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“The sheer brilliance of the level of piano playing these days is extraordinary," says Emanuel Ax, who of course is no slouch himself. He cites Yuja Wang. Lang Lang and Marc-André Hamelin as examples. "I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Nigel Parry
Some keyboard aficionados believe that the golden age of piano playing is past. They revere 19th-century and 20th-century giants such as Josef Hoffmann, Vladimir Horowitz, Sergei Rachmaninov and Arthur Rubinstein.
But Emanuel Ax, who will present a recital on April 27 that’s part of the Symphony Center Presents Piano series, is not among those nostalgists. “The sheer brilliance of the level of piano playing these days, it’s extraordinary,“ he said. ”I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Ax believes that there have been always been “fabulous pianists” since the modern keyboard instrument was invented in the 18th century. “I don’t think there has ever been a time when there haven’t been truly extraoardinay artists,” he said. “The instrument seems to grab that.”
That said, the 75-year-old American pianist is convinced that the “general level of playing” among today’s soloists is higher than it’s ever been. “Nobody plays better than Vladimir Horowitz, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli or [Emil] Gilels or Rubinstein. But the number of people who are extraordinary today is greater than it’s ever been.”
Don’t get Ax wrong. He is a “total devotee” of the great pianists of the past. “But I think,” he said, “there are pianists today who have that same capacity and have imagination and have soul and are physically extraordinary.”
And he’s willing to name names. From South Korea alone, he pointed to Seong-Jin Cho [2015 winner of the Chopin International Competition], Yunchan Lim [2022 winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition] and Dong-Hyek Lim [a former Ax student]. From Canada, Ax cited such artists as Eric Yingzun Chen, Janina Fialkowska, Charles Richard-Hamelin and Marc-André Hamelin.
“These are all extraordinary pianists,” Ax said. “And I’ve not even mentioned yet Lang Lang and Yuja [Wang], who are shooting stars. It’s an incredible time for piano playing. I’m naming these people, not because there are no others I like. If you gave me a half-hour, I could name you many, many more.”
