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Fri, 22 Jun 2001 14:37:50 +0200 |
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In this list a discussion is going on about the imprint a first hearing
of a piece of music is making on the listener's brain. Permit me to add
my own experience. When I first came to know Saint-Saens second piano
concerto, it was trough a mono recording made from the Dutch radio. The
pianist was the late Dutch master pianist Theo Bruins, who gave a crisp,
clear virtuoso performance of the concerto, I have never heard it played
better. When afterwards I heard Rubinstein's performance, I could hardly
believe my ears, it was so sloooowww!! Rubinstein took a couple of minutes
more than Bruins. But that was not the point I wanted to make. In the
last movement there is a sequence of leaping chords, and one of the low
ones Bruins half mishit. I became so used to that wrong chord, that when
I later heard the concerto in the concerthall, I thought, that the pianist
was playing the wrong notes. It is the same, when you have a record with
a click in it, you come to expect the click in a live performance, and you
are surprised, when the orchestra doesn't play the click. I suppose more
music lovers have the same experience. By the way, Darre is still my
favourite in the Saint-Saens- concertos. Except for the second, which I
unfortunately can't play any more by lack of a suitable playing device.
Peter Wisse
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