For Your Christmas, Just a Short List of Defining Videos to Search For...

I thought that I should apprise you of a few videos of great musicians that  may nicely add to the usual pleasures of the Season:

If you can get hold of  the video of  Richter, the legendary Russian pianist (called "Richter- the Enigma"), there is a performance of the C# Chopin Etude in the Opus 10 that will positively  bowl you over. You may well ask "how is it possible??". Enough said - judge for yourself.

Whatever you may think of  the ways of Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli, as regards some of his interpretations, search for a video made in Milan in, I  believe, 1962, and simply exult in the quicksilver sounds that this man could produce that are in evidence even  in a video made so many years ago. It's an all-Chopin recital, which includes his omnipresent black  handkerchief and a positively luminescent reading of the Andante Spianato.
I wonder - was this genius ever known to smile?

Although produced in 1977, this video of the great 'cellist Piatigorgsky  must have been made years before.
Besides the marvelous playing here, perhaps equal in historical import is that you see him play the Largo from the  Chopin  'Cello Sonata,  one of only  nine compositions we know of that Chopin wrote that included something along  with the piano. What makes this video even more  'rare' is that a giant among the great accompanists plays with him.  His name was Ralph Berkowitz.

A video of the career of David Oistrakh begins with his playing  of the cadenza of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. I have seen it several times, and I continue to be positively stunned. For me, this particular moment in time  is a moment without parallel.
Again-judge for yourself!