I think I can throw some more light on the
subject of Cortot. He was a pupil of Descombes who, in
turn was a pupil of Chopin. Guy Jonson was a pupil of
Cortot in Paris and spent many years after this as
Senior Professor of Piano at The Royal Academy of Music
in London. It was at that Academy that he taught
Angela Lear. However, although Angela left the Academy
in 1971 she met up with her old Professor again
after twenty years<br>and they have worked together on
"The Original Chopin" project ever since. In the last
isuued record, Volume 5 'The Preludes', Professor Jonson
speaks an introduction which is quite scathing about
modern piano playing. He also gives some very
interesting observations about his old teacher, Cortot. He
says that when Cortot played Chopin for his pupils he
was absolute perfection but when he got into a
recording studio he seemed to go to pieces. Therefore what
we hear on record is not the best of Cortot, neither
is it particularly accurate to the text. There are
many wrong notes which, in the days of 78, could not
be edited out except by repeating the whole of the
side of posibly five minutes duration. In spite of all
this the qualities of the man as a musician seem to
shine through. Although I could well do without many of
the exponents of Chopin I would not wish to be
without Cortot or without Angela Lear.<br>Strangely, if
you wish to hear the best of Cortot on record it is
better to go to the pre-electric <br>78's made in 1923.
He was in better health in those days.