ANTHONY GOLDSTONE PLAYS MOZART

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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Leave it to DIVINE ART to bring much deserved attention to artists the likes of Anthony Goldstone (1944-2017), the late English pianist who during his life made it both his business and a labor of love to explore the rarely visited and undiscovered outer limits of the pianistic repertory.

Once more I sat down to quietly and with undivided attention listen to Goldstone unearth yet another treasure trove from the dustbin of musical history.

In the DIVINE ART 2007 release CD UNHEARD MOZART (dda25051) Anthony Goldstone set out to fully realize or altogether complete nine Mozart works left unfinished by the Austrian master.

Naysayers will most likely question the necessity or validity of this mission, yet I for one salute it with the conviction that more Mozart is never too much Mozart.

And while on the subject of convictions I state clearly that Goldstone was one of the finest pianists I heard in over a half century of concert-going. His playing in this CD is assured to a fault yet pliant and impassioned, accurate yet never pedantic, elegant but not in the least fussy or mannered.

Just in the Mozart realm I was personally and passionately involved in the staging of Mozart’s incomplete L’Oca del Cairo. We used the faultless Virgilio Mortari edition which made it all but impossible to tell where Mozart ended and Mortari picked up. Same here, so seamless is Goldstone bespoke work

And then there’s Puccini’s Turandot. Must we continue to apologize for the use of the tagged-on Alfano ending or just be content with the truncated Puccini? And so forth.

Kudos to Stephen Sutton and divine art for this little gem, to the learned Julian Rushton for his enlightening program notes and, above all to Anthony Goldstone for his Mozartian gift

Rafael de Acha http://www.Rafael’MusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”