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Ten Cult Pianists · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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you This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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I want to take the time to thank all of you for
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your support since I've started this podcast,
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and I want to thank those who've subscribed to
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my Piano Maven sub stack page, where you will
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find a link to it in our episode description.
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And you can subscribe for free. Although paid
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So thank you for considering a subscription.
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I'm not going to discuss recordings, actually,
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on today's episode. But I am going to talk about
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pianists, specifically the topic of... cult pianists.
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My friend David Hurwitz has been on a recent
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roll doing a series of videos that presents lists
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on the topic of conductors, like cult conductors
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or annoying conductors or underrated conductors,
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you know, whatever. He did a video on cult conductors,
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and also he posted reviews a while back on Classicstoday
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.com in a cult conductors series that didn't
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go on all that long. I wish it would expand a
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bit. But I thought I would imitate David Hurwitz,
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as I often do. And I'm going to come up with
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a list. Actually, I did come up with the list.
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Why am I saying that in the present? I did that
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in the past. I wrote out the list. It's a list
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of 10 pianists that I call cult pianists. And
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I'm sure this will instigate a healthy discussion
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among fellow piano mavens. Just what is a cult
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pianist, you may ask? Well, a cult... Pianist
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can mean several things. It can mean a pianist
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who may not be the most popular pianist on the
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planet, yet this pianist still amasses a devoted
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following and exerts a strong influence in the
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piano world. Or else a cult pianist can be one
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who cultivates a certain persona or mystery or
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one who has... a mercurial temperament or an
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unpredictable temperament. Some cult pianists
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think that the cult that materializes around
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them is nonsense. Yet other cult pianists encourage
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such behavior among their admirers. And then
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there are some pianists who only achieve cult
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status after their death or their retirement.
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And one example of that kind of pianist happens
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to be the first one on my list. I think this
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is a good example of a pianist who really acquired
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his cult status after he retired and after he
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died, but not necessarily when he was alive.
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And this is Joseph Hoffman, who lived from 1876
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until 1957. He was one of the most popular and
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admired and respected. pianists of his time,
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and he was considered something of a modernist
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in terms of his largely straightforward and technically
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breathtaking pianism. His studio recordings tended
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to be much straighter and direct in comparison
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with the flippant phrasing and variety of tricks
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that one often finds in his live performances
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from the late 1930s onward. Now, what happened
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with Joseph Hoffman is that after he died, he
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was pretty much forgotten about, except in the...
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Late 1960s, reissues of his broadcasts started
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to materialize along with the commercial recordings,
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and these mostly came from the International
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Piano Archive. And these reissues generated a
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lot of curiosity among piano specialists, and
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they began seeking these reissues out and also
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starting to wonder about, well, what other Joseph
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Hoffman material? is out there. And then starting
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in the 1990s, a complete edition of Joseph Hoffman's
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recordings began to appear on CD, first on the
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VAI label, and then the Marston label took over
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the series. And the end result was nine volumes
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of the complete Joseph Hoffman. And I think that
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the cult of Hoffman really was developed in tandem
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with these reissues, with people becoming interested
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in looking for more Hoffman performances and
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a lot of new discoveries coming out. So in that
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sense, Hoffman's cult status came after his death.
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The second cult pianist on my list is Arthur
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Schnabel. Now, it was true that he was popular
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in his time, and he did enjoy an international
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reputation. He was a major, major player and
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had tremendous respect among his colleagues.
