Famous Composers Alive and Just a Click Away

Schostakovich playing his first piano concerto

That a recording exists of the voice of Tchaikovsky tantalizes the imagination. If there is a Tchaikovsky recording on an Edison cylinder, might there not also be, hidden away in a dusty shoebox in an attic somewhere, another cylinder with Liszt at the piano? It’s not outside the realm of possibility. After all Liszt lived for almost nine years after Edison invented the phonograph. In the absence of that mythical cylinder, however, we can still enjoy some rare footage, both audio and video, of famous 20th-century composers, both on stage and at home. Rachmaninoff charms the audience in one film with his gruff good humor, while Toscanini and Walter commiserate in another.

Russian speakers get a double dose of such insight, as Prokofiev speaks at length about his music and piano-playing style in the language:

Even in silent film excerpts, the power and raw personal magnetism of such personalities as Camille Saint-Saëns and Gabriel Faure are plainly evident. Certain performances of famous works by their composers shatter the myth of “standard performances,” such as Widor’s playing of his famous Toccata at a much slower tempo than expected. These 14 film excerpts listed on cmuse.org are amazing to watch and will give viewers another perspective on 20th-century composers and their music.

from Piano Street’s Classical Piano News http://www.pianostreet.com/blog/piano-news/famous-composers-alive-and-just-a-click-away-7636/