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I have to put in a good word for my all-time favorite pianist, Constance Keene (1921-2005). She did not record an awful lot but what she has out there is just impossibly beautiful, moving & breathtaking.
Here is what Rubinstein himself said about her recording of the Rachmaninoff Preludes [which is my all-time favorite classical record ]:
"I cannot imagine anybody, including Rachmaninoff himself, playing the preludes more beautifully. I was flabbergasted by the fantastic sweep, color, tone and last but not least, the incredible technique. "
Well said, Artur! She did not have a big stage career, but was well known to the pianists of her generation.. She taught at the Manhattan School and I noticed she was the teacher of Tonebase's own Magdalena Stern-Bazcewska (lucky lady!). Among her other students was Peter Nero,, who himself is a fantastic player with an incredible technique, though you'd never know it from his heavily-orchestrated pop music hit records. I have an amazing 1950's recording of him playing a jazz version of Cole Porter's "It's Alright with Me", with his left hand playing the running riff from Appasionata Mvt. III as an accompaniment. I've always wondered whether he worked with Ms. Keene on any of that kind of stuff.
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Peter Golemme Absolutely amazing. Thank you for introducing.
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Peter Golemme Hello everyone, thank you for your replies. I am very happy that I could share my enthusiasm for Constance Keene with others who might not have been familiar with her. I'm gradually checking the pianists mentioned in all your posts as well. All I can say is "Whew" there is certainly no shortage of talent out there...
I'm sorry that I can't weigh in with personal comments as often as I would like on ToneBase, given the way my day job sometimes monopolizes my time, but I'm always scanning the threads and feedback. I'm retiring next year, and looking forward to more time at the piano and interacting with my colleagues at ToneBase, as all of you have such interesting things going on and such thoughtful things to say about your experiences as full-time/part-time/new/lifelong/ amateur/professional pianists & musicians..
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I would add two names, Seta Tanyel and Anton Yashkin. In exploring Moszkowski’s music, I came across Seta Tanyel’s recording and her beautiful and engaging playing. I heard Anton Yashkin in YouTube recordings of the last Tchaikovsky competition. He won the 9th Liszt competition prior to that. His playing was both technically flawless but also sonorous and beautiful without becoming too emotional. Enjoy!
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I would like to introduce Simon Barere and Alexei Sultanov. Incredible technique and tragic life stories. The Barere 1934/36 HMV recordings are brilliant.
Sultanov's Mephisto Waltz No 1 By Liszt (Live recording at St Petersburg 1989) is also outstanding. Please check them out.
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This may also be a good space to remember the great André Watts who died yesterday (07/12/23).
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Alexander Weymann Yes. May he Rest in Peace.
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Oh, no! What a tragedy. A great loss.
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Although not strictly a pianist, I really adore the piano works by Leoš Janáček and I think he's criminally underrated! A sound which definitely paved the way for modern composers like Steve Reich and Max Richter.
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Gyorgy Sebok - my teacher encouraged me to find recordings of him to watch the way he played. Perhaps others already know of him, but he is new to me (and my son). I particularly enjoyed watching some of the master class clips I found.
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Michelle R thanks for sharing this lovely recording! My last teacher, Daniel Schene, with whom I studied in St. Louis for several years, had been a student of György Sebök in Bloomington, Indiana. Although Prof. Schene had had other great teachers (Rebecca Penneys and Enrica Cavallo-Gulli among them), Sebök was the one of whom he conveyed the most words of wisdom to me, by far. He was ever-present in our lessons. There is a wonderful little book by Barbara Alex ("György Sebök - Words from a Master"), available at http://www.carpediembooks.com/books/, which contains a veritable treasure trove of quotes by him regarding many different aspects of music and piano playing, as well as an Introduction by Ms. Alex containing a brief overview of Sebök's life and personal memories of his work with her and with other students.
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Alexander Weymann Mr. Sebok is mentioned quite often in Jeremy Denk's autobiography that came out about a year ago. Have you read it? I'll get the book you suggested!
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Alexander Weymann Thanks for the book recommendation. Some of my teacher's teachers were students of György Sebök, so we're probably related distantly through piano teachers!
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Michelle R sounds like second cousins to me!
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Gail Starr it's on my bookshelf, and I have started it but not finished yet - not because I didn't like it (I do like it a lot), but because I'm terrible about finishing books. I just took it out again and will read it to the end this time!
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Alexander Weymann Looks like it is not for sale anywhere except AbeBooks...and they want $204.00 for it, LOL! I'll see if our local university can get it for me. I couldn't purchase on the CarpeDiem site for some strange reason, either.
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Alexander Weymann You are too busy to finish books, Alex!
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Alexander Weymann Yes, I think we must be at least second cousins! (Rebecca Penneys was my teacher's principal teacher at Eastman, so there's another point of intersection.) So, what I'm hearing is that based on my teacher's pedigree I should eventually be at least half as good as you are now.
I'll take that!! -
Gail Starr
that's too bad! I always go straight to the publisher's website when recommending a book and providing a link, but I did look at Amazon, too, and was surprised to see only one copy offered are roughly 150.-. I guess I was lucky to get mine at a small fraction of that price a decade or so ago. Hope you'll find it at your university, as you say - it is a lovely book, except for the author's annoying habit of presenting many of the quotes in weird, fanciful fonts and spacings. -
Michelle R that is super interesting! How remarkable.
I like your arithmetic - ours is a good and proud pedigree. I'm sure you'll grow into a wonderful artist at the piano; we all have heard the evidence that you're well on your way. -
Alexander Weymann Thank you, Alex. The encouragement from all our Tonebase friends is super helpful, too!
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Grace Fong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPRCeHr8mbI
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I would like to submit 2. 1) William Kapell https://www.thepianofiles.com/william-kapell-at-100/ and Pletnov
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Gail Thiele Agree. Mikhail Pletnev is a musician who brings wonderfully unexpected ideas -- the opening to Beethoven's fourth concerto, for example, is completely unlike anyone else's I've ever heard.
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Ignaz Friedman a Polish Pianist from the early 20th Century whose performances of the Mazurkas are unforgettable and whose performance of this NOcturne Op 55 No 2 is indescribably beautiful - every entry of the repetitive melody minutely different, a wonderful integration and expressivity of the decoration which never gets in the way, the music always propelled forward and a melodic strength and personality which shines through. But it goes beyond personal expression 'I'm being emotional here,folks' to greater heights something more universal. Interesting how, although one admires it beyond limit, no one could dare to try to play like this now for fear of the 'purists' criticism or for being accused of imitation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMBlacGenp4
