a suitcase full of ‘wrong notes’ . . .
by mulberryshoots
We just heard an anecdote about pianists that some of you might enjoy. It appeared during “The Art of Piano,” a YouTube documentary almost 2 hours long which featured a generation of pianists gone by (Paderewski, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Josef Hofman, Alfred Cortot, Sviatoslav Richter, Claudio Arrau, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Emil Gilels among others including Edwin Fischer.)
Someone described a conversation between Clara Haskil, (a noted pianist in her own right and accompanist to Arthur Grumiaux, the violinist) and her companion on a train travelling in Europe. During the ride, the two musicians noted and discussed numerous pianists and what they thought of them. When they got to Edwin Fischer, Haskil said, “Oh, but he plays so many wrong notes! more than anyone we listen to.”
As they got up to disembark the train, a gentleman stood up in front of them who turned out to be none other than Edwin Fischer who had been sitting in the next compartment unbeknownst to Haskil and her friend. He turned to them with a smile and asked if they would help him lift his large suitcase from the upper luggage rack, saying it was very heavy because “it contains all of my wrong notes!”
Numerous contemporary pianists such as Daniel Barenboim, Evgeny Kissin and Piotr Anderdrewski commented on the pianists of yore. And even though the documentary was much longer than we had anticipated, there were notable omissions, at least to me: Dinu Lipatti, Jorge Bolet and Rudolf Serkin.
But it was worthwhile watching– and we thought the little tale about the suitcase containing wrong notes was very funny.
Here’s a link to “Art of Piano”
mulberryshoots 