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Please share some interests/hobbies of famous pianists. Some pianists pursue(d) their "pastime" with tremendous intensity, e.g.
Gieseking - butterflies Grimaud - wolves Brendel - writing/poetry Hofmann - mechanical engineering Oppitz - flying Paderewski - politics
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Horowitz had many interests, but I believe that reading was one of his nonmusical interests.
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Abbey Simon - tennis To maintain his vim and vigor, Simon is also an avid tennis player. "I'm famous all over the world as the worst tennis player," he grins. "People think that tennis can ruin your hands for piano, but the essence of playing tennis is an arm of great strength and solidity; the essence of playing piano is a relaxed hand. I play tennis like a pianist. Tennis gives me great pleasure—and also an opportunity to use a lot of foul language."
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Stephen Hough writes poetry.
Houston, Texas
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Originally posted by Loki: Stephen Hough writes poetry. And apparently he also paints and writes essays. What an interesting person...
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Messiaen loved birds and composed a lot of music based on the sounds that all the different species' produced. He studied birds and everything about them avidly.
Josef Hofmann dedicated much of his time as well to inventions. He invented the wind-shield wipers! XD
Boris Pasternak also had aspirations to be a composer, yet he composed very little and decided to become an author; author of 'Doctor Zhivago.'
Sylvano Bussotti, besides being an original composer, is an amazing artist; many times incorporating art into his unconventional notations.
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I know that Alexander Melnikov is a pilot.... Unpleasant playing, but at least he can fly a plane!
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Katchen was apparently a fanatical netsuke collector. Oh, and Brendel loves collecting masks.
Die Krebs gehn zurucke, Die Stockfisch bleiben dicke, Die Karpfen viel fressen, Die Predigt vergessen.
Die Predigt hat g'fallen. Sie bleiben wie alle.
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I forgot to add the Horowitz was a movie nut for most of his life. In his young days, he would cancel a performance if a movie he wanted to see was on in the local theater. In his twilight years, he purchased one of the first VCRs, which he took with him on tour.
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On e of my composition teachers told me that John Browning was fanatically devoted to his dog. It went with him everywhere -- on tour, visiting friends, etc. He wouldn't eat in a restaurant that didn't allow him to bring in his beloved pet. Apparently Browning sometimes brought his dog with him on stage!
Die Krebs gehn zurucke, Die Stockfisch bleiben dicke, Die Karpfen viel fressen, Die Predigt vergessen.
Die Predigt hat g'fallen. Sie bleiben wie alle.
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Originally posted by pianovirus: Abbey Simon - tennis
To maintain his vim and vigor, Simon is also an avid tennis player. "I'm famous all over the world as the worst tennis player," he grins. "People think that tennis can ruin your hands for piano, but the essence of playing tennis is an arm of great strength and solidity; the essence of playing piano is a relaxed hand. I play tennis like a pianist. Tennis gives me great pleasure—and also an opportunity to use a lot of foul language."
Interesting you mention this, because there was a bit of an argument in this thread about whether or not he actually played tennis. :rolleyes:
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Rachmaninoff once said, "I think Hofmann is the greatest pianist in the world, and Hofmann thinks I am, but Hofmann thinks he is the greatest automobile mechanic among pianists, but I know I am!"
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Originally posted by pianovirus: Originally posted by Loki: [b] Stephen Hough writes poetry. And apparently he also paints and writes essays. What an interesting person... [/b]You'd also be interested to see that he blogs very often! http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/stephen_hough Kissin writes and recites poetry too. And I think it's Arrau that gardens?
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Originally posted by ThomasF: [...] And I think it's Arrau that gardens? Daisies, now, I believe. Regards,
BruceD - - - - - Estonia 190
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Originally posted by ThomasF: And I think it's Arrau that gardens? He doesn't garden any longer, though he may push up some daisies. Steven
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Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.
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Gershwin painted and held exhibitions (or maybe it was just one?).
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Earl Wild played the flute while in the Navy.
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Glenn Gould liked speculating in the stockmarket and guessing games.
