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August 2nd, 2012
Category: Top Video Picks
9 comments

Hedonist and altruist at the same time, favorite of the gods and philanthropist, melancholic and sanguine serious artist, a gifted musician and brilliant pianist, egomaniac and family pet. Arthur Rubinstein, a great character and great cosmopolitan, a man who loved life, the music and the people so much.

The recent documentary film (2010) about the life and work of Arthur Rubinstein, brings to life the personality of a great artist and demonstrates what his art is all about. Film maker Marie-Claire Margossian undertook a voyage through Rubinstein’s life with the help of his daughter Eva, a photographer and the participation of John and Alina Rubinstein as well as testimonies of friends like Jacques Chazal, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Gustavo Dudamel and others.

Documentaries based on biographical data is one approach, but unless it is brought to life through pictures and memories it communicates very little. This is where the family archive and the hundreds of photographs comes in.
Margossian succeeds in creating a remarkably vivid and uniquely personal profile of one of the great pianist legends of the 20th century and recreates the various steps in Rubinstein’s career and gets to the persona behind the celebrity.

Rubinstein by the Rubinsteins

ARTE France, Zone d’Images, 52 min (subtitles in German)

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

/patrick

The Great Arthur Rubinstein Revisited

October 19th, 2009
Category: Top Video Picks

For decades people who were fortunate enough to see and hear esteemed pianist Artur Rubinstein (1887-1982) perform left concert halls spellbound.
Rubinstein went for the soul of the audience as he wrapped his soaring and spirited playing around each listener. His magnificent interpretation of Chopin remains without equal.
Biographer and music historian Sachs first heard Rubinstein play in 1959, but it was not until 1986 that he seriously considered writing a biography of Rubinstein. Not having primary source material from the musician’s first 53 years was an obstacle (Rubinstein’s papers were destroyed or lost when the Germans occupied his house during the war), but Sachs had the full cooperation of Rubinstein’s wife, Nela, and access to a huge amount of source material that had accumulated after the Rubinsteins came to the United States. Since in his memoirs (My Young Years and My Many Years), Rubinstein occasionally changed some dates and facts, Sachs realized an added necessity of thoroughness in his research. The resultant biography “Rubinstein – A Life” is definitive and belongs on the shelf alongside those memoirs.

From the treasure caves of the Russian television, we have here a live rendition of Chopin´s Barcarolle Op. 60, one of Rubinsteins most beloved pieces and also frequently mentioned in his memoirs:

Additionally, Peter Gutmans concentrated webpages on Rubinstein are
highly recommended:
http://www.classicalnotes.net/columns/rubinstein.html

/patrick

Piano News Flash

2018-09-21

Glenn is Back and on Tour

Two production companies are working on bringing Glenn Gould back to life in the form of a hologram that will tour venues in different countries. Read more at billboard.com

2018-09-20

One Man's Journey

His stern mother once slammed the piano lid down to keep him away from the piano. He never realized his musical ambition. Instead, Ken Unsworth turned to art to express himself. Read more at smh.com.au

2018-09-19

Reicha? You Bethca!

He dreamed of pieces in two keys at once 100 years before Ives. He wrote pieces in asymmetric compound meter more than 100 years before Bartok. He taught Liszt and Berlioz. He even played in the same orchestra as Beethoven. Who IS this guy? His name is Anton Reicha, and he just might be the real "most interesting man in the world". Read more at nytimes.com

2018-09-18

Mixed-Media Tchaikovsky

Alexandra Dariescu is about to depart on an extensive tour of Europe. She is going to be playing a piano rendition of "The Nutcracker", which is not, in and of itself, unusual. Her performance is unusual, however, because it includes not only a single dancer but also animated forms. The performance uses more than 35,000 hand-drawn animation images and is designed not to overshadow the piano. Read more at rhinegold.co.uk

2018-09-18

Young Eric Lu Wins in Leeds

Lu's performance of Beethoven's fourth piano concerto secured him the top place and also the Halle orchestra prize. Read more at pianistmagazine.com

2018-09-17

Stage Fright

Sir Laurence Olivier famously barfed every time before going on because of crippling stage fright, and he was one of the greatest actors in living memory. Paula Bobb didn't barf, but she suffered just as painfully from stage fright. Her solution is a form of acupuncture that doesn't quite cure her anxiety. It does, however, quell her anxiety about her anxiety, which makes all the difference. Read more at wxxinews.org

2018-09-16

Looking Good While Sounding Good

Lang Lang isn't just a wizard of technique, a calmed-down performer humbled by injury, or just a plain, old out-of-this-world virtuoso at the piano. He's also quite a looker, and he holds his own in the world of fashion. Read more at straitstimes.com

2018-09-15

Seeing Sound

Joyce Yang has the gift of synesthesia. She sees colors when she hears music. The visual images are striking, such as seeing royal velvet red when she hears the key of E-flat Major. Three high-school students, inspired by Ms. Yang, produced their own project based on synesthesia. Read more at ohio.com

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