Golden Age Pianists Honest Comparison: Rachmaninoff, Cortot, von Sauer

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]In this video, we are going to compare three legendary pianists from the golden age of piano playing. Sergey Rakmanov, Alfred Cortto, and Emil Fonzauer and listen to how each of them performs Schuman's Carnival. But this video is not just about admiring famous names. If we want to grow as musicians, we have to learn how to listen analytically and critically without being hypnotized by the reputation of the artist. A great name on the cover doesn't answer the most important question. what is actually happening in the performance.

[00:00:30]So, in this video, I'll point out several details that I find especially important, things like timing, character articulation, rhythm, technique, and imagination. And I'd really like you to listen along with me. And please share your observations in the comments because I'm generally curious to hear what you notice and whether you agree with me or not. Let's start by listening to the first piece as played by these three pianists.

[00:01:04]What is interesting in Cortto's interpretation is that he plays long and short chords in a completely different tempo. This makes the beginning sound grand, majestic, and yet energetic. So, in the beginning, it's really slow. 1 2 3 1 2 3 and then he speeds up and plays almost twice as fast. In general, he achieves a really good character for both opening and quicker section. His animato section truly corresponds to the spirit of Schuman flying, reactive, and calidoscopic. Although technically I have to say it is slightly below what we would call a brilliant playing today.

[00:01:55]A male fonzawer provides a more steady tempo, but at the same time it sounds kind of pedantic, like too steady, like a marsh of very old men. And also technically you may hear that he has struggled with rolled chords.

[00:02:20]In order to play such chords really well, one has to master a skill of quick weight transfer from finger to finger and avoid holding the notes. So the problems arise when you get glued to the keys and you try to kind of hold it. So you really have to roll through ideally through the upper curved trajectory like this. So you go slightly forward and your wrist goes slightly higher, not much but just slightly higher for the middle note with the third finger and you land comfortably on the thumb.

[00:02:59]So then this course will be really easier to play.

[00:03:05]And a short reminder, I have a huge technique optimization course where I will help you rebuild your piano playing habits from scratch. And it's suitable for both late beginners and advanced pianists because we have sections dedicated to basic techniques and also to very sophisticated techniques and advanced pieces suitable for professional pianists. So check it out following the link in the description.

[00:03:30]So a very important conditioning in your mind is that when you see a rolled chord which you have to roll through, it's not a chord. It's basically an arpeggio and you have to treat it as such. The first part is not bad in terms of the character but a little fragile technically. However, there is one brilliant detail that other two performers completely overlook. Notice how Fonzo uh plays this dissonant together.

[00:04:01]And he plays this before before the right hand chord and without the pedal. This creates crisp and tension Schuman intended but many performers including the other two completely overlook.

[00:04:25]When it comes to Rakmaninov, first thing I notice is how better is the quality of the recording itself. Although it's made only six years later than Zer and Cortto. However, the reason may be not only a rapid development of the recording technology, but also the fact that Rakmaninov was a truly superstar and he had access to better facilities to the best possible facilities and better facilities than anyone else.

[00:04:52]Pretty much what I like in his performance here is that he finds a great balance between the steadiness of Zoer and vigor of Corto. And he achieves it through steady rhythm but shorter chords. Because we often perceive short sounds as more energetic and less heavy.

[00:05:09]Just compare how it sounds if I play it like this.

[00:05:16]Yes. And if I play it like this.

[00:05:22]Yeah. So, the only thing I changed is the pedal, but the character changes dramatically. And Romanov uses it very much to his advantage.

[00:05:39]In general, his sense of rhythm and iron precise dotted rhythms make the other two performers feel really sloppy. My first music teacher used to say, paraphrasing the Bible, that in the beginning was rhythm. And my teacher always tried to convince me that rhythm should be treated even more seriously than the sound itself. And maybe because Rakayanov was also a conductor and maybe because he really loved jazz and used to listen to art tatum a lot. Uh I don't know for sure, but the fact is that his sense of rhythm is extraordinary. And what the other two pianists struggle with a little, he does almost effortlessly playing these uh thick multi-note chords, six sounds, seven sounds chords in dotted rhythm with absolute precision. And to be able to do that, you need a very specific kind of technique. What pianists sometimes call a ricochet motion where fingertips send two separate impulses in the key with a very quick with an immediate relaxation in between.

[00:06:49]So two grasping little motions and full immediate relaxation. But the hand and the arm unifies this motion in a single movement.

[00:07:00]So then you can play with a really good articulation all those multiple sounds chords without tension and very precisely in a good rhythm.

[00:07:11]Let's look at something more extreme.

[00:07:24]Well, that's pretty good even by modern competition standards, I have to say.

[00:07:38]This sounds like a passionate but uh sorry to say this amateur adult beginner student practicing.

[00:07:54]So there are two basic schools of thought when it comes to compromise in performance, especially when a pianist has to choose between being precise and creating a powerful artistic effect. One school says that the artistic impression comes first, even if that means missing notes along the way. Corto clearly belongs to this world. He plays in a tempo he can't manage but provides a really great character. Fonzaw is almost at the opposite pole. He understands that he cannot really deliver this piece at its full tempo. So he chooses a slower tempo he can manage but tries to preserve a higher level of control and clarity and it sounds kind of technically capable although at the limit I would say but nevertheless loses its vigor loses that craziness that the piece has to depict because Paganini was a absolute crazy virtuos a very eccentric figure and both these choices essentially are compromises. If you keep the quality but lose the character as Fonzau does, you can be criticized for lacking imagination or dramatic fire.