"The creative process is nothing but a series of crises." (Isaac B. Singer)
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Apparently Cherkassky used to collect airline timetables.
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Chopin could draw very well and was somewhat notorious for his caricatures when he was in school. He also enjoyed acting in amateur theatrics, theatre of all kinds and Polish poetry. As a teenager when he still had the breath for it he liked to hike, dance and ice skate. Later, when he no longer unable to walk any distance he enjoyed riding about the countryside around Nohant on a donkey. He played chess (badly) and was very fond of dogs.
Mozart was an excellent billiards player and also bowled.
Liszt played cards.
Angela Lear loves cats, dogs and gardening.
Slow down and do it right.
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Originally posted by Horowitzian: Originally posted by pianovirus: [b] Abbey Simon - tennis To maintain his vim and vigor, Simon is also an avid tennis player. "I'm famous all over the world as the worst tennis player," he grins. "People think that tennis can ruin your hands for piano, but the essence of playing tennis is an arm of great strength and solidity; the essence of playing piano is a relaxed hand. I play tennis like a pianist. Tennis gives me great pleasure—and also an opportunity to use a lot of foul language."
Interesting you mention this, because there was a bit of an argument in this thread about whether or not he actually played tennis. :rolleyes: [/b]The argument was about whether playing tennis was bad for a pianist. There is no doubt about whether Simon played.
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I think Rachmaninov loved poetry.
Philip Thompson(not so famous)plays chess.
Horowitz played chess(very poorly).
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Cziffra and Horowitz were also boxing afficionados.
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Now THAT's a surprise. So easy to damage knuckles, wrists, etc!
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Vladimir de Pachmann used to milk cows, he said that it was better finger exercise than anything devised by the mind of man!
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Originally posted by pianovirus: Prokofiev - chess He beat Capablanca? I didn't know Oistrakh played chess either...
Practice makes permanent - Perfect practice makes perfect.
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Originally posted by JustAnotherPianist: Now THAT's a surprise. So easy to damage knuckles, wrists, etc! Hopefully they just watched.
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Thanks to all so far! Very interesting. In case you have references, links or photos to share, please do. Very nice photo, koji. I didn't know that Rosenthal was also a boxer. I read that his colleagues feared his inclination for sarcastic bonmots - maybe they also feared something else... I just found a short Time Magazine article from 1938, which includes this quote: At 75 Moriz Rosenthal boasts that he can tear a pack of cards in half, break an iron horseshoe with his bare hands, snap a taut piano string with one blow of his index finger, lift a 200-lb. weight over his head. Long a student of jujitsu, he took up boxing in his 60s, has trained for several months under the guidance of Welsh Heavyweight Tommy Farr.
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned Percy Grainger yet! He had a host of interesting interests—so many, so varied and so unusual that it's probably best just to link to an article about him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger Steven
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I recall hearing that Moiseiwitsch preferred playing bridge to practising the piano. I believe there is a photograph of him enjoying a hand with Solomon as one of the players.
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Originally posted by playadom: Originally posted by pianovirus: [b] Prokofiev - chess He beat Capablanca? [/b]Thanks playadom for paying more attention to the details than myself! Since I'm only a very casual chess player I didn't read this carefully enough. This means Prok must have been a real genius at the chessboard. Apparently the victory against (later) world champion Capablanca was the last of three games. He has also seems to have won once against Tartakower: “Tartakower is one of the strongest players in the worldâ€, he told Gottlieb in an extended version of the news he had already passed on to Haensel, “and has the title of ‘Grossmeister’ – so you can imagine how proud I was to win. When, after the game was over, I asked Tartakower to show me what mistake he made to lose it, he answered: ‘I made no mistake; simply you played well’.â€â€™ [1] I didn't know Oistrakh played chess either...
