Search - Zoltán Kocsis - Piano Recital on DVD

Excellent Tonal Portraits of 3 Great Composers...

BLee | HK | 08/27/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
Kocsis has obviously done justice to the great tradition of Lizst- Dohnanyi - Bartok, which also brings him to more or less the same level with Rachmaninov, Cortot, Robert Casadesus and Kempff. For as an acknowledged composer, Kocsis obviously has an edge: he possesses more depth and imagination than most contemporary pianists. In short, this DVD can you tell why he deserves to be one of Philips great pianists of the century, and why Richter was so keen to see him perform. And that may also explain why he despises any first rate pianist/second rate musician.



Kocsis has captured the spirit of these 3 pieces very well, albeit in a way that the respective composers themselves wouldn't and couldn't have done so at their own time-- it is a rather modern romantic approach. In his Mozart, there is so much drama, and a tension which reminds us so strongly of Mozart's operas, of his own fate, and the death of his father etc. Contrasts are huge and fast at times. Less so is his Beethoven and it is interesting as well as instuctive to dig into the reasons why he gave it such a treatment. His Schubert is played with a tone so sad that goes right into the darkness of Schubert's fate. Despite the dynamics and tempi as well as his tones that could change so fast plus quite a number of prolonged pauses, Kocsis has the facilities and the wizardry to "swing" the audience in a most transcendental way within virtually the first few bars.



The footage is rather short and runs for about 80 minutes without any encores. The recorded sound and photography is not too outstanding according to modern statndard. There is sufficient coverage of his hands from a very comfortable point of view (but not quite enough for the ardent pianist viewers to whom nothing less than fulltime coverage would do.) And the hall which the recital given was like a salon, small and cozy enough."

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George A. Benedict | Billings, Montana USA | 06/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Schubert piano sonata is VERY HARD TO ACCESS. It seems that the whole Schubert piece is hidden inside the Beethoven Opus 111 Arietta. The pianist Kocsis is very good indeed, and I imagine he might well think it insulting to hide the Schubert so unthinkingly."

As wonderful as Kocsis's CDs -- Buy without reservation

Dr. Ervin Nieves | 10/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Zoltan Kocsis is a beautiful pianist in the best possible sense. He epitomizes my imaginary image of Beethoven playing the piano passionately and effortlessly. I wish the DVD program had been longer. This is my only complaint. Yet here is a wonderful pianist showcased in his prime. I would have loved to have heard Kocsis play Debussy and Bartok, which he plays magnificently. Perhaps a second longer DVD is in order?!"