Impassioned Elegance

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / 4 Comments / July 19, 2011

One of the mysteries of the musical world is how some performers make a huge name for themselves whereas others don’t. There are multiple factors which play into this, luck, attitude, sensitivity, and personality traits

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Benjamin Grosvenor Interview

by Mark Ainley / Interview / 3 Comments / July 11, 2011

Benjamin Grosvenor photographed by Sussie Ahlburg The music industry is not an easy place for a young pianist like Benjamin Grosvenor. Young talents are often sold as the flavour of the month, receiving simultaneously undue praise

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A Bold Debut Disc

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / 1 Comment / July 9, 2011

Benjamin Grosvenor’s highly anticipated first CD on Decca is issued in the UK on Monday July 11. The young pianist, who turned 19 a few days before the release, continues to play with the brilliant

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Expansive Precision

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 20, 2011

When I first heard of Youri Egorov, it was in reference to my favourite pianist, Dinu Lipatti. I was reading a French dictionary of performers, and in the description under Egorov’s name it stated that

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Frenetic Intensity

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 19, 2011

Vladimir Horowitz was an easy pianist for me to love when I was younger. His fingerwork was dazzling and he brought great excitement to his interpretations. As I came to appreciate other pianists’ playing and

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Glowing Reverence

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 19, 2011

When I visited the soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf at her home outside of Zurich in 1992 as part of my research into Dinu Lipatti, she asked me about a recording Lipatti had made of the Bach-Busoni

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Eloquent Bravura

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 19, 2011

When I visited London a couple of years ago, I went to see Jonathan Summers at the National Library. He is a walking dictionary about the piano and great pianists, and always has some interesting

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Refined Precision

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / 1 Comment / March 19, 2011

Geza Anda was most known for his performance of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos, particularly as his recording of the second movement of the beautiful C Major Concerto K.467 had been chosen for the popular

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Distinguished Elegance

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 19, 2011

The French pianist Alfred Cortot soon became one of my favourite pianists – once I got used to the fact that he didn’t always hit all the notes. In our era of sterile perfection in

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Gleaming Poise

by Mark Ainley / Uncategorized / No Comments / March 19, 2011

I learned a lot about the great pianists of the past by reading Harold C Schonberg’s classic book The Great Pianists. While he went into great detail about many pianists, he didn’t talk lots about

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