Thursday, September 29, 2016

Two Piano Giants of the Past - Simply a Gentle Prod...

History is, arguably, the most fragile and vulnerable of our intellectual pursuits. To explain: which subject is more prone to Revisionism? In and of itself, this  subject is prone to being both short legged and short winded in constancy.
This is not so much a criticism as it is an observation, and a perusal of music history  will always result in the need for a gentle wake-up call for remembrance, in the cases of musical legends that need a prod of recall:
Take the  attainments of, say, one Geza  Anda, a Hungarian pianist.
His patrician views of Brahms or vocalizing  of the language of Mozart constitute lessons to be learned. From my perch, I cannot imagine a higher bar of artistic  endeavor and result.
And his Chopin is, to me, a revelation surpassed in a form of  intensity,  by no other.
And a technique that lends such a unique level of sophistication to Liszt that is not expected -
Or, what about that  lady  from Romania, Clara Haskil?
Whenever I hear her Mozart, it's almost as if  she had been performing before actually starting - the feeling that the music had already  started before the first note was heard by the rest of us. I have never experienced  such a seamless approach to that master's piano music. Haskil's view of the Romantic is, as well, a case for  a personal side of communication that makes for an image of a pianist performing for one human being, rather than an audience.
And, thanks to a happy course of events, one can hear a recording of Anda and Haskil performing a Bach two-keyboard Concerto.
I know that many of you are familiar, at least  to a degree, with these two  titans.
But, for those who are not, why not enhance the beauty of indelible Truth always lying in wait for discovery, by listening to names having receded into the shadows?
There are so many ways to enhance our day...

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1 Comments:

Blogger Ricardo said...

"There are so many ways to enhance our day... "
...reading your blog being one of them :-)
"it's almost as if she had been performing before actually starting - the feeling that the music had already started before the first note was heard by the rest of us."
Amen. And so it should be. However, was it a start or a beginning?

September 29, 2016 at 11:45 PM  

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