L’Escalier du Diable, again

An increasing number of pianists are attempting Etude No. 13 from the second book of György Ligeti's piano studies.

As I wrote some time ago, L'Escalier du Diable is truly becoming the quintessential virtuosic piece of the 21st century, thanks in part to the fact that, in addition to being difficult, it is beautiful.

The most interesting thing, in my opinion, is seeing how, despite the extreme technicality, there is still so much room for interpretation. One might think that, considering that this piece is contemporary music, often requiring a rigorous vision of the score, and furthermore, is very difficult, the virtuosic qualities required to perform it would drastically reduce the interpretive space. But that's not true, and beyond the debate about the best performance, which is downright ferocious on YouTube, it's nice to hear how, while all the performers are technically well-prepared—otherwise they couldn't perform it—the different sensibilities give rise to very different performances, some that I personally appreciate, others even annoying at times, but all respectable.

Anderson's performance, considered by many to be the best.

Aimard's

Libetta's, whose video had disappeared and now reappears

Chuan Qin's

Denis Kozhukhin's performance, unfortunately, has disappeared from YouTube. It had received many positive comments. But many other performances have appeared...

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