My Beethoven-the year was 1970. Fresh from the Bundeswehr released after then-eighteen months of military service, by the I had saved the Lust for piano playing, brought the program of WDR 3, for me, Unforgettable. Several years ago the deceased Joachim Kaiser speech in a long series of radio programmes on the 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven in different interpretations. He celebrated you, quasi, and addictive. I have not missed a show and was waiting impatiently for the next. Kaiser had submitted a few years before the book “the Great pianists in our time,” and was considered “the piano Pope”. Its quiet, warm, beguiling voice left no doubt as to his connoisseurship. It was believed that a well learned man to listen to.
in Most cases, there were not more than two, sometimes three sonatas, which were presented in different interpretations. It was, however, already at that time, a time of yesterday. The star of Argerich, Barenboim and Pollini were just, Brendel was already older, but was still an insider tip. The Stars of the time – and by the Emperor appreciated – were Friedrich Gulda, which begun in 1967, recording the 32 sonatas in Amadeo quickly cult status gained, and the enfant terrible of Canada, Glenn Gould.
Mythical worship
Otherwise, the Older set the tone. Wilhelm Kempf, Born in 1895, had just made with recordings of the Schubert sonatas, attention, and Wilhelm Backhaus had died in the previous year, with 85 years in Villach after a concert. There’s been a shooting. It the forces left, and he had to op Beethoven’s e flat major Sonata. 31 no. 3 before the conclusion of the sentence ending. He apologised to the audience. After a Pause, Backhaus adopted with Schumann’s “Why”. A touching Moment. The Emperor found the right tone.
The Russian Emil Gilels, the Chilean Claudio Arrau and the Italians Benedetti-Michelangeli were at the peak of their fame, and belonged to the Emperor’s favorites. Sviatoslav Richter had a furious “Appassionata” in Carnegie Hall in the West. And for the first Time ever I heard the name of Solomon, actually, Solomon Cutner. The Briton had to retire because of a stroke early on, and was revered by the Emperor for his playing of Beethoven, almost mythical.
inventors of wonderful melodies
Today, however, hard to imagine: the Emperor took a liking to the piano playing of the Hitler-admirer Elly Ney. It had been after 1945, “Mode”, – stated in his book, but out of the games Opus 111 made up of a large, quiet solitude, and I have a deeper understanding of Beethoven than many of the technically superior colleagues.
