After reading this depressing tract from Norman re China and notably the rivalry of Yundi Li and Lang Lang, retreat into the pianistic past is all that's possible, especially when seeking evasion tactics from copy-edit of novel. Last night I fell in love with Rachmaninov all over again, thanks to Vladimir and the LPO playing the socks off the Symphonic Dances. So here, for the Dead Pianists Society, is the second movement of Rach's Suite No.2 for two pianos, played by Alexander Goldenweiser and Grigory Ginzburg. Welcome to another world...
2 comments:
What a dismal bloody tale that is. Just a few days ago I found on Youtube something that stands in such stark contrast to this pathetic story while also being something of a parallel to the splendid Ginzburg/Goldenweiser performance: Harold Bauer and Ossip Gabrilowitsch playing the Waltz from the Arensky Suite, recorded in 1929. Those two great pianists and friends give there a performance of such perfection that starting at about 2:08 I got a touch emotional. A lesson in piano playing, in musicianship, in the power of friendship. Try as you might, I don't think you could get Lang Lang and others of that ilk to understand this. And why do I have a deep suspicion that if you told him Solomon, Myra Hess and Benno Moiseiwitsch used to get together regularly for bridge, he would say "Who?"
Thanks for the link. Yes, I agree that it is depressing, but none of this surprises me. I used to live in Hong Kong where the arts scene is starting to become much more lively and sophisticated, but to a great extent, success is all very much about status and getting yourself noticed. I once worked with Long Yu when he conducted an opera in which I was a chorus member: he is best described as a smooth operator. I fear it will be some time before China produces musicians of a wider humanity in the mould of a Menuhin or Milstein or Klemperer. And I'm sorry to hear of Yundi Li being sidelined: he has a lot of talent and plays with far more poetry than his arch rival. BTW, Nupen's film on piano prodigy Karim Said is on tomorrow Friday on BBC4.
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