When Claudio Arrau played Liszt’s double on film
Daily Comfort ZoneThe pianist in the 1935 film “Dreams of Love” is none other than the dreamy Chilean, living in Germany at the time.
Watch, and be amazed.
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I like Arrau’s thoughtful rather softly spoken unshowy Liszt!
Arrau is the Lisztian poet par excellence; Brendel is the Lisztian intellectual par excellence. And who knows, Yunchan Lim might be the Lisztian par excellence, pure and simple?
It’s a 1935 Mexican film entitled „Sueño de amor“. Arrau, as Liszt, receives top billing; his co-stars are Julieta Palavicini (as „Jorge Sand“), Consuelo Frank, Elena D’Orgaz, Josefina Escobedo, and Carlos Villatoro (as „Alfredo de Musset“).
Perhaps an earlier version of James Lapine’s delicious „Impromptu“ from 1991 with Julian Sands as Liszt?
Playing of simply incomparable elegance.
Amazed yes. Actually Arrau in this film looks a bit more like Chopin (to me) than he does Liszt. But he does look of that era as opposed to the other actors who all look 1935-ish, just with old looking costumes. Nice find.
Several other performance clips are on the web. Someone should rescue the whole thing and restore it.