Re: A Tale Of Three Pianists ...


SG wrote:
From this absolutely remarkable contemporary pianist, I went to EMI's
MARTHA ARGERICH PRESENTS Polina Leschenko. Who asked me to? Does it
really matter? And, even if somebody asked me to, did I have to
actually go there? And now that I chose to go there, why do I keep
complaining?

"Argerichish" fingers? Certainly. A young, health-prosperous lady who
can certainly run and jump up and down on the keyboard at will, with
occasionally exquisite rabbit-like dexterousness. Amazing lightness of
the poignet, the arthritis didn't set in yet, as in some envious
grumpies who, for their own sake, shall remain unnamed, like, just for
the sake of example, the undersigned.

The occasional felicitous color is there (such as at the beginning of
the more famous A Minor Paganini-Liszt etude, the arpegiatti sound
remarkably colorful, pizzicato-like). More virtuosic voicing than in
your average competition pianist. However, the musical depth cherished
in Mr. Gekic's recordings, even in his imperfect ones, I am not
NECESSARILY saying it's never been there, who knows, perhaps the dog
must have eaten it. Perhaps it's a matter of taste and I wouldn't be
surprised if other pianophiles felt differently (Ms. Leschenko IS an
accomplished professional), but I found almost everything she's doing
amazingly shallow and whimsical in the wrong way.

This is exactly what I thought after I heard her in the Liszt sonata
(It became one big blurr because of her frightfully fast tempi) and
Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante. Apart from
her fingerwork and temperament, I can't understand why so many great
musicians (Apart from Argerich there are colleagues like Freire,
Heinrich Schiff, Andsnes who seem to be very impressed with her) call
her sensational. I would say that she has a high potential, but she
would need some guidance!

W.

Extremely annoying phrasing in K-R's Liebesleid... slow it down, speed
it up, whatever. Whenever. Wherever. Got my Earl Wild out just to wash
my ears. With Ms. Leschenko, it's almost like one would forcibly attend
the whimsies of a Josef Hofmann implausibly getting high on some cheap
Bud Lite instead of Hofmann's trademark milessime ambrosia of the Greek
gods.



.

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