|
|
|
|
A Tale of Two Pianists: Kissin and Goode Contrasted |
| Section: THE ARTS / MUSIC |
| Author: Peter Catalano |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/1996 |
| Size: 2,828 Words, 17,843 Characters |
|
Few experiences are as thrilling as hearing a celebrated classical pianist give a live recital. To hear a master musician create whole worlds of sound can be an unforgettable emotional and artistic event. But the performance hall offers a wide spectrum of musical philosophies, temperaments, and aesthetic approaches.
Evgeny Kissin and Richard Goode--pianists who have each gained critics' high praise and loyal followings--can be said to represent virtual antipodes of artistry and expression. While they do not exactly embody art's classic polar opposites of Dionysius and Apollo--frenzied exaltation versus cool logic--there is a huge difference in their styles, repertoire, and artistic appeal.
On one hand, Goode can be said to represent an approach that places a premium on intellectual challenge and ferreting out music's many-layered meanings over years of study and seasonings in performance. Kissin, on the other hand, typifies the kind of pianist who has phenomenal technical ability and tends to do things more on the fly. The difference is further reflected in the contrasting literature each excels in: Goode is best known for weightier repertoire that has a rigorous intellectual core, Kissin for flamboyant pieces that create surface excitement. To some degree this may have to do with age: Goode is fifty-two, while Kissin is only twenty-four. But one can't help feeling that the contrast between these two has more to do with personality and musical sensibilities than age. Even the trajectories their careers have taken reflect their differing gifts and priorities: Kissin rocketed to fame at an early age and now must show he has what it takes to remain in the musical firmament; Goode has slowly worked his way into the topmost echelons of musical performer...
Read Full Article
...t records the vastly overplayed canon of standard classical works. In that music you'd better have something important and original to say, because over almost nine decades some fairly definitive interpretations have been recorded--honed, as it were, by experience and tradition. Richard Goode's may figure among these.Kissin must be wary: Art, in such an arena, can become absolutely heartless.
(1,796 of 17,843 characters)
|
|
|
Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
|
The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
