Music: Backhaus for Your House

National Review, July 28, 2003 by Jay Nordlinger

There is a Schubert impromptu, and Schumann's "Warum?" -- so gentle and inquiring -- and a Chopin etude, and Brahms's C-major intermezzo (a reliable encore of the Austro-German pianist for generations). But the piece I would like to single out is "Soirees de Vienne," which is "Liszt after Schubert," as we say. In music, some things need to be heard, as they are indescribable in words (which is why we have music, apart from speech). All I can tell you -- or allege -- is that, when Backhaus plays this piece, he conjures up a former, and better, world: Central Europe before 1914, before 1933, before 1939, when all seemed sane and good and lovely. The longing and nostalgia in that playing is almost unbearable. It is hard to stop listening to.

There are plenty of pianists who can play today. (Well, not "plenty.") As I frequently say, there is no need to retreat to recordings. Past-worshiping is to be avoided. But the likes of Wilhelm Backhaus are thin on the ground, and he has much to teach us, through the documents he took care to leave.