Concert In Munich

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30636, 30 December 1964, Page 6

Concert In Munich

After his labours as a critic at the Bayreuth Festival Neville Cardus of the “Guardian” travelled to Munich. He writes:

Sorely in need of relaxation, I went to a Beethoven recital announced by billposters everywhere in this beautiful city, billposters pasted on new buildings, on buildings a hundred years old, and on buildings now in the processes of construction. Every time I have visited Munich posters have advertised übiquitously a piano recital by this same local professor.

I decided to sample his playing in a hall crowded mainly by students. The professor came to the platform attired in a white evening coat and bow-tie. The posters had told us he would play the “vies blieftesten Beethovensonaten,” and he began with the “Pathetique.” Only in Germany has such a way of playing the piano been preserved. The manner was apocalyptic, hands held aloft to begin with, then the left hand went its way regally independent of the doings of the right, a left hand endowed so much with free-will that it could, at the right moment, disengage itself from the keyboard and Beethoven, to remove perspiration from the professor’s brow and straighten his hair. The audience listened in solemn rapt silence—which was significant of much in the educational part of Munich’s musical culture.