Mary Kunz Goldman was for over 10 years the classical music critic for The Buffalo News, the daily paper of Buffalo, N.Y. She is also the authorized biographer of the great American pianist Leonard Pennario.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Three pianists face off
Because it is Pennario's birthday ...
And because it is July ...
We give you Pennario, pictured above, playing Gottschalk's "The Banjo." He begins at 7:25 in this video. Preceding him are Arthur Friedheim, on an old piano roll, and Eugene List.
Pennario's two albums of the piano music of Louis Moreau Gottschalk are not is prime legacy but they are wonderful and fun and tremendously virtuosic. Angel Records issued the first one, "The Union," in 1976 for the American Bicentennial.
If you look on the YouTube site and see the comments you will see my tendency to "get into it" over Pennario. I cannot see why some other nerds who post comments put Eugene List's version, or Arthur Friedheim's version, over his. For the life of me I cannot hear what they mean. I have tried and tried.
Pennario's virtuosity and jaunty joie de vivre, so perfect for Gottschalk.
The other two sound labored in comparison.
They are clearly sweating.
Anyway, I get into it over stuff like this sometimes when I should be working on my book.
It is an occupational hazard!
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