The Golden Age of the Piano, with David Dubal

<v David Dubal>This is David Dubal. I am your host for the Golden Age of the Piano. <v David Dubal>The sound and shape of the piano has been wedded to our psyches ever since <v David Dubal>the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. <v David Dubal>Piano has become one of the chief cultural symbols in history <v David Dubal>and certainly the most played of any musical instrument. <v David Dubal>During this program, we shall see and hear glimpses of many of the giants <v David Dubal>of the golden age of the piano. <v David Dubal>With the death of the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz in 1989 <v David Dubal>and in 1991 of Rudolf Serkin and Claudio Arrau, the <v David Dubal>world lost what many music lovers considered to be the last links <v David Dubal>to the great golden age of romantic piano playing, which <v David Dubal>began in the 19th century with Frederic Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmanioff, <v David Dubal>Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and a host of other great masters <v David Dubal>of the piano. [piano music plays]

<v David Dubal>Claudio Arrau, Rudolf Serkin, and Vladimir Horowitz were each born in <v David Dubal>1903 and this year saw mankind's first flight. <v David Dubal>?Everywhere?, there was excitement. In Paris, Picasso was in his Blue Period. <v David Dubal>The young Isadora Duncan had started to explore new aspects of the dance. <v David Dubal>Debussy and Reval were creating magnificent new sounds on the piano. <v David Dubal>Claudio Arrau, born furthest away in Chillan, Chile as <v David Dubal>a child, went to Berlin to study. <v David Dubal>He thought of himself as a descendant of Beethoven. <v David Dubal>Beethoven, who taught Czerny. Czerny, who taught Liszt and Liszt, who taught Martin <v David Dubal>Krause, Arrau's own beloved teacher. <v David Dubal>This magnificent heritage was Arrau's cherished link to the Golden <v David Dubal>Age of the Piano. [Song: Les Jeux d'eaux a la Ville d'Este by Franz Liszt] <v David Dubal>It was also 1903 when Rudolf Serkin was born in Austria.

<v David Dubal>He was, many feel the last glorious manifestation of the high <v David Dubal>German seriousness which was formed from the legacy of Clara Schumann, Hans <v David Dubal>von Bulow, and Johannes Brahms. <v David Dubal>Serkin's playing possessed a special vision. <v David Dubal>[Song: "Les Adieux" by Ludwig van Beethoven] <v David Dubal>During that wonderful year of 1903, Vladimir Horowitz was born in Russia,

<v David Dubal>a land filled with the tradition of great piano playing. <v David Dubal>Horowitz thrived in the burning romanticism of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. <v David Dubal>His own teacher, Felix Blumenfeld, was an assistant of Anton Rubinstein, <v David Dubal>the founder of Russian Pianism. <v David Dubal>Horowitz was deeply proud of his spiritual heritage to Anton Rubinstein. <v David Dubal>[Song: Etude in D Sharp Minor by Alexander Scriabin] <v David Dubal>With the deaths of these greats, Horowitz, Arrau, and Serkin.

<v David Dubal>It seemed a curtain was drawn on the Golden Age of piano playing. <v David Dubal>Why was the piano such a unique form of self-expression? <v David Dubal>George Bernard Shaw wrote "The piano is the most important musical <v David Dubal>instrument. Its invention was to music what the invention <v David Dubal>of the printing press was to poetry." <v David Dubal>From 1500, the prince of keyboard instruments had been the harpsichord, <v David Dubal>but there was an increasing need for a keyboard capable of producing a kind of vocal <v David Dubal>expression with the ability to produce many gradations of sound. <v David Dubal>Other keyboard instruments could not produce the necessary soft or loud, the piano <v David Dubal>and the forte as they are called. <v David Dubal>Nor the many inflections in between. <v David Dubal>As society was becoming more secularized, the 18th century wanted a keyboard <v David Dubal>instrument that could touch the heart by producing a singable melody instead <v David Dubal>of the plucked sounds of the harpsichord.