"Moscow chessplayers still remember his rather unique match with David Oistrakh – the winner was awarded the Art Workers’ Club prize and the loser had to give a concert for the club members." [1] <img src="http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/pics/cn4913_prokofiev.jpg" width=300> [1] Quotes and picture taken from this fascinating site
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Originally posted by Thracozaag:
Cziffra and Horowitz were also boxing afficionados. Good for dealing with hostile critics...as apparently Niedzielski did when a writer at the Paris Figaro accused him of massacring Chopin. At least Niedzielski got away with a fine; Arthur Friedheim who got himself into a drunken punch-up with a hotel doorman found himself on a charge of murder when the doorman collapsed and died soon after the incident. He was exonerated when medical evidence suggested that the death was not due to the effects of Friedheim's blow.
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Originally posted by Wood-demon:
Cziffra and Horowitz were also boxing afficionados. Good for dealing with hostile critics...as apparently Niedzielski did when a writer at the Paris Figaro accused him of massacring Chopin. At least Niedzielski got away with a fine; Arthur Friedheim who got himself into a drunken punch-up with a hotel doorman found himself on a charge of murder when the doorman collapsed and died soon after the incident. He was exonerated when medical evidence suggested that the death was not due to the effects of Friedheim's blow. Quite an interesting story.
Practice makes permanent - Perfect practice makes perfect.
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Michelangeli was a pilot and an accomplished racing car driver who won several races and completed the Mille Maglia twice.
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Originally posted by playadom: Quite an interesting story. For more interesting stories, try to locate a copy of Friedheim's 'Life and Liszt: The Recollections of a Concert Pianist'. It's still available from Amazon and well worth a read. You won't be bored. If the few Friedheim recordings I've heard suggest that, well, he was from a bygone era, Friedheim was quite a 'character', though highly intelligent and very charismatic.
Jason
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I am almost certain (and I might even swear to this, as I have been known to swear to and at other things) that I read or heard somewhere at sometime that the great Wanda Landowska was addicted to playing video games on her iphone - even while (or especially while) she performed in concert - she pulled this off quite well most of the time because the music was such a natural and complete part of her being by then that it was always an automatic execution with her (she often practiced while sleep-walking), but once in a while she got excited by the video game action and would get inadvertently sidetracked into playing Joplin or Fats Waller instead of Bach or Scarlatti (her secret passion and the switch was seemless).
If you'll remember she was the one who was famous for saying "You play Bach his way and I'll play him any damn way I please" . . . or something like that - although she refused to her dying day to perform his music on the harpsichord, saying that it was a "girlie" instrument that only wimps and prissey bird-like "parlor ladies" played and she wouldn't touch one even with her toes (although she could play Bach better with her toes than most pianists could with their fingers) - in point of fact she always demanded a 9 ft. Pearl River concert grand when she played (she loved it's brilliant, piercing tones and the fact that it needed frequent tuning - she was "hot" for the tuner and eventually had illegitimate children by him (concieved during tuning), who all grew up to play the harpsichord just to spite her).
Hope you all found these little known side-interests of Wanda amusing and informative. Glad to be of service.
Regards, JF
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. Frederic Chopin
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edit: Pearl River makes THE WORST concert grand in the world. No joke.
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Originally posted by argerichfan: Originally posted by playadom: Quite an interesting story. For more interesting stories, try to locate a copy of Friedheim's 'Life and Liszt: The Recollections of a Concert Pianist'. It's still available from Amazon and well worth a read. You won't be bored.
If the few Friedheim recordings I've heard suggest that, well, he was from a bygone era, Friedheim was quite a 'character', though highly intelligent and very charismatic. Friedheim's piano roll recordings of works by Liszt are very interesting. He launches, without the usual deliberation, straight into the "Friska" of the 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody up to tempo...which I find is a very exciting way of performing the piece. It seems that Emil Von Sauer, another Liszt pupil, was in a state of despair with his own technique after first hearing Friedheim play. I shall seek out the book which you recommend.
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Re Wanda:
Slow down and do it right.
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Originally posted by -Frycek: Chopin could draw very well and was somewhat notorious for his caricatures when he was in school. He also enjoyed acting in amateur theatrics, theatre of all kinds and Polish poetry. As a teenager when he still had the breath for it he liked to hike, dance and ice skate. Later, when he no longer unable to walk any distance he enjoyed riding about the countryside around Nohant on a donkey. He played chess (badly) and was very fond of dogs.
