Steve Schwartz not kissing Kissin:

>I heard Kissin very young in some Chopin and wasn't impressed.  He seemed
>to me fingers without a brain attached.  As a result, I haven't heard him
>recently.  Has he gotten better?

Ah, to each their own.  His live recordings of the Chopin concertos from
when he was twelve years old remain among my favorite recordings of these
two pieces.  For example, no one else plays the passage leading up to
the recapitulation in the first movement of the E-minor to my taste.  It
requires bringing out the four-note motive that appears out of a whirlwind
of notes, and pathos, power, velocity, and pacing.  In particular the solo
descending passage with the repeated notes is extraordinarily difficult if
played with the great force I feel it requires while maintaining a fast but
well-measured tempo, and barely anyone plays it with quite everything.

Michael