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He had a measurable influence on 20th century
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pianism in terms of attitudes toward programming,
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along with his... analytical approach to interpretation,
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his close scrutiny of the text. In other words,
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his influence on the interpretive mainstream
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of the 20th century was considerable. But I still
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consider him a cult pianist in the sense that
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he taught many pupils who carried on his ideas,
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sometimes to more fundamentalist extremes than
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Schnabel. In other words, they were more Schnabel
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than Schnabel. I don't think Schnabel dissuaded
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this entirely, but there was a quote I read somewhere
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when Schnabel complained that he had been cursed
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by his pupils. I think there was a pupil who
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said, oh, Chopin is only a Salon composer. Didn't
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you say that, maestro? And Schnabel said, I only
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said he was a Salon composer at times. I don't
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remember the exact quote. cult pianist on my
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list is Miroslav Horshovsky, who lived from 1892
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until 1993. It's rumored that he may have been
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older than 100 when he died. And like Artur Schnabel,
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he studied too with Theodor Leschetizky, and
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also like Schnabel. He played a wide variety
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of repertoire in solo concerts in the early part
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of his career. But starting more or less in the
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1940s, he was playing chamber music on an equal
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footing to his solo playing. And he didn't stop
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playing solo concerts, but he was heard more
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and more frequently in collaborative projects.
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And he was becoming more and more known for the
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central... German -Austro repertoire, although
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he did play some Chopin, he played a little Debussy,
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Shimonovsky. And once Horschovsky entered his
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90s, a coterie of young and internationally acclaimed
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pianists like Andras Schiff and Richard Goode
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and Peter Serkin, along with others, really started
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to... advocate a lot on Horschovsky's behalf.
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And they convinced the powers that be at Nonsuch
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Records to preserve Horschovsky's solo artistry.
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And so he began to make some solo recordings
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in the familiar setting of the Curtis Institute
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where he taught. A series of solo releases were
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issued on Nonsuch over a period of years. I think
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there were about five CDs. And then you suddenly
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had critics turning out for his New York recitals
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and fawning over him. And my late friend Alan
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Evans began issuing recordings deriving from
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Khrushchevsky's concerts from the 1950s up through
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the 1980s. Beethoven Diabelli variations that
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Horschovsky gave when he was 90, I think. So
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in a way, Horschovsky was a pianist who, I think,
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enjoyed the limelight, but he didn't pursue it.
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And you kind of get the idea of this old man
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playing for himself. just reflecting on his experience
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with this repertoire and that everyone coming
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to the concerts or listening to the recordings
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was eavesdropping and trying to get his wisdom.
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So I guess in a sense, he's a cult pianist. Vladimir
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Sofronitsky. was a Russian pianist who lived
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from 1901 until 1962. He is definitely a cult
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pianist. He had a pretty big repertoire, but
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he mainly specialized in Scriabin. He never met
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Scriabin, but he did wind up marrying Scriabin's
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daughter. And in Sovranitsky's heyday, he almost
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had a kind of rock star kind of following in
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the Soviet Union. always seemed to be a mystical
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aura about his many concerts at the Moscow Conservatory
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and the Scriabin Museum, where he loved to play.
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He did not like making studio recordings very
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much, although his studio discography is considerable.
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Yet many of Sofronitsky's concerts were recorded
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live, and I think generally without his knowledge.
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Despite the kind of cult following he had in
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Russia, Sofronitsky's reputation in the West
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was rather shadowy for the simple reason that
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his recordings rarely were made available in
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the West in the 50s and 60s. However, All of
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that started to change in the late 1970s when
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the Russian Melodia label started bringing out
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box sets of LPs devoted to Sofronitsky that not
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only contained studio recordings but numerous
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live performances of the kind I was talking about
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from the Moscow Conservatory and the Scriabin
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Museum and other venues. And this was supposed
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to be a complete or quote -unquote complete Sofronitsky.
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edition, but the Melodia boxes never went beyond
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a certain number of volumes. Anyway, specialist
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collectors like me got all worked up over the
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Sofronitsky boxes, which could only be found
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in imports at stores like Four Continents in
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New York and later at the Tower Records branch
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on East 4th Street, I think, if you could find
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these at all. The problem, is that many of these
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concerts were preserved in mediocre sound with
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harsh and sometimes distorted piano reproduction.
