I saw Lazar Berman live in 1978, in Tallahassee and (then in St. Petersburg). As amazing as he is on and audio recording, before a live audience he was truly phenomenal. In Tallahassee my wife to be and best friend were in the third row. At the end of each piece everyone in the audience leaped to their feet in spontaneously leaped to their feet, as if drawn by a powerful magnetic force, applauding the sorcery we had just witnessed. Whether Liszt, Scriabin, or even excerpts from Beethoven, we had never seen nor heard such incredible sounds from the piano. I am a strong amateur classical pianist, and my wife and friend are both musicians. We still talk about it nearly forty years later. I have seen many pianists live in concert since then, but never once anyone like Lazar. He played the octaves in the 12th transcendental etude so quickly the sound was very nearly continuous, like a trombone! He made the piano roar and sing, all the while looking possessed of some divine or demonic energy that drove him forward. Incredible. Lazar in the mid to late seventies was finally free, outside the iron curtain, and he was playing like a lion freed from its cage. We who were there were fortunate to see him at the peak of his physical and pianistic powers, far beyond the likes of Van Cliburn or Louis Lorty, or even Van Cliburn. Phenomenal.
I heard him play Venezia e Napoli in Pasadena, Ca. in 1976 as the final number on the program. The first piece was of all things, a Sonata by Kuhnau. I think he did Chopin's E minor Nocturne as an encore. My date that evening was "one of the ones that got away".
The Gondoliera is about as good as it gets, in my humble opinion. A cascade of vivid, liquid colour, imagery, elevated emotions. Canzone, the audio is biting. Something in the digital transcription? Same in the Tarantella. It's distorted and it hurts. Ah well, it's RU-vid. His technique is incredible. 9:56 incredible evenness on this fiendishly difficult passage, and on his repeated notes... I hate him ;) not really
