{"product_id":"schumann-by-alfred-cortot_kinderszenen-symphonic-studies-piano-concerto-2020-remastered-paris-1923-1953","title":"Schumann by Alfred Cortot: Kinderszenen, Symphonic Studies, Piano Concerto.. (2020 Remastered, Paris 1923-1953)","description":"\u003ch2\u003eSchumann by Alfred Cortot_Kinderszenen, Symphonic Studies, Piano Concerto..\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlfred Cortot (2020 Remastered, Paris 1923-1953)\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e6 disc(s) - 166 track(s)\u003cbr\u003eTotal length: 06:00:15\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInterview with Bernard Gavoty (July 1953).\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn Lausanne, at Cortot’s villa, where several of the photographs that follow were taken. Is it a villa or a museum? On reflection, it is a museum inside a villa. On the walls hang Renoir’s Wagner, along with historical portraits depicting Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Mozart. Behind glass or inside these document cabinets lie manuscripts that set the imagination alight: the E major Étude, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eL’Après-midi d’un faune\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Debussy’s Préludes, Franck’s Sonata, letters from Beethoven. An abundance of medals, engravings and plaster casts. One of the richest musical libraries in Europe.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— I have travelled extensively, visited museums, antique dealers...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— And is that how you developed your passion for collecting?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— It all began with a book someone gave me when I was a child. I wanted to have two, then three... We were very poor...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThree plaster hands rest for good on a low library shelf:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Liszt’s, Chopin’s... and mine!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— A poor hand, that one. Difficult, slow to warm up, once clumsy... Fortunately, I had, and still have, a supple wrist that acts like a spring: that is what gives me my momentum and lightness.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Of all your teachers, which one taught you the most? (The interview is proceeding according to the rules...)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— One never stops learning... My sisters, Descombes and Diémer taught me the piano. Risler revealed music to me. But two lessons, above all others, have stayed with me.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe first came from Anton Rubinstein, who had asked Diémer to hear one of his pupils. I was chosen. I was fifteen. I arrived at Diémer’s home and saw Rubinstein sunk deep in an armchair: with one hand he was swinging a cigar, while in the hollow of the other he was warming a glass of cognac. I bowed. No reaction. At a sign from Diémer, I went to the piano and played the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAppassionata\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Nothing. I stood up. In the profound silence, Rubinstein’s voice rose, gravelly and rough:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Your cognac is very good, Diémer. I think I could manage another glass...”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMy heart froze in my chest... Farewell to music!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCrushed and trembling, I bowed to the old lion and made for the door, when Rubinstein caught me by the sleeve, placed his hand on my shoulder and, looking straight into my eyes, slowly and emphatically said:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Son, never forget what I am about to tell you: Beethoven is not something you play; he is something you reinvent...”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI was saved!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— You mean that Rubinstein freed you from a scruple?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Faced with a masterpiece, there are two possible attitudes: reverence or violation. What does it mean to play according to the composer’s wishes, or in the tradition of his pupils? What matters is to give free rein to the imagination, to recreate the work, to live it anew. That is what interpretation means...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“That fruitful illusion of the interpreter, which at moments makes him merge with the creator...”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat is an artist, if not a visionary? That is why, when Cortot played Schumann’s Concerto under Nikisch at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1913, Germany, which since Nietzsche had regarded Schumann as a minor artist, felt the stirring call of its own race, the voice of its genius. In an ineffable way, Cortot had discovered the secret vibration of this music, so gentle and so heartbreaking—and all the more heartbreaking for being so gentle...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— And the second lesson?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— I received it from a little girl, Chouchou Debussy, to whom her father had dedicated \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChildren’s Corner\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Shortly after Claude Debussy’s death, at his widow’s request, I went to play the Préludes for her, which she had not heard for some time. I performed that marvellous series on the upright Bechstein piano that Debussy loved for its easy touch and whispering sonorities. I finished. Madame Debussy was in tears. Then, searching for something to say, I turned to Chouchou, sitting in a corner—the children’s corner—who was watching me with her solemn eyes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Well, Chouchou, is that how your father used to play?”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Oh, no. Papa listened more...”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— The lessons of the passing wind, which tells us the story of the world...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat unique way of questioning the keyboard, of moving an instrument made of strings and hammers, an instrument condemned, in essence, to dryness; that gift for making what should merely sound actually sing; that invisible bow, those iridescent strokes, those velvet chords, that downy snow...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe miracle of Cortot is that, with him, the piano ceases to be a piano!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— ...Just as I myself would have liked to cease being a pianist...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eConductor, the creator in Paris of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGötterdämmerung\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, composer, incomparable teacher, chamber musician, lecturer, Cortot has achieved something among the rarest things in the world: unity amid profusion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI notice on a shelf the three volumes of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrench Piano Music\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, alongside the solitary volume \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAspects of Chopin\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e; on the desk lie the first handwritten pages of a work by Schumann. Behind this semicircular desk of pale cedar, how many mornings have been devoted to work!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— One must explain to oneself the reasons for loving one’s art so passionately... Passionately, without respite...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne day, he told me in a low voice:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“I can never get enough!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThat is his secret. Is this why, today, he is one of the few who can restore the youth of masterpieces, drawing forth from faded pages their original freshness?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSo many virtuosos...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— Don’t talk to me about virtuosos! There are far too many of them—and they amount to so little... They remind me of Chantecler... The poor fools! They genuinely believe that a cock-a-doodle-doo makes the sun rise!\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe outburst brings colour to his cheeks. His passion for argument vies with his love of music. Have several of the magnificent portraits that follow not captured him in the heat of his demonstrations?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOne last glance at the walls. A photograph shows an elongated island, half-veiled by the low branch of a maritime pine—Cortoshima. The Japanese gave it to him after a triumphant tour. It is as large as Porquerolles, planted with rockroses and bamboo.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e— That day, I was given another gift when someone told me the ideographic meaning of my name.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn Japanese, Cortot means: “A solitary soul on the island of dreams.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhat finer legend could I have wished for?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eTo live up to the very end the image that sums up his life, will he go and live on his island, like a lord upon his own domain?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“No, no...”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA fleeting, elusive dream passes through his dark eyes...\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“...For I have great, unfulfilled departures within me!”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEnjoy your listening\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording","offers":[{"title":"Download digital files","offer_id":53939773833482,"sku":null,"price":45.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0913\/9693\/1850\/files\/CoverSchumannbyAlfredCortot_Kinderszenen_SymphonicStudies_PianoConcerto.._Remastered2020.png?v=1792433674","url":"https:\/\/classicalmusicreference.com\/products\/schumann-by-alfred-cortot_kinderszenen-symphonic-studies-piano-concerto-2020-remastered-paris-1923-1953","provider":"CMRR Music Publishing","version":"1.0","type":"link"}