The pianist Lilian Kallir was a formidable sight-reader who could easily play a Mozart Piano Concerto on the first reading, though she was mostly known for the instinctive musicality, tonal beauty, and precocious maturity of her playing. In 1991, presented with a last-minute change in a program, switching from Mozart’s Piano Concerto in F Major, K. 459, to his Concerto in C Major, K. 467, this lifelong ease with musical notation swiftly and inexplicably abdicated. Shortly before the concert, she opened the score to find to her dismay that the notation was completely indecipherable.
The Pianist’s Eye
Lilian Kallir’s musical Alexia
