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16 ALDO CICCOLINI
K.457 and 475 became part of your repertoire at a later date. Had you
heard them in concert before, and if so, what do you remember about
them? Did any great pianist of the past make a particular impression
on you?
A.C.
: I was highly impressed by Walter Gieseking. He was a colorist, a remarkable
performer of Debussy and Ravel, but also a wonderful classical pianist. He played
the first movement of the
Sonata in CMinor
with a certain brutality, which is exactly
what the music needed. These are things which, when you’re young, you can hear,
but which you’re afraid to confront because“of the fear of…”.
You waited a long time before playing the
Sonata
and the
Fantasy
,
although you had already performed some of Beethoven’s intimidating
sonatas…
A.C.
: I also waited a long time before performing the Beethoven sonata cycle. In
fact, it was in Palermo on my 70
th
birthday that I first played the
Sonata Op.106
in
public.
Is this your way of saying that certain pianists explore this repertoire
too soon?
A.C.
: I don’t pretend togive anyone lessons. I canonly regret that a certainaesthetic
leads certain pianists to exaggerate the tempos. Furtwängler said that a slow
movement shouldn’t be so slow that it becomes diluted, and a fast movement,
even a
presto
, should not be played so quickly that it becomes incomprehensible.
Many pianists think that if they play more slowly, as Claudio Arrau did, it’s because
it’s easier. They haven’t understood yet that it is
terribly
difficult to playmore slowly,
and even more to play slowly, because each note must have its
raison d’être
.