Robert Helps

Robert Helps (1928-2001) tribute by Milton Babbitt: "Robert Helps is not only the pianist's pianist, and the composer's composer, he is also the pianist's composer and the composer's pianist, for, since his teen-age performance of music that was deemed unperformable, he has played incomparably: compositions which other pianists could not or would not perform. The singular pianistic mastery which he brought to these performances moulds his own writing for piano, from which pianists have discovered resources of nuance, rhythmic subtlety, dynamic control, and sound which endow their own playing with a new sensitivity and sensibility. His chamber and orchestral compositions are not pianistic transcriptions, but the fresh realization of the same awareness in these non-pianistic media. He long has been a legend in his own time and he deserves it." Milton Babbitt (1996) photo (c) James Gudeman, from the ACA Archives, Special Collections in Performing Arts, University of Maryland.