

Listened to all five CDs in a row. Wasn't planning to. Really had other things to do. But his playing and interpretations are strikingly unique, fresh and driven, forceful and light - something very, very difficult sounding almost tossed off. Yes, there is personality in his playing. He is not a Moravec who seems to disappear into the piece. Nor is he a self indulgent Lang Lang who plays Bang Bang. Sokolov is large, a Romantic full of bluster and power, yet one that has thought through everything; he's pensive. He's not a throw back 50, 80 years to the era of Romantic, hell fire hit the notes playing. He's very much a modern man with exact playing. He's addictive.

If you think you have heard it all and can't imagine another way it can be played, here is a man for your musical heart.

Brahms may be proud (wherever he is)of being the German composer who has been best performed by Russian pianists. If Emil Gilels was probably the most famed pianist aoround his chamber repertoire (who can surpass his Quartet Op. 25 with the Amadeus Quartet, for instance?) his brilliant performances Ballades (it's not a mere casualty he performed them in Salzburg Festival in 1972. On the other hand, Sviatoslav Richter is still reminded by his impressive recording of Brahms Second Piano Concerto with Leinsdorff from the early sixties.

Among the innumerable amount of brilliant Russian pianists who emerged from the extinct U.R.S.S. Grigory Sokolov always remarked from the rest of his colleagues. His technique ran parallel to his expression and formal standpoints, his musical readings always revealed an authentic interest to remark unsaid aspects beneath the score.

His Brahms sounds natural without being scented, played with sentiment nut not with sentimentalism or self indulgence.

In short, a first rank artist.

This is a breath-taking recording of the Op 25 etudes. I need not have bothered comparing it with many others, but I did, and it's simply beyond compare. The only reason to get another recording is to get the Op 10s, of course. Instead, we get a magnificant recording of the Sonata on this disc, with a final movement that feels like a hurricane has blown in - though with absolutely Goudlian note clarity throughout. Again - simply beyond any other recording I've ever heard.
If he is not the greatest living pianist, I don't know who is.
Yossi

Sokolov is a heavy handed pianist with no sense of musicianship. I saw a review of his Berlin recital in the NY Times and bought several of his recording based upon that and the amazon reviews. His interpretations are that of a student, not a developed artist. I can understand why one of the amazon reviewers said she did not like Brahms but liked Sokolov. Sokolov, obviously, does not like Brahms either. Banging on the piano is not playing. If you want to hear Brahms played properly, listen to Helene Grimaud. Do not buy the Bach recording either.