Gabriela Montero

Gabriela Montero was in town the other night and I got to go to her concert. She is truly astonishing. The program was all improvisation, and what remarkable things came out of her! There were two lengthy improvisations where I could have sworn she was "channeling" Bach/Busoni, and others that could have been Scriabin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff. Still others had decidedly Latin flavor. The music is so complex that even a very accomplished pianist would likely find much of it quite challenging, but she plays all of it note perfect--no hesitations or split notes. She always maintains a clear strong arch and produces a rich skeletal sound. You can find a number of clips on youtube, but here is one that gives an idea of the variety she's capable of: --Rush

I heard Gabriela Montero at the 1995 Chopin competition in Warsaw, and I am so glad you submitted this thread because what I see is a totally different pianist, far more evolved in every possible way. She wasn't bad in Warsaw but it wasn't outstanding either. It didn't then, but now her technique really possesses those qualities that I admire and search for the most. I would say she has gone through a profound process of artistic development in the last 15 years and my hat's off to her. Perhaps a part of that process was a really intelligent and deep study of the Horowitz videos - the way she uses her hands resembles his to a remarkable degree. I wouldn't say she copied him (that never works) but she may well have figured out what he was doing - no small feat! And if I didn't know any better I might say that she had had some lessons with Kemal, because this way of using the hands can also be seen in his playing. In fact they know some people in common, but as far as I know there was never any pedagogical interaction. Thanks so much for posting this, such a pleasure to watch! A real, genuine artistic personality that just seems to have materialized from somewhere - great! AFF

Hey did you catch Gabriela playing at Obama's inauguration ceremony? She played with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzahk Perlman, and Anthony McGill, just before the swearing in began. Not a bad gig! The video coverage I saw, and the audio with it, mostly focused on the instrumentalists, but the camera went to her a couple of times. To deal with the cold, she was wearing gloves with the finger tips cut away, like Glenn Gould. --Rush

I practiced many times in that kind of glove in Novi Sad - one time I saw Kemal sit down in a freezing room and whip off the entire G minor Ballade with NO gloves... Unfortunately the one time the camera did show her she seemed to be turning her pages instead of playing... AFF

This film of the C minor nocturne absolutely fantastic. Since I heard Hofmann, most other recordings sound extremely pale, but this is tremendous playing.