Steak and eggs, ham, hamburger, chicken done in interesting ways-I like it all. I enjoy meat and potatoes, but if you fancy up a dish with sauces and crinoline, and it’s good, I’ll eat that, too. I will never be mistaken for a gourmand. Part of that comes from years of working in kitchens-like the magicians assistant, I know all the tricks.
No one would peg me as a musical gourmand, either-I love many different types of music, and some of it is fancy, much of it is plain, but what I enjoy, I enjoy. Flatt & Scruggs and Scriabin. Mozart and Willy.
In the picture accompanying this post the object of Horowitz and Borge’s admiration is an artist I’ve recently found: Gabriela Montero. She is THAT GOOD. I was listening to her rendition of a classic tonight and she was note perfect with Vladimir Horowitz-she wasn’t copying him, but they were both absolute in their interpretations of the piece.
Montero has moved to America after being born in Venezuela. Horowitz found sanctuary here in America in 1917 a few steps ahead of the Russian Communist uprising. He returned to Moscow in 1986 to play a triumphant concert which turned out to be the first sounding of the death knell for the Communist Party, which remained in power for just a few more years.
Victor Borge arrived on these shores in 1940 after his native Denmark fell to the Nazis-luckily he was playing a concert in Sweden at the time, and made his way to America.
Hugo Chavez may not be a Lenin or Hitler, but Gabriela Montero moving to America seems to follow the same pattern. Here there is freedom to be an artist, to make a living, to BE.
I encourage everyone to seek out her music, see if you also enjoy her interpretations of Classical favorites. She is young yet, and becoming established. Enjoy.
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