October 29, 2025
Athens, GR 14 C
Expand search form
Blog

Death of two eminent French pianists

Death of two eminent French pianists

We have been informed of the passing of two important players.

Bernard Ringeissen, who died on April 4 at the age of 90, was an early champion on record of the music of Charles-Valentin Alkan, a composer whose textual difficulties defeated most mortal pianists.

Jean Fonda, who was 88, was the son of Pierre Fournier, with whom he recorded classical duets. Jean was, for me, an invaluable source of information about the Karajan clique and his father’s role within it. In 1985 he received a truly hateful review of a Beethoven-Schummann recital at the 92nd Y from Bernard Holland in the New York Times.

(Better, maybe, than no review, which is what most pianists in NY recieve today.)

The post Death of two eminent French pianists appeared first on Slippedisc.

Previous Article

Maestro move: Korea picks an Abbado

Next Article

Ruth Leon recommends… Bessie Smith – St. Louis Blues 1929

You might be interested in …

Cracks appear in the Voices Foundation

Cracks appear in the Voices Foundation

We hear that CEO Manvinder Rattan left the music education charity last week and a statement is expected shortly on the VF’s future. The charity’s accounts show it overspent its £430,000 annual revenue by £53,000. […]

Orchestra returns to Damascus opera house

Orchestra returns to Damascus opera house

Works by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky were played at the first symphonic concert since the fall of the Assad regime. The conductor was the Syrian-Armenian Missak Baghboudarian. In the audience was health minister Maher al-Sharaa, brother of […]

LA Phil names Dude’s last four flaks

LA Phil names Dude’s last four flaks

The orchestra has rolled out Gustavi Dudamel’s final season as music director. Four young conductors have been selected for his outstandingly successful fellowship apprenticeship: Kinga Głowacka (Poland), Ana María Patiño-Osorio (Colombia), José Ángel Salazar (Venezuela) […]