© AI Training forbidden - Selected Classical Music in the Poland of Chopin - Reviewer's Notebook

And so Trifonov wins the Audience Award No surprise to me.... Later.... He won! I am over the moon about this - so richly deserved - all my musical instincts correct.  [Scroll down for more detail] The jury opened their ears and more importantly their hearts to his sensibility. A great poet of the instrument. And I am going to hear him at the Duszniki Zdroj International Chopin Piano Festival in Poland in August. My emotions 'recollected in tranquillity' later...

I have been so busy with my own researches on my forgotten Australian concert pianist and writing a recreation of his life in the 1920s I have only been able to watch the competition in fits and starts. However the Archive link on ParaClassics menu is a very useful catch up but why did they remove the finalists' concerto recordings apart from the Mozart? I would love to have compared them in my own time. One cannot remember the finer details in musical interpretations of a number of supremely outstanding finalists. How the jury deal with talent of this high order I have no idea - certainly much of it must be in the final judgement one of personal taste followed by a compromise collective decision which is seldom fair but will never entirely disappoint. Alexander Romanovsky is a magnificent aristocratic presence at the keyboard with the superb technique and deep musicality we have come to expect historically from  so many glorious Ukrainian pianists. His...

If you are not already watching the Tchaikovsky Competition piano section streamed on 'Paraclassics' you really must do so. Trifonov gave one of the greatest live performances of Op. 25 I have ever heard. So passionately committed to this music it was electrifying. I could trot out all the poetic cliches in the book but  what use would that be? Pathetic words signifying little. Really you must watch this although it may not be to everyone's taste - the involvement of this pianist in the extreme emotions and fiery virtuosity of Chopin's youth makes one almost uncomfortable and leaves one questioning one's own personal musical committment. Here we have a young man possessed of a unique and ardent love, nay passionate joy in this music that only  illusioned youth is capable of, unfettered by mature experience and deep reflection. I have always believed that Chopin is played best by young pianists of the same age as Chop...

I have been so busy writing my latest book on Edward Cahill (in a way dying to life in order to create it) that I have not been able to follow the Rubinstein competition in detail. However I sat up late last night to watch the finalists on that incomparable television channel Mezzo. Trifonov played the Chopin E minor Concerto Op. 11 with all the ardent love, sensitivity, grace and classical style that I had expected of him from his performance of the same work in the Chopin competition here in Warsaw last year. His interpretation of the Romance-Larghetto movement brings one close to tears - all of the romantic, illusioned yearning that young love is capable of - the finest I have ever heard including Lipatti and Pollini (just after his win of the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 1960). I was overjoyed at this result. This win absolutely confirms my conviction that Trifonov was one of the greatest Chopin players in Warsaw (see my extensive October 2010 posting on...

I have neglected this blog terribly but I am overwhelmed with reading, researching and writing my work on the increasingly remarkable story of the Australian pianist Edward Cahill. I have also neglected my own piano and harpsichord practice which is worse. I manage to get to the gym three or four times a week but maintaining  mens sana in copore sano is so time consuming but vital. I came across this clipping from a London newspaper published sometime in 1925 (precise date missing). The Chappell concert grand piano was a highly respected English instrument of the period and the company arranged a series of concerts with famous pianists in popular venues using their instruments. Edward Cahill was one of the chosen pianists. Certainly he kept company with some of the finest pianists of the period and it says a great deal about his remarkable playing. For me it confirms once more the importance of this lost and forgotten talent and his remarkable life history....