Brother of the more celebrated Tossy
mainAndrew Rose of Pristine Classical has come up with a genuine find: the brilliant pianist Jascha Spivakovsky, whose musical career was overshadowed by his violinist brother.
Read this, by Mark Ainley.
Then try some of this.
Tonight, compare it to whoever wins the Chopin Competition.
h/t: Patricia Hammond
Very interesting find. Thank you, Norman. His playing here is very direct, not overly virtuosic, rather, more understated and elegant, voiced sensitively with inner singing rather than in outward volume. I wonder if he had heard Josef Hofmann play this? There are many pianists who were quite fine whose names slipped into the history books since the piano reached its development. Curiously, my uncle’s brother knew Tossy quite well because they lived near to him in Connecticut. It is always exciting to hear these findings, and thank you again.
I also had not heard of him before Pristine’s announcement showed up in my inbox earlier this week, but now thanks to this blog many more will hear of him. As Jeffrey Biegel notes, even today after years of explorations into historical archives there are still some very fine forgotten performers who existed in the shadows of the greatest figures (like Hofmann, Rachmaninoff, Cortot, and Horowitz), and are awaiting rediscovery.
What an amazing performance! He manages to make it sound like there are two pianists playing in the fugue, so clear is the distinction between the voices. Perfect musicianship combined with outstanding virtuosity always in the service of the music (and that applies to the Chopin Ballade recording as well…). Thank you so much for this!!!