<v David Dubal>In short, the piano was born from a changing world. <v David Dubal>The harpsichord represented the Baroque, while the piano would become the primary <v David Dubal>expression of classical and romantic sentiment. <v David Dubal>Although there were various attempts to build such an instrument, the person acknowledged <v David Dubal>to be the true inventor of the piano came from the same region of Italy as <v David Dubal>did Antonios Stradivarius, the great violin maker. <v David Dubal>Bartolomeo Cristofori, he was the caretaker of the Medici family's instrument <v David Dubal>collection. And in his spare time devoted himself to his revolutionary creation, <v David Dubal>the piano. Laboriously creating 25 of them between 1709 <v David Dubal>and his death in 1733. <v David Dubal>The radical difference between the harpsichord and the piano is the hammer mechanism <v David Dubal>of the piano compared to the plucked apparatus of the harpsichord. <v David Dubal>You can see this in this model of Cristofori's original piano <v David Dubal>mechanism. However, Italy, the land of song and the violin

<v David Dubal>showed no practical interest in Cristofori's new instrument and after his death, <v David Dubal>the piano's destiny would soon be in the hands of the Germans. <v David Dubal>The organ builder Gottfried Silbermann, Johann Sebastian Bach's friend, had <v David Dubal>dreamed of making a keyboard instrument with a broad, dynamic range. <v David Dubal>Miraculously, he found drawings of Cristofori's piano mechanism, and set <v David Dubal>to work. By the late 1740s, the Emperor Frederick <v David Dubal>the Great made history's first large piano purchase, supposedly buying <v David Dubal>from Silbermann more than a dozen with which to stock his palaces in Berlin and <v David Dubal>Sanssouci. Years before, Bach had tried out Silbermann's pianos, but <v David Dubal>the great harpsichordist and organist didn't at all like the newfangled piano. <v David Dubal>But after Bach tried the improved models when visiting Frederick the Great, he finally <v David Dubal>proclaimed their excellence. <v David Dubal>And it is Bach's keyboard compositions which remain the earliest <v David Dubal>music in the permanent repertory of the piano.

<v David Dubal>[Song: ?Larlila? No. 6 in E Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach] <v David Dubal>Glenn Gould's Bach electrified the musical world.

<v David Dubal>He was a legend in his own time. <v David Dubal>His death at age 50 in 1982 deprived the world of a great <v David Dubal>artist at the peak of his powers. <v David Dubal>In Glenn Gould's hands, each ?Bachian? <v David Dubal>voice became a living organism. <v David Dubal>His Bach playing with that of an ecstatic romantic. <v David Dubal>[piano music plays] <v David Dubal>The philosopher Voltaire, upon hearing the early piano, was revolted. <v David Dubal>This newcomer, he piped, will never dethrone the majestic <v David Dubal>harpsichord. The piano is an ironmonger's instrument as compared to the harpsichord. <v David Dubal>However, the piano would indeed dethrone the harpsichord.

<v David Dubal>It was not until Wanda Landowska revived the harpsichord with her first recital on that <v David Dubal>instrument in the eventful year of 1903 that the harpsichord once <v David Dubal>again began to take its rightful place in the pantheon of musical instruments. <v David Dubal>[Song: Folk Dance] <v David Dubal>Landowska's concerts were like consecrations from Bach himself, and her

<v David Dubal>face seemed illuminated by Bachian wisdom. <v David Dubal>She once told a colleague, "You play Bach your way. <v David Dubal>I'll play him his way". <v Wanda Landowska>Not in the ?inaudible? way, but in another way. I love my audience. I'm in love with my audience. <v David Dubal>By the 1760s, piano building had moved from Germany to London <v David Dubal>and Vienna. <v David Dubal>Soon, piano sales were exceeding harpsichord sales. <v David Dubal>In the 1770s, the two most formidable pianists were Muzio Clementi, <v David Dubal>buried in Westminster Abbey and called the Father of the Piano, and history's <v David Dubal>most celebrated child prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, <v David Dubal>born in 1756. <v David Dubal>Clementi represented the English pianos, which, with their heavier action and louder <v David Dubal>sonority, seemed to represent something of the might of the Industrial Revolution. <v David Dubal>Mozart represented the Viennese School of Playing, which was distinguished for its

<v David Dubal>precision, rapidity and clarity. <v David Dubal>In 1781, Clementi and Mozart were pitted against each <v David Dubal>other in a grueling pianistic duel at the glittering Viennese Court <v David Dubal>for the pleasure of the Emperor Joseph the Second. <v David Dubal>Although the contest was deemed a draw, everyone was hotly discussing the merits <v David Dubal>of the two virtuosi. <v David Dubal>Mozart called Vienna "Piano Land" and he made most of his living from teaching <v David Dubal>the piano and performing his own piano concertos. <v David Dubal>It was in 1792, one year after the tragic death of Mozart, <v David Dubal>that the 22 year old Beethoven arrived in Vienna from his birthplace of <v David Dubal>Bonn, Germany. <v David Dubal>Ludovic van Beethoven, disheveled, ill mannered and heaven storming, <v David Dubal>proclaimed the democratic spirit sweeping the world. <v David Dubal>He looked like an inspired genius. <v David Dubal>Later, even triumphing over the disability of deafness.

