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From: anderson@uwvax.ARPA (David P. Anderson)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Dmitrios Sgurros (sp?) -- the new Horowitz?
Message-ID: <405@uwvax.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 5-Sep-84 03:12:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: uwvax.405
Posted: Wed Sep  5 03:12:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Sep-84 04:19:47 EDT
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 24

<>
I went down to Ravinia in Chicago last month and saw a piano recital
by Dmitrios Sgurros (sp??), a 14-year old Greek prodigy who
sprang upon the scene about 2 years ago, at which point he was already
playing the virtuoso repertoire.  There is a considerable amount of
hype about him: e.g. Rubenstein said he had the kind of talent "that
comes along once in a century"... i.e., another Liszt or Horowitz.

At Ravinia, everything Sgurros played was diabolically difficult...
Brahms' Paganini Variations, Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, Balakirev's Islamey,
etc.  His technique was indeed awesome, but unfortunately he played most
of the works as if the only objective were to get to the end as
quickly as possible.  He used wildly inappropriate rubato, and his
pedalling often made the inner voices into a blurred jumble.
The audience was enthusiastic at the start, but when he sat down
for his second encore about half of them were leaving or
had left... very embarrasing.

Perhaps Sgurros will mature and put his technique to better musical use.
As it is, he strikes me as a particularly young and talented member
of the modern school of virtuosity, striving for more notes per second rather
than for more beauty and expression.

David Anderson (uwvax!anderson)