Word: graffman
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Second Concerto proves how well he has succeeded. Compounded of powerful short phrases, punchy accents and a kaleidoscopic array of rhythms, it motors through three movements and 22 minutes like an Orpheus in the underworld. The brilliant dialogue achieved by American Pianist Gary Graffman and Erich Leinsdorf's Boston Symphony showed that the trip was definitely worth the effort. "The simple fact," said Graffman, "is that Ben has written a major piano concerto, which extremely few people have done in the second half of the 20th century." With their hearty applause, Boston's audience agreed...
There were, of course, other ways to measure the importance of Graffman's concert. Now at 39, he has slowly but persistently emerged as the top American pianist in his age group. His plat form manner is nononsense, but at the peak of his form he stirs poetry, fire and steel into whatever he plays. At a time when most younger American per formers make their loudest noise in the flashier side of the repertory -Prokofiev, Bartok, Liszt and the more extroverted Chopin - Graffman has matured into a musician able to challenge Europe's best in the more...
Good Listeners. Before World War II, critics customarily spoke of two major pianistic schools: the dynamic, aloof virtuosity of the Russians (Rachmani noff, Horowitz) and the poetic, relaxed, scholarly Austro-Germans (Schnabel, Serkin). Graffman typifies what may some day be known as the American school, but isn't yet: a synthesis of the best pianists from prewar Russia and Germany, with a range of styles that adapt to any music. "Rachmaninoff," he says, "approached everything the same way. But I approach Prokofiev totally differently from Beethoven, and Beethoven differently from Bach. The difference in approach has to do with...
This eclectic American approach was partly conditioned by circumstances. "When I was growing up," Graffman says, "we could hear almost all the great Europeans in concert regularly, because the war had forced them to mi grate to the United States. Then, we had recordings. In other words, the pianistic world was at our fingertips." Even today, Graffman often refers to recordings by other pianists in developing his own musical outlook. "When I first work on a piece, I deliberately avoid hearing other performances. Then, when it is respectably well along, I listen to all recordings, because every great artist will...
Down to Eight. Graffman's first major achievement came in 1949, when he won the Leventritt Award. It was an important step up, but it did not bring instant success. The next few years were spent doing the town-to-town Community Concert circuit. In 1964, he refused to play before a segregated audience in Jackson, Miss., and that temporarily knocked the props from under his career: the following season he was able to pull down a mere eight bookings. This season, Graffman's schedule calls for 100 appearances. "That's too many by 25," he says...