<v David Dubal>The Viennese were awed by Beethoven. <v David Dubal>He could do no wrong. He was the ?lion? <v David Dubal>pianist of the day and his piano playing possessed a powerful emotionality, never <v David Dubal>before heard on the instrument. <v David Dubal>The piano was Beethoven's most personal confidant. <v David Dubal>His piano music forms one of the great creative documents of the ages. <v David Dubal>Its humanity and breadth are perpetual challenges for the pianist. <v David Dubal>?That's? Beethoven put at the command of one individual, the pianist, the greatest <v David Dubal>that ?music could? offer is a blessing that has been appreciated by all serious <v David Dubal>pianists in every generation. <v David Dubal>[Song: Sonata "Appassionata" by Ludwig van Beethoven] <v David Dubal>Myra Hess is one of the most revered musicians of the Golden Age of the Piano.

<v David Dubal>Dame Myra became a symbol and a heroine to the British people. <v David Dubal>During World War 2, in a musically starved London, she was the spiritual <v David Dubal>force behind the national ?inaudible? <v David Dubal>famous afternoon concerts. <v David Dubal>She often performed with bombs accompaniment. <v David Dubal>By Beethoven's death in 1827, the piano was overwhelmingly the <v David Dubal>favorite of all the instruments of the ever expanding middle class, both in the <v David Dubal>home and the concert hall. <v David Dubal>During Beethoven's life, there were many important public pianists, such as the <v David Dubal>Czech Jan Ladislav Dussek, known for his singing tone and his <v David Dubal>handsome profile. In fact, he decided that he would perform with his <v David Dubal>profile to the audience. <v David Dubal>Previously, keyboard players had played either with their backs to the public

<v David Dubal>or directly facing them. <v David Dubal>He was dubbed Le Beau. <v David Dubal>Yet Dussek's vanity served a musical purpose. <v David Dubal>Le Beau soon discovered that the piano turned to the side with lid raised, <v David Dubal>transmitted a more direct sound to the audience. <v David Dubal>Other important pianists of the time were Carl Maria von Weber. <v David Dubal>Romantic and consumptive with a ?Byronic? <v David Dubal>limp. <v David Dubal>In 1819, he launched the walls into the concert hall with <v David Dubal>his insinuating invitation to the dance. <v David Dubal>And then there was the poetic and languid John Field from Ireland <v David Dubal>who invented Music of the Night with his nocturnes, a form that Chopin <v David Dubal>would soon immortalize. <v David Dubal>Yet another was Ignaz, Moscheles, called The Prince of Pianists who <v David Dubal>may be said to have inaugurated the international concert career when <v David Dubal>he took the first train from London to Manchester to give a concert in 1830.

<v David Dubal>In 1843, the Boston piano builder, Jonas Chickering, invented <v David Dubal>a cast iron frame for the piano, which would ensure the instruments staying in <v David Dubal>tune longer and making its sound able to carry in the largest <v David Dubal>concert halls. Cristofori's original instruments weigh less than <v David Dubal>the iron plate of the modern piano. <v David Dubal>With its more than 20000 parts, the piano is indeed the daughter <v David Dubal>of the Industrial Revolution. <v David Dubal>Frenzied hands flying the length of the keyboard thrilled the public <v David Dubal>who craved virtuoso gods to play on it. <v David Dubal>The piano became the romantic instrument par excellence. <v David Dubal>The poet Friedrich Schiller said, "The gods never come alone". <v David Dubal>And a flood of piano geniuses burst into the world <v David Dubal>almost simultaneously. <v David Dubal>Among them, the German Felix Mendelssohn in 1809.

