Word: rubinstein
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NONFICTION: Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, Carl E. Schorske ∙ My Many Years, Arthur Rubinstein ∙ Self Portrait with Friends: The Selected Diaries of Cecil Beaton, edited by Richard Buckle ∙ Show People, Kenneth Tynan ∙ The Falcon and the Snowman, Robert Lindsey ∙ The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe ∙ White House Years, Henry Kissinger
NONFICTION: Fin-de-Siècle Vienna, Carl E. Schorske ∙My Many Years, Arthur Rubinstein ∙Show People, Kenneth Tynan ∙The Falcon and the Snowman, Robert Lindsey ∙The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe ∙The Russian Empire, Chloe Obolensky White House Years, Henry Kissinger
...whom he does not wholly admire. He proudly plays his new recording of the Grieg concerto for the sardonic Rachma ninoff, whose sole comment is "Piano out of tune." Jascha Heifetz patronizes him musically but seeks his advice on buying gentlemanly accouterments. His great rival, Vladimir Horowitz, hangs about Rubinstein's Paris home, accepting free meals and fussing over his encores. After they fall out, ostensibly because of a broken lunch date, Rubinstein delivers a left-handed salute: "The greatest pianist, but not a great musician...
...Composer Igor Stravinsky, Rubinstein shows him how to make more money (go on tour as a pianist and conductor of his own works) and how to cure his impotence (have a good dinner and visit a brothel). What he cannot do is persuade Stravinsky to write lyrically for the piano instead of percussively. The Russian was a master of his métier, Rubinstein concludes, but he lacked "an original melodic invention...
...Rubinstein confesses to feeling out of tune with today's world, in which "moral ethics have no place" and music is dominated by "emotionless" composers like Pierre Boulez. But he refuses to join those readers of his first volume who saw him as a throwback to a better age. From his earliest years, he says, the world has shown him so much mistrust, hypocrisy and greed for power that he is not sure there ever was a Belle Epoque. More likely, with his talent, ebullience and "unconditional love of life," he has created his own epoch...