PIANISTS ARE TIGHTROPE-WALKERS. Where some other instrumentalists need a partner, the pianist’s calling is to explore the greatest works of the greatest composers with only a score for company. As many of those composers — Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov — were often cosy virtuosi, it is a brave soul who settles in front of a keyboard. You need nimble fingers, and a head for heights.
The famous ones have always attracted followers; sometimes zealots. Artur Schnabel,ter and, when he was still in short pants, Daniel Barenboim.
