The Golden Age of Piano
by Peter Rosen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Claudio Arrau, David Dubal, Glenn Gould, Myra Hess, Van CliburnDirector: Peter Rosen
Brand: DUBAL,DAVID
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), PCM Stereo; Chinese (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), PCM Stereo
Format: Black & White, Classical, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Decca
Movie Reviews of The Golden Age of Piano
Movie Review: 5 Stars Nonetheless
Summary: 5 Stars
Regrettably, the host is dull and his comments are often biased. Moreover, a lot of the clips overlap those of "The Art of Piano". Having said that, this DVD is rich in materials. We are provided with a lot of photos/paintings of the legendary pianists, their background as well as the birth of modern pianos and their predecessors.
With Paderewski (Chopin Polanaise and his own Minuet), Hoffmann (Rachmaninoff), Horowitz (Scriabin), and Myra Hess (Apassionata), Serkin (Beethoven), we have exactly the same footage/s. For Cortot, we have some music videos,i.e., a child playing in a corner with some toys to the music. We could only see Cortot's wrists not hands for literally a couple of seconds and that is all-- a great disappointment for Cortot's fans!
The most valuable things that this DVD gives us include: Landowski playing on a harpsichord with a very special kind of finger position. Likewise, Grainger is interesting as he shows us the Busoni/Egon Petri approach, namely "picking up the keys".
For Rubinstein's fans, they could have a glimpse of him playing in a studio recording session with his forearms bare. Moreover, we can see how he listen and respond to his own recording. Serkin was as passionate and colourful and Horowitz as fascinating as ever.
For Van Clibern fans, there are 2 or 3 of his clips which are all very nice albeit somewhat short. Glenn Gould clips is short too, but we have plenty of him in the market. I'm not too sure how many viewers are interested in Brailowski nowadays, but his Chopin is nice nevertheless.
The crown of the jewel here is of course Arrau. Arrau was a child prodigy (a thorough bred in Rubinstein's word) before he went to Berlin and stayed for 7 years to study the piano with Martin Klause, one of Lizst's favourite pupils. His Lizst repertoire including the 12 Transcendal Etudes, Concert Paraphrases on Operas by Verdi, 5 Concert Studies and Pelerinage etc are one of the very best available ever. Not only was his Lizst repertoire much wider than Horowitz but was also more convincing, albeit both are equally staggering. His Lizst legacy is of equal importance with his Beethoven, if not more. I like Cziffra's Lizst ( and his Chopin too ), but I would go back to Arrau more often. In any event, I don't enjoy Earl Wild or even Bolet's Lizst quite as much: for an alternative, I rather go to Lupu.
Here not only do we have his Beethoven no. 4 in full, played with the Philidaephia under Muti, we further have 3 or 4 other short clips of him when he was still very much in his prime which could somehow show us the flexiblity of his arms: they are just like two snakes. Even though his no. 4 is past his prime, the whole performamce was nonetheless a success not just in view of his age at all. In any rate, it much better than Uchida's recent rendition in almost every score!
Simply another not to be missed.
Summary of The Golden Age of Piano
No Description Available.Genre: Music Videos - Classical
Rating: NR
Release Date: 8-APR-2003
Media Type: DVD
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