Claudio Arrau comments on his favorite pianists

[Rach3]

Arrau’s brief comments are in text , with pictures of the pianists, at each selection.You can hear, read all , or just some.

From the YT:

“Claudio Arrau is one of the most important and well-known pianists of the 20th century. Who are his favorite pianists? Who influenced him? Source: "Conversations with Arrau", "Great contemporary pianists speak for themselves" and BBC Desert Island Discs. “

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLTtHCct0L8

00:00 Alfred Cortot - Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3 (1952)
04:08 Ferruccio Busoni - Chopin Prelude Op.28 No.7 and Etude Op.10 No.5 (1922)
06:58 Edwin Fischer - Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 8, Mov. I (1952, Live)
15:54 Artur Schnabel - Schubert Piano Sonata No.20, Mov. II. (1937)
24:09 Eduard Erdmann - Schubert Piano Sonata No. 21, Mov II. (1952)
31:55 Walter Gieseking - Schumann Davidsbundlertanze, "Nicht schnell" (1951, live)
36:02 Vladimir Horowitz - Beethoven 32 Variations in C minor (1934)
45:33 Camille Saint-Saëns - Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2, opening (1904)
49:27 Emil Gilels - Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2, Mov. II (1954)
54:39 Wilhelm Furtwängler - Bach Brandenburg No. 5, Mov. I Cadenza (1950, live)
59:15 Wilhelm Kempff - Bach BWV 140, Arr. by Kempff (1934)
1:04:23 Vladimir de Pachmann - Joachim Raff "La Fileuse" (1907)
1:08:01 Eugen d'Albert - Chopin Nocturne Op. 15, No. 2 (1916)
1:11:01 Teresa Carreño - Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, Final (1905, Piano Roll)
1:12:17 Josef Pembaur - Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (1929)
*Source of this recording:@Burmese Colour Needles
1:24:10 Conrad Ansorge - Mozart Sonata K 330
Mov. 2 (1928)
1:28:14 Alicia de Larrocha - Granados "Los requiebros" from Goyescas (1984, Live)
1:36:49 Daniel Barenboim - Wagner "Liebestod", Arr. by Liszt (1983)

[Bro]

I remember reading 'Conversations with Arrau' many years ago. It was very interesting. Arrau's comments on Toscanini became the springboard for Joseph Horowitz's much maligned (unjustly so in my opinion) book 'Understanding Toscanini'. That book was more a commentary about how commerce reduces the meaning of art, than a critique of Toscanini's conducting.

At any rate, it's nice to see Horowitz mentioned and a little surprising to see Emil Gilels, someone whose approach to music is very different than Arrau's. When I started discovering Soviet artists it was Richter who appealed to me most and Gilels did not rate, however, with time, those roles have reversed - although I did listen all the way through a Schubert Sonata performed by Richter that someone posted recently, so maybe I am coming back around full circle.