Mozart was an excellent billiards player and also bowled.
Liszt played cards.
Angela Lear loves cats, dogs and gardening. Mozart was an awful billiard player, he lost lot of his money with billiard bets.
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Originally posted by pianovirus: :rolleyes: :p
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. Frederic Chopin
Current favorite bumper sticker: Wag more, bark less.
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Originally posted by John Frank: Originally posted by pianovirus: [b] :rolleyes: :p [/b] You enjoy rocking the boat, don't you?
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Originally posted by JustAnotherPianist: edit: Pearl River makes THE WORST concert grand in the world. No joke. Tell that to Wanda - she'd probably say: "What the heck does he know - he's JustAnotherPianist"! Regards, JF P.S. you might need a special medium for this exchange.
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. Frederic Chopin
Current favorite bumper sticker: Wag more, bark less.
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Originally posted by John Frank: Originally posted by pianovirus: [b] :rolleyes: :p [/b][ ]
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Originally posted by GreenRain: Mozart was an awful billiard player, he lost lot of his money with billiard bets. [/QB]Tell that to Wolfie.
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Originally posted by -Frycek: Originally posted by JustAnotherPianist: [b] Now THAT's a surprise. So easy to damage knuckles, wrists, etc! Hopefully they just watched. [/b]Cziffra was a bouncer, reportedly. Horowitz just liked to watch (both as a boxing fan and probably for other...ulterior motives).
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Cziffra was a bouncer? Seems that job might be pretty tough on the hands as well.
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Being interred at a concentration camp, and forced to carry stones for hours a day was much worse.
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(note the wristband, a reminder of those days)
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Originally posted by Thracozaag: Being interred at a concentration camp, and forced to carry stones for hours a day was much worse. Absolutely. Thanks for the picture. Pretty big guy, I guess.
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Yeah, Cziffra's memoirs, "Cannons and Flowers" is a great read and it proves that his life was much more unbelievable and exciting as many Hollywood Blockbusters (lame as they are these days, especially...). His student days at the Liszt Academy were arranged by a traveling merchant who tricked his family into hiking for hours to get into town, only to find out Dohnanyi had never heard of him--he fought in the war, was the only man in his squadron to survive, after hijacking a train and spending quite a long time in an underground POW camp--and after the war he did indeed serve as a pianist/bouncer for bars until slowly working his way up to jazz clubs and eventually, concert halls. A lot of what we know of as being the "pros/cons" of Cziffra's artistry and life was born out of necessity, especially when it came to knowing the improvisational art and being able to defend himself and bar patrons.
One story relates how one of his employers, the owner of a bar in Budapest, went crazy in the times of post-war depression and murdered his mistress and her other lover with an axe. One night, while Cziffra was playing the piano, a group of police officers stormed in and took his employer away, explaining to Cziffra what had happened. I think he mentioned in his memoirs that this sort of thing didn't at all surprise him, and he found work elsewhere!
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Richter broke his pinky in a barroom brawl by punching somebody else, though I don't believe he was in the general habit of frequently brawling with others.
- Silence
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Originally posted by Thracozaag: Horowitz just liked to watch (both as a boxing fan and probably for other...ulterior motives). On that topic, I've heard that Bernstein was known to go to parties with a woman on each arm and return home with a man on each arm. I think chess is a much more wholesome interest for a musician!
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I'm surprised Saint-Saëns hasn't been mentioned yet. Here's an excerpt from his wikipedia article : Saint-Saëns was a multi-faceted intellectual. From an early age, he studied geology, archaeology, botany, and lepidoptery. He was an expert at mathematics. Later, in addition to composing, performing, and writing musical criticism, he held discussions with Europe's finest scientists and wrote scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, Roman theatre decoration, and ancient instruments. He wrote a philosophical work, Problèmes et Mystères, which spoke of science and art replacing religion; Saint-Saëns's pessimistic and atheistic ideas foreshadowed Existentialism. Other literary achievements included Rimes familières, a volume of poetry, and La Crampe des écrivains, a successful farcical play. He was also a member of the Astronomical Society of France; he gave lectures on mirages, had a telescope made to his own specifications, and even planned concerts to correspond to astronomical events such as solar eclipses. I suppose being a composer, pianist, organist, and conductor wasn't enough!
