I doubt if even Karl
Tausig, impeccable artist, unapproachable Chopin player, would
have pleased the composer. Chopin played as his moods prompted,
and his playing was the despair and delight of his hearers.
Rubinstein did all sorts of wonderful things with the coda of the
Barcarolle--such a page!--but Sir Charles Halle said that it was
"clever but not Chopinesque." Yet Halle heard Chopin at his last
Paris concert, February, 1848, play the two forte passages in the
Barcarolle "pianissimo and with all sorts of dynamic finesse."
This is precisely what Rubinstein did, and his pianissimo was a
whisper. Von Bulow was too much of a martinet to reveal the
poetic quality, though he appreciated Chopin on the intellectual
side; his touch was not beautiful enough. The Slavic and Magyar
races are your only true Chopin interpreters. Witness Liszt the
magnificent, Rubinstein a passionate genius, Tausig who united in
his person all the elements of greatness, Essipowa fascinating
and feminine, the poetic Paderewski, de Pachmann the fantastic,
subtle Joseffy, and Rosenthal a phenomenon.
Pages:
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110