Music: Russian Fireworks

The campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is usually known as the place where McGuffey's Readers were launched, and where Red Blaik and Ara Parseghian got their starts in football. After last week it may also be remembered as the site of the U.S. debut of the latest in a long line of Russian pianists that includes Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter. Lazar Berman, 45, is unknown in the U.S. and Western Europe. But collectors of Soviet recordings, as well as many pianists throughout the world, have for years praised his talent.

Berman...

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