Rating: 
Summary: Nearly perfect.
Review: "The Art of Piano" is a brilliant, fascinating look at over one hundred years (from Plante to Richter) of pianism, with rare footage of some of history's greatest pianists performing live or discussing their art. For me, the most compelling footage was that of Cortot, Backhaus and Arrau, but nearly every second of this film is filled with compelling performances. Each pianist featured in "The Art of Piano" is a great artist, with a unique style and interpretation of music, but there is one drawback for me: this film is incomplete. Where are Schnabel, Gieseking, Serkin, Kempff, Katchen, Lhevinne, Cliburn and countless other great 20th century pianists? This film a treasure for all music lovers, but it is too exclusive for me to give it five stars. Hopefully there will be sequel that covers all those left out in part one.
Rating:
Summary: Nearly perfect.
Review: "The Art of Piano" is a brilliant, fascinating look at over one hundred years (from Plante to Richter) of pianism, with rare footage of some of history's greatest pianists performing live or discussing their art. For me, the most compelling footage was that of Cortot, Backhaus and Arrau, but nearly every second of this film is filled with compelling performances. Each pianist featured in "The Art of Piano" is a great artist, with a unique style and interpretation of music, but there is one drawback for me: this film is incomplete. Where are Schnabel, Gieseking, Serkin, Kempff, Katchen, Lhevinne, Cliburn and countless other great 20th century pianists? This film a treasure for all music lovers, but it is too exclusive for me to give it five stars. Hopefully there will be sequel that covers all those left out in part one.
Rating: 
Summary: An Absolute Must for Serious Piano Students, and Teachers al
Review: For those who are interested in the touch, it's a gem. It comes as a revelation as to how Hofmann got his legato sound, and also what a pair of paws Arrau had that produced the nice piano sound. So not every great pianist has got the perfect hands for the piano. Gould's hands didn't have much muscle as his sound suggested it. Surprisingly, not even Backhaus had got very pretty hands in this regard. It's interesting to see how intense Horowitz was when he performed and that explained why he later retired from concert so long. Note that he had rather stiff upper arms and he seldom resorted to his shoulders, but the muscle of his fingers and his hand position is just amazing. There wasn't any footage of Rachmaninoff, only his photos. Oh yes, here Arrau himself spoke, Cortot too when he taught and demonstrated. We also saw Edwin Fischer talk and even played, depicting only his face not his hands... The narrator was however most misleading, mostly commercial stuff. Fortunately we have some commentators here. The best one was Sandor, and we have quite a lot him. The worst would be Vasary and Kissin. Kissin had hardly anything to say at all, whereas the second last was quite a muddle: he went as far as saying he thought Cziffra was playing some 4 hands music and asked him whom his partner was when the latter was all alone; and he said Cziffra played so fast that he couldn't know what his fingers were doing! Was he suggesting that the playing was full of wrong notes, he who has made a few records himself and has since become a conductor?? Barenboim wasn't very expressive either, there wasn't much depth perhaps due to poor editing. We have two other conductors who were much more eloquent and to the point, one of them being Sir Colin Davis, the other one was such an admirer of Arrau and yet so critical of Richter-- but he justified his views in just a few words... I have gone over the whole thing for at least 3 times and still find it interesting and instructive. This is even better than The Art of Violin and much better than The Art of Singing. A must. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An OK Video, some weaknesses
Review: Generally speaking this video has great historical values. I find the following problems about it: 1. Many pieces are played only as a small fragmant (sometimes only a few seconds). It could be disappointing in some places (even though some pieces are played in their entirety). The unimpressive Beethoven Concerto was shown 3 times. On the other hand, the most exciting part of the Tschaichovsky Concerto is not aired (I mean the opening melody). 2. The people interviewed in the documentary are badly chosen. With exceptions (like Daniel Barenboim), many interviewees are uncharasmatic, ugly people who do not even speak English well. What a detraction that would be. Kissin speaks as if he had no tonge. 3. The group of pianists chosen is also not very representative. Many uninteresting ones are included while good ones might have been omitted. Despite these weaknesses, the follwing is the highlight of the video: 1. Gilels playing the Rachmaninof Prelude on the high platform at the warfront airbase. What a scene that was. 2. Richter playing the revolutionary etude in its entirety (he finished it 30 secondes before most pianists would perform it). 3. A film shot from "moonlight sonata", where Paderewski played LIst's Hungarian Rhaphsidy.
