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It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes.

Budapest Music Center label and Disbelief

Never heard of it.

As for Kocsis, he's one of those artists [a word that applies to him more accurately, rather than to some gun-toting rap star] who immediately trigger cognitive dissonance.

Can a pianist really be a true conductor? Sure, most conductors played piano; many quite well. But, there's a difference. Firstly, learning piano, or some instrument, are required during study at conservatory, or majoring in music [or even minoring] at university. Most average listeners don't know that, I think.

Secondly, artists who start out primarily as pianist, but switch to conducting, do so very early in their lives, thus devoting themselves fully to mastering the orchestra, score reading, and the orchestral literature.

Thus, I've never fully trusted Ashkenazy as a conductor, because he really was, and still is, actually a pianist. I recall reading an interview with him when he made the switch in the mid-80s. With refreshing candor, he said that maintaining the skill necessary to be world class concert pianist was incredibly difficult, and more than he was interested in continuing. Thus, he was turning to conducting.

Now, yuo've made it even worse by revealing that Kocsis is an orchestral arranger. Do you know how hard that skill is? There are composers who've never mastered orchestration! This guy's a pianist!

Immediately, my instinct says, "he can't be any good". How could he? And, yet, there he is. Taking on...Debussy. Debussy!

Boggles the mind.


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