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following are sketches of the great pianists. By and large, they
are pianists of the "Golden Age" of pianism. In all honesty,
I spent more time studying about these pianists and listening to
their recordings than I should have...but what great memories!
I did these sketches
when I was in High School. My method was to listen to the recordings
of whichever artist I as sketching, and by so doing get a clue into
their general aura. That is to say, when I listen to Friedman play,
I see fire and orange...hence, Friedman is drawn in orange. Rachmaninoff
could hardly be any color but brown, Godowski blue, and so on.
Please
CLICK on the following boxes to view the full-sized images:
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 JOSEF
HOFMANN
Hofmann was the greatest pianist who ever lived. Of this,
there can be no doubt.
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 ALFRED
CORTOT
Alfred Cortot was born in Switzerland, but was considered
the leading French pianist (he founded two schools of music
there). Even his haircut is French-looking.
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 SERGEI
RACHMANINOV
Rachmaninov's records have to be listened to with discernment,
but no one has a played a better Chopin Ballade no. 3.
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 IGNAZ
FRIEDMAN
Friedman is becoming more well-known, and that is good, because
(were he still living) he could easily outplay any of today's
pianists.
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 LEOPOLD
GODOWSKI
His recordings, as is generally admitted, come nowhere NEAR
showing his capabilities (for various reasons), but his Chopin
4th Scherzo is amazing, almost as good as Horowitz's version.
By the way, we would have a much better recording of it (as
well as the other three Chopin Scherzi) if RCA hadn't thrown
them all out...
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 IGNAZ
TIEGERMAN
Quite possibly the second greatest pianist who ever lived.
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 SVIATOSLAV
RICHTER
Russian pianist, neurotic, super technician.
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 VLADIMIR
HOROWITZ
An amazing pianist by any standard. He is in the very top
eschelon of pianists, along with Hofmann, Tiegerman, and Cortot.
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 ARTUR
RUBINSTEIN
Rubinstein, in my view, was a poor pianist, and a worse actor.
I sketched him for a friend who admired him: not for any other
reason.
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 HECTOR
BERLIOZ
I don't know why I sketched Berlioz. I am not interested
in his music.
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 FREDERIC
CHOPIN
Chopin really is so amazingly wonderful...
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 FERRUCCIO
BUSONI
A very interesting Italian musician, who considered himself
a descendant of Palestrina.
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 WIKTOR
LABUNSKI
Polish pianist & friend of Hofmann.
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 FRANZ
LISZT
What could you ever say about Franz Liszt? The normal course
of action for young pianists is to go through a stage where
they read everything they can about Liszt, and come to think
of him as the supreme artist: I was no different.
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 ROBERT
SCHUMANN
Schumann, like so many famous composers, really didn't have
a huge output (which is why, for example, his "Carnival"
is played over and over and over), but he wrote some exceptional
music, for instance, his Symphonic Etudes.
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 FELIX
MENDELSSOHN
This sketch of The Great and Awesome Felix Mendelssohn was
done by my brother Mark. He had never sketched anything up
until that point, and he never did again (to my knowledge)...he
just sat down and did it. NOT BAD!
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 ANTON
RUBINSTEIN
My mother did this sketch. She approached the matter in typical
fashion: that is, she saw some paper on my desk, she saw a
pencil, and she saw a picture (of Anton Rubinstein). She then
created this artistic masterpiece: that is what we call inspiration!!!
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