Flexible fingers, bright eyes, a cherubic smile, a prodigious virtuosity: the American-Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler (born in Magdeburg, Germany on 16 December 1923) is a model of old age at its most munificent, despite a start in life that saw the few surviving members of his family flee Nazi Germany. After five and a half decades playing in the Beaux Arts Trio, everyone mistakenly assumed Pressler would retire. This live concert was given for his 90th birthday last year, starring the diminutive musical giant himself in Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Dvorák’s Quintet, with the superb Quatuor Ebène. The accompanying DVD shows his close relationship with these younger musicians. They play Debussy for him; he plays Chopin for them. This is the present for any chamber music lover - if you can bear to give it away.
