Constance Keene plays BACH, BEETHOVEN & BRAHMS (This is Digital Item) SKRP33009DG Bach : French Suite No.5 in G major 9’15” Beethoven : 32 Variations in C minor 10’30” Brahms : Variations on a theme by Paganini, Op.35 17’18” TOTAL TIME : 37’03” This is Degital Item (Format : 16bit/44.1khz wav files & 2 Jacket jpeg files） Constance Keene (9 February 1921 – 24 December 2005), Pianist Constance Keene was raised in Brooklyn, New York City. One of her teachers was Abram Chasins. She won the Naumburg Piano Competition in 1943. In 1946, she stood in for Vladimir Horowitz when he was unavailable for a concert, and she claimed she was the only female pianist ever to have been given this honour. In 1949 she married Chasins, who died in 1987. They performed and recorded music for piano duo. She later became a teacher herself. Her pupils included the children of Arthur Rubinstein, who said he was "flabbergasted by the colour, sweep and imagination and ... incredible technique. I cannot imagine anybody, including Rachmaninoff, playing the piano so beautifully". For many years, she was on the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and was a member of its Board of Trustees. She was also sought out as a piano competition adjudicator. As this present series of recorded performances of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms demonstrates, Constance Keene’s spectaculer virtuosity and command of pianistic color have been augmented by a depth of interpretative and stylistic comprehension that bespeaks the emergence of truly mature artist. Delicacy of touch and exquisite rhythmic control comprise the touchstone of the Fifth French Suite of Bach; while in the Beethoven 32 Variations, rhythmic vitality together with expert exploition of contrast in dynamics and figuration are to be sought after. Only in the incredibly difficult Brahms Variations on a Theme of Paganini does Constnce Keene bring to bear every aspect of her gifts as artist and virtuoso; for here we have music which is so ruggedly classical in its architecture and which demands at the same time such speed, rhythmic control, command of color contrast and dynamics that only the very top ranking keyboard artist of any one generation can meet its challnges successfully in terms of music as well as mechanics. 【解説】ホロヴィッツの代役を務めた唯一のピアニストとして知られるコンスタンス・キーン (1921 - 2005) による「三大B」の名盤。またアルトゥール・ルービンシュタインの娘さんのピアノ教師でもあったことからも、大巨匠たちの絶大な信頼を窺い知る事が出来る。 夫であるヨーゼフ・ホフマンの高弟として知られる作曲家兼ピアニストのエイブラム・チェイシンズ (1903 - 1987) との卓越した技巧による夫婦ピアノ・デュオも大成功を収めた。 ここで聴く、バッハの組曲、ベートヴェン＆ブラームスの変奏曲は、長いキャリアの中でも最初期の録音であり、まさに気力も技巧も最高潮のキーンを知る事が出来る最上のレコードである。 (フォーマット: 1950年代モノラル録音) ※ (デジタルファイルのダウンロード販売商品です）