Word: paderewski
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Even the sturdiest reputations have a way of changing after the death of an artist. At the turn of the century Paderewski was considered a nonpareil concert pianist; in hindsight his slipshod technique and questionable musical taste consign him to a place among the keyboard's lesser lights. Perhaps it is too early to revise the conventional wisdom on Vladimir Horowitz, who up to his death in 1989 was widely regarded as the greatest pianist of the 20th century -- maybe of all time. Still, the release by Sony Classical of a 13-CD set of all the recordings Horowitz made...
...Manet and Picasso--was sold off when the insurance became prohibititive, and replaced with a Japanese silk-screen painting and a Chinese mirror painting. The big Steinway commands the living room, when it is not on the road with him. Near by on the wall are four autographed photographs: Paderewski, Rachmaninoff, Puccini and Toscanini...
...American pianist Earl Wild, who just turned 85, is the last of the great Romantics, a tradition of spellbinding virtuosos that began with Liszt and flowered before World War II with the "Golden Age" pianists--such legends as Paderewski, Hofmann, Godowsky and Rachmaninoff. Like them, Wild produces gorgeous sounds at any speed or volume, possesses vitalizing musical instincts and revels in the kinetic and sensual possibilities of the piano: its potential to evoke the grandeur of an orchestra and lyricism of a singer...
...list of pianists to the golden 74 included here. The selection will not please everyone. Partisans and critics already want to know why their favorites were passed over: "Where is Stephen Kovacevich's incomparable Schubert?" asked Hilary Finch of the London Times. But the reputations of the represented artists--Paderewski, Horowitz, Brendel--are indisputable. "Of course, this was a subjective and somewhat personal exercise," says Deacon. "I'm not arguing that some of those excluded aren't great. We are only saying the ones we selected are unquestionably great...
...piano, reminding his listeners that it is the only instrument capable of emulating both the tender nuances of vocal music and the thunderous range of the orchestra. When Wild plays, the pallid noodling that often passes for pianism these days vanishes: one hears the grand echoes of Paderewski, Rachmaninoff and Josef Hofmann...