One of the last great personalities of the piano history left us: Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha.
I remember very well that I had the pleasure to attend one of her recitals in Vienna about 20 years ago. A little woman came on stage, but a big sound came out of the piano.
She had an incredible charisma and a powerful way of communicating with the audience. Her gesture at the instrument was not that kind of visual flashy demonstration of flying hands over the keyboard, rather a perfect choreography of well-thought movements.
Her playing reminds us of the great old piano tradition, as pianists like Josef Hofmann, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Shura Cherkassky, Vladimir Horowitz, Rosalyn Tureck belong to it.
This tradition was characterized by a charming piano sound, full of color and vibrating nuances, letting sing the instrument as the human voice, expressing all emotions of the music and perfectly translating the composer’s message.
The Grande Dame of the piano, Alicia de Larrocha died on September 25, 2009.
It seems to be a strange but curious coincidence, that she passed away on the same day Glenn Gould would be celebrating his birthday if he still lived…maybe she has been invited to celebrate with him and his / her old piano friends on another world…

The old piano tradition has now definately reached an end. Unfortunately.
Who knows, a new Renaissance will come?