The distinguished Oberlin-trained California piano pedagogue Shirley Smith Kirsten has written on her Web log a comparison of three pianists playing a waltz by Chopin, pictured above.
It is fun to read! She explains why she admires Pennario's performance and she compares it with the British pianist Stephen Hough. I love how she prefers Pennario's rendition. That is a most excellent thing in a piano teacher.
She even videos herself playing the waltz! I love that. Her version of the waltz is lovely and very personal and, speaking of personal, it is fun to look around her studio. That is a lived- and worked-in studio! I love the rugs and the books lying around.
It is annoying to see a studio that does not look lived-in and played-in just as it is annoying to see a kitchen that does not look cooked-in.
Smith Kirsten does go on to give the brass ring to Arthur Rubinstein's performance though which, Pennario would not mind but I do. Rubinstein horses with the melody and plays a few different notes that are interesting. I would like to know where they came from! But Pennario's playing of the waltz is just so much warmer and stronger. I am sorry.
I will not rest until I have taken all the hills.
No compromises here at the Leonard Pennario desk!
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