Classical Music for Aficionados

Mr. Jarrett, 75, broke the silence, plainly stating what happened to him: a stroke in late February 2018, followed by another one that May. It is unlikely he will ever perform in public again.

“I was paralyzed,” he told The New York Times, speaking by phone from his home in northwest New Jersey. “My left side is still partially paralyzed. I’m able to try to walk with a cane, but it took a long time for that, took a year or more. And I’m not getting around this house at all, really.”

When he tried to play some familiar bebop tunes in his home studio recently, he discovered he had forgotten them.

“I don’t know what my future is supposed to be,” he added. “I don’t feel right now like I’m a pianist. That’s all I can say about that.”

“But when I hear two-handed piano music, it’s very frustrating, in a physical way. If I even hear Schubert, or something played softly, that’s enough for me. Because I know that I couldn’t do that. And I’m not expected to recover that. The most I’m expected to recover in my left hand is possibly the ability to hold a cup in it. So it’s not a ‘shoot the piano player’ thing. It’s: I already got shot. Ah-ha-ha-ha.”

“I can only play with my right hand, and it’s not convincing me anymore,” Mr. Jarrett said. “I even have dreams where I am as messed up as I really am — so I’ve found myself trying to play in my dreams, but it’s just like real life.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html

I have just finished listening to Barenboim playing the Diabelli Variations and must say I have on the whole enjoyed it. How he can keep this kind of work at his age and especially live at that is incredible. After a shaky start he then bowls headlong into them and on the whole I think it is a great achievement. If I had to pick anyone who he resembles playing them it has to be a lot of Arrau and a little of Kovacevitch. Not that he copies them though but more resembles, in his youth he revered Arrau and and Arrau liked him and his playing . His interpretation is quite slowish but not drastically so, he just lets the music breathe so to speak .
In the faster variations he dives straight in and takes no prisoners and the great thing about late Beethoven is that the music doesn't sound too clean as per Beethoven's instructions to Schindler. Arrau was a great proponent of the musical slurs in Beethoven's late works which he also suggested to his pupils and I'm quite sure Barenboim also as his playing does resemble Arrau a lot.
Anyway if you give it a spin so to speak it is on Qobus at the moment and I'm quite sure the others will have it also . The recorded quality is superb also so that should be a bonus.

Jim,

Yes, I listened to that performance a while ago and was similarly impressed.
At his age, like his compatriot, Martha Argerich, he seems to have lost nothing in technique.  What a musical genius!  He conducts even the most complicated scores from memory.
What is there in the water in Argentina?

@rvpiano          I totally agree RV about the two of them especially Barenboim I just don't know where he gets the time or energy for all the things he is involved with. The two of them have gone into now their late seventies with their techniques intact, in fact I would put Argerich as possibly in the top three pianists before the public today. Her Schumann is mercurial and so quirky that it is totally unique to her. I have enjoyed her playing for as long as I can remember. I still remember her EMI releases from the sixties and although they were very expensive at the time I couldn't wait till I had enough money to go and catch another one of her Chopin releases. What do you think of her Mazurkas, to me they are superbly played with not a note out of place ( do remember Michaelangeli had a hand in forging her technical aparatus ) she is one of the greatest pianists ever. I always remember a passage in a book about Barenboim when he was dining with Arthur Rubinstein one afternoon. Afterwards they went out on to the veranda for a cigar. as they were enjoying their smoke the talk as always went to pianists. Martha's name came up and after a little while Rubinstein looked straight at Barenboim and said she was one of the  supreme pianists of the age but why did she have to play so fast. Barenboim looked him in the eye and said "because she can Arthur because she can" and with that they fell back to their cigars.

Jim,

I haven’t listened to Martha’s Chopin Mazurkas yet, but I will and let you know my impressions.
I actually do agree with Rubinstein’s observations about how fast she plays. At times it’s a little disconcerting and interferes with the natural flow of the music.
However, she’s an extraordinary talent and, at her best, is unparalleled.
Speaking of pianists, I’m just now listening to a new album by Daniel Trifonov containing Russian composers called “Silver Age” (available on Idagio.)
Again, as we’ve discussed before, aside from his formidable technique, I just don’t find him very interesting, despite all the hullabaloo.