Menahem Pressler in Paris

Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110

Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 21 in B flat major, D960

Chopin: Mazurkas No. 5 in Bb; Op. 7 Nos. 1 & 3; No. 13 in A minor; Op. 17 No. 4; Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor.

Debussy: Estampes

Menahem Pressler (piano)

Ideale Audience DVD: 3079668
Recital filmed at Paris’ Cité de la Musique March 2011

A treasurable memento of the founder pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio, which gave 6000 recitals, many of which I attended at Wigmore Hall in London. Never to be forgotten was his constant attentiveness to his colleagues [R].

The last representative of a pianistic tradition directly connected with the great German and French piano schools: Menahem Pressler (b. December 1923) studied with several pupils of the illustrious Ferruccio Busoni but also received valuable advice from Robert Casadesus & Paul Loyonnet who opened the world of Ravel and Debussy to him.

His four-page autobiographical essay in the booklet is essential reading, and this disc is as persuasive a recommendation for DVD over CD as you'll ever have; you are really drawn into these super-sensitive performances in his late '80s.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See Pressler teaching at Bloomington, where he latterly lives and teaches in his late '80s.