I agree with Kevinlimse that the live version of flight of the bumble bee from Roundhouse London is much slower as compared to his MTV. The tempo for his MTV is somehow exaggerated in a sense that I don't think any living human being pianist can acheive such speed. Another example to highlight his would be his latest MTV "Nostradamus" from his latest album. Towards the end of the song , you can see him almost shredding on the piano which in my point of view no single being can even do it!!!! But I was rather amazed at the amount of showmanship he portrays on the piano which I feel no other pianist I've come across has ever thought about it.
Maksim has great technical skills but it's just that his MTV exaggerates it for the sake of drawing more attention from the lay people especially the young.
Take a look at the MTV at
www.maksimworld.com and you'll see what I mean....
To share a little bit being a maksim fan since the days of his first album....
It wasn't so much of his technical skills that attracted me to his playing but rather more of his fashion sense and showmanship. I know there are many other pianist in the world who are better than maksim in terms of technical skills and interpretation but what makes maksim stand out from the rest is basically just a thing of "being different from the rest".
His ideal image of a pianist completely changed my impression in what I use to generalise a pianist to be. For someone who listens to pop and rock music when Maksim entered the scene , I was like ,"whaoooo I wanna be like him!" It was his showmanship and sense of fashion that really appealled to me. It was then that I began to listen to his songs (during his first album days). That was how I came to know composers like Greig , Korsakov and Handel. Although the original version of his songs are of total contrast to his album , nonetheless I still appreciated the original interpretations of it mainly because "the interest is already there".
I really respect each person's views on Maksim. Like what Cheez mentioned before , it's either you love him or hate him. Love him for revolutionising classical or hate him for destroying classical music. For someone who has been learning classical music for almost his/her entire life , it's totally fine if you were to criticise him because after all you guys know your stuff pretty well and for someone who has just been recently exposed to classical music , I guess it's more of his charisma and fashion sense than his music.
Keep the replies coming in
