Close the Eyes

Paul Badura-Skoda's music had been spinning off phonographs for two years before he decided to take a personal whirl at a U.S. concert tour. Last week, after performances in 16 other cities, the young (25) Viennese pianist made his Manhattan debut.

The audience came close to breaking all records for a debut; some 1,500 listeners crowded into Town Hall. Most of them were there because they had heard some of the pianist's 26 recordings (Westminster) of classical concertos, sonatas and ensemble music. Badura-Skoda gave them some honest, sensitive musicmaking, too conscious of European piano traditions to be very exciting, but with passages of rare expressiveness. His performance was well above the average of the so-odd novices who bow every year.

Badura-Skoda began playing the piano when he was six, but almost decided on a career in mathematics and physics before he heard famed Pianist Edwin Fischer play eight years later. From that moment he was determined to become a musician. His stepfather,* a furniture dealer in Vienna, saw what was happening, and did his best to help the boy along.

When the Nazis were about to draft young Paul into a labor corps (rebuilding bomb-prone factories), Skoda assured the head of Vienna's Academy of Music that a (fictitious) letter of recommendation was coming "any day" from Hermann Goring; Paul was accepted by the academy. Before the next summons came, Paul was already lodged with a friendly farmworkers' corps near Vienna; he did most of his digging in the scores of Mozart and Beethoven. He gave his first recital in Vienna four years ago, then gradually began to make his name as a soloist and chamber musician. Badura-Skoda realizes that his U.S. record reputation has given him a unique advantage over most other musicians his age, but he still prefers to play for live audiences. "Recording studios are so cold," he says, "and it is always a pleasure to be liked." Town Hall liked him fine, but some listeners made a discovery: Badura-Skoda sounded more like Badura-Skoda when they closed their eyes.

* Badura, his father, died when Paul was four months old. His stepfather is named Skoda (no kin to the Czech munitions family), and the pianist uses both names.

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