Rosen: Renaissance man

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33783, 4 March 1975, Page 12

Rosen: Renaissance man

One of today's most remarkable musicians,. the pianist Charles! Rosen, will lecture and play in Christchurch at the Arts Festival this I month.

The “New York Times” recently described his playingas “all one could wish for,” and “The Times” of London ) said that “it was not hisvirtuosity itself that took! one’s breath away but the! magnificently fruitful mar-! riage between virtuosity and ; musical meaning.” A more significant indica-l tion of Mr Rosen’s calibre is : that Igor Stravinsky invited i him to record his Movements | for Piano and Orchestra, with! Stravinsky himself conduct-! ing. Readers of Stravinsky’s I reminiscences will know how tough he was on performers., More recently, Pierre ' Boulez invited Mr Rosen to record his complete piano music.

To musicians, invitations such as these speak for themselves, and will be sufficient commendation of Mr Rosen’s talents. Those less up with the musical play will be able to assess Mr Rosen’s talents for them-

selves m three lunch-hour recitals, one full evening concert, and three concerto performances during the festival.

Mr Rosen is, indeed, something of a Renaissance man. Not only is he a fine pianist —he is also a penetrating and witty lecturer, a distinguished author, a linguist, a teacher, and generally a man of rare intellectual achievement. Music is for him a field of diversified pursuits which he covers with enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity.

Bom in New York City in 1927, he was a pupil of Moriz Rosenthal, who had been taught by Liszt. Mr Rosen is thus the embodiment of a great tradition. His repertoire is wide; his programmes and recorded works include Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Brahms, Schumann, Schubert. Liszt, Martinu, Poulenc. Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok, Schoenberg, and Elliott Carter. He can unravel with unfaltering ease the tangled skein of a complex fugue and can also deliver, with notable panache, a Rachmaninov transcription of Fritz Kreisler. Whether he is playing Bach or Stravinsky he brings to all his playing dis-

tinguished musicianship, i accomplished technique, and! a rare feeling for style. I His academic achievements! equals his musical ones. He holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in French literature, graduated from Princeton with the highest honours; went to Paris on a Fulbright scholarship; and has lectured at Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, and the University of California. Recently, he put his learn-1 ing on more widely circulated 1 display with a remarkablebook which has received! universal critical acclaim:,! “The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven.” The’ London “Sunday Times”,' described it as a “brilliantand searching study” and its author as “a remarkable man, this distinguished pianist.” Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, one of the greatest works in the piano literature, will be featured in his first festival lunch-hour concert on Monday. On Friday, March 14, Mr Rosen will give an illustrated lecture on what is arguably the greatest of Beethoven’s sonatas, the Hammerklavier. It was the slow movement of this work which Edwin Fischer, another distinguished pianist, thought was perhaps the most beautiful contribution to the literature of the piano.

Mr Rosen will play the [j sonata the next evening, in; ia programme which also in-; eludes Schumann’s “KreiTsleriana” and Liszt’s “Don • Giovanni” Fantasy. Neither ; of these works has received much playing time in Christi church. i The third lunch - hour ■ recitai on March 18 will be! : devoted to more con-| ; temporary composers: Boulez. I Debussy, and Elliott Carter