Quote Corner From the teacher of Gilels, Lupu and Richter

"In my opinion there are four types of 'performance style'. The first - no style at all! Bach is performed 'with feeling'... Beethoven - dry and businesslike... Brahms - impetuously and with eroticism a la Scriabin or with Lisztian pathos; Scriabin - drawing-room fashion... Mozart - a la old maid, etc., etc. ... The second - is the 'mortuary' style. The performer is so hampered by the 'code of laws' (frequently imaginary) ... that in the end the poor composer dies in front of the sorrowing audience ... Sometimes this style is mistakenly referred to as the 'cerebral' style. This is a regrettable misunderstanding. I have the utmost respect for the brain, and the utmost distaste for the mortuary. The third type ... is the [scholastic] 'museum' performance ... for the impression to be complete the audience should be in period dress and the hall should be lit by wax tapers ... The fourth type ... is the performance illumined by the penetrating rays of intuition and inspiration ... a performance, the slogan of which is: 'The composer is dead, but his music lives on!' ... The more talented, the more musical the pianist, the less worried he is about questions of style ... the more vividly will he portray truth in his performance."