Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner a touching and sad occurrence yesterday

Canadian Pianist Anton Kuerti in Miami Hospital After Abrupt Halt to Solo Performance

"He kept repeating the same thing over and over, like he was stuck in some sort of loop..."

link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...alt-to-solo-performance/article14928176/

Is it possible that he was just having a bad memory lapse and coudn recover? I certainly hope so, because I hope he's indeed NOT sick..

Angelina: I don't know... From the article it did seem that he was having a stroke, though people in the audience (doctors?) mentioned that it didn't look like it...

Who knows...

In any case I hope he's ok.

and on the side note: Stories like this remind me the one thing that my father was telling me about the difference between a professional and an amateur: The professional won't stop playing! :-/

Well, it certainly gives the impression of a significant stroke, if not a massive one -- certainly a sad event, since he may never be able to perform again. Can only hope for the best. Coincidentally, I noted only a couple of days ago that the American composer Stephen Paulus suffered a truly massive stroke on July 4, at only age 63, and has been unresponsive since. Tough stuff to deal with.

This is sad news.

I saw him perform many years ago when he came to my hometown (a very small town in the interior of B.C.). Like Richter he made a point of bringing music to the places and people that do not and cannot boast large concert halls or sophisticated audiences.

I think he is a very great pianist. I have heard him at Mannes a few years ago and at Columbia's Miller Theater a much longer time ago. I hope it's nothing too serious.

I'd not heard this and truly hope for the best possible outcome. He is a phenomenal musician.

Very sad indeed. I wish him all the best.

Very sad. Hope he will recover well.
(For sure it was more than just a memory lapse, in view of the whole of what was reported.)
It does sound like a stroke. Often people can recover very well, often fully. Hopefully it will be so for him.

We heard him play the complete Beethoven concerti one New Year's Eve at the 92nd St. Y. It was a great feat, and a great concert.

Mark, thanks for the memory jog. Years ago I was going to hear Kuerti play two of the Beethoven concerti (#4 and #5) in Toronto, at the old Massey Hall. I think the orchestra was the Kitchener-Waterloo SO. It was winter, and snowing up a storm. Howling winds, and you could hardly see.

I parked my car in a nearby surface lot, and guess who pulls in next to me in his little Honda Civic hatchback, and steps out in his green velour artist attire, heading toward the stage door?

A great artist, in the Serkin/Schnabel tradition.

I hope he can make a full recovery and resume performing. He's quite an extraordinary musician and pianist, and human being.