Piano Recital 1962

In his Schwetzingen piano evening of 1962, Wilhelm Kempff confirmed his unique ability to combine exploratory and dreamlike piano playing with a wide repertoire and to make clear stylistic distinctions. On this occasion, he by no means followed a programmatic seasonal and career routine, as would have been customary in a risk-free and by the organizers also preferred compilation of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. The beginning of the performance sequence is bound to be surprising, even for connoisseurs of Kempff as an interpreter of extensive parts of the piano repertoire: rarely heard, almost forgotten by most practicing soloists, piano teachers – and in their shadow also by students – miniatures by Jean-Philippe Rameau and François Couperin showed the sound acrobat and color mystic Kempff on French territory. After a similarly infrequently heard Handel minuet and a pastoral piece attributed to Mozart, the virtuoso then worked his way up to Beethoven and Schubert – names that one is more likely to associate with Kempff, but from whom he also selected works for his Schwetzingen evening that certainly do not belong to the standard repertoire even today. Above all, Beethoven's charming Piano Sonata No. 22 in F major, Op. 54, became an experience under Kempff's hands and showed what potential lies dormant in this often overlooked gem.