Classical music needs a touch of genius


PR spin has devalued the word genius to mean no more than a hashtag attached to the latest musical wunderkind. It was not always so, as a remarkable DVD of harpsichordist Scott Ross reminds us. Newly released by Harmonia Mundi, the video was recorded in Rome in the late 1980s when Scott Ross was terminally ill. The screen grab above comes from the DVD and an extraordinarily moving three minute extract can be seen below, double left click to make it full screen.

Scott Ross resources On An Overgrown Path include a profile centred on his masterly Scarlatti recordings, a review of a suitably quirky biography, a pilgrimage to the French church where he recorded the two Couperin organ Masses, an account of his final Aids-related illness, and his contribution to pushing the classical music envelope. All timely reminders that genius refreshes the parts Facebook and Twitter cannot reach.



With thanks to reader TMcC. My copy of the Scott Ross DVD was purchased from Prelude Records. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Also on Facebook and Twitter. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

Comments

Pliable said…
Other artists profiled in this Harmonia Mundi DVD series include Yvonne Loriod and Anner Bylsma -

http://store.harmoniamundi.com/classical/dvd.html
4:45 pm
Brittany Anne said…
Scarlatti is a favorite of mine and, by extension, so is Scott Ross. Some of the sonatas I'm playing right now have been recorded only by Scott Ross.

I feel indebted to him.
11:14 am
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