by Mark Ainley /
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August 18, 2021
Today, August 18 2021, is the 125th anniversary of Jascha Spivakovsky’s birth. Unfortunately current global circumstances scuttled the varied plans that I had been brainstorming with the pianist’s son and grandson over the last year
Celebrating Ernest Hutcheson
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July 20, 2021
The Australian-born pianist Ernest Hutcheson was born 150 years ago, on July 20, 1871.
Hutcheson had studied under Carl Reinecke (who studied with Mendelssohn, Schumann and Liszt), Bernhard Stavenhagen (a pupil of Liszt) and Bruno Zwintscher
Hilda Bor
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July 16, 2021
A wartime concert in the series organized by Bor
Yet another pianist I’d never heard of showed up in a YouTube upload recently and I was stunned by the playing. The artist was one Hilda Bor, a
American Master Pianist Sidney Foster
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May 23, 2021
With the advent of the CD in the 1980s, historical recordings began being made available at a faster rate than ever before, and as a result we are today able to hear more great artists
Leo Sirota
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May 4, 2021
Busoni disciples Leo Sirota and Egon Petri
It is remarkable that a pianist whom Busoni said was among his greatest disciples could be forgotten to the extent that many fans of piano playing today have never
Dohnányi – The Pianist
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April 25, 2021
In 2010, I was invited to give a presentation by Alan Walker at the Great Romantics Festival that he was organizing in Hamilton, Ontario, an invitation for which I am eternally grateful. It was my
Alfred Cortot plays Stravinsky
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April 19, 2021
There was quite a bit of excitement when a Youtube upload was made of a 1927 test pressing of Alfred Cortot playing the Danse Russe from Stravinsky’s Petrouchka Suite. Those who didn’t read the details
Celebrating Simon Barere
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April 2, 2021
Many pianists lived fascinating lives whose biographical details are forever fused to their legacy. Sadly, for several artists it is sometimes the circumstances around their deaths for which they are most immediately remembered. One such
Egon Petri at 140
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March 23, 2021
The German-born Dutch pianist Egon Petri has been a favourite of mine from my earliest years of collecting records. The APR label had put out the bulk of his 78rpm recordings on three double-CD sets
An Introduction to Historical Piano Recordings
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March 13, 2021
I was delighted to have been invited by the Ross McKee Foundation in San Francisco to present a filmed introduction to historical piano recordings. I was approached several months ago about the possibility of presenting