Search - Franz Liszt, Frederic Chopin, Simon Barere :: Simon Barere: The Last Recording Sessions

Odessa-born pianist Simon Barere was fully the equal of more celebrated contemporaries such as Benno Moiseiwitsch, Arthur Rubinstein, and Vladimir Horowitz. But few great pianists have ever been so underprized, not only in their lifetime, but also posthumously. When Barere entered the studios of the Remington Company in 1951 to make the recordings that appear for the first time on CD on this Cembal d'amour disc, it was his first visit to a recording studio in more than 15 years. It seemed that the 55-year-old pianist was about to achieve the recognition and respect that had eluded him. It was not to be. He collapsed at the keyboard during a performance at Carnegie Hall a few days later, a victim of a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. Barere's difficulty in achieving the kind of career he deserved may have been partly a consequence of his spectacular technical equipment. Harold Schonberg's evaluation in his The Great Pianists is typical: "Barere was not one of the remarkable musical minds, but a playing mechanism startling for speed, accuracy, and disregard of difficulties." What is odd about such assessments is that the pianist who most resembled Barere in the succeeding generation is often regarded as the 20th century's greatest keyboard intellect: Sviatoslav Richter. Compare Barere's "Gnomenreigen" to Richter's (on a now hard-to-find Russian Revelation CD). The performances share a demonic edge, as well as a miraculous prestissimo pianissimo in the closing bars, that sets them apart from almost all others. Or compare their Liszt sonatas (Barere's on Enterprise/Piano Library and Richter's on Philips). They tear through octaves as though the gates of hell were about to slam shut. Yet, upon reaching indications like "dolcissimo con timo sentimento," they can make the music slow down so that it appears to step outside of time. Barere's extremely flexible tempos, no less than Richter's, pay strict attention to line and phrasing, thus investing his playing with a naturalness of pulse and expression that keeps it perpetually fresh. As almost all the performances on this disc, as well as those on previous reissues by APR and Pearl, demonstrate, Barere's playing requires more than that you merely listen to music; it demands that you experience it. --Stephen Wigler