Arthur Rubinstein speaks

 This is an interview I found with Arthur Rubinstein when he was 90. It is Arthur, not Artur! I have a letter signed by him and he wrote Arthur.

There is a lot of blah-blah-blah but the interview is cool.

"He has demonstrated a prodigious appetite for living.. for food... for friends... for family..."

That is for sure! Although having read "My Young Years" and "My Many Years," with all their sexcapades, I do not know if his family was always all that happy with him.

Look at those massive doors Rubinstein pushes open at about 1:13.

Look how dapper Rubinstein looks, how nicely he is dressed.

Leonard Pennario liked him. So that makes me like him. I have always liked Rubinstein anyway. You know what, this is funny, watching this interview, I kind of stop listening to him and just watch him. I like to look at him.

He brags about learning the Grieg concerto in three days. Pennario did that too. Well, Pennario learned it in six days but then he was only 12.

It is interesting what Rubinstein says about how the Grieg concerto was looked down on when he was a boy. I am fascinated by how music goes in and out of style.

I love looking at the inside of Rubinstein's house. It looks like one of the antique shops on Hertel near my house.

Anyway, fascinating footage.

Here is a Rubinstein performance I love. It is of the Brahms Intermezzo in C. I have heard other pianists play it and it sounds wooden. He makes it breathe like a summer day. After hearing him play it I had to learn it.

Play it, Arthur!