TERENCE JUDD (1957-1979)
English pianist

Terence Judd was on the verge of bursting into the firmament of great pianists when he took his own life, and the world has been a poorer place for it.  It is said that his poor showing at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978 was a contributing cause.  If you listen to his playing, you can't help wonder what might have been going on with the judges behind the scenes. I'm not saying that Pletnev did not desrve the first prize.  He is a wonderful pianist and musician, and based on what I have heard, I suspect he did.  But playing of this kind must have been worthy of a close second.  Well, maybe.

I must confess that while my wholehearted enthusiasm for what I have heard knows no bounds, I have heard nothing upon which to base an estimation of the subtlety, delicacy, and depth of Terence Judd's playing.  Everything on this page is chosen to display his phenomenal technique, his bravura style of playing.  But where are the Chopin minor key mazurkas, a nocturne here, a Kreisleriana there.  My kingdom for a Brahms intermezzo and a Bach prelude and fugue.  I know Mikhail Pletnev's playing and musicianship, and it is superlative across the entire range.  I do not yet know that about Terence Judd's playing.

Having said this, there certainly are moments such as in the Shostakovich that give me a good idea of what he might be capable of. but these are very brief passages.  I would need to hear more

Liszt  Totentanz for piano and orchestra, S 126
Erich Bergel conducting the BBC Welsh Orchestra

recorded live in 1977