<<  -- 4 --  Gordon Rumson    LEGENDARY ARTIST

Example 7:

Ferruccio Busoni: Sonatina No 2 Series: Ferruccio Busoni Complete Piano Works, Album 1 Date of recording: early 1960s

[listen]

Do not expect to hear from Gunnar Johansen the clinically dissected lab work of most modern performers where 'you can hear every note' at the expense of gesture, line and finally meaning. Rather expect to hear from Johansen, who nevertheless was as scrupulously correct at all times as the best scholar/pianist, the inner workings of music, the inner fire and the most aristocratic conception of piano performance. Perhaps the greatest example of Johansen's pianistic art of gesture are his recordings of the Strauss/Godowsky works. Never have they been played like this though we cannot use an example here for copyright reasons.

When Johansen came to record the music of Ignaz Friedman, he felt he had come full circle: from the young boy who courageously auditioned for Friedman, to the 80 year old master who had striven to ascend Parnassus.

Did he arrive at the summit? This author knows his answer, but until the music and the recordings are available to the public the answer is but a private one.

Gunnar Johansen remains a legend. And then the mists return. But the lightening has flashed and the thunder rolled ... Let us not forget.