This post reminded me to provide some of the music that gets talked about in Summit.

Here is Claudio Arrau play Beethoven’s Les Adieux sonata.  I saw Arrau at Symphony Hall in Boston, probably when I was writing Summit.  He must have been over 80, and he walked so slowly to the piano from the wings that I though he might not make it.  His tempi were fairly slow as well, as I recall, but I wasn’t bothered by it — it gave you more time to savor the music. YouTube doesn’t give any provenance for this clip, but it must have been hot, because he basically turns into a puddle by the end of the piece.

For an encore, here’s Evgeny Kissin playing Liebestraume No. 3, which the two pianists also talked about in the excerpt.  (I’d find it distracting to have a bouquet sitting on the piano, as Kissin does here.)