<v David Dubal>The Pole, Frederic Chopin, was born in 1810 and the Hungarian <v David Dubal>Franz Liszt in 1811. <v David Dubal>Felix Mendelssohn was, after Mozart, the most wondrous child <v David Dubal>prodigy in music history. <v David Dubal>He created for the piano a vision of a happy, sun drenched world <v David Dubal>filled with goodwill and magical spells. <v David Dubal>His piano traveled on gossamer wings. <v David Dubal>His best music is an enchanted fairy land of elves and sunlight. <v David Dubal>[Song: Spinning Song by Felix Mendelssohn] <v David Dubal>Arthur Rubinstein was one of the piano's dashing cavaliers.

<v David Dubal>His joyous ?prober?, proclaiming the grand manner. <v David Dubal>Rubinstein once said, "I am lucky to be a pianist. <v David Dubal>A splendid instrument, the piano. <v David Dubal>Just the right size, so you cannot take it with you." <v David Dubal>Frederic Chopin, the poet of the piano, was a pianist of ethereal beauty. <v David Dubal>His music was born for the instrument. <v David Dubal>Chopin's pianistic influence was incomparable. <v David Dubal>This delicate, exquisite being created in the words of George Sand, <v David Dubal>the great writer and his lover, a revolution in the language of music. <v David Dubal>And with only one instrument. <v David Dubal>It was Arthur Rubinstein who stated when the first notes of Chopin sound <v David Dubal>through the concert hall, there was a happy sigh of recognition. <v David Dubal>[Song: Valse Brilliante in A Flat by Frederic Chopin] <v David Dubal>Alexander Brailowski, one of the glamorous pianists of his day, supposedly

<v David Dubal>was the first pianist in history to give all of Chopin's piano music in public in 7 <v David Dubal>recitals in 1924 in Paris. <v David Dubal>He is here literally put on a pedestal for public adoration. <v David Dubal>After a Chopin recital, Franz Liszt wrote a rave review, <v David Dubal>but Chopin sarcastically uttered, "Ah, Liszt is giving me a kingdom <v David Dubal>within his empire". Indeed, Liszt was the emperor of <v David Dubal>the piano. Before this, no pianist dared give a whole concert of music for piano <v David Dubal>solo without putting on the program other instrumentalists and singers. <v David Dubal>Liszt's popularity was such that to share the stage with other musicians was unnecessary. <v David Dubal>And so he proceeded to invent the solo recital, even coining the term. <v David Dubal>It was at Milan in 1839, that Liszt gave history's first recital. <v David Dubal>He proudly said, "Le concert c'est moi." The concert is myself.

<v David Dubal>He was likened to Dante, Napoleon, and Byron. <v David Dubal>Liszt wrote, "My piano was for me. <v David Dubal>What is frigate is to a sailor or a horse to an Arab. <v David Dubal>Indeed, more. It is my very self. <v David Dubal>My mother tongue, my life. <v David Dubal>I confide to the piano all my dreams, my joys and sorrows." <v David Dubal>When the writer Hans Christian Andersen first heard Liszt, he marveled. <v David Dubal>His divine soul flashed from his eyes from every feature. <v David Dubal>He grew handsome. Handsome his life and inspiration can make one. <v David Dubal>Liszt's piano music paints events from poetry to painting and sculpture, from <v David Dubal>fountains to battles, from sunsets to dreams of love and fairy <v David Dubal>tales. [Song: Gromenreigen by Franz Liszt] <v David Dubal>The great romantic composer Robert Schumann, like Chopin, was born in

<v David Dubal>1810. He had a fierce ambition, like his friends Mendelssohn, Chopin, <v David Dubal>and Liszt to be a fabulous piano virtuoso. <v David Dubal>But his plans were thwarted at age 21 when Schumann paralyzed <v David Dubal>the fourth finger of his right hand using a contraption he invented to strengthen <v David Dubal>his fingers. However, his piano music was feverishly championed <v David Dubal>by his beautiful wife, Clara Wieck Schumann, born 8 years <v David Dubal>after Liszt. <v David Dubal>Clara Schumann became the most influential woman musician of the 19th century. <v David Dubal>Although she composed too, her real mission was to interpret and shed <v David Dubal>light on the great composers of the past as well as her contemporaries. <v David Dubal>She brought to the concert stage an unprecedented seriousness of purpose. <v David Dubal>Besides inspiring her husband, Robert, she was a devoted mother of 8 children <v David Dubal>and a loyal friend to the younger Johannes Brahms. <v David Dubal>Clara Schumann was a model and an inspiration to the many women pianists <v David Dubal>who followed in her footsteps.

