A tragic tale of wasted genius
|
Little known to all but a handful of devoted afficionados for many years, Ervin Nyiregyhazi was possibly the most unique pianist in the history of classical music and his life was no less remarkable. Rumours of his eccentric lifestyle have circulated for some years- that he went through ten wives; that he was often homeless and slept on the New York Subway; that he had never learned to tie his own shoe laces; that he supposedly played with such overwhelming power that his hands frequently bled all over the keyboard during concerts; that he had not owned a piano for forty years by the time he was rediscovered in the 70s; that he squandered the majority of what little money he was given on cheap prostitutes and alcohol; that he divorced one wife just a few weeks into their marriage, after having caught her yawning while he played Beethoven (the divorce only being granted, after the judge deemed a yawn to be insufficient grounding, because Nyiregyhazi decided to falsely denounce her as a communist); that he once gave a high-profile concert under the anonymous pseudonym of "Pianist X" (his identity protected during the performance by a gimp-mask) etc.
Such absurd rumours about Nyiregyhazi had been going around for many years, so we can be most thankful to Kevin Bazzana for all the research he put into this first scholarly biography of the pianist- in order to demonstrate that each of these stories was quite true! Indeed, Nyiregyhazi comes across as an extremely complex character who is rather difficult to fully understand. After reading the book, I was inclined to wonder if he even posessed an unusual form of synesthesia- where music was intrinsically connected to something else entirely (and I'm not talking about colours here!). It is interesting to learn that during the 1920s he was so fearful of what might happen on stage that he wanted a tailor to fashion a pair of trousers that might help to conceal any physical 'arousal' that might inadvertently occur during a concert.
On a Canadian documentary about Nyiregyhazi, the pianist can be seen clutching a tumbler of whisky and drunkenly shrieking:
"If I'm not having a good time in the bathroom- I mean the bedroom! I will play the piano instead!!!(...) I'm just a travelling salesman, baby, who likes to play the piano to get girls!"
In a clip on youtube the (then 75 year old) performer is shown at the piano, producing unparalled volumes of sound- which (rather surprisingly) are produced almost exclusively by starkly concise movements (that usually begin from direct contact with the keys). However, such was the force of his playing, he was bleeding from BOTH thumbs by the end of a 1978 recording session. In fact, during his appearance as 'pianist X' a representative from the Baldwin piano company had wanted the concert to be stopped- fearing that his instrument would be damaged beyond all hope of repair. If music did indeed mean what it appears to have meant to Nyiregyhazi, one shudders to think about what he might have inflicted upon the countless men and women who found themselves behind the closed door of his bedroom (or perhaps that of his bathroom?).
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada