With this DVD we have two hours of piano music with a lot of pianists. In particular, we have we have three of the greatest American born pianists namely, Cliburn (his Schumann is nice), Browning, and Janis, so that we can have an overall view of them all. From these clips, views could see for themselves for example how much Van Cliburn has learned from Mrs Lhevinne or Janis from Horowitz etc.
Viewers might as well compare in general how the American pianists are different from thier counterparts in French, say Casadesus memebers and Philippe Entremont who played with amazingly loose and relaxed hands.
But needless to say, the jewel of the crown remains fairly and squarely Arrau, albeit that we only have the 3rd Movt of Emperor supported by a somewhat amateurish conductor. Arrau was at his prime then and he played this movement with beautiful and yet sonorous tone with layers and layers of colours. Note how flexible his hands were by this time: only Nelson Freire could compare with him.
Another great attraction would be Casadesus playing the 3rd movement of Beethoven's appassionata and a movement of Chopin sonata no.3. We also have Bach concerto for three pianos played by the family. Casadesus family playing Bach. Casadesus was the only rival to Arthur Rubinstein at the time according. Even Horszowski admired the beauty of Casadesus's playing! Most people even regard him the best French pianist after Cortot. But even though his playing defintely throw light to these pieces, his reading may not to the taste of some. It had more to do with the repertoire and the poor recording instead.
Another great delight would be Johannesen, an extremely refined pianist of all ages. It was no coincidence that he was the last one to play: so that viewers are impressed all the more.
It goes without saying that Bolet is well worth our time, but one would rather prefer his Lizst or at least a large scale piece. For the rest like young Hollander (15 yrs) or the legendary Iturbi, we might simply take them as bonus or whatever.
The overall production, the sound or picture are not that impressing particularly the brass section of the orchestra. But who cares when we have these great pianists playing right in front of you. Note that we have 129 minutes of music from this DVD. It deserves either a 4 or 5 STARS depending what you expect from footages of this nature.
