JEREMY NICHOLAS Towards the end of the 19th century, the eminent Austrian pianist and pedagogue Ernst Pauer (1826-1905) made a list of the twelve pianists who, in his opinion, represented the technical execution of the highest perfection between the years 1830 and 1870. Of the twelve, nine were men: Liszt, Henselt, Hallé, Tausig, Thalberg, Dreyschock,…
https://youtu.be/EKhozlz-F8I Patricia Rossborough (1900-92) having fun with Anton Rubinstein
For someone who made his living by playing the piano in public, Nelson Freire was quite extraordinarily shy and self-effacing, softly spoken and reticent when it came to talking about himself or discussing his art, neither of which he particularly enjoyed. It was not without reason that John Ardoin, in his booklet accompanying Volume 29…
I came across this article from August 1894 in To-Day, a magazine edited by Jerome K. Jerome. Richard Wagner had died just 11 years earlier and this encounter with his formidable widow fully justifies her reputation as the Queen of Bayreuth. She was a notably unpleasant human being with even stronger anti-Semitic views than her…
André Previn was the most complete musician I have ever met – I was lucky enough to interview him on three occasions. Everything seemed to come so easily to him, laid back and apparently effortless whether in the role of conductor, classical pianist or jazz pianist. He was also a marvelous raconteur, and one story…
Idon’t dislike all modern hymns – or ‘worship songs’ as they are called by the people who sing them – but I dislike most of them. The words are generally as unmemorable and as undistinguished as the latest teenage lament being belted out over the PA system in my local Co-Op. ‘Love’ and ‘Jesus’ are…
I went to two piano recitals last week: one by a famous international artist, the other by a young man who is still a student. They could not have been more different. Nor could my enjoyment of the two events. The first was given by Sir András Schiff at the superb Saffron Halls, the…
The Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda invited me to take part in a symposium in Cremona during the annual festival in which luthiers and piano manufacturers from all over the world congregate for their annual exhibition. I had never been to Cremona before. The hotel was a stone’s throw away from the imposing duomo – the medieval…
CHOPIN In response to requests from a few members of the audience last night, here is the text of my introduction to Warren Mailley-Smith’s cycle of the complete works of Chopin at St John’s Smith Square – Friday 4th September 2015 I am privileged to have been asked by Warren to say a few words…