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Re: WARNING Brian Cheney Kissin WARNING

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My computer crashed last night when I first saw this. It is probably a good thing--without sufficient time to settle down, I might have said something rash. Kissin is an incredible talent. Already he has a techinique that is the class of Richter, Horowitz, and Gilels. And his musicality and intellectual depth is astonishing for a man as young as he is. I heard him in a recital in Chicago a few years ago that was nothing less than astonishing. I have never heard a recital in which the audience was even close to as overwhelmed as that one. It seemed that the audience was not going to let him go home. He must have played a half dozen encores. He filled the hall like no other pianist I have ever heard--and in Orchestra Hall Chicago, I have heard Horowitz, both Serkins, Arrau, Brendel, Schiff. Kissin started with the Busoni arrangement of the Bach Chaccone from the 2nd Violin Partita. It was unbelievable. A Mount Everest of sound, color, structure, grace, sublimity and spirituality. On my top 5 list of the greatest things I have ever heard in a concert hall. The technical feats Kissin is capable of are breathtaking. But more than that, he has an amazing natural musicality that makes every phrase convincing. It is not just fireworks, although when fire is called for, he provides it in provides it in abundance. But he also plays with delicacy and sublety when the music calls for it. He certainly does play in a rather old-fashioned, Russian school manner. But hey, thank God someone is keeping that tradition alive.

My advice to all: If you ever have a chance to hear Kissin live, do whatever it takes to be there. And snatch up every recording you can get your hands on. In a half century you will be telling your grandchildren about it. When critics are discussing the early phase of the career of the greatest pianist of the 21st century, you can say that your heard him in the first decade of the century.

Forgive me for holding back, but sometimes I think understatement is the most effective rhetorical device.



Edits: 80/53/01

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