<v David Dubal>Perhaps the greatest being the tempestuous Venezuelan Teresa Carreno. <v David Dubal>But there were many eminent women, such as Liszt's favorite female student, Sophie <v David Dubal>Mentor. The French pianist Cecile Chaminade's compositions, as well <v David Dubal>made her famous. In America, there was Mrs. H.H.A. <v David Dubal>Beach and Julie Rive-King who roamed the United States, giving over 4000 <v David Dubal>concerts. <v David Dubal>In England, Arabella ?Goldhar? played Beethoven's mighty Hammerklavier Sonata from memory <v David Dubal>at age 17. Later, she made a world tour of several years, <v David Dubal>bringing the great composers to Australia, New Zealand, India, China, and throughout the <v David Dubal>Americas. <v David Dubal>In 1872, the great piano firm of Steinway and Sons brought to the United <v David Dubal>States the hero of Russian piano playing, Anton Rubinstein, heralded <v David Dubal>as the greatest pianist after Liszt. <v David Dubal>He looked like Beethoven. Some said he was Beethoven's illegitimate child. <v David Dubal>Liszt called him Van the Second.

<v David Dubal>His name is still held sacred in Russia. <v David Dubal>Rubinstein said, "I have lived, loved, and played." And play he <v David Dubal>did. During his United States tour, on stage, coach and train, <v David Dubal>he gave 215 packed concerts within the incredible span <v David Dubal>of 239 days. <v David Dubal>How ?Rubi? played was the big topic of the day. <v David Dubal>Anton Rubinstein was born in 1829 and so was America's <v David Dubal>first great piano superstar, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, born <v David Dubal>in New Orleans. <v David Dubal>In 1830, Hans von Bulow, the high priest of German pianist was born. <v David Dubal>Later, he was to marry Liszt's daughter, Cosima. <v David Dubal>And in 1830, the great teacher Theodore Leschetizky was born. <v David Dubal>He would be the teacher of the next generation of Paderewski, Ignaz Friedman, Benno <v David Dubal>Moiseiwitsch, Artur Schnabel, and Alexander Brailowsky. <v David Dubal>And 1833 saw the birth of Johannes Brahms.

<v David Dubal>During the latter part of the 19th century, the piano continued to prosper. <v David Dubal>There were many giants of the instrument, such as Carl Tausig, <v David Dubal>Moriz Rosenthal, Emil von Sauer, Arthur Friedheim. <v David Dubal>All were Liszt's pupils. <v David Dubal>Some felt the mightiest technician of all was Leopold Godowsky, called <v David Dubal>the Buddha of the Piano. He composed some of the most impossibly difficult <v David Dubal>piano music ever conceived. <v David Dubal>His son co-invented color film and tested the results <v David Dubal>by making home movies of his family and their friends, such as the exiled Russian <v David Dubal>revolutionary Leon Trotsky. <v David Dubal>He filmed his father after a stroke which brought his career to a tragic end. <v David Dubal>No one could claim the celebrity of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. <v David Dubal>He epitomized the artist as hero. <v David Dubal>He was the most fabled pianist of the luminous golden age.

<v David Dubal>Everyone who played a piano attempted his Minuet in G. <v David Dubal>A piece he grew to despise. <v David Dubal>[Song: Minuet in G by Ignacy Jan Paderewski] <v David Dubal>Paderewski's arrival, even in the smallest towns, sparked celebrations. <v David Dubal>He traveled in his private railroad car and brass bands welcomed him with <v David Dubal>a rendition of his ubiquitous minuet. <v David Dubal>Paderewski, the greatest box office attraction of all time, made a fortune with <v David Dubal>his piano.

<v David Dubal>He was also a rousing orator and Polish patriot. <v David Dubal>After the Great War, it was Paderewski who signed the treaty for his nation <v David Dubal>at the Versailles Conference. <v David Dubal>Soon after, this symbol of Poland became his country's first president. <v David Dubal>Even at age 80, when catastrophe again befell his homeland in 1939, <v David Dubal>Paderewski was still playing the piano to raise funds for his ravaged nation. <v David Dubal>[Song: Polanaise in A Flat by Frederic Chopin] <v David Dubal>Ignacy Jan Paderewski died in 1941. President Franklin

