The next time you get into the car, turn the radio on to a
classical music station. Odds are that a work will already be
playing. Try to identify the composer
and the piece. This may be easy or difficult depending on
the obscurity of the composer
(the list seems endless, even for composers grouped by a
particular suffix: Zerlini, Rutini, Sacchini, Martini, Tartini …), the work
(Bruckner’s Double Zero Symphony
or anything by pupils of Weber or Mendelssohn is just scratching the
surface),
or both. For
experienced practitioners, the ultimate test is the correct
identification of the
performer. While this
may seem recherché,
certain artists are relatively easy to spot due to their
highly individual tonal characteristics and repertoires. New York
audiences recently had the opportunity to hear two such
individuals at Carnegie Hall.
The
pianists Earl Wild and Leon Fleisher each possess an unmistakable
style and, at their respective recitals, chose programs that
emphasized those styles to the utmost.

Both pianists have enjoyed unusual careers, even by the standards of
the profession. A pupil of Egon Petri (himself a student of
the great Italian pianist Ferruccio Busoni),
Mr. Wild has long been celebrated for his technique. Scales and
arpeggios of incredible evenness, chords that sing or crunch,
a pianissimo that penetrates into
lead, and, above all, a soaring legato are some of the means by which
Mr. Wild has turned skeptics of the great and forgotten works of the
nineteenth century into listeners, if not