BERNARD D'ASCOLI

Although I tend to have a great interest in and affection for pianists who have either long since died, or retired, there are one or two contemporaries who warrant more than just a mention. Of my favourites two come to mind, and I hope to write soon on the second which is Nelson Goerner.

But first must come a few words on the remarkable French pianist, Bernard d'Ascoli. Born in the South of France and blind from his earliest years, he became both an accomplished pianist and also organist.

In the early 1980s he caused something of a sensation when he performed as a finalist in the Leeds Piano Competition. He chose the Beethoven 4th Concerto, and was placed in 3rd position. It was a night when he took risks, and although he has later said that he was not on top form, he left a lasting impression both on those in the audience, and those of us who watched him on the TV (a black and white portable as I remember, now that is really going back!!)

There is a video of d'Ascoli performing the Chopin E minor concerto, and it is fascinating to see how he appears to use his fingers to look for the keys...and apart from the fact that a blind man can play the instrument so well, it is his artistic qualities which really impress, regardless of his life challenges.

There is a kind of immaculacy in the performances of d'Ascoli - there is a clarity and most of all a beauty of sound and tone which is very characteristic of yesteryear. His playing has never been of the flashy or virtuosic kind of many of the great competition winners and competitors, and in his Chopin interpretations he is remarkable.

The Nocturnes which he has recently recorded are perhaps the best set I know of - and very few pianists can keep my interest or concentration in these works when heard as a set; yet he does...and it is the quality of sound which really sets this CD set in something of a class of its own. He has also recorded all the Scherzi, Impromptus and Ballades of Chopin, as well as a very good account of the Liszt B Minor Sonata and the Franck Prelude, Chorale & Fugue.

I often wish he would record more - and I wonder how much of his repertoire has been achieved at great personal difficulty from a practical point of view. It is clear that Braille Music is an immensely difficult method of learning pieces - not just because the artist must read with one hand whilst he is playing the notes with the other, but that the methods of the music being written is so terribly complicated. Line after line of Braille cells are needed to indicate all the necessary information that one line of piano music in print is practically a page of Braille.

Some years back I had the great joy of meeting Bernard d'Ascoli at the Barbican...he was taking something of a Busman's Holiday and had turned up to hear Louis Lortie perform the Schumann Concerto, which he said to me that he enjoyed and which was 'very accurate'! I was struck by his very pleasant manner - his pleasant and amiable character, and his willingness to chat about his repertoire and the recordings he had made. It was a meeting the memory of which has never left me, and I also remember that he had massive hands - that was of course a great asset to him. But perhaps his feeling for sound, and the fact that he has always lived in a world of sound, is what has made him a truly great pianist, and one whom I hope will continue to record and concretise from strength to strength over the coming years.

Incidentally, the other famous blind pianist that I know of was the Greek, Georges Themeli, who performed the Schumann at the Proms one year as well as having in his repertoire the Beethoven 5th (according to a concert programme I have seen). He was performing in the 30s, 40s and 50s, and made tours of the Middle East, Russia, and Europe. He made a disc of some Chopin works which I am very fond of, but which, alas, has never been committed to CD.