David Atherton conductor, part 2

I sent David a link to the video of his performance with Jorge on 9 November 1988 (see previous post, link below) and he has sent me this appreciation. As with other contributions from students and friends of Jorge, I feel privileged to be able to add David's to this website, not least because he worked - albeit for a brief moment in time - with the pianist.

‘Thanks, Douglas, for sending this. I didn’t even know it existed until you mentioned it. So, it was a live performance - the only one as NHK used to rehearse Sun-Wed for just one concert a week (occasionally two if they also played Suntory Hall).

’I must admit to enjoying the video immensely. As so often with YouTube, the lack of synchronisation between video and audio is particularly distressing, but, that aside, it’s one of the most lyrical interpretations I’ve ever heard. The nuances in Jorge’s playing are quite remarkable, and he makes his extremely contemplative tempos really work. It all came back to me as if it were yesterday (I wish!). Like many virtuosos that I worked with during that time period (Shura Cherkassky comes to mind), communication between soloist and conductor was totally aural, not visual. He never once looked in my direction, even when awkward tempo changes were about to happen; not a flicker in the eyes, nor movement of the head or body, nothing. His musicality communicated everything, hair-raising as it was.’