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Read on to discover 15 amazing and energetic musicians who kept playing into their 90s…<\/strong><\/p> A comfortable retirement, free of work and with acres of leisure time available. Something we all aspire to, right? Not quite, it seems, especially if you happen to be a classical musician. <\/p> Composers have a particularly difficult time packing away their manuscript paper. Rossini<\/a><\/strong> and Verdi<\/a><\/strong> both tried but failed, the latter returning in his 70s to write Otello<\/i> and Falstaff<\/i>. Performers can also find it hard to step away from the \u2018garish lights\u2019 (Dickens\u2019s coinage) of the concert platform, and it\u2019s not rare to see sprightly young 70- or 80-somethings stepping onto the stage.<\/p> Some press on even further, still enthusiastically playing into their 90s \u2013 such as pianist Ruth Slenczynska, who at 97 in 2022, recorded a new album for Deccca. Here, then, are 15 of Slenczynska\u2019s fellow nonagenarians for whom the buzz of creativity is too pleasurable to relinquish.<\/p> Who is the most dynamic Beethoven<\/strong><\/a> conductor alive today? The<\/i> New Yorker<\/i> recently cast its vote for the now 97-year-old Herbert Blomstedt, citing a performance of the Seventh Symphony<\/a><\/strong> with \u2018a frothing energy that bordered on animal joy\u2019. Where does the Swedish musician acquire his vim and vigour? Being teetotal and a lifelong non-smoker possibly helps. But mainly it\u2019s being \u2018hopelessly in love with music\u2019 that spurs him on. Chicago, Leipzig, Vienna, Berlin and London are all on his calling-card in the next few months. <\/p> Unlike Blomstedt, the Spanish cello<\/a><\/strong> player Pablo Casals loved smoking, sometimes playing with a pipe in his mouth. His performing career spanned an incredible 84 years, including recitals for Queen Victoria<\/a><\/strong> and in John F Kennedy\u2019s White House. Also a composer and conductor, at 94 years old he led his Himne a les Nacions Unides<\/i> at the UN General Assembly, and continued playing until shortly before his death two years later. \u2018Be young all your life,\u2019 he advised. \u2018And say things to the world that are true.\u2019<\/p> Segovia was also a keen pipe smoker. More importantly, he revolutionised perceptions of the guitar<\/a><\/strong>, establishing it as a \u2018serious\u2019 classical instrument. The Spaniard performed well into his nineties, although results could be unpredictable. \u2018The legendary fingers would obey him only intermittently,\u2019 one reviewer wrote of a 1984 concert. But Segovia carried on until he was 94, defying poor eyesight and increasing physical frailty. Why? \u2018I will have an eternity to rest,\u2019 he retorted.<\/p> Over half a century, Menahem Pressler<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Beaux Arts Trio acquired iconic status, and when it finally disbanded in 2008 the German piano<\/a><\/strong> player might easily have slipped quietly into a well-earned retirement. Not a bit of it. At 84, he relaunched his career as a solo pianist. Aged 90, he made a belated debut with the Berlin Philharmonic<\/a><\/strong> and recorded CDs of Mozart<\/a><\/strong> and Debussy<\/a><\/strong>. Even life-saving surgery in 2015 couldn\u2019t stop him. \u2018Still I think about what I have done, what I could do,\u2019 he said. \u2018And what I will <\/i>do.\u2019<\/p>Which musicians kept playing into their 90s?<\/h2>
1. Herbert Blomstedt<\/h2>
2. Pablo Casals: musicians who kept playing into their 90s<\/h2>
3. Andr\u00e9s Segovia<\/h2>
4. Menahem Pressler: musicians who kept playing into their 90s<\/h2>