Malcolm was my neighbour. His piano tuner used to tune my Joanna after he did Malcolm’s Steinway. He struggled to hide his contempt for my instrument!!
Thank you for sharing this - Malcolm Binns is extraordinary, yet he is in the USA at least, one of the most overlooked pianists, despite he is one of the greatest pianists, whose expertise on historical instruments, brings new, fresh life to traditional old-worn-out pieces as they are usually played by nearly everyone else, such as in the case of this amazing Ravel. In other players hands, this music just doesn't grab me; in Binns hands, this music is sublime - an expert at 18th, 19th, early 20th-century performance practices, he brings out the music the composers "encoded" into the music in revelatory ways - that sadly, escape the bell curve of all the other pianists out there. Many thanks!
Agreed - sounds like Perlemuter: airy, and elastically grand, warts n all. A lot of players better bring out the details (and artificially tighten up the rhythms), but I prefer the music in the sense of the big picture. This man delivers that.
