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How NOT to Play a Chopin Impromptu (ft. Garrick Ohlsson) | Ep. 8 The Chopin Podcast

Ben Laude

64,101 views

Chopin Foundation: https://chopin.org
The Chopin Podcast: https://chopinpodcast.com

Listen to Episode 8:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7jcF...

0:00 Notated music that is meant to sound made-up
4:12 Garrick’s nightmare Impromptu performance
6:36 Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. Post. 66
15:59 Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat, Op. 29
19:14 Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp, Op. 36
26:46 Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat, Op. 51

Created and hosted by Ben Laude.

This video is part of my partnership with the Chopin Foundation of the United States, which presents the National Chopin Competition every 5 years. The partnership was forged on the eve of the 11th National Chopin Competition, to be held in Miami in January 2025.

Reserve your seats for earlier rounds and purchase your tickets to the final round of the National Chopin Competition: https://www.chopin.org/2025-competiti...

The Chopin Foundation is a national non-profit organization founded by its President, Blanka A. Rosenstiel in 1977, and inspired by the first US Chopin Competition she presented in Miami in 1975.

Support the Chopin Foundation: https://chopin.org/donate

Steinway & Sons is the National Chopin Piano Competition's Preferred Piano Partner.

Access uncut interviews with Garrick Ohlsson and other guests:
Patreon: BenLaude

Facebook: chopinpodcast
Instagram: benlawdy

20 Comments

@benlawdy Creator 1 year ago Pinned

The full audio of Episode 8 is in the works and will be released VERY SOON, with 9 & 10 following close on its heels. Thanks for your patience!

@charlieb8735 1 year ago

To me, Ben Laude is the Levy Rozman (aka GothamChess) of classical music/classical piano. An objectively great talent in their respective fields but whose ability to communicate their appreciation and understanding is where they rise to the level of peerlessness

@ellenstanton2043 1 year ago

“Not dif-i-cult “ was what I was taught to say for 2 against three.

@jeff__w 1 year ago

You and Garrick Ohlsson manage to be so engaging and affable in this video, it’s like stumbling onto a conversation between two good friends, settling into an easy chair, and just listening in with fascination. (And I’m the guy in the comments who doesn’t know Chopin from chopped liver—just about everything I’ve learned about Chopin, I’ve learned from this series. Learning that Chopin could be “so highly over-colored,” i.e., “lurid,” 23:10 somehow appeals to me but I don’t doubt that Chopin knew exactly what he was doing.) All of which is to say if you’re trying to be high-brow and inaccessible and forbidding with this series, well, you’re totally failing.

@WalyB01 10 months ago

Seeing Garrick ohlsson explain composite rhythms is gold.

@micahglesener3978 1 year ago

Sonata Pathetique
Everyone: 🎶
Ben Laude 🪵

@gatesurfer 6 months ago (edited)

I went to college at Oberlin, which has a very fine music conservatory. They were always showing old movies, and one night there was a Fred Astaire movie “Top Hat,” I think it was. In one scene, he dances to a 2 over 3 rhythm. He stands on one foot and creates taps with the other by weighting his heel and swinging his toe back and forth, tapping out a duple rhythm. Then with his cane—he was in tux, top hat and tails, of course—he tapped out a triple rhythm, perfectly in sync, probably at about 80 bpm. Fred could drum and play a decent jazz piano, so this probably was not that difficult for him, but when this sequence played, you could hear this big “ooooh” from the “Connies” — our nickname for Conservatory students. The man just oozed rhythm.

@khuoh 1 year ago

Also the sound editing and cutting in and out of live playing and recording is next level. What a Herculean effort these podcasts/videos are! Such an amazing homage to Chopin.

@quentinsmit-f1q 1 year ago

You forgot to mention the extraordinary central part of the third impromptu that makes him the best of the four by far.

@AndrewMazzeoPiano 1 year ago

That’s the coolest shirt I’ve ever seen 😂

@thegreenpianist7683 1 year ago

10:35 at that point it's "PASS THE F**** BUTTER!"

@kwgm8578 1 year ago

Ben, I was also a late comer to this music -- around age 47. Yes, Garrick is right about the pop tune. My mother-in-law enjoyed it -- would request it.
"I don't know about that practicing, but I love it when you play 'Im always chasing rainbows." God bless her.
Great show, Ben.

@JoWayne2 1 year ago

Thx! I played this in competition and got 2nd place!

@jodyjamieson8809 1 year ago

2 against 3: hot cuppa tea. . . 3 against 4: pass the melted butter :)

@bluelover110 1 year ago

11:04 I learned this particular Chopin etude, and it took AGES for me to understand the 3 against 4 rhythm and while learning I was muttering "pass the peanut butter" this whole time ROFL

@Jolie_sailor 1 year ago

You gentlemen have inspired me to start practicing piano again. Great insight, humor and demonstration of love for Chopin’s eternal music.
Thank you both.

@MrCaleb0526 3 months ago

This content is very helpful! I just turned 50 and began to learn this Fantasie.

@maximyanchenko3780 9 months ago

The incredible Valentina Igoshina!!!

@sctm81 10 months ago

The fantasie impromptu was the one that attracted me the most to chopin's music as a kid. No. 1 is the one I learned the first, No. 3. Is the most beautiful one for me now. No. 2 is the one I haven't acquired the taste for. Great to hear that Garrick Olson loves that one the most.

@Classicallybase 1 year ago

Greatest podcast ever! Once this series comes to an end you should seriously consider doing another one… Beethoven’s piano sonatas… Rachmaninoff’s Concertos, sonatas, etude tableaux, and preludes… maybe even one dedicated to lesser known composers that deserve recognition… just suggestions ¯\_(ツ)_/¯