April 26, 1954
WILHELM KEMPFF: (From a music review by Minos Dounias) «All those who managed to secure a seat, even clambering up into the gods of the Kentrikon theater, had the pleasure of enjoying once more the art of Kempff. Many of those who marveled at the magical pianist perhaps did not realize that what gives meaning to the charm of the sound is the structure of the interpretation. In a program devoted exclusively to Beethoven – naturally including the Moonlight Sonata and the Apassionata – the audience watched this wonderful process that transformed listening into music. I refer in particularly to the masterful execution of his Sonata, opus 109. Here, the frequent interchange of emotions and the development of the rhythm, the peregrinations of the harmony, the smooth transitions from one section to another, give the impression of improvisation. The totality of all these elements in a unified form is a fundamental problem in interpreting Beethoven’s later works in general, a problem that is convincingly resolved here by this creative, visionary pianist in a most exciting manner.»
