The Art of Piano - Great Pianists of 20th Century (1999)

The Art of the Piano is a feature-length, 106-minute documentary that presents in refreshingly straightforward fashion a portrait of 20th-century piano playing. The format is simple: short segments on virtually all of the great pianists who have ever been captured on film, augmented by extracts from interviews, sometimes with the pianists themselves, or with later conductors and musicians of international stature, including specially filmed contributions from Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Evgeny Kissin, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, and Tamás Vásáry. The narration by John Tusa offers an overview of piano music through the century, though the heart of the film is the great quantity of rare archive historic footage, with extracts from performances by Gould, Horowitz, Paderwski, Rachmaninoff, Richter, Rubinstein, and many others. The interviews are short, but offer considerable insight, while the film of so many revered pianists brought together is a literal eye-opener, especially for those who have previously only known these masters from LP and CD. This is, like the companion program The Art of Singing, as close to definitive as a single film can get, even going so far as to include footage from the "silent" era with sound from corresponding recordings. --Gary S. Dalkin, Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com

Interesting Video of Great Players

Great players playing and interesting commentary regarding what makes a great player. Daniel Barenboim provides some particularly cogent commentary. Rudolph Serkin was not profiled, but otherwise a complete survey of the big 20th Century pianists. Worth the time. October 12, 2008

Providing very useful information to its watchers

This DVD contains a lot of wonderful informations about renowned pianists including Rubinstein, Cziffra, Horowitz, and Rachmaninoff. The commenters of the pianists are well-informed and experienced pianists. The focus on each pianists featured is clear. Also the DVD provides valuable old documentaries of each pianists. Although each section does not last long and some performances are cut shortly after the beginning of performances, the DVD is very good and well-made. It worths full 5 stars. Enjoy your DVD! March 2, 2008

great pianists dvd

this is an awesome video with great historical footage of some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. My only problem with the video is that is was predominantly male. The only woman featured was Myra Hess. I should think that they would have included material on Gina Bachauer and Clara Haskil as well as Guiomar Novaes. August 23, 2007

Wonderful DVD for pianists and music lovers

In the 1840's, a composer and performer named Franz Liszt tried something that was, at the time, entirely new. Sitting at a piano on stage in front of a curious audience, he performed what is believed to have been the first piano recital and while the term "piano recital" may in itself sound rather dull, Liszt had other plans. He turned the act of playing a piano into an all stops out show, with the emphasis being as much on the performer and his unique performance as it was on the music itself. Since then, both the piano and the recital have come a long way. The instrument itself went through substantial change during the 19th century, as compositions by Beethoven demanded more and more from it. And with a huge body of solo and concerto works to feed them, the piano virtuosos of the 20th century pushed the art of playing the instrument further and further, taking both piano and classical music into unexplored and unexpected places. The Art Of Piano illustrates the great piano virtuosos of the 20th century through two methods. Highly respected contemporary pianists, conductors and record producers offer their thoughts on each individual artist, while rarely seen archival footage of those artists at work is presented to give the viewer some idea of what each was capable of, as well as to put each virtuoso's individual technique, approach and philosophy into perspective. Comments are given from Daniel Barenboim and Colin Davis to Zoltan Kocsis and the pianist Evgeny Kissin. There are many other musicians also interviewed. The pianists that are the subject of this documentary, many of whom get fairly decent screen time represent the cream of the crop 20th century pianists, starting with Paderewski and seeing the astonishing talents of Horowitz, Gould, Arrau, Rubenstein, Cziffra, Richter and the remarkable Rachmaninov, who also composed a good deal of the music that his contemporaries and successors play here. The whole thing is drawn together by narration that it provides plenty of information for each artist. I do want to mention that, like the other entries in the Art Of series, this documentary is not a history of the piano itself. Its a collection of performances by some of the greatest and most innovative pianists of the past century, and the art is in their interpretation of the classic works they play, the way in which they physically play them, and in the boundless exploration of what seems to many to be a rather limited musical instrument. The piano is one of the most expressive instruments in all music.
August 22, 2007

Well worth the view of the truly golden age of piano

A most excellent DVD and I would highly recommend as an equally excellent adjunct to this DVD with regard to the era and its rather well known names, "The Golden Age of the Piano" with commentary by David Dubal. In this way you have additional film media input on virtually the same names!

I personally found the mixed bag commentary in "The Art of Piano" quite good and informative in perception(s) and as opposed to mere recitations of "great hands" rhetoric as, for example, when Piotr Anderszewski perceptively comments on Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, to wit, "he really didn't like performing .. he didn't like [doing] recordings either .. he didn't like giving interviews ... he didn't like writing books ... as if he was non existent, like a ghost actually .. he was very much caring how he looked at the piano, completely obsessed with his movements how each muscle should work ... to put the beast [piano] in a cage and make it civilized." All very true! Enter Evgeny Kissin, "We never hear a single wrong note from Michelangeli ... ." Or enter Gyorgy Sandor defending [as I do!] Gyorgy Cziffra who is often unfairly relegated to "a show-boating young Liszt, at double the speed." Or the "wrong notes" thing whenever the names Alfred Cortot and Edwin Fischer are mentioned in pianistic circles although that one comes in handy when I announce [depending on the difficulty of the piece] that I'm "going to do my Cortot and Fischer impression" ! For those in the know, well, they won't wince at any clinkers while others remain duly contented!

Then again, we see no less than Francis Planté in his [then] 90's who saw Chopin play [!] mouthing the words "my God" in a clip where he seems visibly amazed to 'hear' his own playing through one of the wall high earlier recording devices! The range runs from Paderewski to our old friend "GG" [Glenn Gould] complete with the hat, scarf and gloves of course.

BTW, for Paderewski fans, and I remain one of them, if you're looking for the 1937 UK production 'movie' that featured Paderewski entitled "Moonlight Sonata", Amazon and/or various Amazon vendors have it! I must say that the plot [such as it was] is off-beat but Paderewski plays and in fact the clip of him in "The Art of Piano" is taken directly from that 1937 movie although in the DVD clip he does the Liszt piece, the 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody. Great piece that one and yes I've tried it many times --- don't ask -- as the operative words become "tried it" -- not easy to bring off the piece at least as it 'should' be played! The bravura notwithstanding.

For brief comments made in French, German and Russian, sub-titles are available. Interesting too, the commentary on Dame Myra Hess doing those UK war-time afternoon concerts where the commentator says, "What is both interesting and somewhat ironic is that Myra Hess specialized and in fact played at these UK war-time recitals the 'German' classics ... " which only proves that great music can often transcend the times! And misplaced or certainly 'misdirected' prejudices therein.

106 minutes, black and white and color mixed. As to 'length', well, it has to be kept in mind that classical pieces don't easily lend themselves to the old 45 RPM R&R songs in length so that excerpts become by default the order of the day. On the other hand, one of my favorite classical pieces, Beethoven's rather sublime "Appassionata" satisfies me when it 'has' to be cut in the interest of time to the second movement -- think the greatly edited rendition of the piece [via the DVD editors] by Davide Cabassi in the 2005 12th Van Cliburn ["In the Heart of Music"] competition DVD.

Between the literal household names in "The Art of Piano" and the informed commentary by equally well known and duly informed artists, a very enjoyable and enlightening documentary review of a truly pianistic golden age. My favorite? Michelangeli doing the Scarlatti Sonata in B minor [K-27]. Try that one if you want a quick substitute for those fingering dexterity exercises!

Doc Tony April 21, 2007

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