anderson@uwvax.ARPA (David P. Anderson) (09/05/84)
<> I went down to Ravinia in Chicago last month and saw a piano recital by Dmitrios Sgurros (sp??), a 14-year old Greek prodigy who sprang upon the scene about 2 years ago, at which point he was already playing the virtuoso repertoire. There is a considerable amount of hype about him: e.g. Rubenstein said he had the kind of talent "that comes along once in a century"... i.e., another Liszt or Horowitz. At Ravinia, everything Sgurros played was diabolically difficult... Brahms' Paganini Variations, Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, Balakirev's Islamey, etc. His technique was indeed awesome, but unfortunately he played most of the works as if the only objective were to get to the end as quickly as possible. He used wildly inappropriate rubato, and his pedalling often made the inner voices into a blurred jumble. The audience was enthusiastic at the start, but when he sat down for his second encore about half of them were leaving or had left... very embarrasing. Perhaps Sgurros will mature and put his technique to better musical use. As it is, he strikes me as a particularly young and talented member of the modern school of virtuosity, striving for more notes per second rather than for more beauty and expression. David Anderson (uwvax!anderson)
bobr@zeus.UUCP (Robert Reed) (09/17/84)
Ahhh, the impetuousness of youth. Perfectly understandable for 14. -- Robert Reed, Tektronix Logic Design Systems Division, tektronix!teklds!bobr
jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow) (09/17/84)
It sounds like this prodigy is indeed the new Horowitz - fast, inappropriate rubato, no musical feeling, etc. That describes my impression of Horowitz (after he came out of retirement) exactly. And many famous virtuosi. For a real curiosity, there is one Horowitz recording of Debussy's "L'isle joyeuse" in which the final statement of the 3/4 theme is so distorted that it comes out sounding as if it were 4/4. I suppose he had a reason for doing it, twisted as it may be. Jeff Winslow