sábado, 24 de novembro de 2007

Scott Ross

Scott Ross foi um grande cravista, prematuramente falecido, em 1989, com apenas 38 anos.
Nascido nos Estados Unidos, viveu a maior parte da vida em França.
Se mais nada fosse, sempre lhe ficaríamos a dever a primeira gravação, pela mesma pessoa, da integral das sonatas de Scarlatti (555 peças), que demorou 18 meses, em pareceria com a Radio France (foram mais de 8000 takes, ao que dizem).
Aqui fica a sonata K209, tocada pelo próprio, num cravo fabricado por David Ley (famoso construtor de cravos, do qual pode ler-se uma entrevista aqui).



O relato do último ano de vida de Scott Ross é de registar. Doente, com HIV e outros males que se lhe associam, não quis parar. Aqui fica, retirada desta fonte, uma transcrição da sua biografia, escrita por Michel Proulx, nessa parte:

"From then on, he did nothing but tour and record, and from records to concerts, rapidly becoming the most media covered harpsichordist, to the point of attracting to the instrument, thanks to his performance, a variegated public of which a good part should never have got interested in the harpsichord but for him.

But already there was an urgency. When Catherine Perrin saw him in 1984, at a time when the rumour about AIDS was swelling in a terrifying rumble, he confided with her of his fears. He actually had had bronchitis, the winter before, which had degenerated in pneumonia, and knowing that this was one of the associated diseases, he said he was “mort de trouille” (he got the wind up). And he added that he didn’t want to do the test because he was sure to get confirmation of his fears. There may lie part of the reason for the intense activity which he spread during his last years.

In April 1989, he went to Rome, at the Villa Médicis, where he gave a masterclass for the French Television. One can see him very thinned down and weakened by the attacks of the disease. As he had no Social Security (Medicare), he did not take care of himself well, and it is also possible that he saw no good reason for looking after himself correctly. I have been told that he took whatever he could find as medicine, and one might speculate that (but what is it that couldn’t be done with ‘ifs’) maybe he would have survived, with good medical care.

Actually, he was an illegal alien for the French administration who wanted to have him expelled, and would have, had it not been for the intervention of some friends of him, of which some influent members of the Regional Council for Culture, who represented the Prefect how silly he would have looked for the media, if this happened.

In the course of his last months, he was looked after by his friends, especially David Ley, harpsichord maker, who had built his second double manual instrument, and Monique Davos, who had been an assistant director for the first Festival de Radio-France et de Montpelier, in 1983. According to testimonials, there was a sort of competition between both these persons for the care of Scott, and Mrs Davos was an advocate of the use of intensive medication. It seems that this was the cause of a Homeric struggle between her and those who wished him to die in peace. It was James Ross Jr. who finally brought Scott back to Assas, by the end of May.

On the following June 13, he passed away in his little house in Assas. His brother James, who had insisted upon coming to see him, assisted him right at the end. As, obviously, Scott had prepared nothing for the circumstances, it is James who took care of everything and it is he who asked for the rights of his records to be paid to the profit of an organization devised to help young harpsichordists. Unfortunately, I could find no trace of that organization, if ever it existed, nor could I trace back Scott’s brother who seems to have vanished in the haze.

After the cremation at the Grammont Funeral Center in Montpelier, Scott’s ashes were dispersed over the village of Assas from a small aircraft, according to his last wishes."

Horowitz toca a "Fantasia Carmen"

E, se calhar, não vale a pena dizer mais nada.

Ando a ouvir isto (*)


E está um espanto!

(*) Esta é a capa do vinil, na primeira edição, mas a gravação está nas edições económicas da EMI Classics.

Sai outro 3.º concerto de Bartók!

Deixei aqui, há tempos, uma gravação fresquíssima (de 2007) de Martha Argerich a tocar o 3.º concerto de Bartók.
Aqui fica, agora, uma outra versão do mesmo concerto de que gosto muito (embora não seja a minha favorita), com o pianista
Zoltán Kocsis. O maestro é János Ferencsik (não reconheço a orquestra).