Word: pianists
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...story could return the compliment with sincerity. For Artist Boris Chaliapin, the assignment brought warm memories of family: his father, the great Russian basso Feodor Chaliapin, was a close friend of Rubinstein's in Europe many years ago. Between them, for reasons only they really know, painter and pianist decided on the rather unusual garb of red coat and vest for the portrait. And why is the piano green? "You don't have to see it green," said Chaliapin. "It is black; perhaps it was an artistic liberty I took. Perhaps I thought that in that light, with...
...typical playful fashion, began the 80th year of the world's greatest pianist. The birthday was only a few weeks ago, and the days that followed were typical, too, of Rubinstein. There was a concert to be played in Boston, so he packed his suitcases, not forgetting a shoe bag crammed with the good-luck charms that his four children have given him over the years?baby shoes, a turquoise marble, a set of jacks, a pipe-cleaner doll, an acorn, a crumbled plaster angel. He put on his fur-lined blue suede shoes and his long navy blue overcoat...
...infusing a dash of improvisation, "a drop of fresh blood," into each performance. He will even experiment with new fingerings "that suddenly occur to me" in the middle of a performance. "It is dangerous, I admit," he says, "but that is the way music develops." As a result, says Pianist Rudolf Serkin, "his music is becoming more reflective, but at the same time it is becoming younger. It's almost as if he's playing everything for the first time...
Indeed, Rubinstein is not content merely to rework his repertory. He is constantly developing it. It is not easy, for his "musical valise," as he calls it, is already brimming with the widest repertory of any living pianist. As far back as 1919, he played a series of 27 recitals in Mexico City with only an occasional repetition. Since then his catalogue has expanded in all directions, with the exception of the avantgarde, "whom I leave to the youngsters." He has long been the world's reigning Chopinist, he excels in French impressionistic and modern Spanish music...
...personality whose mere presence raised the hair on a spectator's scalp. Above all, he was a pianist of fantastic splendor, acknowledged today as the mightiest technician of all time...