jdpark
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2014
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Insane ^^
Those pieces never make so much sense as music until you hear the Chilean Arrau play them.
This inspired me read a bit of his biography. I've always been impressed by the recording quality of his work, and now I realize it's mainly because he was one of those rare prodigies who began performing at age 11 in the 1910s and continued to grow in musical maturity right into his 80s. Perhaps one of the greatest stories of 20th century piano. It seems that in addition to his technical and expressive abilities, his most charming aspect was his genuine curiosity and probing desire to really understand deeply everything he ever played.
For a more tragic story, I was just reading about Van Cliburn (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/arts/music/van-cliburn-pianist-dies-at-78.html). He wasn't that familiar to me, and neither did I ever hear about him from anyone in my parent's generation.
Still, this 1958 performance of Rachmaninoff in Moscow by the American "Van" Cliburn stands as one of the most interesting cultural moments in classical music of the 20th century. As a young Texan he won the hearts of the people of Russia at the height of the Cold War, and achieved instant fame in the US only to decline just a few years later. The recording quality is not amazing, but the video is worth watching to gain an appreciation for the obsessive popularity of classical music at that time.
Those pieces never make so much sense as music until you hear the Chilean Arrau play them.
This inspired me read a bit of his biography. I've always been impressed by the recording quality of his work, and now I realize it's mainly because he was one of those rare prodigies who began performing at age 11 in the 1910s and continued to grow in musical maturity right into his 80s. Perhaps one of the greatest stories of 20th century piano. It seems that in addition to his technical and expressive abilities, his most charming aspect was his genuine curiosity and probing desire to really understand deeply everything he ever played.
For a more tragic story, I was just reading about Van Cliburn (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/arts/music/van-cliburn-pianist-dies-at-78.html). He wasn't that familiar to me, and neither did I ever hear about him from anyone in my parent's generation.
Still, this 1958 performance of Rachmaninoff in Moscow by the American "Van" Cliburn stands as one of the most interesting cultural moments in classical music of the 20th century. As a young Texan he won the hearts of the people of Russia at the height of the Cold War, and achieved instant fame in the US only to decline just a few years later. The recording quality is not amazing, but the video is worth watching to gain an appreciation for the obsessive popularity of classical music at that time.