Die Krebs gehn zurucke, Die Stockfisch bleiben dicke, Die Karpfen viel fressen, Die Predigt vergessen.
Die Predigt hat g'fallen. Sie bleiben wie alle.
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Originally posted by playadom: Originally posted by Thracozaag: [b]Horowitz just liked to watch (both as a boxing fan and probably for other...ulterior motives). On that topic, I've heard that Bernstein was known to go to parties with a woman on each arm and return home with a man on each arm.
I think chess is a much more wholesome interest for a musician! [/b]Chess is more wholesome than what - watching boxing or coming home with a man on each arm? Granted chess is a challenge, but can you stand the excitement? Now, if the two men were from Central Europe it might be a case of "Czech mating" instead of "check mating" (although a draw was more likely, especially with 2 "queens" in the game) But enough about wholesomeness . . . Regards, JF
Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on. Frederic Chopin
Current favorite bumper sticker: Wag more, bark less.
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Originally posted by Thracozaag: Originally posted by -Frycek: [b] Originally posted by JustAnotherPianist: [b] Now THAT's a surprise. So easy to damage knuckles, wrists, etc! Hopefully they just watched. [/b] Cziffra was a bouncer, reportedly. Horowitz just liked to watch (both as a boxing fan and probably for other...ulterior motives). [/b]Perhaps Horowitz picked up his enthusiasm for the sport from his father-in-law, Toscanini, who used to enjoy watching both boxing and wrestling matches on television. Maybe Toscanini developed his poor eyesight from squinting at those tiny screens
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Originally posted by Silent Omen: Richter broke his pinky in a barroom brawl by punching somebody else, though I don't believe he was in the general habit of frequently brawling with others.
- Silence I heard he did that kind of stuff often. I don't really know for sure though.
"I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."
J.S. Bach
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Didn't Rachmaninoff have an interest in speedboats? Samson Francois raced cars. Richter painted. Persichetti sculpted. Weissenberg designed greeting cards, but that was to earn money. Richard Goode is into old books, if I remember correctly. Garrick Ohlsson is a wine connoisseur.
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The late Leonard Pennario was a tournament-level bridge player. And speaking of boxing, Neil Rutman, a pianist who teaches at the Central Arkansas University, was a collegiate boxer and still coaches the boxing club on campus! http://www.uca.edu/cfac/cfac_music/faculty/neilr.htm
Work in progress...
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I'd rather talk about Percy.
Daffodil - Onslow's twin. Hailun 178
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Sviatoslav Richter was an accomplished painter. I do remember reading somewhere that he had held exhibitions of his paintings and that some art commentators said that if he devoted enough time to it, he had it in him to be a world famous painter as well.
RichterForever Yamaha C3, Yamaha CVP 405
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Originally posted by Wood-demon: I recall hearing that Moiseiwitsch preferred playing bridge to practising the piano. I believe there is a photograph of him enjoying a hand with Solomon as one of the players. Moiseiwitsch was a card shark who, during sea voyages would win the cost of his fare at the card table. He was knowledgable about numerous card games. Horowitz sucked at chess. I get the feeling he only played because it was considered the "thing to do" and more intellectual than his preferred game: Canasta (which he was quite good at).
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Heifetz (who was also an excellent pianist) reportedly was a terrific table-tennis player.
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That picture is a worthless jumble of code for me...
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.
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Oscar Petersons second art
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Originally posted by Horowitzian: That picture is a worthless jumble of code for me... if you say so .... http://o.aolcdn.com/dims-eu/INTL/1/300/225/90/http://pl-portal-origin.web.aol.com/image-files/pap/2008/08/70808.jpg
Living well is the best revenge.
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A little off the beaten path, but Jascha Heifetz was an accomplished table tennis player..
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Nikolai Lugansky loves to play table tennis (though I cannot attest to his abilities). It's not an uncommon sport among pianists, in fact.
- Silence
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