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Showing posts from April 21, 2024

Arthur Rubinstein and the Ache of Love. His last concert in Poland recorded on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Łódź Philharmonic, 30th May 1975 - A rare Rubinstein recording

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A joyful picture of  Arthur Rubinstein  dancing a  sevillana  in the back yard of a tenement house at 78 Piotrowska Street,  Łódź,  where he lived his childhood. Taken on his visit to the city commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic. A number of memorable moments are associated in my mind with the genius of Artur Rubinstein. One was some time after I gave a short recital of Chopin at the age of 8 in the Town Hall in Melbourne. At that time I was vainly cultivating the illusory dream of becoming a concert pianist. I first heard the unforgettable Rubinstein himself play live in the Sydney Town Hall when I was about 15. Years later I took his complete Chopin vinyl recordings and my C. Bechstein piano to a remote Pacific island where I had decided to live and practice. Later Rubinstein performances in London accompanied the slow dissolving of my artistic dreams in the grey fog of reality and recognition of the limitations of talent. Artur Rubinstein died