Rodney DeCecco wrote:

>With reference to Mr. Schonberg's neologism, "hypervirtuoso,": If digital
>dexterity be the criterion then Barere stands alone.  Even through rather
>dim and distorted sound, the extant recordings (esp.  the live recitals)
>bear witness.  Any one ever hear Barere live?

I take it you mean on this list!  On a more macabre note, some here may
have heard him die.  In 1951, aged 54, he was scheduled to appear at
Carnegie Hall to play his first-ever performance of the Grieg concerto w/
Ormandy and the Philadelphia.  Olin Downes wrote the following report of
the concert (according to the liner noted accompanying Appian Publications
and Recordings set of his complete HMV recordings 1934-36, CDAPR 7001):
"Mr.  Barere seemed to be in top form.  His entrance solo was brilliantly
delivered.  But presently this writer was puzzled by the pace of his
performance, which seemed excessively fast.  Then comes the passage after
the violoncellos have announced the second theme, of developments
discoursed between the piano and the orchestra.  A moment later it seemed
as if Mr.  Barere were bending over to one side, listening with special
attention to the instruments as he matched his tone with theirs.  In
another moment his left hand fell from the keyboard and in another second
he fell senseless from the stool to the floor.  The orchestra stopped in
consternation, someone shouted from the stage for a doctor, and with some
difficulty the unconscious man was carried from the stage."

Barere had succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage.

Walter Meyer