Search - Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Alexander Scriabin :: Simon Barere: Live Recordings at Carnegie Hall, Vol. 2 (1947)

A legendary pianist!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 08/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Many of you securely have made your particular list of the ten pianists of the Century.

I had mine but I had to modify it. I knew about the most effusive comments of this keyboard's titan but yesterday evening when I listened that record, I must confess all the epithets were insufficient.

Glazunov flattered him with this metaphor. Liszt in one hand and Anton Rubinstein in the other.

Let's start with the Fantasy Op. 49 of Chopin. Barere's approach is absolutely offbeat; he confers Chopin a majuscule dimension. He handles both sections of this work with absolutely domain of the score. This piece is mostly played with high romantic effluviums, but with the only exception of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in a Torino Recital 1962 I had not listened any other recording capable to match with that.

Chopin's Nocturne is simply spelling. I had to search the other versions I own and the difference favored by far to Barere, musicality, sense of the span, lyricism and the slender floating previous note with the next maintains a rhythmical cohesion and expressive eloquence as I had never listened before.

His Liszt is overwhelming; the highlights are The Funerals, played with fervent energy ; tremolos, arpeggios and sforzandos are of first order. The Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 is played with twinkling pianism ; the only pianists that can match with him are Erwin Nyiregihazi and Louis Kentner.

These pieces were recorded from a live Recital in Carnegie Hall on March 9th 1947.





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