Great Pianists producer dies at 81
RIPWe have been notified of the death of Tom Deacon, a Canadian concerts and record executive whose singular achievement was to conceive the cornerstone Philips series, Great Pianists of the 20th Century. the onyl fault anyone could find with the series was the label’s livery colour, taken from the surrounding flatlands of Hilversum.
Tom went on to become vice-president of catalogue development at Universal Music until his retirement in 2005.
No there were other faults: the omission of Annie Fischer and the presence of Andre Previn, allegedly because his surname began with P. Anyone got the facts on that one? He was a great contributor to various piano chat groups and GP20C was a fantastic achievement.
Annie Fischer is the glaring omission and her peerless Bartok 3 Piano Concerto among many other of her great pieces. The woman simply did not know a SHORT encore. Wonderful pianist and an amazing smoker.
The version I read was that, very late in the production stage, Pogorelich informed Philips that he did not desire to be included, and someone, whether Deacon or not, decided that replacing him with Previn would entail the least amount of redesign of the album covers, which were numbered in alphabetical order.
Deacon was particularly nasty in the online forums. Many of his comments were unrepeatable here.
Indeed. And for all of his musical erudition and arrogance, Deacon was completely fooled by the infamous late-period Joyce Hatto piano “recordings” as well as the preposterous back-story of how and when the lady, suffering from late-stage cancer, recorded them, including those with the London orchestra that never was. [The New Yorker has a long account of this extended joke/fiasco]
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I agree completely. His toxicity, constant sniping, aggression and displays of bigotry made me leave RMCR. And I never had an exchange with him, but saw his sniping whenever I was on RMCR.
There were some staggering omissions from that series, like Rudolf Firkusny.
And Simon Barere
And some puzzling inclusions – Ingrid Haebler?
That series was and is a tremendous accomplishment and monument to the man, but for sure probably every music fan can think of respected pianists who were left out (Annie Fischer is mentioned, and what of Paul Jacobs or, going back a bit, Jesús MarÃa Sanromá, Vronsky & Babin, and for that matter, and a surname that begins with P — Leonard Pennario?), quibble over why this or that one was included, or the choice of repertoire (even the program notes to the set seem to question why Chopin was chosen for an entire disc of the György Cziffra entry), or who got multiple sets and who got just one. Still — I don’t own the whole set (yet) but purchase any example I find for sale, and that would include Previn if I found it. Not the least impressive aspect of the series was that it was done back when it was still necessary to deal with so many record companies, as compared to today’s very much consolidated situation. That called for a certain kind of diplomacy.
A few random memories … There’s hardly any Ravel. One Beethoven piano concerto is ignored while a different one is given many times. Far too much repeated Chopin. Is the Lhevinne at the wrong pitch? CBS (or successor) refused to licence Glenn Gould Bach. Sleeve notes were of very variable quality. Translations were often awkward. Sometimes the notes in one language had nothing to do with notes in another. The edition was very quickly deleted and the two boxes were made available in uk for £250 mail order so not a commercial success. I guess.
Like most of projects involving “the greatest…” it was flawed. But the great justification was to make available important recorded performances more easily available. Rudolf Firkusny another omission.
Philippe Entremont and Marc-Andre Hamelin were omitted too.
I don’t understand why the knives are out for Previn. He seems to have drifted out of fashion. I realise that his conducting is widely criticised, but I appreciate his piano playing. Boult thought he was an outstanding pianist.
“the (with a lower case t) onyl fault” …? Do you take any fucking care at all with this column?
Sad to hear of Tom Deacon’s passing. The ‘Great Pianists of the 20th Cycle’ must be amongst the top 5 discographies of all time- providing the most extensive/diverse record of elite pianism (also comparing very different performances of the same work by keyboard geniuses!) The only thing he got wrong was one of attribution a few times. The most glaring was attributing Moiseiwitch’s incomparable performance of Liszt Leggierezza to Paderweski in one edition. But-as an interesting side comparison- you could listen to 5 genuine different versions of Leggierezza in the series- including Cziffra & Bolet- with their individual fascinating insights- to take one random example.
What about Lazar Berman ?
Surely he should be included.