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And it's sometimes difficult to listen through
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or get past the sonic muck. And, you know, many
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of the Scriabin Museum concerts that were issued
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suffered from the absence of a good piano tuner.
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So one has to sift through the Sofronitsky discography
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to find the... best material in terms of both
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performance and sound quality. Actually, sometimes
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I like the idea of Sovranitsky more than the
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reality. Maybe the aura that he cast over audiences
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didn't always translate well into the recording
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media, but there are a lot of wonderful performances,
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but you just have to look for them. At a certain
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point, I should do a Sophronitsky episode for
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the Piano Maven. But he definitely had a cult
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around him. And I think even with the recordings
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coming out and people chasing after them, you
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know, those Melodia box sets, that's a cult for
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you, I think. Another Russian pianist who had
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a hypnotic effect on his audiences, but... enjoyed
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a truly international career once he began touring
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in the West was Sviatoslav Richter. He lived
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from 1915 until 1997. Western music lovers had
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a good inkling of Richter's gifts through his
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recordings from the 1950s. And I think it was
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that... live 1958 Sophia Bulgaria performance
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of Mussorgsky's Pictures and Exhibition that
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got a lot of attention and made Richter's name
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sort of a household word before he made his first
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appearances in the West. And then when Richter
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first toured in the West in 1960, all of the
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record companies jumped on the Richter bandwagon.
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However, as prolific as Richter was on disc and
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in concert, he never was comfortable in the limelight,
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and he could be moody and unpredictable, although
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never less than totally professional. But in
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Richter's case, I think the cult aspect of his
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career has less to do with the pianism per se
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than with the fascination of his highly devoted,
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even fanatical fan base. There were people who
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followed Richter around from concert to concert,
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and a great number of live recordings started
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to turn up on all kinds of labels. There was
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an organization called the Friends of Sviatoslav
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Richter that was devoted to making cassettes
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available of various richter concerts often in
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search of repertoire that he didn't record in
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the studio or was not otherwise available commercially
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so in this regard i've always thought of richter's
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being the grateful dead of pianists you know
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with people following him around and you know
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i don't think he had an official taper section
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but You know, there were so many Richter bootlegs
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out there. And, you know, I mean, the whole Richter
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discography is a mess. I've talked about the
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Richter discography on this podcast before. The
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next one on my cult pianist list is Rosalind
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Turek. And this is... This is a case of someone
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cultivating her own cult as a Bach specialist.
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By the early 1950s, the main focus of Rosalind
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Turek's concerts and recordings was the music
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of J .S. Bach, with a few exceptions. And the
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intense focus and specificity and utter concentration
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in forming her approach to Bach, and her total
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seriousness of purpose cannot be denied. And
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people generally went to her concerts not so
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much to listen as to worship. I'm not sure who
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first called Rosalind Turek the High Priestess
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of Bach. Although I remember once I wrote a review
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saying, well, the high priestess ought to get
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out of the temple more often. I think David Hurwitz
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wrote that also, and I just stole that from David.
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A pianist who is very similar to Rosalind Turek
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in terms of refined precision, and this may surprise
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you to hear me say that, is Arturo Benedetti
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Michelangeli. Now, he is a case where the cult
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surrounding him has... more to do with value
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in scarcity, because Michelangeli was notorious
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for cancelling concerts, and I'd like to say
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that he cancelled more concerts than he played.
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He probably had the smallest... public repertoire
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of any international concert pianist. The same
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works tended to pop up on his concerts over and
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over again between the early 50s and his last
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concert in 1993. You'd get the same few Beethoven
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sonatas or Ravel's Gaspard de Lanouis, Debussy's
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Image in Children's Corner, the Prelude's Book
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One. Certain Chopin pieces he would play all
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the time. You always got the Brahms Paganini
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variations and the Bach Busoni Chaconne. In the
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years after his death, piano mavens have searched
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high and low looking for previously unknown live
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recordings to supplant Michelangeli's relatively
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small output of official studio recordings. And,
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you know, I've done... several podcasts on Michelangeli
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Bach sets, and you do see like four or five different
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versions of the Bach -Bussoni Chaconne, and piano
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mavens tend to analyze these thinking, oh yeah,
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well, the 1948 commercial recording is good,
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but oh, there's the live one from 1958, or...
