PBS broadcast the latest in the series of great musicians of the
past documentaries, The Art of Piano, on Wednesday night. This two hour
program dealt only with dead musicians with the living guys making the
commentary.  John Rubinstein, the actor and son of Artur Rubinstein was the
narrator/host, and live pianists and conductor(s) providing a sometimes
interesting (Gyorgy Sandor) and sometimes pointless (Daniel Barenboim)
commentary.  This was a wonderful trip through history, and for me it was
very interesting to see Paderewski, whose unorthodox technique would get
you thrown out of a Juillliard today. Most importantly, it introduced me to
some pianists from the past that I must now explore.  I was particularly
moved by the playing of Josef Hoffmann, Myra Hess, Gyorgy Cziffra, and
Benno Moiseiwich.  There were some too, that did not really move me,at
least in the excerpts shown in the film. Among those were Wilhelm Backhaus
and Claudio Arrau.  I was somewhat surprised at some of the omissions,
although it is impossible to include everyone in just two hours. Notably
missing were Rudolf Serkin, Robert Casadesus, Clifford Curzon, Dinu Lipatti
and William Kappell. Maybe they will make it into a future volume two. One
can hope.  The one major flaw in the production, at least to me, was Daniel
Barenboim's pointless rambling in several interview segments. He sat at the
piano and prattled on in strings of empty, alliterated superlatives that
merely served to show off his vocabulary and quickly tire the listener.
Otherwise, this was a fine addition to an excellent series of programs that
I hope continues well into the future. Time now for a great violinists
film?

Kevin Sutton