Catégorie : Piano
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A legendary recording: Kempff plays Beethoven’s «Hammerklavier» Sonata in 1936
It is astonishing to note that Wilhelm Kempff’s style has only become wiser. However, it would be more accurate to say that it was a step towards wisdom. In the great German master’s late recordings, ardour has given way to idealism, but imagination has never dried up. Where many pianists would be confined to a…
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The art of Claudio Arrau
There is something elusive about Arrau’s art. His interpretations seem to take on an additional dimension with each new listening, and one seems to understand new meanings, sometimes radically different from the previous ones, as one moves through the pianist’s considerable discographic legacy. Arrau is a Chilean pianist, but it is the Germanic repertoire that…
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Alfred Cortot masterclass on Beethoven’s Appassionata ( transcribed and translated by Bruno Pancek & Roy Howat )
At the École Normale de Musique de Paris, on 21 and 24 march 1958 and 8 June 1959, Alfred Cortot recorded this commentary with musical examples explaining Beethoven’s ‘Appassionata’ Sonata. Here is the English transcription by Bruno Pancek and Roy Howat. Special thanks to Inbar Rothschild. 10’-16’Beethoven himself has given the interpreter (on this fabulous…
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Wilhelm Backhaus, a portrait
Wilhelm Backhaus is often described as the embodiment of the traditional pianist, sometimes a little austere, a little cold, and in any case it is neither joy nor virtuosity that comes first to those who speak of him. Yet Backhaus’ playing appears to be much more complex than it is often reduced to. Wilhelm Backhaus…