<v David Dubal>Delano Roosevelt ordered a special burial at Arlington National Cemetery <v David Dubal>in Washington. <v David Dubal>Paderewski's contemporary was Sergei Rachmaninoff. <v David Dubal>Arthur Rubinstein wrote, "Rachmaninoff had the secret of the golden living <v David Dubal>tone which came from the heart." <v David Dubal>His place in the history of the piano ranks near the very top. <v David Dubal>He was the musical son of Anton Rubinstein, and with Josef Hofmann, <v David Dubal>Rachmaninoff was the supreme artist of the early 20th century golden age of Russian <v David Dubal>piano play. <v David Dubal>At his deathbed, he looked at his gigantic hands saying, "Farewell, <v David Dubal>farewell, my beloved hands." <v David Dubal>Early in Rachmaninoff's career, he wrote the prelude in C-sharp Minor, which <v David Dubal>the composer called, "the It Prelude". <v David Dubal>Wherever he performed, audiences screamed, "Play It." <v Show Host>In going over pieces for his solo, Josef Hofmann selected this composition

<v Show Host>for two very good reasons. He said it's just about the right length <v Show Host>and everyone who has played the piano or heard the piano will know it. <v Show Host>Josef Hofman plays a composition by his fellow artist, the late Sergei Rachmaninoff, <v Show Host>the prelude in C-sharp Minor. <v Show Host>Mr. Hofman. <v David Dubal>Josef Hoffman was the most sensational child prodigy of the late 19th century.

<v David Dubal>He had studied with Anton Rubinstein himself. <v David Dubal>In 1913, within days, Hofman played 21 recitals in St. Petersburg, <v David Dubal>playing 255 compositions before 68,000 people. <v David Dubal>It was the 11 year old Hofmann who in 1888 made the first recordings <v David Dubal>in history for Edison's revolutionary recording machine. <v David Dubal>Edison had just perfected his first wax cylinder phonograph <v David Dubal>after working for 3 straight days and nights without sleep. <v David Dubal>Hofmann himself was a superb inventor with many patents to his credit. <v David Dubal>Some say he was the inventor of the windshield wiper, inspired <v David Dubal>from watching his metronome while he practiced. <v David Dubal>[metronome sounds] <v David Dubal>The great Thomas Edison had asked various celebrities, including Brahms, <v David Dubal>to send him a greeting on the new machine.

<v David Dubal>Here are the only words we have of a great composer from the 19th century. <v David Dubal>If you listen closely, you can detect Brahms saying, "Grüsse an Herrn Doktor Edison, I <v David Dubal>am Dr. Brahms." <v Johannes Brahm>Grüsse an Herrn Doktor Edison, I am Doctor Brahms, Johannes Brahms. <v David Dubal>By the early 1900s, 20th century technology began to immortalize <v David Dubal>pianists on various kinds of recording devices. <v David Dubal>The brilliant and eccentric pianist, Vladimír de Pachmann, who was born as far <v David Dubal>back as 1848, one year before Chopin's death, <v David Dubal>was the earliest pianist to have his career enhanced by a large number <v David Dubal>of recordings. <v David Dubal>For the first time in history, one could remain at home and hear music that was <v David Dubal>not performed live. <v David Dubal>One could listen to early recordings or piano rolls made by pianists such <v David Dubal>as de Pachmann here playing on a ?player?

<v David Dubal>piano. [piano music plays] <v David Dubal>The Australian Percy Grainger was one of the favorite recording artists of the day. <v David Dubal>He actually got married at the Hollywood Bowl before 20000 people. <v David Dubal>He was a fascinating character filled with boundless energy. <v David Dubal>He would often jog from town to town on his concert tours. <v David Dubal>He was an important folk song collector also. <v David Dubal>Here he is playing the Irish folk song McGuire's Kick. <v David Dubal>[Song: McGuire's Kick] <v David Dubal>In the 1920s, Alfred Cortot's career flourished.

<v David Dubal>From about 1925 to 35, he made more than 150 recordings, <v David Dubal>becoming one of the best selling recording artists of the era. <v David Dubal>During that period, he also gave nearly 1,500 recitals in Europe <v David Dubal>alone. We see Cortot in a charming scene playing from Debussy's <v David Dubal>Children's Corner Suite. <v David Dubal>Here is an early attempt to use film and music to gather. <v David Dubal>[Song: Children's Corner Suite by Claude Debussy] <v David Dubal>Arthur Rubinstein's numerous recordings were always bestsellers.

