From the Blog

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

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

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

Continue Reading

Rachmaninoff’s Choice

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

One of the pianists whom I wanted to hear most after reading Harold C Schonberg’s tome ‘The Great Pianists’ was Josef Hofmann. Schonberg clearly idolized him and wrote about him in such detail that I

Continue Reading

Dinu Lipatti: The Chopin Concerto Scandal

by Mark Ainley / Feature / Recordings / No Comments / March 19, 2011

In 1966, EMI issued a previously unknown recording of Chopin’s Piano Concerto #1 in E Minor featuring the pianist Dinu Lipatti. No orchestra or conductor was named. On the record jacket of the British release

Continue Reading

La Dadame

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

Marcelle Meyer met Debussy at the premiere performance of Erik Satie’s Parade, for which she was the pianist. To give you an idea of the production: the mise-en-scene was by Jean Cocteau, the sets were

Continue Reading