Word: kissin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...something to be said for being able to put on a record and know instantly who's playing... Horowitz, Gilels, Serkin.... There are certainly pianists who can race down the keyboard at least as fast, and with more accuracy, but Horowitz had style. Who's the Horowitz today? Kissin maybe, but I can't really go there. Maybe Brendel, the more intellectual, is our Serkin. But I like to think I'm doing something different than what's been going on in concert halls for, say, the past 20 years
...Yehudi Menuhin and Ruggiero Ricci are two who never crossed this chasm successfully, and only time will tell with the upcoming generation. Joshua Bell and Julian Rachlin struggle to get recognition, Sarah Chang remains largely untested outside of choreographable showpiece repertoire, and how much longer Helene Grimaud and Evgeny Kissin shall wax incandescent remains to be seen. I will be the first to laud Midori for her accomplishments in the virtuoso repertoire, especially with Paganini, but I find the mystical element "X" which differentiates between proficiency and artistry missing in just about everything else she has put on disc...
...each image yummy, seductive, good enough to buy, whether the scene is selling sex, violence or some slick sociopathic blend of the two. He pummels your eye with wide-screen close-ups that eroticize violence and give a lurid threat to the sex. The love scene is a French- kissin', torso-lickin' jeans ad set to cinema. In the big shoot-out at the end, bloody cushion feathers smother the screen...
Then came an Elvis movie which dated before the White Jumpsuit Era. Kissin' Cousins had something to do with two Elvis almost-look-alikes (one Elvis was supposed to be a red-head) living in the Appalachians. This film had, of course, the quintessental jug of moonshine ("where's the three x's?!" others in the room cried); the quintessential mopey hound dog, and the quintessential King crooning to two young females. Two, because he couldn't quite make up his mind right away: the blonde, or the brunette? It's a big decision to have to make, yes indeedy...
...EVGENY KISSIN: CARNEGIE HALL DEBUT CONCERT (RCA, 2 CDs). For once, a Russian pianist who deserved all his pre-debut hype. In September 1990, before the toughest audience in the world, Kissin, then 18, wowed 'em with Schumann, Prokofiev, Liszt and Chopin...