Music

BRP, you seem to know a good amount about this stuff - are there any famous classical musicians today who do improv?

Only if you buy that there are any famous classical musicians today

I’m not aware of any who do improv as part of public performance, except when they also play (or are even more comfortable in) other genres. Then again, I do the majority of my listening from recorded works, particularly the radio; as you might expect, Washington’s classical station has an impressive collection! Obviously I would expect a lot of them—particularly the ones who compose—do a good deal of it out of the limelight.

I think one of the best things to happen to classical piano lately is that a number of people have tracked down piano rolls, resurrecting long-forgotten recording artists and giving a little taste of how things really sounded, at least in the late 19th century. A lot of people have the unfortunate tendency to treat the past as if it’s this dead, dour, pickled thing which is of course not how it was.

Probably not my favorite interpretation of the piece, but I'm a sucker for Rubinstein's Chopin. His dynamics feel more dynamic, but I'll also admit I'm not particularly well-educated even within my preferred genres. The Cortot just feels... unemotional? Given that the appeal of Chopin, especially his nocturnes and preludes, is largely in their evocativeness, this interpretation leaves me a little hollow.

What are you, Methuselah!? [the joke is that there are two famous pianists Rubinstein and as far as I know the only recording one of them has is a voice clip from 1890]

Unemotional is the opposite of how most people would describe Cortot’s playing! If you poke around the many recordings he’s made, you may find he just nails it on some interpretations. Or maybe you’ll just find that you’d rather stay away from his style, or old styles entirely, who knows. He was not the only Romantic-era pianist recorded, just the last.

That said, he does zig a lot of places where I’d rather zag. And despite that I agree (Arthur) Rubinstein is absolutely a brilliant interpreter of Chopin, there’s something a bit off about his Prelude 4, not that I could hold a candle that or anything.