<v David Dubal>Arthur Rubinstein died at age 96 in 1982. <v David Dubal>His recorded legacy represents one of the last links to the grand style, <v David Dubal>The Romantic Age. <v Recorder>Would you like to hear a playback Mr. Rubinstein? <v Arthur Rubinstein>No, no. I didn't like it well enough. Let's tape it once more, please. <v Recorder>Certainly. <v Recorder>Roll take. <v Recorder>Arthur Rubinstein, ?Schumann? ?inaudible? <v Recorder>Take 10. [piano music plays] <v David Dubal>Recordings brought music of the Masters into everyone's living room. <v David Dubal>And thus, The Golden Age lives on through this recorded heritage. <v Recorder>Arthur Rubinstein, ?Schumann? ?inaudible?

<v Recorder>Take 18. Playback. [piano recording plays] <v David Dubal>Claudio Arrar, Rudolf Serkin, and Vladimir Horowitz would <v David Dubal>die in less than a decade after Rubinstein. <v David Dubal>Each of these artists projected a romantic intensity, a kind <v David Dubal>of playing that was more in touch with a past grandeur

<v David Dubal>and elegance. <v David Dubal>In a Rudolf Serkin performance, I remember an exaltation <v David Dubal>that blazed like a light. <v David Dubal>A certain recital was almost a religious right, a purification through <v David Dubal>Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. <v David Dubal>[Song: Sonata in B Flat by Franz Schubert] [audience applauses] <v David Dubal>Claudio Arrau played with a passionate lyricism.

<v David Dubal>His art was brooding and ?faustian?. <v David Dubal>He thought of music in the 19th century sense as sacred and mystical. <v David Dubal>When Arrau played, we were transported to a vanished era where art <v David Dubal>was not a form of mere therapy or simply to be enjoyed, <v David Dubal>but a way of life. [Song: Ballade in B Minor by Franz Liszt] <v David Dubal>To an adoring world public, Vladimir Horowitz could do no wrong.

<v David Dubal>During Horowitz's last years, it was as if the public was holding on <v David Dubal>to the last romantic, as he was often called. <v David Dubal>Horowitz appeared to be a force of nature. <v David Dubal>His technique and sonority sounded superhuman. <v David Dubal>People left his recitals dazed, feeling that they had heard something unique, <v David Dubal>perhaps even supernatural. <v David Dubal>It was as if they knew that with Horowitz, a glorious <v David Dubal>age would end. <v David Dubal>[Song: Etude in D Sharp Minor by Alexander Scriabin]. <v David Dubal>The future will decide if The Golden Age of piano playing ended with Rubinstein,

<v David Dubal>Arrau, Serkin, and Horowitz. <v David Dubal>One thing for certain is that the piano will not become a dinosaur. <v David Dubal>Indeed, world piano production is larger than ever and more and <v David Dubal>more countries have piano industries. <v David Dubal>In 1958, at the height of the Cold War, at the first international Tchaikovsky <v David Dubal>Competition in Moscow, a gangling 6 foot 4 Texan <v David Dubal>drove Russian audiences to fever pitch with his grand style, golden sound, and marvelous <v David Dubal>technical skill. [Song: Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky] <v David Dubal>Van Cliburn's mother had studied with the formidable Liszt pupil, Arthur Friedheim.

<v David Dubal>His own teacher at New York's celebrated Juilliard School was the legendary <v David Dubal>Rosina Lhevinne, wife of the great Joseph Lhevinne, who had played with <v David Dubal>Anton Rubinstein. <v David Dubal>Van said the Russians are just like the Texans. <v David Dubal>The piano continues to bring the world together. <v David Dubal>One instrument with its immortal literature has become a mirror of human <v David Dubal>aspiration. [Song: Sonata "Appassionata" by Ludwig van Beethoven] <v David Dubal>The pianist alone with his piano is communing to his audience in one of the world's great <v David Dubal>languages, which needs no translation. <v David Dubal>The pianist exists in a world of feeling and form fusing man's <v David Dubal>highest artistic ideals.

<v David Dubal>Here on the concert stage, the spread of global understanding is possible. <v David Dubal>Indeed, more than ever, the human race hungers for the beauty and mastery <v David Dubal>that is so exemplified in the Golden Age of the Piano. <v David Dubal>[piano music continues playing] [audience applauses]