Concerto # 3

Once they've asked Horowitz 'could you please tell us how to become a great pianist as yourself?', and he responded, probably jokingly, the following way 'you need to be both- gay and Jew'. 

I can listen Horowitz's performance of Sergei Rachmaninov's piano concerto #3 for hours, it is inspirational... It is spectacular, unbelievable, fantastically structured concerto  in such a brilliant implementation. That particular concerto makes pianists lose their minds, that's how complicated the structure of concerto is.

Horowitz was born in a Jewish family, family of musicians. During the WWII his family was captured in concentration camp, but he moved to the US. Leaving his father's house, he got the following parental advice 'you need to keep playing Tchaikovskiy's Concerto #1, this one will make you famous'. And he was playing it first when he got to Europe, in France... He was playing it so that masses were getting crazy, they were ruining and crashing concerto hall, that's how excited people were because of what they've experienced. A real master, that could lead masses with the piano play. 

Then he moved to the US, and after the WWII he was trying to get his sister out of the post- war USSR, but they didn't allow him to do this. That's how he lost all of his family.

As far as I know, in the US he married a daughter of great Italian composer Toscanini. Later his wife was telling journalists, that couldn't get any interview of maestro, she was saying 'you need to wait for him, as I did, for almost 15 years'. 

After a long silence, for quite a while he wasn't giving concerts in the US, because of what was happening in the USSR to his family members, he gave the first concert in 70's. He was treated for severe depression, for many years... Talented people, really blessed with talent, they can see how tragical this life is. 

One of my colleagues bf (he worked in La Scala for quite a while) was telling me, that today there's a new school of really talented piano performers- chinese school of pianists. I've never heard about Lang Lang before that conversation, and I was very interested to see if this one is true.He is quite technical, but it is not about passion, or deep understanding of Rachmaninov's sould when playing one of his concertos, it is about doing show from what he is doing. Classical music can not be popular, it can not be intellectually affordable for masses... I am not trying to be arrogant in my thoughts, but this is true... When I was in Italy, I was surprised that local people don't go to opera theatres, they just don't value what they're having in there. It is not that you were born in the homecountry of opera and you so very got used with it, so now you just don't give a dime about it. This is different, this is... something about your inner hunger for something really beautiful and real. Real... Have you ever felt empty so that you were crazy about getting something to fulfill the emptiness? If yes, then you probably know the 'hunger' for real music..

So if you want to listen really great performance of Rachmaninov's concertos, listen to the author's performances, or Horowitz's, cause ,once again, he is a great pianist.Or book a tickets to the nearest concert of Denis Matsuev, this guy is also great, so called 'piano demolisher' from Syberia :) 

I would like to write about my passion to Beethoven's music, but I will do it a bit later... 

That's about it for now.

I never liked things most of the people like. Say for instance, there's that super awesome movie coming on the screens next month, and that's it- people are getting crazy and obsessed with reading books (reading is always good intention, but reading everything they offer you to read, these junk readings... I don't even know which one is worst for the brain), waiting for first releases, watching exciting trailers...

It is not the cinema thing... Now I am thinking why am I so skeptical about cinema art itself? Vladimir Il'ich Lenin was saying that 'cinema is the art for masses'. Couldn't agree more. 

So it is not the movie thing, it is 'people intellectually eating everything they offer today' thing. I was always wondering, what do people find in all these super 'thougtful' quotes from Paolo Cohelio (not sure if I wrote the name correctly, but I don't think what he is doing is worth my time on googling his name), Garcia Markez, Dan Browns, if we talk about russians, Daria Doncovas, Boris Akunin and many many others... Actually ,Akunin is quite readible cause of the language he was trying to copy from old- old- ooold Russian classics.

Cohelio must be responsible for what he is doing with minds of nowaday's femine readers :) Quoting this stupidness must be prosecuted by the law. I mean seriously, this is way too much, how come someone says obvious, silly things, and others start quoting him, as if THIS is the truth in its last instance :)))

Junk reading is something you read lying on the beach, and the next very day you forget it, it shouldn't be memorized, and ...dear Lord, it shouldn't be spread across people!!!! 

Ok so... what I wanted to say is that I've read one of the books that ,I think, will be one of the bestselling books this year. Oh well, yes, I've became a victim of marketing and advertising. During my Italian vacation, in Milano, I've seen the tram with adv of Dan Brown's book on it, which is called Inferno. To tell you the truth, it is such a thoughtful marketing trick :) Cause first thing that comes into your mind is Dante Alighieri's 'The Divine Comedy'. And then I went to local Feltrinelly and bought the book. Very easily readable, easy forgettable junk reading, and leaving taste of little disappointment after you're done, cause book didn't overcome your expectations... I never read non of his books, I figured he wrote about 10 or even more, and that each single book is like bestseller or something like that... So that was my first ever Dan Brown experience.

What I liked about it -is Florence, of course. By all means, I totally share author's love towards this absolutely astonishingly beautiful citta. Hall of five hundred, Ponte Vecchio, towers, Art galleries, super unrealistic adventures in this marvelous city. All of the memories, good ones, were taken on the surface from the deep down inside of my memory storage :) Then there was a little bit of Venice and Istanbul, but they were mentioned so very briefly, so you don't even have time to remember what was Robert Langdon doing there :) 

This book is such a speculation, it is that particular book's second name actually 'SPECULATION on readers' feelings' :) 

What I wanted to say is that... don't read everything, be picky, don't watch everything they show you, be picky, listen to something that is really beautiful, not just popular, otherwise you might end up by being just another brick of this huge and unending wall of global informational consumerism. 

ps: Gianny Radari was writing for children by the way, not for super mature adults...