Rating:
Summary: It's Even Better on DVD
Review: Having owned the videotape of this program I was pleased to get the new DVD version. It has additions to the tape. For one thing, although conducted primarily in English, there are English subtitles for those bits that are conducted in languages other than English. And there are also Japanese, Spanish and French subtitles for those who wish them. Some of the film footage is simply magnificent and extremely rare. For instance, one sees the elderly Francis Plante playing brilliantly; born in 1839, he had actually heard Chopin play! There is some tendency to cut away from music footage in order to continue the voice-over narration, and that is understandable, but it is also occasionally frustrating. Some have complained that there are only two female pianists represented - a long and impressive bit with Dame Myra Hess, and an uncredited bit underneath the credits with Annie Fischer - but then there are plenty of other male pianists who could have been included, too. The makers of the film only had two hours with which to work, so one can understand the omissions. There is a minimum of fawning, a fair amount of substantive information - both plusses. For those of us who are fascinated by both piano technique and ever-changing pianistic styles this DVD is indispensable. It was wonderful to see lengthy bits featuring, among others, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Josef Hofmann, Claudio Arrau, Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Arturo Benedetto Michelangeli, György Cziffra, Alfred Cortot, Arthur Rubinstein and to have interviews with current musicians like Sir Colin Davis, Stephen Kovacevich, Daniel Barenboim, Piotr Anderszewski, Tamás Vasáry, and Gary Graffman. Recommended. Scott Morrison
Rating: 
Summary: incomplete!
Review: i don't think this is something to be considered, its totally not objective and not well-done ... where is wilhelm kempff??? how about walter gieseking??? there are some pianists there that aren't great enough, cziffra for example... a true good list about the greatest of the century would be kempff, e.fischer, gieseking, gould, backhaus, cortot, arrau...
Rating:
Summary: My Heroes!
Review: I first saw this video on public TV, and knew I had to have my own copy to study and enjoy from time to time. I have always loved the piano, but just started taking lessons three years ago. I had certain ideas about who my favorite pianists were, but after seeing this video, that changed! This video depicts not just those pianists of the past who are quite famous, but some I'd never heard of or just vaguely knew about. Watching these great pianists perform, and listening to the educated comments on their work by other leading artists is the best piano lesson one can have. Much of this video is impressive, but my favorite portions are those that feature Sviatoslav Richter and Glenn Gould. Both were quite individualistic in their approach, which appeals to me. Richter's rendering of Chopin's Revolutionary Prelude is beyond magnificent, and Gould's interpretation of Bach under the baton of Leonard Bernstein says more than any teacher could ever convey. I rate this video 5 stars for its content, even though some purists may be disappointed in the not great quality of all of the film, some of which is very old. It's the quality of the musicians that counts to me, and that comes through to bring tears to my eyes and take me by the hand to go to the piano myself and try to emulate in my own small way my heroes.
Rating:
Summary: Great doc on pianists, BUT...
Review: I, like other folks on here, also noticed that several profiles were missing. Where's Jorge Bolet? Van Cliburn? Earl Wild? Martha Argerich? And there's even more I can't think of at the moment. These soloists are all very brilliant and legendary and should have been part of the documentary.
Rating: 
Summary: Indispensable, BUT....
Review: Indispensable of course because there is so little footage available of the great pianists. But the producer/editor seems to think that we like seeing performances of pieces faded out after a few bars, so he has plenty of film time for spoken thoughts from others. Unfortunately, since the commentaries are mostly a monumental waste of time (in the genre "He played incredibly well..." "He was a great virtuoso" - I mean "Duh"), the failure to allow the pianists to play to the end of the pieces is inexcusable and infuriating. Good news is that Decca has just released a DVD also of the great pianists; I don't have it but I'm hoping they didn't wreck it with vacuous verbiage.
Rating:
Summary: Good...should have been more ambitious
Review: It's hard to fault a documentary that shows rarely-seen footage of the likes of Gilels, Arrau, Richter and Rubenstein, not to mention Paderewski, Fischer and Cziffra. But this video falls short of what it could have been, or should have been. The high-brow-sounding British announcer is grating, and just adds fuel to the mythical fire that classical is pompous music for old stuffed shirts. (Also, I have to wonder if the European version of this video features an American narrator with an uppercrust Boston accent. :-) But more important, the video is too short, and spends far too little time on each artist. We get a brief excerpt or two of them playing, often with a fade-down after a few bars followed by the grating narrator or an interviewee telling us what we are supposed to be hearing, but can't because they faded down to tell us. I get the feeling a lot of the film excerpts were used because they were the first they found, because they're not representative. Only the Horowitz and Gould segments reveal how this documentary could have been more insightful. Also, Schnabel is completely omitted! Not a word is said about him--incredible. Arrau gets about five minutes, with Daniel Barenboim telling us he was "a complex personality" but nothing more explaining the statement, followed by Arrau himself talking about body posture that out of context makes no sense, followed by a performance of the Brahms 2nd Concerto, hardly an Arrau specialty and not representative of his sound. At least the next clip, of his Beethoven Op. 111, makes up for it. Nothing about Horowitz's fears and phobias, which are part of his whole playing persona. Nothing about Paderewski's vulgar flashiness that sent many listeners swooning, nor his embellishments and departures from the printed text. There should have been a lot more scholarship on this project, and either fewer pianists dealt with more carefully or a second tape. Worth checking out, but not essential, as, say, "Richter The Enigma" is.
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