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2086 and the one he played on Mars is much better
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than the one he played on Venus. Well, you know
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what I mean. But definitely there was a cult
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around him. I would say also that Martha Argerich
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is a cult pianist because she's in a position
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to pick and choose. what she plays, who she plays
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with, and where she plays. And she tends to do
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the same concertos and chamber works over and
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over again, but with different collaborators.
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And with few exceptions, she's avoided playing
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solo music in public since 1983. But all musicians
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love her, it seems. And a simple announcement
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that Argerich is going to be giving a concert
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creates a... box office stampede. And another
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mercurial piano luminary who has become more
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and more of a cult figure these days is Grigori
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Sokolov. He avoids certain countries, and he
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doesn't make studio recordings anymore, and he
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has a similarly strong performing personality
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and sense of projection that relates to Martha
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Argerich and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. And
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you may or may not like his interpretations,
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but the finish of his pianism and his almost
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scientific understanding of the piano's capabilities
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is something that you really can't ignore. And
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I know many, many pianists who consider Sokolov
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a kind of a god, even when he does outrageous
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interpretive things. And he has that kind of
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mythic status that's similar to Michelangeli
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and Argerich. And I don't think he started out
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as a cult pianist, certainly not when he won
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the Tchaikovsky competition when he was 16, I
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think in 1966. But I would say that starting
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in the 1990s, the cult started manifesting itself.
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And the last pianist on my list, and I think
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you knew this was coming, this is a pianist who
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definitely cultivated his own cult, his own persona,
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and his own myth. I'm talking about Glenn Gould.
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I wouldn't say so much cultivated than calculated,
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maybe. Calculated is the right word, because
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calculation was so much a part of his persona
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and artistic aesthetic. And he really knew how
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to draw attention to himself. Think about wearing
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winter clothes in the summer weather, his unusually
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low seating position in his crazy homemade bench,
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his humming along and gesticulating, and more
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importantly, his deliberately individual and
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very provocative interpretations. And also...
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his very public renunciation of playing in public
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in order to devote himself exclusively to studio
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recording. But Glenn Gould did have the pianistic
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brilliance and the musical mind to bring off
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anything he desired. And he did this with such
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charisma, of course. And you have to think of
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this, more than 40 years after his untimely death
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at the age of 50, Gould is still talked about
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and listened to very intensively. His recordings
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are reissued ad infinitum. More books have been
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written about Glenn Gould than of any other classical
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pianist, and he is still a very polarizing figure.
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Conservative musicians can't abide him, yet...
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Even some of his most wrongheaded and deliberately
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provocative interpretations are such fun to listen
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to, like his Mozart, for example. That's one
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of my guilty pleasures. I mean, I feel awful
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for saying that, but as crazy as his Mozart can
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be, I think what I like about it is that there
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isn't any cliché about the craziness. It's crazy
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and original. And yet, some of Glenn Gould's
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quote -unquote normal performances are beautiful
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beyond belief. Think about some of his Brahms
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Intermezzos, his Beethoven Third Concerto, a
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lot of his Bach, of course, his Schoenberg Concerto,
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his Berg Sonata. So, there you go. That is a
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cult pianist, if there ever was one. And we've
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been talking about ten cult pianists. Who else
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would you like to add to this list? Who did I
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forget to put on this list? I'm sure there's
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so many other pianists that belong here. Let
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me know and let's start a conversation on this
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topic. It'll be a lot of fun. This is Jed Disler
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and you've been listening to The Piano Maven,
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your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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And I look forward to being with you for the
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next episode.