Thursday 22 August 2002

Listened to CD (copied from Ronald de Haas) of Elisaveta Gilels (Mrs Leonid Kogan) playing various virtuoso short pieces – with a bias towards staccato bowing. That girl could certainly play! And even Heifetz’s jaw might have dropped at her stacccato. An exhilarating 38 minutes or so, and this is a CD I’ll certainly be returning to whenever I want to be bowled over.
A bit of the automaton about Elisaveta’s playing, however. Not a tender character (on this disc) and it doesn’t make me want to hear her in the Beethoven or Elgar concertos. But Hora Staccato: very much so!

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