Memories of John Browning: The Lhevinne Legacy Continues (Second edition).(Video recording review)

Memories of John Browning: The Lhevinne Legacy Continues (Second edition), produced and directed by Salome Ramras Arkatov. Arkatov Productions (arkatov@gmail.com; (310) 470-840). Running time: 70 minutes.

Video biographies can be merely adulatory, and sometimes uncritically expansive. These 70 minutes, however, are a quiet inspiration. The information and insights offered in this documentary are in many ways a reflection of the way John Browning played. There is lyricism, clarity and intense focus. Browning's own sensitive and thoughtful commentary, woven throughout, is as moving and elegant as his playing, heard sometimes in the foreground, sometimes as counterpoint to the words and action. References to Rosina Lhevinne, Browning's teacher, are the springboard from which other ideas--about music, piano playing and Browning's career--are launched.

Colleague and family comments are cut so well into the fabric of the video, and with such variety, you never get the impression of talking heads. Marilyn Horne describes a "singing pianist." Browning's sister reminisces that you could not stop John from playing any more than "you could stop a sneeze." Martin Canin remembers "that John never played a wrong note." Leonard Slatkin admits that if he had been a pianist, he would "have liked to have been like John." According to Slatkin, he was "a musicians musician. You ...