Album insights
Today's generation of pianists has chosen to neglect the music that the great pianists of the twentieth century mastered. The decline of the 78 RPM record is partly responsible for the changing taste, which has largely abandoned the character piece, transcription, and fantasy/paraphrase. The limitation of 10 or 12-inch sides for 78 RPM records meant that earlier masters recorded short pieces, seldom performing entire sonatas or variation cycles as is commonly done in modern recitals.
Concert programs have also evolved significantly. Pianists like Rachmaninoff meticulously planned balanced, varied, appropriately timed concert programs resembling banquets, focusing on digestibility. In contrast, contemporary programs, including mine, are awe-inspiring and often feel longer despite being shorter than traditional recitals. It's a shame that nowadays composers' collections of shorter works are rarely represented by just one piece in a program.
The days of finding a mix of pieces from various composers or specially crafted compositions or transcriptions by the pianist in the second half of a concert program are over. Nowadays, even encores rarely feature such pieces. The disdain against music deemed light or entertaining has negatively influenced the modern musical diet, stifling appreciation for seemingly easy works. Critics of such thinking tend to disparage figures like the humorous English prose master P. G. Wodehouse, implying that light art deserves no esteem.
Even though not a pianist, Gioacchino Rossini composed extensively for the piano later in life, introducing technically demanding novelties like the extravagant octave glissandi sequence in "Petit Caprice" (Style Offenbach), later orchestrated by Respighi as La boutique fantasque but more intriguing in its original piano form.