<<  -- 12 --  Bill Newman    AFTER ANTAL DORÁTI

The problem with piano competitions -- Leeds is the prime example -- is that the winners rarely stay in the top grade afterwards. Perahia and Lupu are exceptions. 'After five years, they are gone.' Or they scale down for performing the slighter repertoire. 'That is, maybe, why I like chamber music, because the sound is so important, particularly where there are strings and woodwind.'

The same problems now affect Russian pianists. 'They all sound the same! Except Yevgeny Kissin.' I told Ilse that I don't like his playing. 'It depends what he plays. I heard a Chopin Sonata at the Verbier Festival. Then, a year later, Chopin's E minor Concerto with some Mazurka encores, and that was heavenly.' Schumann's Sonata No 1 in F sharp minor was just a clatter, I told her. 'So, there are restrictions! But other Russian pianists all sound like machines.'

'On the other hand, when you turn on the radio and listen to say a Schubert sonata, you can immediately tell when it's played by Schiff. There is a personality behind the music.

'It's become lost, so I am only sorry.' But we shouldn't forget Eliso Virsaladze. 'Oh, I forgot to include her amongst my favourites! I recommended her to Toni following a recital in London. He engaged her for a concert in Croydon. We became friends, and went on a shopping spree in Oxford Street.

I told Ilse about a pianist who lives in Switzerland -- Konstantin Scherbakov -- who is quite phenomenal. He is recording Respighi, Godowsky and Beethoven for Naxos, recently having completed the Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven Symphonies. The other two players I admire are Alain Planès, who sometimes plays with Janos Starker at Bloomington, and the German Peter Rösel. 'Ah, yes, he also plays all the fanciful repertoire, like Reger. But I have very good reports. So, I must watch out!'

Friendship with Starker

'Does he still play? Do you know, he is older than me. The Starkers were always in contact as long as Toni was here. He first brought him out of Hungary, engaging him to play with the Dallas Orchestra, and he became their Principal. He went to Chicago after that, then to the Metropolitan, New York. Afterwards to Bloomington.

'On the anniversary of the day he originally entered the United States, we used to get a cable from him: "Still grateful!". Very nice. We came into this house on 21 April 1983, just over twenty years ago. We had four days to move from Lake Zug, then we went to the States. I was sitting on 120 boxes, all in the living and dining rooms. We knew we could unpack as much as possible, then come back in the summer and fix it. It was a Friday. On the Saturday, the phone rings. I hear Toni shout out. "Yes! Why don't you come and see us!" And we had a house full of unpacked boxes.

'The Starkers were in Zurich, and Toni invited them! "Are you crazy, I am unable to have any guests, and I can't fix a meal!" "Oh, you can pick up something in the restaurant." We sat on boxes here, and we had some cups and some soup. It was very comfortable. Typically Toni, you know!

'Four days later we would go to the States. I had two extra suitcases with all the other things we needed for the trip, and when we left here the luggage was already in the car. On the steps to the garage, he turned to me and said: "Do you have my white ties?!" Only a man could do that! I sat down on the stairs and started crying. Of course, I had them, but of all the questions to ask me with all those boxes still standing there!

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