[00:08:57]But if you keep the character, the fury, the explosive energy and lose half of the notes the way Cto does, you can be criticized for simply not playing well enough. That's why Rakmanov here is a absolutely clear winner. And this is also where we have to understand why Rakmanov's legendary status exists in the first place. He could do things that almost nobody else could do at his time.

[00:09:19]His playing had an almost machine-like precision, but without becoming mechanical. Someone once wrote an interesting story in my comments about Rockmagnov's recording sessions for piano rolls. In that technology, the performance was captured on a paper roll and with holes punched into it to reproduce the timings and dynamics on a mechanical instrument. And apparently engineers would often adjust these roles afterwards, slightly moving certain melodic notes in the upper register so that they would sound a fraction earlier than the bass, making the melody project more clearly. With most pianists, this had to be corrected manually in post-prouction. But with Rakmaninov, the story goes, if they asked him for that kind of timing, he could simply do it himself, even in extremely difficult music. So he could control the exact moment of attack so precisely that the recording needed far less correction. So this is one reason why performers like Rakmanayov were held in such extraordinary esteem at the time.

[00:10:20]Interestingly according to some specialists I've spoken with Rakmanayov would sometimes recommend Alfred Cortto as his replacement when he himself couldn't play a concert. But in private, he also apparently criticized Cortto for his lack of discipline and for not always striving for real technical quality. And this is where the historical perspective becomes really fascinating because today the general technical level has risen so much. We have almost an inflation of technical perfection that the very thing which could make someone legendary in Rakmanov's time becomes almost irritating today. So to me this is a very good reminder that in art things are rarely simply good or bad. Very often we are dealing with trends, values and expectations that dominate a particular time. So I try to avoid black and white judgments and instead of immediately labeling something as good or bad, I prefer to compare it in a wider perspective.

[00:11:32]Well, first you can notice he completely avoids agitato. The piece suddenly becomes uh very declamative and kind of self-indulgent like a cat lying in the sun after eating way too much cream. So this works really beautiful in something like Right. But I'm not so sure about Schuman to be honest. And this is the famous almost unimitable Rakmanov's accent.

[00:12:13]It's something that many of his admirers absolutely love and it really is extremely difficult to reproduce convincingly because when Rakmanov does it, he stands exactly at the border between artistic boldness and bad taste.

[00:12:26]He keeps balancing on that line, but somehow he almost never crosses it. But many others trying to do the same thing would sound vulgar. But at the same time, this manner can be a little bit questionable in certain pieces. And this is why people also criticize Rakmanayov sometimes saying that whatever Rakmanov plays sounds like Rakmanayanov. And I actually agree to this uh here for example because this is one of those pieces which is very specific. And this piece is basically a portrait of Shopan introverted fragile insecure in some ways physically ill melancholic dissatisfied with life but also incredibly refined and sensitive.

[00:13:06]Rakmano's performance with this very declamative opening gesture is of course fascinating as a pianistic device in itself, but I don't think it really fits this particular character. It sounds too much like a statement.

[00:13:33]What I like about this version is that Zawer really captures the agitato character. There is nervousness here, a sense of trembling and inner unrest. By the way, Zar also accents the a bit the way Rakmanov does. But with him, it doesn't sound as self-indul indulgent or exaggerated as it does with Rakmanov. So we should also remember that this kind of technique was used quite often at that time and even Victor Jill whom I analyzed in my previous video used this technique as well. So Rakmanov didn't invent it. He simply makes it more deliberate, more exposed, more theatrical. But what I especially like in Zawer's interpretation is that between the first and the second statement of the theme, he finds a subtle but very real difference. The first theme, the tempo feels restless and agitated.

[00:14:23]And this theme sounds very natural, flowing. But the second time, the robato becomes more painful as if every note required just a little effort.

[00:14:39]So I almost physically feel that in order to get to the next note, you have to overcome something as if you can't find the right words to say something important. And that is a true mastery to feel this difference so precisely and to communicate it so finely. So let me know if you have noticed this difference.

[00:15:25]I have to say that Cauto's version is the most convincing to me and the most remarkable of the three. What he captures especially well is the conflict, the inner contradiction between the accompaniment and the melody. In his playing, the agitado lives mainly in the accompaniment. So these waves, they are very subtle in the left hand, but they create this swirls of tension.

[00:15:53]And this is exactly what anxiety feels like. Uh restricted breathing, a quiet internal pressure and this urgency. At the same time, the melody is often delayed uh held back uh with those painful leading tones and apoas.

[00:16:13]You can notice that very often he kind of delays the resolution of the uh suspended note taking more time before the resolution.

[00:16:25]The result is a conflict between the melody that is full of nostalgia, pain, helplessness, a melody that wants only one thing basically, peace, and the inner turbulence of the left hand which refuses to let that peace arrive. This is where Alfred Cortto's poetic genius really reveals itself in this piece. For me, Cto is the clear winner and he's clearly at home here. Thanks for watching this analysis. Let me know what other pianists or recorders you want me to analyze and see you next time.